Secret History of Vampires : Their Multiple Forms and Hidden Purposes

by Lecouteux, Claude

• ISBN13: 9781594776847
• ISBN10: 1594776849
• Copyright: 2011-08-23
• Publisher: Inner Traditions

Summary

FOLKLORE / MYTHOLOGY "Both scholarly and accessible in this translation, _The Secret History of Vampires_ is a gem. Lecouteux reveals ancient precursors to the vampire myth that are overlooked by most researchers. These and other theories are backed by a plethora of supporting evidence, including primary sources in the appendices, making this a must-add to any vampire library."--(Konstantinos, author of _Vampires: The Occult Truth_) Of all forms taken by the undead, the vampire wields the most powerful pull on the modern imagination. But the countless movies and books inspired by this child of the night who has a predilection for human blood are based on incidents recorded as fact in newspapers and judicial archives in the centuries preceding the works of Bram Stoker and other writers. Digging through these forgotten records, Claude Lecouteux unearths a very different figure of the vampire in the many accounts of individuals who reportedly would return from their graves to attack the living. These ancestors of the modern vampire were not all blood suckers; they included shroud eaters, appesarts, nightmares, and the curious figure of the stafia, whose origin is a result of masons secretly interring the shadow of a living human being in the wall of a building under construction. As Lecouteux shows, the belief in vampires predates ancient Roman times, which abounded with lamia, stirges, and ghouls. Discarding the tacked together explanations of modern science for these inexplicable phenomena, the author looks back to another folk belief that has come down through the centuries like that of the undead: the existence of multiple souls in every individual, not all of which are able to move on to the next world after death. CLAUDE LECOUTEUX is a former professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne. He is the author of numerous books on medieval and pagan afterlife beliefs, including _The Return of the Dead_ and _Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies_. He lives in Paris.