Beware the bite...
On this the eve of Halloween and with some new vampire movies making their way into theaters soon it seemed pertinent to ask the question: where do vampires come from? From Bram Stoker’s Dracula, through the Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, and now the Cirque du Freak, books have long been rewriting Vampiric lore.
Researching the origins of the vampire led not to Vlad the Impaler but much farther back – to the Bible. According to this tradition, Caine guilty of the sin of killing his brother Abel is sentenced by God to walk the night. Some proponents go a step further and insist that Lilith, Adam’s first wife, is the original vampire and that it is she who taught Caine to harness the power of blood magic.
Caine, according to myth, is unwilling to bring others into the fold, but his loneliness is said to lead him to convert a few and so the process begins. However, the ways of his progeny lead Caine to build a city where it is said that vampires and mortals coexisted until the city was destroyed. At this point Caine and his original posse depart for the mists leaving a third generation of vampires behind.
Those left behind became known as the Antediluvians and continued their blood thirsty ways into the Dark Ages. As time went on, the new converts proved weaker than their predecessors. This did not stop them from wielding their power into the Middle Ages where it is said the vampire population grew to painful heights. Thus the vampires are credited by some as the reason behind the Inquisition that gripped Europe during this time.
True to their human origins, the modern vampires said to still exist are awaiting the return of the Antediluvians. It is their version of the apocalypse. However, in this version of Armageddon, the young vampires will be eradicated by the original; everyone, vampire and human alike, will be consumed in the bloodletting; and then the end will be at hand.
As we look to All Hallows Eve as a night of tricks and treats, beware the vampires, ghosts, and goblins and have a Happy Halloween just don’t forget your fangs! You never know....
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