Vampires and Werewolves

OF VAMPIRES

"It was at night that it came. A night with a full moon.

It was just a shadow, crawling behind me. The air suddenly became cold, cold as if the air suddenly died around me. I dared to turn my head. Slowly, trying to prevent my eyes from popping out of their orbits, I looked behind me. Nothing. Empty place and the cold suddenly flew away.

What was it? I don't know but I tried to find latter, that same day, what that presence was all about.

I read many books that evening. Many of them were so clear that in my mind I didn't have a doubt anymore: I just had my first encounter with a creature of the night: a vampire. In the following months I had many more experiences like the one I just told. And always, the same deep cold."

A fragment form the novel "At night I finally will die" from Fernando de Osuna

Vampires are folkloric and mythological beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures. In folkloric tales, vampires often visited loved ones and caused harm or deaths in the places they selected for their residence. In the past, vampires were described like dark figures walkers of the night. In actual times there is a totally different image due to novels and even movies. The mysterious beings are now, sometimes, the heroes of the stories.

The success of these books, films, video games and even TV shows, are making people forget how this legend started, how the vampires and their usually foes, the werewolves became part of the world culture.

Stories of the Vampire go back in the early history of civilization, back to ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians, the Aztecs and the Chinese.

Classic Rome also participated with some of their demy-gods.

The modern legend of Vampires started in Romania around the early 16th century. Many people traveling through Eastern Europe reported sightings and encounters with Vampires. These stories spread rapidly throughout the entire old Europe. A continent already plagued with lots of superstitious believes at the time.

The legend of the vampire begun, but it was not until authors like Lord Byron and Goethe that the vampires became the romantic creatures we now know in modern times.

Porphyries, a genetic and incurable disease, share some of the traditional attributes of the Vampires: the need for constant blood transfusions (because lack of hematines); light sensitivity causing rashes and scarring of the skin (photo dermatitis) and problems with the nervous system and muscles (seizures, mental disturbances).

Being out in the sun can cause pain, sensations of heat, blistering, and skin redness and swelling. Blisters heal slowly, often with scarring or skin color changes. They may be disfiguring. Urine may turn red or brown after an attack.

Different cultures have different myths about the vampires. For instancing European beliefs the vampire is dead, twisted and decrepit zombie creature. In America is a different story, made up directly from Hollywood. The creature is sensual, sophisticated and desirable.

A little history:

When you think about vampires usually the first name that you think of is Dracula. Thanks to the famous novel by the same title, by Bram Stoker this image is in every men, women and child in western world mind.

Dracula was actually based on a true Romanian Prince named Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler as people also know him.

He was seen as a hero by his contemporary countrymen. According to most legend he was considered a fair, but very cruel man. Most of the information we have about this prince is transmitted by verbal tradition from Romanians stories tellers, and also by Germans and Russians pamphlets. The first describe him as a national hero, the second as an evil man... Does that sound familiar to you?

Vlad was born in 1431 in Transylvania into a noble family. His father was called Dracul, meaning dragon or devil in Romanian because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Dracula means son of Dracul in Romanian. The name Tepes is also report to mean "the impaler"

He was born as the son of the prince of Wallachia. He, as his father, spent most of his life fighting the Ottoman Empire preventing the invasion of his country.

The Turks later were afraid of Dracula because the severity of his acts. Vlad the III was known as the impaler because that is how he killed many of his opponents.

There is never any mention of Vlad the III being a Vampire, just a sadistic ruler. Vlad was a hero to his people, even though his methods of his punishment were so severe. But he helped defeat the Turks and kept them out of Romania for many years.

AND WEREWOLVES

Hypertrichosis is a rare disease often called Werewolf syndrome- excessive hair of the face and body, sparing the palms and soles - that occurs at birth, and is thought to be caused by rare genetic mutations involving two conditions, the first is a mutation on chromosome 22. The second hasn't been identified yet.

The legend was born long time before these few cases of Hypertrichosis (about 30 in the whole world), were associated with the myth and legend of the werewolves.

A werewolf in folklore and mythology is a person who shape shifts into a wolf, either purposely, or after being placed under a curse. In medieval times the some had the belief that the trigger was the exposure to the full moon, concept that later on was used by fiction writers as part of the process of the transformation.

Another common belief is that a werewolf can be killed by a silver bullet.

Many cultures in history have had legends around these creatures and Shape-shifters similar to werewolves are common in myths from all over the world, though in many cases there are several other animals involved, besides wolves.

In Greek mythology the story of Lycaon is one the earliest examples of a werewolf myth. According to one of the versions of this legend Lycaon was transformed into a wolf by eating human flesh and his victims will inherit a similar curse.

Many of the werewolves in European tradition were most innocent and God-fearing persons, who suffered through the witchcraft of others, or simply from an unhappy fate

A big number of werewolf short stories and novels published in the 20th century and continues in today's days with films were werewolves play a big role in stories, often times in fight for supremacy with vampires.

Films like a Werewolf of London in 1935 created the standard that the werewolf always kills what he loves most. But it was in 1941 when Lon Chaney Jr., on his legendary interpretation of a werewolf in The Wolf Man, set the image that everyone has about these creatures of the night.

Vampires and Werewolves are a source of fantasy and imagination and also of box offices records for those that dare to speak, write and film about these creatures.

Are they just a legend and a myth? Some believe in them, some are skeptical and others don't know. I just wanted to wish you sweet dreams... and close the windows, just in case...

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fernando_Osuna