Why must we all be afraid of vampires? They’re not like other ghouls that have seven legs or can pass through walls, they’re just pale dudes that hate the sun. Sure you might think “BUT THEY WANT OUR BLOOD,” but why do we perceive them that way? What happened to start this continuous tale of pale bat people trying to bite your neck?

But in actuality, vampires are a legend coming from Balkans and Eastern Europe. But the actual word “vampire” was made popular in the 18th century in Western Europe. While we don’t know for sure why the legend was made up, people today think it might be an explanation of deterioration. People back then may not have been able to wrap their head around the process of death and decomposition, so they may have told stories to make up for their lack of knowledge. People believed that they had bad diseases such as rabies, and they also believed that (obviously) they would eat your flesh and drink your blood. They were so feared they were associated with demons, some deities, and even the devil.

There were some people that personified vampires such as “The Blood Countess” Elizabeth Bathory and Vlad III Dracula, Dracula being the better known of these two. He was the first to depict Vampires as being opposed to sunlight and to turn into bats.

Cited Works

Eldridge, Alison. “Vampire.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/vampire.
“Vampire.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Aug. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire.