Vampire Ever since reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers, my slight obsession with vampires began. Reading the Twilight books was only the beginning as my infatuation with vampires grew as I continued to immerse myself in books that catered to individuals who enjoy reading about these blood-sucking creatures. Everything vampire was all I wanted to expose myself to for a while, from the Blade movies to the Morganville Vampire series, I could not get enough of learning about the different way vampires were portrayed. But why were these creatures that drank blood called vampires? Where did that particular word come from and how long has it been around? This is what took me on the search to figure out the etymology of the word vampire. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word vampire as ”A preternatural being of a malignant nature supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons.” The OED states the etymology of the word as coming from Slavonic origin.
In an early piece of writing dating back to 4000 BC, which was uncovered by archaeologist, the text seemed to be a magical spell that was allegedly written by a mother attempting to keep her child safe from the “Ekkimou” an ancient evil vampiric spirit (Bane 7). In ancient African and Muslim folklore an “afrit” means blood-drinking nomad, which is a vampire. Heinrich Kunstmann, …show more content…
The book Travels of three English gentlemen from Venice to Hamburg was the first English explanation of the word vampire. In the book it reads: “These vampyres are supposed to be bodies of deceased persons, animated by evil spirits, which come out of the graves, in the night time, and suck the blood of many of the living, and thereby destroy them” (Wilson 581). In Germany in 1748 “August Ossenfelder’s poem “der vampyr” appeared in an article about
In an early piece of writing dating back to 4000 BC, which was uncovered by archaeologist, the text seemed to be a magical spell that was allegedly written by a mother attempting to keep her child safe from the “Ekkimou” an ancient evil vampiric spirit (Bane 7). In ancient African and Muslim folklore an “afrit” means blood-drinking nomad, which is a vampire. Heinrich Kunstmann, …show more content…
The book Travels of three English gentlemen from Venice to Hamburg was the first English explanation of the word vampire. In the book it reads: “These vampyres are supposed to be bodies of deceased persons, animated by evil spirits, which come out of the graves, in the night time, and suck the blood of many of the living, and thereby destroy them” (Wilson 581). In Germany in 1748 “August Ossenfelder’s poem “der vampyr” appeared in an article about