Slayers and their vampires: a cultural history of killing the dead

Abstract

Bruce A. McClelland. Slayers and Their Vampires: Cultural History of Killing Dead Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2009 (© 2006). xviii, 260 pp. Index. Bibliography. Illustrations. Maps. $19.95, paper.Bruce McClelland' s monograph, now published in paperback, is a fascinating read for both specialists and fans of vampire folklore and fiction alike. Following in footsteps of Jan L. Perkowski, McClelland' s mentor and academic advisor, he turns our attention yet again to Slavic vampire. McClelland traces manner in which this folkloric entity, who historically never rose above any other Slavic mythological daemon or spirit, achieved such enormous mass appeal when transported to West European and later North American literary and pop cultures, becoming probably most exotic and alluring incarnation of evil today (p. 87). What makes McClelland' s monograph significantly different works of other vampirologists (such as Perkowski, whose omnibus Vampire Lore was published by Slavica in 2006) is fact that he does not limit his interest to vampires alone, but considers vampire slayer who, together with concept of vampire, migrated Slavic into Germanic and later Romanic lands, where he finally received his embodiment as Abraham Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. McClelland argues quite persuasively that slayer and vampire, while presently situated far apart on scale of good and evil, originally were not too different each other. His research on South Slavic (especially Bulgarian) demonology shows that vampire's mortal enemy may actually represent his mirror image because it possesses some of vampire's typical characteristics and hence a capacity to become a vampire. McClelland further studies vampire-slayer pair with regards to their shared connection to world of dead (p. 14) and, as a result, detects in them traces of an ancient shamanic figure (see pp. 6 and 120).Slayers and Their Vampires consists of a preface, ten chapters and an appendix. The latter is devoted completely to linguistic exploration of etymology of Old Slavic term vampir/upir', which first appeared in written form around eleventh century. As McClelland' s analysis asserts, it was unlikely that it originally had any links to realm. Rather scholar sees in it a reference to pagan groups: the word vampire was a pejorative name for a group or a member of a group whose rituals or behavior were offensive to early Orthodox Christians (p. 191). The meaning of term was later extended also to include members of various heretical sects and Jews - traditional enemies of church (pp. 31, 34).The appendix is also connected thematically with historical chapters 3 and 4, both of which are linked by subtitle A Thousand Years of Vampire. The two chapters investigate various processes out of which this Slavic folkloric entity emerged as well as elements that over years formed underlying structure of vampire motif. McClelland, for instance, notes that blood sacrifice and feasting elements of Slavic paganism became ingrained into concept of a vampire, hence reference to blood drinking (pp. 36-41, 43, 64-66). Moreover, anathemas, which Orthodox theologians laid upon heretics and pagans over time, helped form image of vampire as an outsider, a cursed evil encroaching upon society (p. 49). Such a severe attack, exercised by Church, led to fact that unorthodox behaviour and beliefs of pagan groups, including heretic sects and Jews, were transferred sphere of something odd and unnatural to sphere of supernatural (p. 5 1). Consequently, meaning, associated with term vampire, shifted from a perverse violator of taboos (child sacrifice, incest) to a demon who rises dead and attacks living and who tends to function as a scapegoat during inexplicable adversity (p. …