Vampire Evolution

We all know that vampires don’t exist (or do they?), but where did the idea of blood sucking creatures come from? Sink your teeth into this week’s blog as we learn about vampires and their evolution (it’s not detailed, it’s just the basics)!

Vampires are portrayed in many different ways. Some say that vampires are human corpses that are said to have returned from their graves to harm the living. Others say that vampires are not human at all, but instead supernatural, possibly demonic creatures that do not take human form*. The vampires that we are most familiar with are the ones that we see in movies or read about in books. They are supernatural beings (usually more beautiful) that keep to themselves and drink blood from humans or animals and help protect others from the “bad” vampires. The “bad” vampires always like to cause trouble. When they want something, they will destroy everything in their path to reach whatever it is they want.Vampires started out as ugly creatures that sucked the blood out of people and now we see them as beautiful supernatural beings.

Vampires throughout the years

Dracula

• One of the first mythical vampires is the famous Dracula which was created by Bram Stoker in 1987. Stoker says that some of Dracula’s characteristics come from the Romanian prince Vlad III (1431-1476). Vlad wasn't a vampire and didn't drink blood, but he did many terrible things (i.e. murder thousands of his countrymen). His chosen last name “Dracula” translates to “son of the devil” or “son of the dragon”**.
• In 1931, Dracula was seen as a threatening, powerful, alluring and evil being**.
• During the Cold War era in 1958, Dracula’s motives were unimportant; he was a vicious troublemaker with an appetite for destruction. He had red eyes and huge fangs, often with blood hanging off them**.
• After the years went on, they've made movies that viewed vampires as dangerous creatures who were able to do whatever they pleased. They started incorporating love in a few movies where vampires would fall for each other.
• In 1998, the Blade movies began. Blade is half man, half vampire and he loves humans. He found it

  

  Edward Cullen 

  his duty to protect the humans from vampires***.
• Modern day vampires are still known as dangerous, but not as much. From the vampire books I've read they’re beautiful and try to stay away from humans. They live a normal life, but have much more life problems. There is always a bad vampire or something that comes in the way of their life to try and ruin it. It’s mostly because they want revenge, because they want something or simply just want to cause trouble.

As we can see, the vampire perspective has changed a lot throughout the years. They’re constantly changing because every author or director has their own view on things. I wonder how vampires will be perceived as in the future. Do you think they’ll be the same or do you think they’ll change? We’ll never know, they may not even exist at all. 

Did You Know?

There is an animal called a vampire bat. It lives on animal blood and drinks during the night. It doesn't harm the animal since the vampire bat only drinks a small amount. The only problem is that it can cause rabies*.

* http://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html

** http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96282132

*** http://www.cracked.com/funny-69-vampires/