Vampir (South Slavic)

Also called: вампир, vampir, vukodlak

Folklore and mythUndeadA bad death or burial1500 to 1899

The vampir of the Balkans is the original vampire, and in its folk form it is a walking corpse and not a caped aristocrat. It rises from a neighbour's grave, takes forty days to become solid and preys on its family and village until the body is staked, beheaded or burned. Austrian officials documented the belief in occupied Serbia in the 1720s and 1730s, and the word spread across Europe. It is included here as the base tradition from which the literary vampire and the plague-like walking dead both descend.1 2

Battle it

First recorded

1725

Brought to European attention by the Austrian reports from Serbia of 1725 and 1732

Origin

South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian)

Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

What causes it

A bad death or burial

A bad life, a bad death or a flawed burial; an animal or bird passing over the corpse was a classic trigger.

How you become one

Sorcerers, suicides, the excommunicated, the improperly buried and people born with a caul, teeth or a tail were at risk; so was any corpse an animal had stepped over.

Intelligence

Some intelligence

Weak spots