This document was created by Dr. Stanley Joseph Stepanic 11 October 2017.Traits of the VampireVarious traits are associated with the vampire in media today, many of which stem from originalfolklore. Other traits, however, never made the transition as Eastern European folklore wasappropriated by the west and altered. This process occurred after the Vampire Epidemic of the18thcentury when German-language newspapers brought stories of real vampires into the west,followed by serious scientific debates about the subject. Though the idea of vampires trulyexisting was debunked by 1755, the creature took hold of popular consciousness and eventuallybecame what it is today.The following is by no means a concise list, but provides a number of well-known and obscuretraits associated with the vampire, including their origins. This list is in alphabetical order.Blood– today the vampire is readily associated with blood, and this attachment has always beenthere, however, in original folklore the vampire did not necessarily need to drink blood,sometimes in numerous examples from folktales one can find they actually collect it, meaningthat it is simply the power over life symbolized through blood which is the main idea, bloodmystified human beings for centuries and has played a role in almost every religion, inChristianity, for example, it is symbolized during communion using wine or grape juice as the“blood” of Christ, the ancient Slavs used to take part in blood sacrifice and drinking as part oftheir old religion, even appeasing their dead ancestors by sprinkling blood over gravesites or insacred locations, the vampire was a natural extension of this tradition as well, which no longerexists in Eastern EuropeConnected to disease– the vampire was strongly connected to disease originally, and one of itspowers was its ability to spread disease, misinterpretations of disease and a lack of knowledgeconcerning viruses and bacteria, for examples, led to this, one of the most famous words forvampire,nosferatu
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