Research :D

[Omega]

no I think even the  Scandinavian have a vampire myth... perhaps a troll or a witch of some kind that drains the life from it's victims.

That hardy equals a vampire.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

From what I know of scandinavian mythology there are several "vampire-esque" elements scattered hither and yon, but nothing like the Dracula sort of character. For example, the Dark elves/Dwarves (the original word is Svartalf) would turn to stone at the sight of the sun. (If you remember the hobbit, Tolkien takes the scene with Gandalf and the three trolls almost exactly from the eddaic poem Alvissmal, where Thor keeps an annoying dwarf talking until the sun comes up and petrifies him) There were also belief's in runedrawers, especially women, weakining the life force of people, often by inscribing designs on their neck. But that's as closest as I can think of to Vampirism. I don't recall any mention of actual blood drinking (except the Kvasir cycle, and that was a special case) and the common animal motifs in scandinavian mythology are serpents and wolves, not bats.

[Jack McSlay]

imo, sexy vampires are better because they're sexy and they're vampires.

The vampire is all like, "You must stay with me," and victim is all like, "NOWAYDUDE!" and then they're all like hypnotic stare or something and then there's hot [cross buns! Get your hot cross buns here!]. Then the victim lay helplessly enthralled as the vampire drained their life. The end. (or is it?)

THREAD RUINED.

this is the reason vampire movies are constantly getting old. Most of them consist of hot guys/girls beating up vampires or hot vampires/vampiresses beating other vampires, or vampires/vampiresses beating up someone unrelated to vampirism...
you get te point...

no I think even the  Scandinavian have a vampire myth... perhaps a troll or a witch of some kind that drains the life from it's victims.

That hardy equals a vampire.

I'm not sure if a fictional race is actually elligible to have a solid definition... like, some write vampires as being able to turn into a bat, other add wolf, some remove the shapeshifting abilities, some  remove the susceptibility to crocifixes/garlic/etc., Vampire Princess Miyu, for example, the vampires (called shinmas) are basically night creatures with varying methods of draining life out of people

[Angel]

no I think even the  Scandinavian have a vampire myth... perhaps a troll or a witch of some kind that drains the life from it's victims.

That hardy equals a vampire.

O rly? I think the others have it right; there are some vampires that don't meet all the criteria, but they're still vampires. The European legends are the ones we tend to use, but from country to country the stories change too much.

[Kasarn]

The Vampyre; a Tale by John William Polidori
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6087
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMsBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage

[GabrielsThoughts]

http://www.tamuk.edu/news/2002/september/legend_found/index.shtml
http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~hollidac/jacksforreal.html

just so you know I'm not making this up, there really is a virus that mutates rabbits into jackelopes

[Omega]

no I think even the  Scandinavian have a vampire myth... perhaps a troll or a witch of some kind that drains the life from it's victims.

That hardy equals a vampire.

O rly? I think the others have it right; there are some vampires that don't meet all the criteria, but they're still vampires.

Ya rly!
What exactly is the definition of a vampire these days? I mean come one. A troll? Just because some monster drinks human blood (or has other similar traits) doesn't automatically make it a vampire. It can be any your friendly neighbourhood blood sucking creature of the night, like raptor, zombie or hungry, hungry hobo.



Woah! Cool stuff, GabrielsThoughts. You might also wanna check Wolpertinger and Skvander

[Jack McSlay]

Ya rly!
What exactly is the definition of a vampire these days? I mean come one. A troll? Just because some monster drinks human blood (or has other similar traits) doesn't automatically make it a vampire. It can be any your friendly neighbourhood blood sucking creature of the night, like raptor, zombie or hungry, hungry hobo.

every fictional creature is completely subject to interpretation.

for example, take Tolkien's elves, then compare them to J.K. Rowling's elves, Kentaro Miura's (Berserk) elves, or Blizzard's elves.
Or compare to what a dragon is in europe to what a dragon is in china.

When you're trying to write fiction, you don't have to stick to what others defined. In fact you're much better off not doing so.

[Omega]

My argument isn't pointed against modern fictional storytelling, but the mythological storytelling. What I'm trying to say here, is that we can't but a "vampire"-stamp on every myth that resembles some aspect of one a vampire.

One could of course use these stories as a background information for a fanfict, but to claim that "Almost every ancient or modern civilization has some sort of vampire myth" is stepping out of line. I think that many myths just get too mixed with each other. Pardom me for saying this, but it sounds a bit like the vampire fandom would like to see things.

[superluser]

for example, take Tolkien's elves, then compare them to J.K. Rowling's elves, Kentaro Miura's (Berserk) elves, or Blizzard's elves.

To be fair, Tolkien ripped those off lock, stock and barrel from the dwarfs of Völuspá:

10. There was Motsognir | the mightiest made/Of all the dwarfs, | and Durin next;/Many a likeness | of men they made,/The dwarfs in the earth, | as Durin said.

11. Nyi and Nithi, | Northri and Suthri,/Austri and Vestri, | Althjof, Dvalin,/Nar and Nain, | Niping, Dain,/Bifur, Bofur, | Bombur, Nori,/An and Onar, | Ai, Mjothvitnir.

12. Vigg and Gandalf) | Vindalf, Thrain,/Thekk and Thorin, | Thror, Vit and Lit,/Nyr and Nyrath,-- | now have I told--/Regin and Rathsvith-- | the list aright.

13. Fili, Kili, | Fundin, Nali,/Heptifili, | Hannar, Sviur,/Frar, Hornbori, | Fræg and Loni,/Aurvang, Jari, | Eikinskjaldi.

14. The race of the dwarfs | in Dvalin's throng/Down to Lofar | the list must I tell;/The rocks they left, | and through wet lands/They sought a home | in the fields of sand.

15. There were Draupnir | and Dolgthrasir,/Hor, Haugspori, | Hlevang, Gloin,/Dori, Ori, | Duf, Andvari,/Skirfir, Virfir, | Skafith, Ai.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Those are dwarves, not elves, superluser.

[superluser]

Those are dwarves, not elves, superluser.

The interesting thing is that, from what I've heard, the dwarfs from the Völuspá actually seem to have more in common with the elves of Middle Earth than the dwarfs of other legends.

Among other things, the dwarf name Gandalf translates to ``magic elf.''

[Alondro]

According to "Mighty Max", vampires are actually blooksucking flies.

That was an awesome show.  Rob Paulsen enjoyed it too.  He was the voice of Max.