I was reading a nice tale based on historical tales from my country. It is based on real historical tales as they are preserved, formed into a nice belletry telling about vampire how vampire was in middle-ages. That made me think about how we look at vampires now and how people saw them back then. So I decided tow rit an article on the topic. Well, this is my interpretation, very limited by my knowledge, but will hopefully give some more to think about if nothing else. I hope I get it at least mostly right.
The fact is that the writing was maily mastery of clergy and clergy was preserving the knowledge. So they also set the point of view that was preserved the most. Still they were humans too and not isolated. I start here because before we get to vamps, I want to present a worldview that people probably had...
There was an order. The god set the laws that were followed by people and he also set laws for nature too. The seasons, blooming, fruit... There was correct way for everything. There was a way for everything as it should be. Anything that was not following the system, was out of it and wrong. It was error, or worse, evil, and either there had to be done corrections to fix the order of things, precautions to prevent more problems... or they had to be fought so they cannot cause more discord/evil.
A vampire was definitely something beyond normal order of things. And so there were many ways to become a vampire.
One was being a heavy sinner, often the tales spoke of a person who was doing magic. Witches, both female and males, were people understood to live at the edge of society, having some job that they did well, but also being able to make magic potions or give advices on how to interrupt a child, how to get rid of unwanted husband... they also could do good things like helping to get pregnant, to get a mate... And they were also feared because they could defend themselves with great curses, causing person who would oppose them to die miserably. So say the tales. Such person, burdened with sins, would after death become a vampire. One of names for such a which in my country was Striga. Striga is term very close in both meaning and understanding to more known Strigoi. Which and Vampire were almost the same thing, a being that was causing harm to humans, a being out of natural order of things. Here also fits suicide, which was taking your own life, therefore again breaking the natural state of things on yourself.
There were other ways to become undead vamp, when person did not do anything themselves. Black cat jumping over the corpse, or black cock. (they were very suspicious of black animals) Also when buried next to the vampire, the person could get infected too. And of course dying after a bite from another vampire.
How people reacted to this revenant, a vampire, dependent on how dangerous such being was. Some never left their grave and were just eating whatever was around them. None would bother with such vampire. Some were getting out of grave and like hooligans climbing over graveyard and screaming. These were scary but humans did not really go much to graveyards at night so these were also not much hunted. They were just scary shades, but easily scary enough to make some people run away.
Then there were life-thirsty vampires who were going to humans and were hurting, causing illness and death. And only those were really fought against. And still there were levels to what had to be done, because opening the grave and destroying the vampire was a shame on the family. (also they had to pay for it) If there was just a suspicion, they would tie the hands and feet of the corps or put grains into the coffin, preventing the vampire from leaving it. But if it had vampiric signs that were clean, they drove a stake through the heart and in some cases burned the body. That destroyed the source of evil. (death)
Vampires were known to change into animals, wolf, fox, owl, cat... bat is not really mentioned, that became a thing with Bram Stocker after he learned of discovery of blood drinking bats beyond the ocean. But they were told to be very strong and able to cause supernatural things. And they did stink, which caused animals to panic.
Now, because it fits here too, how about a Dhampir? Well, from legend I know, no vampiric father was needed. Moroi was called here Mora. Mora was person born in a way that was out of the ordinary. Specifically if the baby had a tooth at birth, it was a Mora. (there were probably more out of ordinary signs that could suggest birth of Mora) Mora was a person who was feeding on life just like vampire, but it was a living person, who was causing problems when alive but after death no more... unless something happened which would turn Mora into a vampire. In case of Mora, there was a way for "damage control." When such baby was born, the branch of a tree was put into its mouth to taste the tree before the milk. That caused Mora to spend life feeding on trees and not harming humans.
Mora too could shapeshift. Not only into animals but also into objects. When killed in this shapeshifted form, Mora died and then their human body was found dead.
I hope this was useful.
The fact is that the writing was maily mastery of clergy and clergy was preserving the knowledge. So they also set the point of view that was preserved the most. Still they were humans too and not isolated. I start here because before we get to vamps, I want to present a worldview that people probably had...
There was an order. The god set the laws that were followed by people and he also set laws for nature too. The seasons, blooming, fruit... There was correct way for everything. There was a way for everything as it should be. Anything that was not following the system, was out of it and wrong. It was error, or worse, evil, and either there had to be done corrections to fix the order of things, precautions to prevent more problems... or they had to be fought so they cannot cause more discord/evil.
A vampire was definitely something beyond normal order of things. And so there were many ways to become a vampire.
One was being a heavy sinner, often the tales spoke of a person who was doing magic. Witches, both female and males, were people understood to live at the edge of society, having some job that they did well, but also being able to make magic potions or give advices on how to interrupt a child, how to get rid of unwanted husband... they also could do good things like helping to get pregnant, to get a mate... And they were also feared because they could defend themselves with great curses, causing person who would oppose them to die miserably. So say the tales. Such person, burdened with sins, would after death become a vampire. One of names for such a which in my country was Striga. Striga is term very close in both meaning and understanding to more known Strigoi. Which and Vampire were almost the same thing, a being that was causing harm to humans, a being out of natural order of things. Here also fits suicide, which was taking your own life, therefore again breaking the natural state of things on yourself.
There were other ways to become undead vamp, when person did not do anything themselves. Black cat jumping over the corpse, or black cock. (they were very suspicious of black animals) Also when buried next to the vampire, the person could get infected too. And of course dying after a bite from another vampire.
How people reacted to this revenant, a vampire, dependent on how dangerous such being was. Some never left their grave and were just eating whatever was around them. None would bother with such vampire. Some were getting out of grave and like hooligans climbing over graveyard and screaming. These were scary but humans did not really go much to graveyards at night so these were also not much hunted. They were just scary shades, but easily scary enough to make some people run away.
Then there were life-thirsty vampires who were going to humans and were hurting, causing illness and death. And only those were really fought against. And still there were levels to what had to be done, because opening the grave and destroying the vampire was a shame on the family. (also they had to pay for it) If there was just a suspicion, they would tie the hands and feet of the corps or put grains into the coffin, preventing the vampire from leaving it. But if it had vampiric signs that were clean, they drove a stake through the heart and in some cases burned the body. That destroyed the source of evil. (death)
Vampires were known to change into animals, wolf, fox, owl, cat... bat is not really mentioned, that became a thing with Bram Stocker after he learned of discovery of blood drinking bats beyond the ocean. But they were told to be very strong and able to cause supernatural things. And they did stink, which caused animals to panic.
Now, because it fits here too, how about a Dhampir? Well, from legend I know, no vampiric father was needed. Moroi was called here Mora. Mora was person born in a way that was out of the ordinary. Specifically if the baby had a tooth at birth, it was a Mora. (there were probably more out of ordinary signs that could suggest birth of Mora) Mora was a person who was feeding on life just like vampire, but it was a living person, who was causing problems when alive but after death no more... unless something happened which would turn Mora into a vampire. In case of Mora, there was a way for "damage control." When such baby was born, the branch of a tree was put into its mouth to taste the tree before the milk. That caused Mora to spend life feeding on trees and not harming humans.
Mora too could shapeshift. Not only into animals but also into objects. When killed in this shapeshifted form, Mora died and then their human body was found dead.
I hope this was useful.