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Assignment Two – Bronwen Ruttan.

What did you learn about the topic that most surprised you?

What surprised me the most about this topic is how very real it is to some people. There is so much in depth information out there on every aspect of this subject you could possibly think of. The fact that there are so many sources to draw this information from is overwhelming. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where those sources end and theories begin.

Provide a real-life example of how this topic is relevant or interesting for you.

I suppose this topic is as relevant to me as it is to anyone who reads or watches vampire based fiction. To be honest when I started this project I wasn’t really a die hard vampire fan. I had read the twilight books, I knew the story of Dracula, but that was about it. The main reason I found this topic interesting is because I’m fascinated by folklore and the evolution of urban legends. Vampires have origin stories and folk lore in every culture from every time period. It is the story of Mercy Brown and the New England Vampire Panic that made me want to look more into the lore and origins and legends of Vampirism.

Which research did you find most interesting?  Why?

The research I found most interesting was how so many different legends have similarities. These stories become so intertwined that it’s hard to tell what comes from where sometimes. If you ask the ancient Greeks, they would say that the first vampire is a legend from the time of the gods and goddesses from mount Olympus, however if you asked the people of 14th century Hungary what a vampire was, they would respond with a very different, very real, well known cannibalistic dictator.

What are you most likely to remember from this research?

I think I am most likely to remember the story of Mercy Brown. It is the story that got me interested in the topic, and therefore it was one of the ones I was most excited about researching. I like being able to look back on history and see how far we’ve come in the stories we tell but also in our ability to debunk suspicion and superstition.

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Why Are We Obsessed With Vampires (Vid 3)

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Why Are We Obsessed With Vampires (Vid 3)

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There are several reasons why people love vampires so much. Vampires are loners, they let us project our flaws and insecurities onto a perfect being. They make us question exactly what sacrifices we'd have to be willing to make for immortality, (seeing loved ones die.)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=539xWgHhatM
While vampires were once the stuff of folklore, or a way of explaining tragic deadly diseases, in the modern era there are people who identify as actual vampires, and who even go as far as drinking human blood. This is disturbing that a pop culture trend has gone so far to induce what some might call hysteria. It goes to show that sometimes the scariest monsters out there are just physically ordinary people.

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How These People Are Trying To Be Modern Vampires

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Subscribe! http://skr.cm/SubscribeToSeeker What comes to mind when you hear the word "Vampire"? Modern vampires are real and many are not what you'd imagine. ---------------------------- Check out more Seeker! https://www.youtube.com/SeekerNetwork ---------------------------- Natalia's Twitter: https://twitter.com/natalia13reagan Join the Seeker community!

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http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/vampire-origin.html

This website tells the tragic love story of Ambrogio and Selene. Ambrogio was a traveler who fell deeply in love with a beautiful woman named Selene. The god of the sun, Appollo, was also in love with Selene, and through his jealousy, he curses Ambrogio so that going into any sunlight would burn his skin. He would not be able to meet Selene at sunrise for their wedding. With nowhere else to go, he ran into a cave where he met Hades, the god of the underworld. Hades would grant Ambrogio and Selene protection in the Underworld if Ambrogio would steal a silver bow from the goddess Artemis.

Ambrogio tricks Artemis and takes the bow, but as he is about to return to the cave, Artemis realizes what has happened and curses Ambrogio so that any silver he touches will burn him.

Ambrogio explains the whole situation to Artemis, and Artemis agrees to help him and grant him immortality in exchange for his and Selene's worship.

Eventually the couple ends up together, but Ambrogio stays young while Selene continues to age. On Selene's deathbed, Artemis appears to Ambrogio and tells him that if he sucks her blood, and uses it to create a drink of immortality, Selene would get to live on forever.

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Stepping away from the historical side of things, this list explores the most loved vampires in pop culture, from Nosferatu to the Count from sesame street. This list is fun because it shows how vastly different modern portrayals of vampires can be.

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Top 10 Vampires in Movies and TV (REDUX)

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Amazon links below to buy the Movies and Shows mentioned in the video! These pop culture vamps put the "fang" in "fangtastic." Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the top 10 vampires from movies and TV.

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http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/05/02_vampires.html

This website has many facts on vampires ranging from the origin of the word to folklore from around the world. It covers different stories and pop culture references. This website also covers the origin of myths and discrepancies between vampires in the media and historical vampires.

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Vampire Defence And Protection (Website 1)

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Vampire Defence And Protection (Website 1)

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http://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html (Subsection 3.)

This website has all sorts of interesting material on Vampires, however, it is the only one I found that discussed the defense and protection against vampires historically and as if it was a real threat. This subsection alone covers several different protection and defense methods from centuries ago that people actually used to use on those whom they thought were undead and on the prowl for human blood. My personal favourite is how if you are being chased by a vampire, you should spill salt because the vampire is obligated to count every grain.

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There are many different characteristics defining vampires, though they are not always consistent. Some vampires can transform into animals, while Vampires in other stories can not, some cast reflections and some do not, some can't go into the sunlight without bursting into flames, while some just sparkle. The one unifying characteristic of vampires both historical and modern day is the thirst for a vital human fluid, usually blood. This gives writers a lot of freedom when it comes to writing these mythical beasts, and creates a bottomless fountain for readers to enjoy.

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It's almost reached the point where Vlad The Impaler is a household name. We've almost all heard the true horror stories of the noble who decorated his front lawn with the heads of his enemies mounted on steaks. Through his horrific and cannibalistic tendencies he inspired the most iconic fictional vampire: Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dracula was the foundation for all we know of vampires. Pictured below is an alleged portrait of Vlad, and  nosferatu, a beast from a german horror film from 1922 based closely off Stoker's Dracula. I chose to picture this rendition because it is said to align closer with Stoker's original story than the iconic widow-peaked caped gentleman we all know and love.

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Mercy Brown lived in the 19th century in Rhode Island. She is the most well-known person involved in what was known as the New England Vampire Panic.

Mercy's mother Mary was the first of the Browns to die. She died of a disease that was once called consumption, a disease we now know as tuberculosis. It was called consumption because once a person was infected they wasted away as if their body was being consumed. Mercy's sister Mary Olive met the same fate as their mother. People of this time period were paranoid and started to wonder if the deaths were connected. Their fears were only validated after Mercy's brother Edwin got sick, followed shortly by Mercy herself, who died in the winter.

As Edwin's health deteriorated, people suspected that one of his three family members was draining his life from beyond the grave. To get to the bottom of the situation, naturally, they dug all the women up.

Mercy's mother and sister were deemed innocent because they had reached a satisfactory stage of decomposition. Mercy however, had not. (I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that she had died in the winter which would have been cold enough to preserve her.)

After Mercy had been deemed guilty of draining her brother's life form, her heart and liver were cut out and burned, the ashes were turned into a tonic which was fed to her brother Edwin.

This is how Mercy became The First American Vampire.

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GNED-1512-AA1 - PARANORMAL AND PSEUDOSCIENCE

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GNED-1512-AA1 - PARANORMAL AND PSEUDOSCIENCE

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My name is Bronwen Ruttan and this is my padlet for my online paranormal and pseudoscience course. As you can probably tell by the title, the subject of this assignment is going to be looking at the real history behind the folklore of the undead, particularly vampires, from the terrifying reality of Vlad III of Wachalia (otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler) to the modern day vampire from stories like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.