RSSS 315: Summary of Weeks 1V SLIDES 152

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RSSS 315 Summary of Weeks 1-V (SLIDES 1-52)

• Slavic Folklore Vampires and Werewolves

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What are they?
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Where do you find them?
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(No Transcript)
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Origins Eastern Europe?
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An area of the world that is

• Complicated
• Dangerous
• Rich in tradition
• Linguistically and culturally diverse
• Multi-national

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Languages of the Balkans

• Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian
• Bulgarian
• Slovenian
• Macedonian
• Albanian
• Rumanian (Romanian)
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Romany

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And Beyond

• Ukrainian
• Belarusan
• Russian
• Turkish
• Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian

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Alphabets

• Latin
• Cyrillic
• Greek

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Empires in Contact and Conflict

• Byzantine Empire (4th-15th centuries)
• Ottoman Empire (13th-20th)
• Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empire (19th-20th)

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Important fact

• Languages (and customs and folklore) dont
  respect national borders

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Famous Representations
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Where is Transylvania?
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Transylvania
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Mountain Ranges
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Sources of vampire and werewolf stories

• Folklore
• Historical examples
• Literature (poetry, drama, short stories, novels)

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Classification of written accounts

• Early testimonies to outside parties
• Recorded folklore accounts
• Historical records (e.g., of real historical
  figures)
• Literary accounts in all genres

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Folklore

• Classified by genre, area of origin
• Oral and performance based (like drama, opera)
• Transcribed from oral performance by 19th century
  collectors (Brothers Grimm, Vuk Karadic,
  Alexander Afanasev)
• Recorded testimonies (often imaginative)
• Functions in various ways (warnings ritual
  accompaniment entertainment)

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(No Transcript)
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Empires in Contact and Conflict

• Byzantine Empire (4th-15th centuries)
• Ottoman Empire (13th-20th)
• Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empire (19th-20th)

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Vlad Tepes 1431-76 Legend and Historical Reality
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Features

• Warrior-ruler caught between competing empires
• Noted for cruelty violence of punishments
• Numerous enemies (e.g., boyars)
• Years of imprisonment
• Mixed message on justness

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Sources

• German tracts, Russian accounts
• Romanian legends
• Biography put together from anecdotes about his
  behavior and semi-historical accounts

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Castle at Poenari in Wallachia
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Bran Castle
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Dinner at Vlads
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Snagov Monastery
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Accounts of Vlad III

• Historical records
• Stories from different societies, writers of
  different statuses and sophistication
• Read the Russian account (CN)

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Substantial Scholarship on Vlad

• Raymond McNally (Boston College d. 2002)
  numerous books and articles on him
• In Search of Dracula, written with Radu Florescu
• Check website for lines from Beheims poem
• Evidence is weak for connecting Vlad with vampire
  behavior

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Blood is the Issue

• Evidence is weak
• One German account

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Crucial Issues

• How do historical figures fit in the vampire
  tradition?
• How vampiric are they?
• How do the stories enhance the tradition?
• powerful sources of verisimilitude for real
  vampires
• shared features lead to conceptual confusion and
  terminological conflation

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Erzsébet Bathory another historical notable

• 1560-1614
• Special powers of blood
• True vampirism (she drank it and bathed in it)
• Is she a vampire?

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Very Productive Stories

• Historical events, personages -gt legends,
  exaggerations
• Story about people that contains supernatural
  elements
• Told as if it were an historical event and may
  reflect a real event
• Folk stories, literary works
• End of course Sanguinarius

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Link with Vampires?

• Tenuous
• Violence (sustenance through blood?)
• Immortality (lives on in history?)

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First Reading Assignment Slavic Mythology CN

• Variety of supernatural figures
• Many unrelated types
• Magicians, sorcerers closest to our topic

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Folklore

• Classified by genre, area of origin
• Oral and performance based (like drama, opera)
• Transcribed from oral performance by 19th century
  collectors (Brothers Grimm, Vuk Karadic,
  Alexander Afanasev)
• Recorded testimonies (often imaginative)
• Functions in various ways (warnings ritual
  accompaniment entertainment)

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Kinds, genres

• Poetic ritual songs, historical songs, folk
  ballads, epics
• Related to beliefs (pagan, Christian)

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Types

• Variety of supernatural figures
• Many unrelated types
• Magicians, sorcerers closest to our topic
  witches fit as well

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Generalizations

• Rich, imaginative belief system
• Populated by variety of spirits and forces
• Exotic but similar names throughout E Europe
• Close relationship with people (even
  intermarriage)
• Co-existence with Christianity (dvoeverie)
• Vampir, mora, vukodlak, upir, oboroten (just some
  names) are most relevant to us

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Important Categories

• Soul
• Ancestors
• Gods and devils
• Genii spirits of fields, forests, household,
  water
• Rituals

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Relevance?

• Soul beliefs
• souls can freely come and go from bodies
• lots of variations, depending on the area
• they are not immortal, and they can quarrel and
  fight with each other
• They can pass into other bodies, shapes
  (butterflies)
• Treat them well!

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Bottom Line

• Slavic and Non-Slavic Peoples of E Europe had
  host of supernatural beings in their daily life
• Existence of these beings did not conflict with
  their Christianity
• These beings helped to explain events in their
  lives, fortunate and unfortunate
• Rituals developed to appease, make happy, and
  thwart the malevolent efforts of these beings

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Nikolai Gogol

• Slavic (Ukrainian and Russian folklore)
• Gogols story Vij (1835 1967 film)
• Gogolian humor, style

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Nikolai Gogol

• Slavic (Ukrainian and Russian folklore)
• Gogols story Vij (1835 1967 film)
• Gogolian humor, style
• Other versions
• 1960, 1989 (Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava) Black
  Sunday
• 1990 Sveto Mesto
• 2009 The Viy (Robert Englund)

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Film (so far)

• Vacationing seminary students
• Overnight stay
• Khoma and the witch/beautiful maiden (daughter of
  wealthy Ukrainian landowner)
• Summons and assignment
• Humor and horror
• Religious, fantastic and coarse reality mix

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Story Itself

• Part of Mirgorod collection (1835)
• Gogol said it was based on folk stories, beliefs
• No evidence of Vij in folklore
• Witches, sorcerers major figures in East Slavic
  folklore
• Connections with religion Khoma relies on folk
  beliefs and basic needs, not doctrine
• Magic circle pagan, and later Christian

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Contamination

• Poltergeist lots of noisemaking
• Succubus (very close to vampire here)
• Shape-shifting power
• Feeding on energies (sexual dimension)
• Repeated visits to victims in dreams
• Mara/mora death of victim results (usually by
  suffocation here Khoma faints and dies)

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Question are there any vampires here?

• Yes and no.or, it depends..

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Rusalki
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Story vs. Film

• Erotic elements stronger?
• Vampire elements stronger?

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Classification of written accounts

• Early testimonies to outside parties
• Recorded folklore accounts
• Historical records (e.g., of real historical
  figures)
• Literary accounts in all genres
• Gogols Viy
• Vampires in poems by Goethe, Southey, Byron et al
• Polidoris Ruthven in The Vampyre

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Last time

• Clarifying the concepts
• Allen Balls True Blood interview (Salon)
• Film of Gogols story Viy (Vij)