White Ladies
Variations: Die Weisse Frau (Germany), Grey Ladies, Ladies in White, Les Dames Blanches (French), Night Ladies, WHITE LADIES OF THE FAU
Throughout the British Isles, England, and France there are a type of vampiric spirits known as the White Ladies. Considered to be a death omen, they are the ghosts of noblewomen who were murdered or otherwise died a tragic death. The White Ladies are described as wearing expensive period clothing and are carrying a ring of keys or chalices that are filled with poison. When they appear it is always on the nights of the full moon, late into the evening. Although they have been sighted at bridges, cemeteries, and crossroads, most often they are found wandering the halls and grounds of the castles or manor houses where they once lived when alive. They will call out with their hypnotic voices, inviting those who can see them to dance, even though no music can be heard playing. Their touch is icy cold and will drain those they touch of their life-energy (see ENERGY VAMPIRE). Anyone who is unfortunate enough to accept their offer to dance the White Ladies will drain of blood; the bodies of their victims are found lying next to the road.
Some scholars consider the White Ladies to be vampiric fay rather than vampiric spirits since they are susceptible to attacks from weapons made of iron. However, they can also be warded off by brandishing a CRUCIFIX, calling upon God for aid, or having been recently blessed by a priest.
Source: Burne, Shropshire Folk Lore, 76-77; Curran, Vampires, 72, 184; Holland, Haunted Wales, 10, 69; Prince, Remains of Folklore in Shropshire, 15
From Ethiopia comes the tale of a female vampiric demon known as Werzelya. In life Werzelya was the sister of Saint Susenyos, but unlike her sainted brother, she dedicated her life to evil. Werzelya had taken Satan as her lover and through their union, she gave birth to a daughter. Assuming that the child would have some magical ability since her father was the devil, Werzelya killed the child and drank her blood, gaining the ability to shape-shift into a bird or snake. When Susenyos learned that his sister had relations with the devil, killed her child, and drank her blood, he confronted and killed her. However, Werzelya returned as a vampiric demon and began killing the children of the region, including Susenyos’s own newborn son. Susenyos mounted his horse and with spear in his right hand killed her again, as well as her demonic entourage and as many of the evil magicians as he could find. With her dying breath, Werzelya swore that any child who wore Susenyos’s medal would be safe from her future assaults should she ever return.
Source: Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, 182; Budge, History of Ethiopia, 590; Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, 339
Washerwomen of the Night
Variation: Clotha, Kannerez-Noz, Les Lavandieres de la Nuit, Midnight Washerwomen
In England and France there is a type of vampiric ghost that has come to be known as the Washerwomen of the Night. Having been in life women who neglected their religious obligations or were otherwise evil, the washerwomen are always to be found near an isolated source of running water. In England the washerwomen are ghostlike, but in France they have a skeletal appearance; either way, they are considered to be a death omen in both countries.
Very late at night, if a lone traveler comes across them, he must wring out their laundry for them or else the washerwomen will turn and break his arms and legs and throw him in the water. If the washerwomen capture a victim, they will make him wash his own burial cloth. If he does everything they tell him to do, he will survive the experience, otherwise, they will kill him on the spot.
The washerwomen are forever bound to wash the burial shrouds of the unbaptized children unless they can find someone who is willing to take their place.
Source: Curran, Vampires, 108-110; The Gentleman’s Magazine, 150-151; Paulist Fathers, The Catholic World, 781; Summers, Vampire in Lore and Legend, 2
The vyrkolatios of Santorini, Greece, is like every other traditional Greek vampire except for one difference — the vyrkolatios keeps its victims alive the entire time it drains them of their blood and consumes their flesh right down to the bone (see GREEK VAMPIRES). Once the unfortunate victim dies, the vyrkolatios stops feeding.
Source: Bunson, Encyclopedia of Vampires, 275
Вырколатиос (Вриколакас)
Вирколатиос с острова Санторин в Греции похож на любого другого традиционного греческого вампира, за исключением одного отличия — вирколатиос удерживает своих жертв живыми все время, пока высасывает кровь и сгрызает мясо вплоть до костей (смотри «Греческие вампиры»). Как только несчастная жертва умирает, вырколатиос прекращает поедать ее.
The vyrkolakas is a vampiric spirit from Greek lore (see GREEK VAMPIRES). When a werewolf dies, its spirit will return and possess a corpse, which it will animate in order to use as its own. Since the spirit is an entity apart from the body it occupies, it is not considered a REVENANT. Once the body becomes possessed, timpanios will occur, meaning its bloated body will become hard, and the skin will become so tight that when it is slapped it will sound like a drum. There is at least one vyrkolakas in every Greek clan. The vyrkolakas will walk through the community it used to live in, spreading disease and calling out the names of people it once knew. Anyone who happens to see it and look directly at it will die instantly; anyone who should answer its call will die within 24 hours.
Source: Guiley, Complete Vampire Companion, 26; Senn, Were-wolf and Vampire in Romania, 64; Summers, Vampire in Lore and Legend, 258
In Serbia a vampiric REVENANT known as a vukodlak is created whenever a heretic, magic user, or werewolf dies or if a person commits suicide or was murdered. When the vukodlak rises from its grave it looks like a bloated corpse with blood around its mouth, long fingernails, and reddish skin. Its first victims will be its surviving family and friends, and only after they have been killed to the last will it move on to others. Wherever the vukodlak travels it spreads illnesses and carries a plague that affects cattle.
GARLIC and silver will ward off a vukodlak, and throwing a handful of carrot or poppy seeds on the ground will distract it long enough for a victim to easily escape, as it is compelled to pick up and count each seed. The vampire can be destroyed but a specific process that must be adhered to. First it must be stabbed with a stake made of mountain ash. Then the vukodlak is decapitated. Finally, its heart is to be removed from its body and boiled in wine.
Source: Oinas, Essays on Russian Folklore, 116; Perkowski, The Darkling, 38; Wright, Book of Vampires, 90
In southern Slavic regions there is a vampiric REVENANT known as a vudkolak (“wolf ’s hair”), but this word is also used to refer to a werewolf. When a werewolf dies, on the night of the next full moon it will rise from its grave as this type of vampire. However, if a bird were to fly over the body of an unburied person, he too will also become a vudkolak. To prevent this from happening, a traditional honor guard made up of family and important people of the community will keep a careful vigil over the body all night long in order to ensure its safety. Should they fail in their task, on the nights of the full moon the vudkolak rises from its grave and shape- shifts into a werewolf in order to hunt humans to feed upon. The grave of a vudkolak can be detected as the grave that crows will not go near.
Source: Guiley, The Complete Vampire Companion, 10; Perkowski, The Darkling, 38
In the Republic of Macedonia there is a vampiric REVENANT known as a vryolakas. Like many of the vampiric REVENANTs from that region of the world, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, it is created when an animal such as a cat or dog jumps over the body before it is buried, when a person dies by murder or suicide, if a person eats meat that came from an animal that was killed by a werewolf, or when an evil person who used magic dies.
The vryolakas is active only between the hours of 10 P.M. and the first cock crow of the morning, as it is susceptible to sunlight. It will use that time to seek out unsuspecting people to drain dry of their blood. Vryolakas have a most unusual behavior, even for a vampire, as it has an unexplainable compulsion to pour wine over its face. Some sources claim this is because in life it was a sloppy wine drinker and now in its unlife it is incapable of drinking from a glass. Other sources claim that the vryolakas is created when a person accidentally pours or splashed wine over the face of the deceased which is what causes triggers its vampiric resurrection.
Source: Ronay, Truth about Dracula, 22; Stefoff, Vampires, Zombies, and Shape-Shifters, 17; Volta, The Vampire, 149
A vampiric demon from Greek lore, the vrykolaka (“vampire” or “wolf fairy”) possess the corpse of a person who died a violent death, was improperly
buried, was cursed to UNDEATH by a priest, or was excommunicated by the church (see GREEK VAMPIRES). When it rises from the grave it looks every bit like the bloated, animated corpse that it is. It will go to the homes of the people it knew in life, its former friends and family, and knock upon their doors. Whoever has the misfortune to answer, the vrykolaka, a bloodthirsty and ravenous thing, will ruthlessly attack by day or by night.
Victims who happen to survive the attack of a vrykolaka will become this type of vampire themselves when they die unless they eat some of the dirt from the grave of the body that attacked him.
The vrykolaka can be prevented from attacking if its resting place is found. Then driving a stake through the body it has possessed and into the COFFIN it is resting in will ensure that it will be unable to rise up ever again. However, if someone already knows where the vampire is, killing it would at that point be just as easy as affixing it to the earth. Decapitating the vampire and hiding its head where it cannot be found is used in modern times, but the traditional method of rendering the body to ash is the most certain and effective. The only way to destroy a vrykolaka that was created through excommunication is to have a priest perform a special ceremony over the body followed immediately by either of the methods of destruction previously mentioned.
In the northern regions of Greece there lives a particularly barbaric species of vampire known as a vrukólaka, although the vrukólaka was originally a Slavic vampire. Created when the Devil possesses a corpse, the vrukólaka then rises from its grave and begins to systematically kill first its relatives before moving on to people outside of its family tree. To destroy the vrukólaka, the body must be exhumed and a priest perform an exorcism over the corpse. If this method proves to be unsuccessful, then the body must be cut up into little pieces and burned down to ash.
Source: Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, 216; Summers, Vampire in Europe, 253; Wright, Book of Vampires, 42
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