It's understandable that owls would be scary. Watching one attack a squirrel, a rat etc. is something to see. They are quiet as a ghost. One flew right over my head one time and all I saw was a huge black shadow nail a young squirrel that was minding his own business...and they are creatures of the night. I would like to mention two very good more modern vampire novels: They Thirst by Robert R. McCammon and The Summoning by Bentley Little...both are excellent reads.
Trey the Explainer has some very interesting videos on how he thinks the Flatwoods Monster and the Mothman are actually just people seeing owls at night and it scaring the shit out of them. Interesting that they might be effecting modern mythology as well.
So relatable, from experience I can tell an owl just minding its business looks like some cryptid stalking you. We have a very tall flagpole near my house and I sometimes see an owl sit there, it just looks like it's staring in your soul
Have you ever seen an eagle owl in real life? They are huge, like 30 inches tall or so and dead silent when they fly. And they have like a 6ft wing span. Plus, they have huge, reflective eyes and feathers on their head that look like ears or horns. And they howl at night. There is no way people have not frequently mistaken them for monstets or demons. Encountering one in the night must be tertifying if you don't know what you're looking at.
@@n.d.m.515 Watch the videos and then tell me he doesn't explain it. Mass panic is a real thing and once one person hears about something (especially recently) its in their minds and scares them and then they see something scary and think its that.
as a romanian, can confirm that varcolac is our word for werewolf. regarding strigoi, its a bit more complicated. at least in south-west romania, they are not vampires, but vampires can sometimes be refered to as strigoi. in general its understood that strigoi are very visibly dead, and its current jargon to call an ugly animal a strigoi simply because its ugly. personally, the closest i ever got to an english word would be the wight, as long as its the walking corpse sort of wight and not the ghost kind. strigoi are corporeal. they are also distinctly not people, unlike vampires or werewolves.
Yeah Vlad was one of those dudes who went hard on the intimidation and fear aspect of war, including sending plague victims to his enemies. The book Dracula is interesting because it kind of bridges the gap between folklore vampires and modern vampires;. There is eroticism in it to an extent and he drinks blood and hates sunlight; but he also turns into animals, commands animals and the weather, and sunlight doesn't actually kill him. The Strain is the only fairly recent fiction I can think of where the vampires are monsters again, and are even called Strigoi.
Fun fact. As a Polish person I can attest that even now in Pomerania part of Poland ( where I'm from) old people will refer to an owl by calling it Strzyga. Or for non Polish speakers Striga.
There are 17th century Czech (Bohemian) texts, using words "upír" (vampire) and "revenant" interchangibly. If you are interested, I have a friend who wrote one of her university thesis on history of Czech legends on vampires. Also, it seems Stoker originally wanted to place Drakula to Bohemia, however after realising that it was industrious and rich part of Europe, moved the book further east to Transilvania
Do you mind sharing the thesis with a fellow folklore enthusiast? If they don't mind of course, or if they do, would you be so kind as to share their sources?
The word Vampyr also shows up in the 17th century as well. There is also the story Ruthven the vampyre followed by Carmilla which Stoker clearly took inspiration from. I also read he was going to call the vampire Count Wampyr but switched to Dracula when he heard about the funny guy in the 1400s who saw the forest for the people he made into trees. I don't really remember my source on the last one though so I could be mistaken.
Was the wife, whose dead husband did "unspeakable things to her", suddenly pregnant just after he died, or something? Sort of like the sailors/soldiers who would return home to find a pregnant wife who had supposedly been visited by an incubus.
What I find interesting is that the Bulgarian word Aiden keeps referencing ''varkolak'' or something, reminds me of the Polish word for werewolf ''Wilkołak''. So what maybe happened is that the vampire lore got a bit mixed up with the werewolf lore in the Eastern Europe at some point?
Yeah, in Serbia as well the werewolf is called vukodlak but the word vampyr which also originates in Serbia referes to a completely different creature, more akin to the modern vampires, although they don't really transform into bats but into moths instead and usually strangle their victims before sucking the blood.
@@markomaksimovic7678Holy shit so you're saying that the name of the leader of the werewolf guild in Skyrim is literally two letters short of being the Serbian name for werewolf?
So I'm a Bulgarian and just want to clarify that "varkolak" or "върколак" in bulgarian is "werewolf", it's literally the transition of the word. If a text is referring to a vampire it will literally say "vampire" or "вампир", however there is another word for a vampire in bulgarian, that is "кръвник" wich I think it should be spelt "kruvnik" with a latin alfabet, but yeah "varkolak" is not a vampire it's a werewolf and "vampire" or "kruvnik" is a vampire.😅
I always thought in the original story in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, that in order for you to be turned into a vampire you not only have to be bitten by one but you also have to ingest some of the vampire’s blood as well. So correct me if I’m wrong but it wasn’t just in the Lost Boys film, it also goes all the way back to the original vampire fiction of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Carmilla predated Dracula as a book, and I think it's considered likely that it influenced Dracula. I know almost nothing about Sheridan Le Fanu, but it looks like he was Irish, so it definitely makes sense that the stories you mentioned would have been influential. Just thought that was interesting! I'm glad you ultimately decided to make this one! I've been binging your stuff for a few weeks now and I love the way you approach everything, your stuf is great!
As a folklore nerd from Scotland I was watching this like ‘oh, we have one of those’ but Aiden, on the ball as always, hits us with the Baobhan Sith!! So sorry I doubted you!! 😂🤣. Xx
Please never stop delving deep into these topics, the deeper the better! Your content is amazing. On the entirety of RU-vid. You provide one of the only compiled forms of data too each lore or mythology etc. 💪🔥🔥🔥
Yes more cryptids to cover, although it would be fun to cover non American folk lore, history, and then mix in real... "real" stories that align with the region they hail from. I honestly wouldn't mind learning about fairies. Not the Disney version the much bloodier version. I believe Brothers Grimm esc. Tales? Or even tales that correlate somewhat with missing 411 tales! Also a fun twist to explore, Like the feral people idea. But I hope you enjoy that rabbit hole if you would like to try.
@Ceinwen Chandler giving more incentive to look into it. It's also fascinating that humans throughout history that have drawn up such mythical beasts, beings that look crossed between animals, and others looking... forgive the wording, alien! It would be interesting to hear from Aiden about what factual parts of history could create such ideas in early man imagination. And today complete lack of it.
@Dirk Z. Duggitz 411 is an American emergency line to contact for missing people. There have been very questionable missing 411s over the years. Here, Mrballen, and David Politis have covered several of these. Have a look at Mrballens early work and you will get an idea of the cryptid mixed with missing 411.
Just discovered LORE LODGE yesterday and am in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Your story telling talents are impressive; background research and historical deep dives satisfy! In short, you Aidens are GREAT! TY and please continue your excellent work! While i do enjoy vampires, my comments are for your ENTITE BODY of work.
If you haven’t watched the 90s Bram Strokers Dracula you are missing out on a gem - Gary Oldman turned up to 120%, Keanu Reeves & Winona Ryder with a hilarious British accent all on top of really cool filmmaking techniques. 10/10 recommend
The fact that Abhartach being buried upside down keeps him from rising is very interesting as it is linked to another Irish legend, that of Queen Maeve’s Tomb at Knocknarea in County Sligo: “Some say Knocknarea means "the hill of the moon,” others, "the smooth-topped hill," but the received opinion is that it means “the hill of the king,” i.e, of Eoghan Bel, King of Connaught, who received his death-wound in the great battle of Sligo between Connaught and Ulster, A.D. 543. He told his followers to bury him upright in Rath O'Fiachrach with his red javelin in his hand and his face towards the north, on the side of the hill where Ulster would pass when flying before Connaught. The legend adds that thereafter the Connaught men won every battle against the Ulstermen, till at length the latter, hearing of the talisman Knocknarea contained, came in great numbers, raised the body of Eoghan, carried it over the river to Calry and buried it there, face downwards, thus breaking the spell.” (S.M. Scholastica, 1912)
I've always been a fan of the process described in the book series "The Last Vampire". Creating a new vampire is an intense process that is not done so casually. It requires that the circulatory systems of the vampire and soon to be vampire be connected for an extended period of time. This is typically done via an incision in the wrist before opening and fusing the blood vessels.
@@MOcamping1212 it's one of the most unique takes on vampires I've ever read. Christopher Pike is such an underrated horror/mystery writer. I could do without all the cheesy romantic subplots, but the overall ideas and storie he wrote are next level. This goes for all of his work that I've read, not just the vampire stuff. My middle school library had more or less every book he wrote. Not sure what that stuff was doing being accessible to 6th graders but oh well.
I love how many different ways people have vampires reproduce. The strain it's worms, Hellsing it's drinking the blood of a virgin of the opposite sex. Interview with the vampire and a lot of other stories it's the vampire sharing it's blood with you. In the rpg setting of Victoriana (a fantasy version of our world in the 1800s) vampires are made through either being bitten by a vampire while engaging in a type of sin that matches the vampire or engage in a specific sin a lot. In that Vlad the Impaler is still alive due to being an eastern elf but he is doomed to become a vampire of wrath due to his actions. In vampire hunter D it depends on how powerful of vampire bites you but the most powerful nobles control the outcome of their bites and some can even turn other vampires into their thralls that way. They can also reproduce naturally creating pure bloods.
Interestingly, while witch trials were banned in the Austrian Empire by Maria Theresa in the mid 18th century, vampire hunting was very common in the southern and eastern frontiers of the empire. One of the earliest was the case of Petar Blagojević (1725), a Serbian peasant, who allegedly became a vampire. This case was actually overseen by an imperial administrator, Provisor Ernst Frombald, who wrote a report of the entire incident. Disturbingly, according to the villagers, in the past such a case of vampirism had actually forced the village to be abandoned for a time when it was under Ottoman rule. And only 6 years later, in 1732 22 active vampires were reported along the banks of the Tisza river ALONE. Controversially, the practice of vampire burials is still sometiems practiced in parts of Romania even today, according to my Romanian friends, where a priest will put a stake through the chest of the body before burial.
Given how widespread throughout history stories of vampire-like creatures are, do you think it might be related to your Flesh Pedestrian theory and the reason the Uncanny Valley is a thing?
In the show Supernatural, vampires did not infect humans by drinking the human's blood, rather, the human would have to ingest the vampire's blood, or have their blood contaminated by fang blood. Also, the new vampire could be cured of their vampirism(making them a normal human again) if they were given a potion that included the blood of the vamp that turned them. The potion had to be consumed orally BEFORE the new fang in question fed. The main way that hunters killed vampires was by decapitation and the Colt, but some other ways were by woodchipper and leviathan cornsyrup. The vamps were weak to sunlight, but could go outside in the day without burning to ash. Another weakness was dead-mans blood, which acted like strong anesthesia when injected directly. After being killed, their soul would end up in Purgatory, the realm where all monster souls go to prey upon each other for eternity. One of the main characters was turned into a fang for a short time before being cured.
It weird how we want to categorize and make these creatures distinct. Similar to how you had variety of vampires other mythical creatures/ cryptids goblins, kobolds, shapeshifters, gremlins, tommy knockers we’re almost interchangeable.
@@colby8181 ok correction after doing a bit of research kobold is more of an umbrella term in germatic myths for a mischievous spirit. possibly coming from the greek kobalos( spirits associated with wine, ecstasy, and nature.) the kobold can be found in many places similar to in your home, underground in forests etc. But the mineral cobalt does seem to get its name from the german word kobald supposedly meaning goblin. due to it having mischievous effects and being confused for silver, in the smelting process it would release noxious fumes causing health issues. sorry for this long post but I enjoy this type of stuff.
Lesbos island and Santorini island has each a small island, were the locals used to bury people that they believed that were going to rose as (vrykolakes) vampires. The creatures could not cross running water. Lord Byron wrote the poem "Giaour" in which (Byron) explains the way a person becomes a vampire. It is a long poem but worth the time to read it. You have a nice pronunciation of Greek words. Good day from Athens, Greece.
I'm surprised you completely ignored Carmilla. The book is almost 30 years older than Dracula and the titular character already had the same characteristics Dracula would later have, her being highly intelligent and aristocratic. Though instead of an old warlord, the vampire in this story is a seemingly frail young woman. This part might be inspired by the banshee but the fact that she doesn't seduce men but instead goes after the female protagonist (who doesn't give the impression of the "affection" being entirely onesided) is pretty original too. I don't know if Bram Stoker ever said anything about it, but it is impossible that he wasn't inspired by this story.
USELESS FACTS: The Lost Boys movie was initially gonna be the lost boys from Peter Pan story. The movie went through a ton of changes and the Peter Pan lore being eliminated was one of many. Also, the close up with Keifer Sutherland having the tear fall from his eye wasn't planned. The contacts back then were very uncomfortable and caused red watery eyes. When they filmed that shit, they loved the look and this kept it
An interesting thought I had when moving from the folklore versions from around the world to Bram Stoker’s Dracula is that some of the blending of legends may have been used intentionally to further the themes of the story. Dracula being an aristocrat and preying on the villagers by draining them of vital resources seems like commentary on the ruling class being parasitic to the lower classes. Since there seems to be a missing link between earlier folklores and the modern vampire, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was essentially the birth of the modern vampire.
I've now played this upload four times, finally got to the end without falling asleep, not due to the content but because I put it on before going to bed. Some of us actually enjoy the folklore uploads. 👍
This could have been broken down into a long running deal of "Vampires", but this was pretty much the essence of the story. Absolutely loved this. I knew of the different vampire types, but not in great detail so this really filled me up. thanks
My absolute favorite book has my favorite vampire. Sarasti, from "blind sight" is literally a vampire space ship captain. The cryptoanatomy and well developed lore is incredible. Blind Sight by Peter Watts.
Wanna say that you and your channel are amazing! So encapsulated with your storytelling and detailed knowledge on plethora of artistic and historic topics! Keep up the great work my man
Cool video I appreciate the history and how you explain the connections. Another video on Vampire Hunters would be cool, if you want more ideas for broad topics.
It's little known, but the way the Heros of the Sagas dealt with Draugr wasn't by burning them, but by decapitating them and then placing the head in the... posterior of the slain draugr to prevent further reanimation.
The Celtic goddess Morrigan and her daughters the Baobhan Sí are very vampiric as well. They drink blood, shapeshift into animals, appear in the forms of beautiful women, can use various magical abilities, and are generally afraid of daylight. This probably influenced Bram Stoker more considering his mother was Irish.
As far as I'm aware the Dracula style vampires propagate by having their victim drink their blood, effectively making the victim a vampire servant, that victim also needing to be a virgin otherwise like normal bite victims they would turn into a ghoul. The being bitten turns you into one of them like an infection style vampire seems to be linked more to Hollywood's nosferatu style vampire or the Romanian Strigoi which seems to be more of a parasitic infection in nature. The energy vampires are most commonly found in Asian myth like the Chinese Jianshi or the various Yokai but also, weirdly, in the Celtic Leanan Sidhe. As far as the energy vampirism goes the legends say the vampires suck out the Qi/Chi/Ki from a person but that word is written as 血 which is the kanji for blood so it might be that energy vampires aren't actually a common thing since the only technical vampire that I know of in myth that actually does that is the Leanan Sidhe, and while the Leanan Sidhe is called a vampire by western understanding within the understanding of celtic myth it's a fae which actually makes it closer to a faerie which is in line with the Yokai because Yokai and Faeries are both considered spirits of sorts and not actually undead like a vampire is.
My favorite example of a modern vampire story is the ‘American Vampire’ series by Scott Snyder. It takes a lot of inspiration from many different types of vampire lore and expands on it as well.
I'm coming back to this video I genuinely love it so much! I don't think there are many actual historical deep-dives into origins of well known fantastic creatures and I'd love to see more! maybe werewolfs, or mermaids? (the banshee video was great too btw)
As a kid I got a book from a library with Slavic legends and holy shit did I not sleep for months afterwards! It was illustrated as well, so nothing left for imagination. I've never heard of them before and no wonder why. Definitely not child friendly!
Around the middle of the video he mentions the strzyga (not to be confused with the strigoi). I’ll elaborate on it a bit here. The strzyga or strzyoń is someone with two souls who’s corpse is possessed by the second soul once the first one leaves after death.
BEFORE WATCHING THIS VIDEO: IF YOU HAVEN'T READ DRACULA, GO READ IT ASAP!!! Fantastic piece of literature and I HIGHLY recommend reading it and coming back to this video! Don't rob yourself of the opportunity to experience that classic book.
Discworld has a great vampire book called Carpe Jugulum, and they discuss some of the regional differences and weaknesses of these vampires. At one point Nanny Ogg is asking these vampires where they are From so she can select the appropriate trick from her bag of such
24:30 anyone who's had an owl swoop over them in the dead of night would understand. You don't notice until it's right on top of you, and even then they're so quiet that they hardly register as a bird. They can even disappear back into the trees so abruptly that you might not even be able to identify it in time. You hear/feel just a slight draft of something large passing overhead, but have no idea what it was and now there's seemingly nothing. I can definitely see people confusing these for some kind of large, stealthy, nocturnal, abd flying but otherwise non-birdlike predator.
I find this legend on the vrykolicas weird. In the Greek version they sound like ghouls to a good degree, but in my region (Romania), the word 'vârcolac' actually translates to werewolf, as far as I am aware of southern Romanian mythos. The crossover seems to have broken down from Bulgaria to Romania as these creatures are very distinct in the cultures.
I'll always love the way Strain described them. I wish there were more books. I don't want to spoil, for in case anyone wants to read, but the way they tied in the suffering and concentration camps- for example, was something I've never seen. I would love another series as prequel...
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Even tho I'm boring and all I do is watch lore lodge and work 3rd shift and sleep haha I've been binging your stuff and I love it, your rad af, you and wendigoon are my two favorite people, even tho we're talking about outlandish things you still use logic/ history/ some science and still tell the original myth well talking about the possibility s
My favorite thing about adaptions of the Dracula novel is seeing whether the character Dracula is portrayed as just a vague Transylvania nobleman or Literally Vlad The Impaler. For example in Renfield, Nic Cage is heavily implied to actually be Vlad the Impaler.
It's not just Celtic lore that has supernatural creatures have something off about them, things they can't change. In Yiddish folklore, Daemons have the feet of geese - they can change their faces & other things about themselves to deceive humans, but their feet cannot change. Love this video! MORE MORE MORE!
That is also the reason why in catholicism, true Marian apparitions, she always appeared bare-footed. Partly because at the end of days she will crush the head of the serpent (Satan) with her foot, and partly because devils & demons can change their forms, even appear as angels or holy men/women, but they can't change the appearance of their feet so they will try and cover it.
So, you were partially right about the Supernatural series depiction. But much like the lost boys you can only be turned by ingesting the blood of a vampire. Then you technically can be cured so long as you've never fed.
I feel like this started with one guy going: "Man, im tired, it feels like something drained the life out of me." And a second guy went: "... what if something did?"
So im here from the new (at time of posting this) unsolved New Orleans Axe Man Murders, and the intro to this video caught me so off guard i love it lmao
Slovak here- little owls 'kuvik' are believed to be harbinger of death. So when you see one sitting in your window, it's your turn. Striga- is more of a witch. Such as Baba Yaga.
Ik i probably wont get responded to but you should cover The Stellars Sea Ape, i think its interesting bc I personally thinks an Otter or something but also its in such a remote place.
Vampires and Dragons are basically catch all terms nowadays. Vampire as it exists could have a boatload of different stories, and Dragons could be anything from terrifying dumb beasts to intelligent nobles that are able to control the weather. Vampires are definitely more the 'monstrous terror' side of things, while dragons are more the 'fantastical creatures'.
Neil Blomkamp told a really interesting take on the vampire idea on JRE once. I would love to see what he was talking about turned into any form of media
Hi Aiden, I am a native Moldovian. As far as Vlad the impaler/Dracula/Vlad III it is debated by tongue if he really was as bad as the history books say. A "rumor" that has persevered in our people to this day is that he was actually a good ruler who helped stop the ottomans along with Stefan cel mare (Stephen the big - big meaning greatness or significant.) Our ancestors verbal history is that his successor didn't want to be remembered as the guy that came after a beloved king so he changed the books, the records, and made it illegal to speak fondly of Vlad III. our oral history says that he was actually beloved and that the impaling part was reserved for war tactics and done to the opposition army as phycological warfare. It is said the enemies would turn around when they reached our borders and saw the desecrated bodies of the previous invaders. But this is all oral/verbal history that I was told. Who knows the historical accuracy of what was passed down verbally
The reason of his being beloved was because of the protection he provided from invaders with his gruesome tactics. I believe he probably was still very strict and harsh with punishment but that was still an all round improvement than innocents being invaded and pillaged all the time.
I just want to point out during the cold war the Soviet Union did a massive rebranding on Vlad, while tying his likeness to a then current political leader in the area, and given the Soviet union's talent for revising history and the minds of people. I don't exactly trust the oral and written history of eastern Europe on pretty much anything the Soviets touched. No offense. I'm sure Vlad was mostly well liked because he killed everyone who didn't like him.
I am going to put some further linguistic confusion forward for you. "Vlkolak/Vlkodlak" (basically an l/r switch from vrkolaky) is indeed a werewolf in some west-slavic languages, and we do archaically use "striga" to mean a witch, but it is sort of a more feral one than your standard-witch "čarodejnica-čarodějnice". This sort of shift however isnt unusual for slavic languages, we often use very similar words that have differing meaning across several languages. Some other slavic ways to keep a potential revenant down and in their graves rely on their supposed methodical nature, for some reason. If you give them something to count, they will be compelled to do it. The goal is to keep them occupied until the sun rises and they have to get back to their grave, at which point they have to start all over again the next night. Practical measures include burying them with nets (they have to count the knots) or scattering poppy seeds, sand or something similar in and around the grave or on the road from the cemetery. When you mention travelling, its important to keep pilgrimages in mind. They often werent very far from our point of view, but they did offer the opportunity to meet people from a comparative afar, and people often did travel for days for them. You might have edited this for the sake of brevity, but Vlad III. Dracul, the vallachian prince, was never formally under the Hungarian king. Vallachia instead at this time existed in a complicated tangle of Hungarian-Ottoman war as a mostly independent domain that allied itself with either. The Romainan (from todays standpoint) prince that would be a vassal to a Hungarian king would be a prince of the neighboring Transsylvania. The actual political and power situation at the time was complicated, so Transsylvanian princes often ruled as de-facto sovereigns. Stoker sets his novel on the border between Transsylvania and Bukovina, in Borgo pass (which looks much more benign in reality than in his description). Plus Transsylvania is way more accessible to the 19th century west, language-wise, as it had a sizeable german-speaking population. Aside for that, it would be great if you put spelling on screen if you were to do this again. It cant be easy to learn pronounciation of a language you dont speak, and sometimes it was a bit difficult for me to figure what words do you mean. Thanks for making this video, I really enjoyed it and it put a lot of information into useful perspective for me.
Um i have never wanted a piece of merch OR an ad someone has done here SO BADLY. I just laughed so hard at the pray pal sweatshirt lol i need to find that
Now I want to write a story where a vampire hunter is called in to deal with a vrykolakas, either due to a miscommunication or the assumption that it's "close enough".
It's interesting that many things weren't translated into English - for example I don't think I found any that would cover that big vampire cemetery that was found in 60's in what is now Czech Republic.
Apologies if I missed a disclaimer about it but Stoker did not create the image of the nobleman/foreign invader vampire. Byron’s ‘a fragment of a novel’ (later John Polidori’s ‘the vampyr’) takes that credit. Conceived in the same time and place as Shelley’s Frankenstein, probably the most badass night in horror history. You give a lot of credit to Stoker here that really belongs to Byron and Polodori!
There's a good book called Rabid that dives into the cultural history of rabies and whether or not it inspired creatures like vampires and werewolves. Ultimately they concluded it did not, but they speculate that the reason we consider rabies so scary is the same reason why we find those monsters so scary: that somehow, if we aren't careful, we could become one of them.
