RSSS 315 Tier 2

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RSSS 315 (Tier 2)

• Slavic Folklore Vampires and Werewolves

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Basic information

• Instructor George Gutsche
• Teaching assistants Glen Grover
• gutscheg_at_u.arizona.edu
• D2L, Website http//russian.arizona.edu/courses/va
  mpires
  
• Office hours 1030-12 TTh or by appointment

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Intro to class

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvhG8zC4npsE
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v4I5biByt3P4feature
  related
  
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vmfjXjEQDO78feature
  related
  
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vBOJZrRCNRsg
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXr8D6Ysg05gfeature
  related
  

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Last time

• Clarifying the concepts
• Discussion of reasons why people like vampires
• Summary of Slavic mythology and Vlad readings
• Film of Gogols story Viy (Vij)

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Origins Eastern Europe?
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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
• Gogols Viy
• Vampires in poems by Goethe et al
• Polidoris Ruthven

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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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Erzsébet Bathory another historical notable

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

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Very Productive Stories

• Historical events, personages - 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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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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First Reading Assignment Slavic Mythology CN

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

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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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Special terms Myth

• Story, or characters and themes in a story, often
  with supernatural elements, that is accorded
  special status in a society by custom or
  tradition because it involves origins
• Untrue religious story in popular understanding

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Fairy Tale

• Story with magic, magical creatures, witches,
  dragons
  
• Implications of both
• May have little basis in historical fact
• May give expression to hopes
• May give focus to fears and anger

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Key Work

• Dom Augustin Calmet 16721757
• French biblical scholar, a Benedictine abbot at
  Nancy and Sens
  
• Major work Dissertations sur les Apparitions
  des Anges, des Démons et des Esprits et sur les
  revenants et vampires de Hongrie, de Bohême, de
  Moravie, et de Silésie, Paris, 1740
• Collection of stories, evidence presented in
  sympathetic way
  
• Check out Wiki on him

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Calmets Influence

• Most texts about vampires from this time on
  repeated and rephrased what he said
  
• 18th and 19th century writers used his work (in
  its numerous editions)

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Why People Believe Weird Things

• Easy explanation for inexplicable events (e.g.,
  sudden death)
  
• Life beyond death is comforting idea
• Saving powers of conventional religion are
  reassuring
  
• We desire nice, neat, simple explanations

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Spinoza

• Our goal to understand human actions, not to
  scorn them

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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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Machal

• Numerous creatures with varying forms and powers
• Deeply embedded in belief system
• Co-exist with Christianity (dvoeverie)
• Mora, vukodlak, upir, oboroten are most relevant
  to us
  
• Ancestor rituals, death rituals

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More Gods

• Household, e.g. Domovye
• Little people, e.g. Ludki
• Fate gods, e.g., Roanice, Dolya
• Unhappy soul gods navye/navky, rusalki (water
  nymphs)
  
• Beautiful women, e.g., Vily (fairies) and wild
  women
  
• Forest spirit, Leshii, and field spirit, Polevoi
• Water spirit Vodianoi

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Major Gods

• Svarog, Svantovit
• Triglav
• Chernobog
• Dazhbog
• Khors (Chors)

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Celebrations, festivals

• Appeasing gods is important
• Sacrifices are part of the appeasement
• Dual faith issues prominent

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Christianity

• 988 for East Slavic tribes
• 9th century for West and South Slavic areas

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East Slavic

• Language early form of Russian, Ukrainian,
  Belarusan
  
• Orthodox Christianity (Constantinople)
• Prince Vladimir converted Kiev Slavs in 988
• Idols destroyed, but belief system remained

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Leshii (leii) (two of them)
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Vodianoi
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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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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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Literary Vampires

• Derived from folk stories accounts of 18th
  century epidemics
  
• First developed in poetry (German and English),
  then prose
  
• Other influences late 18th Gothic fiction

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Etymology of vampire and werewolf words

• Terminological complexity
• Vampire is Slavic, werewolf is not
• Werewolf cult associated with ritual wearing of
  wolf pelts all before 9th AD

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Link with Vampires?

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

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Later

• Stories of vukodlaks (and related forms) chasing
  clouds, devouring sun and moon 13th 16th
  centuries
  
• Mythological sense Slavs adopted term ala and
  ale for these beings
  
• Related terms (utilizing wolf as root) refer to
  vampires in South and Central Europe
  
• Some linguistic change vurdalak in Russian now
  can mean both

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Vseslav of Polotsk

• Belarusan Prince, 1030-1101
• Great Grand-Grandson of Vladimir
• Werewolf-sorcerer reputation (Vseslav the
  Magician-Charodei)
  
• Could turn to a grey wolf, a clear falcon or a
  deer with gold horns

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Writing assignment for next week

• Two pages on the Links texts
• Summarize the features of these vampires in your
  own words. Then comment on how these vampires
  relate to your own concept of a vampire.