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The Vampire, by Philip Burne-Jones, 1897. A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living.In European folklore, vampires are undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive.
Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology. McFarland. ISBN 9780786444526. Spence, Lewis (1960) An Encyclopaedia of Occultism University Books Inc. New Hyde Park, New York; The Vampire Watchers Handbook by "Constantine Gregory" and Craig Glenday, 2003 St. Martin's Press, New York, pp. 62–63
In Balkan folklore, a dhampir (Albanian pronunciation:) is a mythical creature that is the result of a union between a vampire and a human.This union was usually between male vampires and female humans, with stories of female vampires mating with male humans being rare.
In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood. Japan has no native legends about vampires. However some Japanese mythical creatures bear some similarities to vampires, such as the Nure-onna who is a snake-like woman that feasts on human blood.
The term strzyga could also sometimes mean a vampire or upiór. [3] [4] [5] After the 18th century, there was a distinction between strzyga and upiór; the first one was more connected to witchcraft, while the latter was more of a flying, vampiric creature. [6] [2]
Penanggalan – A vampire akin to Manananggal from the Malay peninsula; Leyak – Similar creature from Balinese mythology; Philippine mythology; Soucouyant – a Caribbean blood-sucking hag; Tiyanak – Blood-sucking creature in a form of a baby that turns into what is known to be the child of the devil
Wurdulac, also spelled wurdalak, verdilak or vurdulak, is a kind of vampire in the Slavic folklore mythology. Some Western sources define it as a type of "Russian vampire" that must consume the blood of its loved ones and convert its whole family. [1]
A similar supernatural creature in Malay folklore is the Pontianak, which was a woman who died before giving birth. With the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century, the tiyanak myth was integrated into Catholicism. The tiyanak in the Catholic version were supposedly the souls of infants that died before being baptized. [8]