Episode 3 - Vampires of Eastern Europe
We delve into the myths and true accounts of the Vampires, Striga, and Strigoi in eastern Europe. Our Tale from Beyond this episode is The Vanishing of Doctor Solomon.
Transcript
Alexander Ballard 0:30
When one day ends and before a new one begins between midnight and the first second after there exists the enigmatic hour the impossible time when all is possible. Hello, and welcome traveling. We will be your guides tonight as we explore the mysterious and the macabre histories but strange and forgotten and weave a tangled web between fact and fiction. I'm your host, Alexander,
Karolina 0:53
Karolina,
Alexander Ballard 0:54
and welcome back again for Episode Three of the enigmatic hour. Today's first piece of original fiction is titled The Vanishing of Dr. Solomon. The wind blew restlessly through the trees and the moon hung low in orange in the night sky, and old wooden shutter banged repeatedly against the side of the dilapidated house before me. Slowly I drew my flashlight and cautiously approached the house. There have been several reports of disturbances in the neighborhood over the last few days and this house appeared to be the center of things. Quintin, the county records the home had been abandoned for over five years, and the place looked that way. That is, except for the recently installed lock on the door, the windows were covered with dust and grime. Despite my best efforts, I could see nothing of the interior seemed I had little choice but to venture inside, if I was to have any hope of unraveling the mystery that had been currently plaguing my desire. Although I'd been living in this small town for several months, the local still treated me as though I was an unwelcome guest in their home. Even in my office of town doctor, they made offhanded comments as to how no matter what fancy medical training I had, I would never measure up to old Doug Bradley who had treated them all their lives. It was in my capacity as doctors that I had first noticed the strange occurrences otherwise healthy patients had come down with an acute fever and sickness that seemed to defy every test I put to it. Then there have been reports of several pets found mauled to death. The local paper had been a small article reporting that a wild animal was on loose and that pets and small children should be kept safely indoors at night. It seemed to be random occurrences at first glance, and yet as I looked for cause charted the cases I know just an odd pattern, the majority of cases had happened within a few blocks of a single abandoned home. inquiries I made had revealed little about the home except that had been left vacant ever since the former occupant had died several years prior, and so lacking any more credible leads, I decided to take it upon myself to unravel the source of the events unfolding within a small town. Normally, I'm not a heavy drinker. But standing there at the door of that to this eerie place, felt compelled take a large swig from the small flask always carried away breast pocket. Long ago I treated a wanted thief and an exchange give me a small metal lockpick which I now use to quietly lock the door before me. Slowly it creaked open the interior was darker than the night. It's almost as hard as entering a black hole that threatened to swallow me up Never to see the light of day again. And yet I pressed into it my flashlight held high and steel leaf resolve floor was made of uneven wooden planks and a fine layer of dust cover the entire place, except for a path leading into the kitchen which appeared to be dust free and well tread. The furnishings in the home were large and old, and old, odd trinkets they scattered everywhere turning the shadows cast my light into images of bizarre, misshapen beasts forward into the kitchen. It was as if I had walked into a solid wall of stench so fierce they cannot help but keel over and gag the odor was indescribable, as if it's anything other than a blend of foul odor is so intense that the original components were identifiable. With several minutes before my nasal passages finally gave up and shut down enough for me to enter. The kitchen was dirty and in disarray. It was clear the former occupant had not bothered to clean up before his unfortunate demise. As part set resting tablet pools of water and the womb felt out of place for the rest. Now it was almost as if I'm going to go into a great deal of trouble to make it appear more distressed than it was actually was. For despite the filth, there was an uncustomary lack of dust which the rest of the building possessed.
I began to take careful stock of the floor scanning my flashlight. I noticed a small metal grate in the corner beside frigerator. As I examined it I just go to the peculiar sticky substance On the inside of the grading, reaching inside my pan I was able to view a small sample but hopes that it may lead to some clues as to the malady currently and affecting the town. As I was standing up my flashlight slipped my grasp and hit the floor with an echoing third, stared in disbelief. Was it possible that there was in fact another room below the kitchen floor? If so, I was resolved to discover why someone had gone to the trouble of hiding it. I scoured the kitchen for almost an hour looking for some lecture level even the slightest trace of a trap door but to no avail. I was just about to give up. When a realization struck me, it overlooked a rather large possibility, and so I stared at the closed door the refrigerator. The wind pay had picked up and was howling for the trees and a beam my flashlight was going dimmer. But nonetheless, I reached out and pulled the door swung open easily and instead of being greeted by rows of plastic shells if I'd have hoped. Instead, there was a roughly carve spiral stone staircase descending into darkness. Taking a second swig from my flask, I made it my way into the inky blackness of the stairwell, and began a long slow descent, how deeply it went, I cannot be sure, even more puzzling was who had constructed it and why the look of the wall it was very old, far older than even this house itself. Far below I can make it would appear to be a dull flickering light, it gave me hope that there was in fact an end this long descend, and I was not descending into the very bowels of hell. At last I arrived at the source of light, which came from two wooden torches fixed either side of a large iron door, strange markings or doing the door. There were small protrusions along at surface that seemed to resemble faces trying to push through the barrier. Along metal ring hung from the door and gripping it with both hands I pulled on it with all my mate. To my all my strength to shift the grip dorward finally began to create a gap big enough for me to squeeze through. But I found inside shock maybe on the leaf. There are rows of cells on either wall that with cast iron bars and front and floor, a series of chains and pulleys on top that could lower the cages to another level below. The center of the room was around stone well, and from it, I could hear the sounds of running water. bravely. I crossed the room, when all of a sudden I could hear a splash from below. I froze in place holding my breath was not to make even the slightest sound and listened. There was only the sound of running water and the beating of my own heart. Still, I braided forward and peered into the well my flashlight aimed into its depth. It was not as deep as I'd assumed. What if we seen clearly below the steep slippery walls, the well extended perhaps less than 10 meters there on the walls of the well appear to be scratch marks carved into the stones, as if by some great hand pulled away in fear, not wanting to even imagine what could have been left such marks and instead, the Senate decided to press on words into the chamber that lay the far end of the room. I found myself what appeared to be a small chapel, there were perhaps a half a dozen wooden pews and twisted metal sculptures are doing the walls are large boulders to the far end of the room. Long dangerous looking hooks protruded from the four corners of the altar. And as I drew closer, I could see traces of blood upon its surface, besides sicken me, and I had to suppress the urge to be ill. It was then that I heard the sound of something scraping in stone coming from the weld room, I could feel my heart leapt from my chest and quickly I scan my surroundings for another way out in spite two doors on the opposite side of the chapel, not wanting to test whether they had imagined the sound or if it had been real. I quickly passed through the right hand door and found myself a curved passageway. The walls were the same gray stone blocks that I'd seen in the stairwell. Except these had long metal tools and blades attached to them advance quickly along the passage until I've added another wooden door slowly opened it taking the time to appear inside. only discovered myself I look like a cross between a laboratory and a torture chamber.
A great metal furnace stood against one wall, long glass tubes and containers connected to it. The Joe was filled with a bowling liquid and in one large, dark bottle about half my insides mega some kind of shape floating within one side of the room there was a large table with tight restraints attached to it necessaries of electrical nodes resting on top of each note at a long metal spikes at the end, as if to skewer some unfortunate patient like around the room but there was appeared to be only one other way out to the wooden door some of the one I'd entered. From that I was convinced it would only take me back to the chapel. Then I saw an old Red Book resting on the desk, the pages yellowed with age. From the cover it appeared to be that a journal perhaps one that might explain the bizarre sights I'd seen within this old house before I could save my curious Yesterday there came a slippery sound or something wet moving across stone. It was coming from the passageway I just walked down. It was drawing nearer. It's pacing too quick and as if sensing my presence I quickly made a dash for the other door and ran down the passageway beyond. I raced along its curved surface until I emerged once again in the chapel. not stopping divest I decided that my only safety lady on the gridiron door have a fortune was not on my side the great i indoor events such a challenge for me to open was shut tight. I was trapped, I could hear water, I could hear whatever was pursued me drawing near the claws scratching against the stone. Look for some means of defense or escaping to my eyes focused upon the well. The wider end was definitely moving, the current must lead to the coast. Chill ran down my spine, my blood good, cold, thick, heavy breathing. Growing behind me louder and louder. It was all I could hear. I was routed to the spots unable to move for fear what lay behind me. I felt a hot, damp breath on my neck and followed by a wet tongue sensation break me from my trance I had no option left me I left him to the well. Paying raking across my back. Before I came crashing to the icy waters below. pulled along rapidly by the current struggle to remain above the surface. But the last the fast moving water kept pulling me under. I managed to make a desperate grid fare and then collapsed letting it take me away. Well, I could see nothing but darkness and hear nothing but the sound of blood rushing to my ears. I may have blacked out who knows but my relation last recollections of sand and the sounds of goals and the distance. And that's that Finn. Like it? Yeah, yeah,
Karolina 11:49
it's a shivers
Alexander Ballard 11:52
tried to give it sort of like a love crafty. Yeah.
Karolina 11:56
where he's exploring this new unknown.
Alexander Ballard 12:02
Yeah, there's no quite answers of what's going on just hints of more than
Karolina 12:07
hints of war terror.
Alexander Ballard 12:10
tower terror beyond imagination.
Karolina 12:14
Yeah, like that. It does. It does open up your imagination to think of like, well, I guess to imagine all sorts of different creatures and all sorts of different
circumstances
have caused him to be going I'm sorry, there's a cat.
There's a cat distracting.
Alexander Ballard 12:36
She's a producer. She making sure we're staying on track.
Karolina 12:40
Yes.
So even though that was quite creepy, it was also kind of cute because I had a cat with me the entire time, so I felt quite safe.
Alexander Ballard 12:48
Yes, she was desperate to sit on your lap
Karolina 12:51
while your character was going off on his adventure into the creepy void.
Oh.
So
as a very harsh transition.
let's delve into today's topic.
Alexander Ballard 13:08
I can't wait.
Karolina 13:09
So today we're going to talk about one of the most classic monsters the vampire so other than wanting to be one at the age of 13 and 14. I've always enjoyed vampires even beyond the age of 14. There are so many different types of vampires in our pop culture. From a humanoid romantic, glittery, glittery vampire to a more monstrous animalistic and Undead Nightmare. They're such a diverse group that they even go vegetarian. So I don't know if you remember Count dakila but apparently in his transition to vampirism catch up, took the place of blood. Okay.
And he he was a just
a fiend for ketchup.
Alexander Ballard 14:01
It also reminds me of that old cartoon Adventure Time where you had a character called Marceline, the vampire queen.
Karolina 14:07
Oh, that's fantastic.
Alexander Ballard 14:08
This and she just drank red. So she would like drink the red from a bow tie or from an apple.
Karolina 14:14
You know, it's a wonderful color. And I can understand why why should be drawn to that. Yeah. That's a very passionate color. So for vegans there there is also a series that I discovered called Adventures of a vegan vampire. It's it's very much it's a very easy read. It's a fun read, but it's an easy read.
Alexander Ballard 14:39
So veganism is all about consent, and that you can eat animals that don't saturate. So it does not mean that if you're a vampire, you can drink blood as long as the person is fine with you drinking their blood, because that would have begun vampires they get consent first.
Karolina 14:54
No. So this, the character and these books is actually repulsive. To buy blood and is only satiated by juice.
Alexander Ballard 15:05
What kind of juice?
Karolina 15:06
Any kind of juice it seems. She's very. She's basically addicted to juice. Also coffee, she's really into coffee. But if she has too much coffee, she hallucinates
Alexander Ballard 15:20
on what I'm patron is one of those, you know, Lou Lou Lou women, you know one of those women who wear Lululemon pants and always coming out of the gym of going to the gym.
Karolina 15:29
That's basically the type of character she is. Yes, yes, but she's also a detective in a supernatural realm. So it's not exactly deep thinking,
Alexander Ballard 15:39
how does it compare to izombie, though, because that was fantastic.
Karolina 15:42
I would say it's a few steps, but
Alexander Ballard 15:46
not as good as I say, Oh, definitely not as good as
Karolina 15:48
izombie it's something if you want to read a book in an afternoon, these are fun. Okay,
sort of on the Twilight.
Alexander Ballard 15:57
Okay, semi tired of Twilight read the vegan vampire books. A little bit
Karolina 16:02
better than Twilight, better characters. But yes, definitely read. Kate lollies Adventures of the vegan vampire book series.
Alexander Ballard 16:10
Available you local Barnes and Noble.
Karolina 16:11
Yeah. Yeah. So, so it was wonder where these stories come from. So we're going to explore some vampy origins today. So As to be expected with such a wonderfully successful and diverse monster. Its origins are global. I really wanted to talk about vampire legends around the world today. But there simply isn't enough time to travel the globe on today's podcast. There are just too many cool stories out there. So today we're going to go focus on Eastern Europe. Mainly because I'm biased. I'm from there, as you may know from previous podcasts, but also because there are plenty of juicy stories in Eastern Europe. So I do promise that we will revisit vampires of all walks of life at a later date. If there's a specific story that you would like us to highlight in a future podcast, or if you'd like to know about vampire legends in a specific area of the world, please let us know in the comments. And we will put that on our list. So from the success of Bram Stoker's Dracula, many of us are likely somewhat familiar with the Eastern European undead. So there are the vampires is the Big Boy, that will be the op eds. Similarly worded creatures call them what you will they all come with an insatiable thirst for blood and or violence?
It's not always blood.
Alexander Ballard 17:41
Okay. And do they always male and female? Are there some were the only male and some that only female?
Karolina 17:47
Ah, that's an interesting, so depending. Okay, there are a lot more male stories that I found in the historic record. But in the archaeological record, I, we have a plethora of different types.
Alexander Ballard 18:04
Okay. Just sort of imagine I remember reading a thing about the Grimm, fairy tales. Brothers Grimm, and apparently in the German folklore. In the story, there is an evil stepmother. The villain will be a witch. And if the father or the stepfather is the problem, then the villain in the story will always be like an ogre or a troll. So, I was just curious if he's got something similar with the the vampire lore.
Karolina 18:32
No, I don't know if it's so
if it's gendered, this actually might be one of the creatures that is very
it's not gender specific. Okay.
So anybody can be a vampire. Whether you're male, female, whether you're you don't identify with either. Um, yeah, yeah, I think vampires are maybe that's one of the reasons why my vampires are so welcoming. Right. There's so diverse. And yeah,
Alexander Ballard 19:09
I suppose a wide net? Yeah, I suppose. It was one point. And now they've been drawn to the vampire Mystique.
Karolina 19:17
Yeah. Yeah,
Alexander Ballard 19:18
I suppose that part of that is Bram Stoker's influence with the the sexy vampire, you know?
Karolina 19:23
Ah, yes, he
did have the sexy vampire. Um, so the vampires that we're going to talk about today are maybe a little less sexy. So we're going to start off with two historic accounts of vampires first. So in our first story, we're going to talk about jeu de gras, Judy gundo or Uday gondo. I apologize. I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce his name. So he was a Croatian vampire in the 17th century. So he was i a peasant to begin with After his death he supposedly terrorized his village for 16 years and he was called a strigoi. So swingaway ai is one name for vampire it also is very similar to the strega which is usually called a witch
right away.
Alexander Ballard 20:21
Do core if you played the Witcher games that first opening Witcher cinematic is I actually had in the film in the show as well when he fights the struggle all night long.
Karolina 20:30
That's right. Yes, that giant monster fairy vampiric?
Alexander Ballard 20:36
Well, she was Yeah, she was like, because in the the witches show she was like she the unborn child of a witch or something like that.
Karolina 20:45
Yeah, she was the unborn child of a witch and she had an insatiable thirst for I guess humans. Yeah, blood, flesh. Everything. Yeah, fascinating. So back to to our city boy here and from Croatia. He said to have risen from the grave at night to knock on the doors of the villagers. If you are recipient of one of his nightly knocks someone from your house would die within days. He was also sad to have visited his widow to stare at her in her bed, and even sexually assaulted her on at least one occasion. His widow described him as being at a breath at appearing to be smiling the entire time, which is quite creepy. So the villagers made some attempts to read Judas. Life on the town, the village priest tried to perform an exorcism. exorcism prayers on him. On one occasion the police came face to face with him, held that across and yell to behold Jesus Christ you vampires stop tormenting us. This is probably a translation because we're using the word vampire, not necessarily, boy. I just believe that this made the boy cry. The villagers dug up his grave eventually and tried to pierce the corpses heart. At some point, I guess after 16 years they had had enough a poor day or you day.
Alexander Ballard 22:14
Yeah, you after 16 years definitely would have enough I think,
Karolina 22:17
yeah, you'd wonder why they didn't do that earlier, but Okay, 16 years, that's fine. So they try to try to pierce his heart with a Hawthorne stick. Unfortunately, that would not penetrate, penetrate his flesh. So to me, this means that when they uncovered him after 16 years, he still had flesh so he had not decomposed enough. So that's a specialist I think. So finally, one of the villagers took a saw and saw the vampires head off horrible screens and blood spilled out everywhere on the grave. But finally there was peace in the village. So what did you find interesting about this story is that there's no mention of blood drinking, or murder. So that sort of guy didn't really do anything other than knock on people's doors. And within days, they died.
Alexander Ballard 23:08
He sounds like a local nuisance like just a MOO Pampa now, what are you guys doing in there? Don't mind me just gonna watch
Karolina 23:18
and I you will die. Didn't seem like he really got anything out of it. It just seemed like he was a support curse, man.
Alexander Ballard 23:26
Yeah, but you can see some of the old vampire attrition thing you know, like cutting the head off and putting the stake through the heart and all that.
Karolina 23:32
Hi, you're getting head. I apologize.
There might be a little bit of the headings and a little bit of the stake through the heart. They might not be Hawthorn sticks, though. Apparently those aren't strong enough.
Alexander Ballard 23:44
No. Didn't work Pierce's heart.
Karolina 23:47
No way. It could not. So the beheading, though worked, apparently. So our next story is a man named pettah Blago Blagojevich, my apologies. So Petr Blagojevich died in 1725, in a small town in Serbia, also a peasant, since that happened that hasn't, I guess, in Eastern
Europe, because there were many better a few peasants.
So within eight days, than eight days of his death, nine people perished after a short illness. And that illness lasted about 24 hours. So very short illness.
Alexander Ballard 24:30
Was it COVID did they get COVID?
Karolina 24:34
Um, I think that one takes a little longer but, so this is a faster acting, okay. virus or some sort of illness if it wasn't, was not a virus,
Alexander Ballard 24:44
so it could have had COVID and not reported it though. It just worked because they were present. It's gonna had no choice,
Karolina 24:49
maybe and spread it but it didn't spread that far, right, just nine people. So on their deathbeds, these nine people, allegedly claimed to have been attacked by hackers. At night, so he visited the neck and attacked them. There are also two accounts of his visits with his family. The first is a wee bit odd, I find and the second one is quite violent. So, the first one pet had his wife claimed that her husband visited her after his death and asked her for his shoes. Apparently they had some conversation about it and she ended up fleeing the village and moving to another village right after this. I'm unsure whether she gave him the shoes though.
Alexander Ballard 25:37
He must have been like, you know how people get fixated on stuff like the pole you come back from the grave track down your you know, widow to make sure I gotta get my shoes. You said don't leave your shoes out. I got to get the shoes.
Karolina 25:50
Maybe Maybe they were just his favorite pair of shoes and he really wanted to like go blood drink herring and he just just didn't like the kicks.
Alexander Ballard 25:58
He's like yeah, I can't go to heaven or hell without my good shoes. You know?
Karolina 26:02
Right you buried me in these in these Canvas sneakers? I want my leather boots. Yeah. So so she ended up surviving this allegedly. But our second account is a little bit more violent. So in this story, pet dad came back to his house demanding food from his son. His son refused to give him food because his father was no longer living. And being peasants, they probably did not have a lot to give to the living. Nevermind the dead. It's getting a little greedy. And so pet Todd brutally murdered his son beat him and brutally murdered him
and probably took the food
but did not drink his blood. So that was interesting. So the villagers understandably were upset by these events. And they just entered pour recently died or undead pets had and they found clear signs of vampirism. So for one pet has hair beard and nails have grown. And so he looked even better than he had. Prior to his death. His skin was practically glowing. It looks so healthy. So sorry,
Alexander Ballard 27:18
I'm just picturing that like, you know, Petra, it looks good with a beard. Do you think you should have gone out years ago
Karolina 27:23
Canada and his nails look red and his glow?
Alexander Ballard 27:27
What have you been doing, man?
Karolina 27:28
Of what have you been doing? Unfortunately, probably the most troubling find for them was that his mouth was very visibly covered in blood.
Alexander Ballard 27:38
Did he have his shoes
Karolina 27:39
on though? You know,
I'm not sure that was not part of the account. I do hope that he had his nice leather kicks. So
Alexander Ballard 27:45
yeah, he went to the trouble of getting them from his wife. So
Karolina 27:48
right she had to flee the town.
So with obviously these clear signs of vampers and present shoes are not the villagers did what was necessary, they deem necessary and drove a stake through Petros heart. So fresh blood was set to erupt from his wound, and he troubled the town no more. So that's where we get that stick through the heart. So we now know that the signs the townspeople interpreted assigns vampirism are actually part of the naturally occurring decomposition decomposition process. But across Eastern Europe in the 17th century, they indicated an unnatural corruption of the flesh. So we've talked about a few of the ways that Eastern Europeans kill vampires. Would you like to hear some of the other ways? Definitely. So vampires are sometimes buried across crossroads, we find that in the Czech Republic in some in that area, in some cases.
Alexander Ballard 28:52
crosswords are very common in like lore like witchcraft and demon stuff, you know, like you have the the famous case of the blues singer.
Karolina 29:04
The devil at the crossroads.
Alexander Ballard 29:06
Yeah. Some of the Deaf devil at the crossroads to get the Billy Billy to play the blues, you know, and, hey, what's his name? Robert Johnson, sir. Robert Johnson. You know, you have this idea that crossword Crossroads have power their place of influence. Mm hmm.
Karolina 29:22
I wonder if it's, that's because we're all of the action kind of happened. chaos in action. And yeah,
Alexander Ballard 29:28
I don't know, is it because it was a central meeting place if it was just such an important landmark, and especially in us in a rural society, we're like, well, this road goes straight for 20 miles, and then there's another road that crosses it, you know? Is it sort of like that? Maybe some religion mixed in there with like, a cross road and a cross and it's sort of like a sort of almost, you know, the representation of a cross on the earth itself, you know,
Karolina 29:55
right. And inverted or a properly I guess, Christian cross Depending on the way you view it, so I yeah, I think we should probably explore the Crossroads at a later episode and see if maybe there's a story behind this.
Alexander Ballard 30:12
Yeah, I suppose if they're in Eastern Europe, something might be using the Copic class rather than the Christian cross, but
Karolina 30:17
depending on where so there are several different Christian background. So you do have the Roman Catholic, the Czech Republic is currently modern chucks are Roman Catholic. Okay. So they use the same cross that they do in North America, St. Casa Anglicans use. It's the Orthodox faith that uses the Coptic cross.
Alexander Ballard 30:47
Yeah. So but like in 17th century, Czech Republic, were they orthodox? Were they Christian? Still
Karolina 30:53
there? Were still young Catholic, Roman Catholic. Yeah. And not only are they Roman Catholic. So in going over to Bulgaria, which is Jones, those vampires have been found to be changed, chained to the grave with Garland's of wild roses around them. And there's also been a lot of sticks through the heart in that area as well. Mostly iron though, but we'll get to that soon.
Alexander Ballard 31:19
I know also plays a heavy load and we talked about the the fairy lore the other episode. Mm hmm. The idea of like, one of the ways you keep off the supernatural beings with cold iron,
Karolina 31:30
right? Yes. I wonder why iron is so such an important metal?
And yeah,
Alexander Ballard 31:39
it's a good question, I suppose because it is a very human metal.
Karolina 31:43
Getting was the strongest at the time.
Alexander Ballard 31:44
It was the strongest, most common metal and it was like it was it was something very unnatural because you you didn't get you didn't get iron from nature. You had to make it shape it, you know,
Karolina 31:59
right. There was a lot of effort put into it. A lot of humans sweat, blood and tears.
Yeah. Excellent.
So we also find that there we found vampires with their heads cut off, and the skull place between their legs, which we'll get into. And then in Russia, Russians have tended to use wooden sticks through the heart. So very similar to the Dracula.
Yes.
Alexander Ballard 32:27
So this is interesting, because, you know, my understanding is that Bram Stoker color raised a lot of his teachings on the east is not teachings is his book. A Dracula and Dracula's guest you know, on you know, folklore me Eastern Europe,
Karolina 32:42
right? Yes.
Alexander Ballard 32:43
So for a lot of the vampire things he attributes to it in the book it's all fictional but they're similar they're definitely some bat basis from some fact though.
Karolina 32:53
Definitely because it was fact that these people definitely were visit visiting their neighbors in their towns
Alexander Ballard 33:06
sure they may not have actually been vampires but the the ways that the people dealt with them the folklore you know is you know, you cut off the head he's Gemma wouldn't know iron steaks is a heart. Yeah. I don't put a low Moses around the neck. You know, a garland of roses or garlic. You know?
Karolina 33:25
Garlic. Yeah,
you're right. Yeah. It's very similar.
Alexander Ballard 33:28
Well, even in the the first story, you mentioned how they the power of the cross drove back the vampire. You know, that's
Karolina 33:35
very classic. That's very classic Joker. Yeah. Yes, Christians symbols and signs just yeah. repelled the vampire. Because he was I think of Yeah, corrupted flesh on natural. Well, yeah, I
Alexander Ballard 33:53
think turn from God. There is that idea in Christianity, that the power of God even a symbol like a cross drives back any evil spirit? You know?
Karolina 34:01
Yes. That's a good symbol, as well as iron. Yes. Which I think we're gonna talk about. So we know that this is these are some of the ways that suspected vampires were killed because of both the historic and archaeological record. Yes, so we've alluded to this. So have archaeologists on earth vampires.
Alexander Ballard 34:24
Have we found vampires? Ah, oh, sort of
Karolina 34:29
required to go back to Bulgaria here.
Alexander Ballard 34:32
Okay. So possible vampires possible victims of vampire hunt? We don't know.
Karolina 34:37
We'll let you decide. So in Bulgaria truth. A number of excavated burials have been found where a stick appears to have been driven through the heart or chest of the courts, which is we have seen is one of the ways that superstition sites, rich superstition sites can be used to stop a vampire right? from the grave. So in 2014, a grave site dating back to the 13th century in southern Bulgaria, was found in just such a state. This skeleton was dated between 40 and 50 years of age, so quite an older person and had a piece of plough share, which is an iron rod hammered through his chest. The plowshare was almost two pounds. So it's quite weighty, and was thrust into the suspected vampire with enough force to break the scapula. Okay, which is your shoulder blade?
Alexander Ballard 35:38
And do we know if this was inserted post or pre mortem?
Karolina 35:41
I believe it is. post mortem, but I'm not 100% sure here, because they did not go into that in the
Alexander Ballard 35:50
I guess I'm kind of like, did they drive this into him? Or did he die in an unfortunate farming accident?
Karolina 35:56
Ah,
Alexander Ballard 35:57
well,
Karolina 35:58
if the individual diamond unfortunate farming asking you think that they would have removed the plow share from their chest, but who knows? It's not the first it's not the only stuff the only time that a corpse was found, like this
Alexander Ballard 36:13
was just in a graveyard or just like one of those like, mysterious buried in the woods kind of graves proper graveyard, okay. sanctified and everything,
Karolina 36:22
probably in the 13th century. So yeah, Medieval period. So archaeologists also on earth to other sites in Bulgaria, near a place called sosele port in 2012. And in 2013, so one of the unfortunate men had a similar iron rod driven through the left side of his rib cage, the other man had an unidentified metal object protruding from his solar plexus. So perhaps these three individuals, all were impaled on metal poles that nobody thought to remove. Or perhaps maybe that happened, post mortem, doesn't actually tell you because the article that I read here, we can put it in our comments or in
Alexander Ballard 37:16
our description.
Karolina 37:20
I did not specify whether they It was definitely post mortem, or, or during the individuals life.
Alexander Ballard 37:29
Yeah, like I I'm not up to date on my Bulgarian funerary rites. Like, I don't know if they would move the object before burying the big the person or not,
Karolina 37:41
I'm not sure. But to date about 100 such skeletons have been unearthed. area. So either everybody started falling on me is that one of this was a deliberate,
Alexander Ballard 37:52
so wasn't it like a reign of iron rods and bull carry at this time? You know, like, they fade from heaven.
Karolina 37:58
You know, in the 12th century, we don't have much of a historic record to really go by so.
Alexander Ballard 38:04
Okay, so it sounds like this would probably be a practice, you know? Yeah. Oh, Uncle Joe die quick. Yuri hammered metal spike through him.
Karolina 38:13
So there actually is a possible explanation. Okay. So in this area, I in the soza pole region of Bulgaria, during this time, there was a religious Christian sect that had retained many of its pagan elements, including driving a stake through the heart of the debt. interest. So that would be post mortem, potentially because they thought they were vampires.
Alexander Ballard 38:42
And I'm picturing like, a guy like where's the heart? The stomach? I don't know. Yeah, this drive in their diseases is good. It's good. We got three more guys to do to do that.
Karolina 38:53
It's somewhere in the torso area.
Anywhere is fine.
Alexander Ballard 38:57
I don't know. I just stick your own checks. It's
Karolina 39:03
fine. As long as they don't rise from the dead sea. I'm not sure if it's a preventative measure or because they thought that there were vampires rising from the grave.
Alexander Ballard 39:13
Maybe it literally get better. Like you know, you hammer nails into a tree so it gets more iron. I don't. Sure. It sounds preventative.
Karolina 39:22
Sounds preventative, especially if you have over 100 of these. Perhaps maybe they had an event. Vampire infestation,
Alexander Ballard 39:30
they could have had a vampire infestation, with a Van Helsing at this time.
Karolina 39:36
Those are a few centuries later. So moving to 30 kilometers north of Prague in the Czech Republic. 14 graves dating from around other earlier than, than these ones in Bulgaria from around the 11th century. were found with also metal spikes driven through their bodies, or heavy stones placed upon them. So that was another type of eye post mortem. Surely you'd call it a practice that is also attributed to vampires. Hmm. So rising from the grave if you have a really heavy heavy stones put upon your in your mouth, you cannot get up. You cannot rise your body cannot rise for the grave.