Halloween Special
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Blood
More Halloween Health:
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Myth-diagnosis:
Shedding Light on the Vampire Legend
The most notorious alleged vampire
lived in 15th-century Romania. Vlad the Impaler
was indeed a ghoulish ruler, whose bloodthirsty habits were
known far and wide even before Bram Stoker's day, but he was
not the earliest vampire legend. Records of vampire stories
exist from 12th-century England. The Impaler's
sadistic punishments for minor offenses certainly fueled legends,
and by all accounts he did actually indulge in the blood of
his victims.
By the 17th century, vampires were linked to evil
and witchcraft. The 18th century saw a vampire
hysteria in Eastern Europe into which even government officials
were drawn. And in the 19th century, of course,
Bram Stoker's Dracula cemented into popular cultures
the myths that had developed over centuries.
The early beliefs—that
vampires drank blood, were creatures of darkness, and were
fascinated with counting—were enriched by the newer aspects
of the myth. Only within the last 200 years were we introduced
to vampires who are dressed in capes and who turn into bats.
But with the migration of cultures and their legends, some
of the interesting traditions were lost-such as leaving a
pile of seeds outside the door so a vampire would be distracted
by counting them, thus losing interest in drinking the inhabitants'
blood.
Even with some of the finer details
lost, and with evidence that porphyria was the
likely cause of an odd appearance and behavior, the vampire
has captured the imagination of the public like no other legend.
Read more about porphria in Lifespan's Health Encyclopedia.
When things get hairy:
The Werewolf 
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