May 31, 2023 • 16 mins
In this special episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, enjoy an assortment of past Monstrefact episodes about various vampires...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters.
In time, I have a special omnibus episode for you
this week, once more, collecting four past episodes, this time
(00:31):
regarding vampires upbursts. Let's consider a possible Irish origin for
Count Dracula. Count Dracula was Irish, or at least that's
the case made by various historians and folklors. Now certainly
(00:52):
to be sure, the eighteen ninety seven novel Dracula places
the character's origins firmly in Transylvania, famously draws on the
legacy of historical fifteenth century Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler.
But on the other hand, Dracula's author, Bron Stoker, was
himself an Irishman. As pointed out by Celtic historian Bob
(01:14):
Curran in was Dracula an Irishmen published in the Journal
History Ireland in two thousand. Stoker never visited Eastern Europe,
but he certainly would have been exposed to various Irish
legends of evil blood drinking kings and chieftains, including tales
of Irish vampire king Aertuck. As is often the case
(01:35):
with such tales, the details of our Tuck's evil varies
from telling to telling. It may be more accurate to
think of him as a tribal chieftain rather than a king.
He would have reigned in the fifth or sixth century
CE in the district of Glenullin in Northern Ireland. He
is often described as a dwarf, or as possessing a
physical deformity that sets him apart from other men. He
(01:58):
was also a powerful and evil wizard, so when life
finally managed to kill him, undeath was the natural next step.
Some accounts say that Aurtuk fell to his death while
jealously creeping about the ledges of his castle's towers, trying
to spy and his own wife. In other accounts, his
(02:18):
people were so terrified of the chieftain's evil that they
convinced or hired a rival chieftain, Kathan, to assassinate him.
Either way, once dead, his people buried Aartuk upright in
his grave, as was befitting a man of his rank.
But you know what happened next, Aurtuk returned from the grave,
(02:41):
and with a thirst for blood, he demanded his people
bleed for him, filling a great drinking bowl. Horrified by
his return, Aurtuk's people had him murdered or re murdered,
depending on the telling by a hero, rival or assassin.
They buried him, and once more he returned for blood.
(03:02):
This cycle repeated itself, and finally the would be slayer
consulted with a local druid or priest and learned the
secret of what must be done to keep Auertuck dead. First,
skewer the undead creature's heart with a u wood sword,
then bury them upside down in the grave, head toward hell,
(03:25):
and cap the grave with thorns, ash twigs, and a
great stone. And so it was done. But if the
stone were ever removed, we are told this blood drinking dwarf,
more than a millennium dead, would once more rise to
quench his evil thirst. As Karan explains in his article,
there are other tales of Irish vampires, and several stand
(03:48):
out tales involve blood drinking nobles. Uniquely Irish spins on
the global vampire myth often entail the mixture of blood
and oats, a reference to famine air are recipes, as
well as traditional Celtic venerations of the dead. These various
tales would have likely been known to Bromstoker, infusing his
(04:09):
iconic vampire lord with Irish traditions of the undead. Even
the name Dracula calls to mind the Irish word dracola,
which means bad or tainted blood. Now let's turn to
the world of video games and one of the more
popular vampires to emerge from that realm in recent years.
(04:36):
In the twenty twenty one Capcom survival horror video game
Resident Evil Village, the character Ethan Winters finds himself beset
by werewolves, vampires, and other creatures of darkness in an
unnamed Eastern European rural location. Particular village is governed by
(04:57):
four lords, but the most impressive of these strange rulers
is Lady Dimitrescu of Castle Dimitrescu. Her lordship might otherwise
be mistaken for any other Gothic fem fatale figure, resplendent
with classic vampiric qualities and a stylish ensemble, but she
also stands well over nine feet tall and is forced
(05:20):
to duck as she moves through doorways in her otherwise
high ceilinged castle. While she often employs brute giant strength
and dispatching her enemies, she can also manifest scimitar like
claws to cut them limb from limb. She is arrogant
in vain, but also highly protective of her three vampiric daughters.
(05:43):
The character has proven highly popular, quickly joining the likes
of pyramid Head and Nemesis in the pantheon of great
memorable horror video game monsters. In dissecting the influences that
brought this character together, we of course have to give
a proper nod to both Dracula and Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
(06:04):
But many commentators have also pointed to the modern Japanese
yuri or yokai known as Miss eight foot Tall or
Hashaku Sama, who is depicted in a wide brimmed hat,
much like the Lady Demetrescu. According to Haiki Issohani in
a twenty eighteen thesis paper titled Mythology Marches to Modernity
(06:26):
Yokai in contemporary Japan, this spirit seems to have originated
in a Japanese internet forum in two thousand and eight. However,
the author stresses that Hasakusama's origins might actually extend back
much further to an older yokai named taka Ona literally
tall Woman, briefly mentioned in the Illustrated Night Parade of
(06:49):
one Hundred Demons, published in seventeen seventy six. However, the
idea of a fearsome giantess is far older than any
of these exams. Some variations of the Irish and Scottish
winter Hag and deity Kiligak are described as a giant
test and she is credited with kidnapping the spirit of Summer.
(07:13):
Other legendary hags are also given giant proportions from time
to time, including the Baba Yaga. There's also Zunuqua of
the Quakutel people of British Columbia, who hunts the children
of Man. Multiple giant testes of varying temperaments can be
found in Norse mythology, and these are often described as
beautiful to behold, and in Hindu traditions, the demon giant
(07:37):
tests Putana attempts to kill the infant Krishna by taking
on a human appearance and breastfeeding him poisoned milk baby Krishna, however,
turns the tables on the demon by draining her of
all her milk and her life essence. Suffice to say,
Lady Demetrescu is but the latest in a long line
(07:59):
of an intriguing fictional giantesses employed to express varying ideas
about feminine power. Her ancestors run the gamut of hads, demons, heroes,
and goddesses. Now let us consider a vampire from Chinese folklore,
(08:34):
the Jiangshi. Imagine yourself out on the road, so frustratingly
close to the walls of the city you've been traveling too,
and yet night is falling, the mist is rolling in,
and then up ahead you see several figures in the gloom,
fellow travelers, a patrol of guards from the city. You
(08:56):
entertain the possibility that they are bandits, and then they
do something quite unnatural. They hop like a creature whose
legs are bound or stiff with rigamortis, or perhaps even
forgetfull of proper bipedal locomotion, and forced to lunge itself
forward through physical space like a great writhing worm. The
(09:20):
creatures hop and hop again, ever closer to you, and
as they get closer you see that they are undead horrors,
dressed in robes from the Ching dynasty, decayed corpses, burning
with unnatural life. As they hop they reach out towards
you with elongated fingernails, they gasp with bloody fang toothed jaws,
(09:42):
and if they catch you, they will drain every last
ounce of precious chi from your body. In some ways
relatable to Western concepts of the zombie and the vampire,
this is the jiang shi. And while Chinese mythology and
focal or is filled with various ghosts and monsters, this
(10:03):
particular horror seems to emerge from a Qing dynasty crisis
concerning the burial of the dead. According to the Afterlife Corpses,
A Social History of Unburied dead Bodies in Chengina sixteen
forty four through nineteen eleven by historian Johi Su, numerous
records from the eighteenth to nineteenth century discussed the problem
(10:25):
of unburied bodies left upon the ground without proper burial.
These were not exclusively the victims of war, famine, or
disaster either. They were seemingly, for the most part, individuals
who simply had no permanent grave. This Sioux rites was
due to changing socioeconomic structure and the resulting imbalance between
(10:45):
population and arable land. A family would need to secure
claim to the land in order to bury deceased loved ones.
If a grave could not be obtained, they were left
out and often abandoned or lost. While jong Yan was
the region most impacted by this, it became an empire
wide crisis because it wasn't just about the dead, but
(11:07):
a perceived cultural decline in funeral custom and even devotion
to one's ancestors. While solutions finally emerged, such as public
cemeteries and coffin homes, the specter of the jiangxi remained
in the Chinese imagination, a specter of the abandoned and
vengeful dead. These beliefs, along with other records Sue writes quote,
(11:30):
demonstrate unburied dead bodies as highly abnormal and deeply problematic,
representing a dysfunctional aspect of popular death custom. Jiangxi famously
play a role in an entire subgenre of Chinese supernatural
horror and comedy films, including nineteen eighty five's Mister Vampire,
(11:50):
which we watched on Weird House Cinema last year. They're
also now featured in Dungeons and Dragons, listed in twenty
twenty one's Van Richton's Guide to Ravenloft as a challenge
level nine monster capable of changing shape and of course,
draining the energy of its victims. While sometimes played for comedy,
(12:11):
there is a deep and unnatural horror to the Jangshi,
and it absolutely demands a place in your nightmares and
at your gaming table. Finally, let's discuss a particular vampire
from the world of Doom and Stoner Rock. The two
(12:35):
thousand and seven track The Satanic Rites of Drugula by
Electric Wizard paints exactly the sort of picture you might
expect from this horror obsessed doom metal in Stoner Rock mainstay.
While the vampires of old thirsted only for human blood,
the lyrics to this song speak of quote dope laced
(12:56):
blood that has only served to introduce the vampiric hordes
and its dark prints to new hives. Now, we are
not here to question the wisdom of these lyrics, but
we might well wonder how this dark tale of dope
smoke matches up to the realities of the natural world. Now. Historically,
(13:17):
the concept of blood drinking monsters being in any way
drawn to cannabis is interesting in part because of cannabis's
historical associations with the treatment and prevention of parasites. In
the medical use of cannabis among the Greeks and Romans
by James L. Buttrica, the author points to Greek writings
(13:39):
in which cannabis seeds were prescribed in the treatment of tapeworms.
Interestingly enough, fifth century CE Greek physician Atius described the
use of cannabis seeds as a means of drying up
the semen and preventing nocturnal emissions as well. Buttrica also
writes that an ancient Greek work on far a test
(14:00):
to the use of cannabis is a deterrent to blood
drinking mosquitoes. By spreading cannabis below your bed or leaving
a quote blooming sprig of fresh cannabis by your bedside,
your blood might be protected from the nefarious thirst of mosquitoes.
Now why these notions don't sound encouraging for Count Drugula
(14:21):
and his spawn. It's also worth noting that the Greek
physician Galen wrote of the alleged blood purifying properties of
cannabis seeds, and that sounds like something of interest to
the vampiric children of the night. The study of bat
biology offers few answers, but it's worth considering that common
vampire bats do not learn taste diversions, as explored by
(14:45):
Ratcliffe at all. In a two thousand and three study
in animal behavior, the bats did not seem to quote
learn to associate a novel flavor with averse gastro intestinal events.
In other words, they're not capable of associating the symptoms
caused by a toxic, spoiled, or poisonous substance with a
particular taste. On the other hand, they're certainly susceptible to
(15:07):
some of the effects of various human drugs, but with
these effects pass on through their blood to a parasitic
consumer well. Randal Monroe explored a similar topic on the
what iff website and found that a human being would
have to consume an absurd amount of human blood to
become drunk on the blood's alcohol content. We can apply
(15:30):
a similar line of thinking to other substances in the blood,
but that need not dissuade count drugula. After all, he
is clearly an immortal, undead being, and perhaps he does
consume the copious amounts of rockstone or blood required to
attain this level of high. But our story does not
end here. Perhaps Count Drugula would be interested to know
(15:54):
that a stroke medication dubbed draculin has been derived from
the anticoagulant protys of vampire bat saliva. Arise, Arise, Count
Drugula a Rise. Tune in for additional episodes of the
Monster Fact each week, and periodically we'll bust out an
(16:17):
omnibus episode to collect some related episodes of the Monster
Fact or even the Artifact. As always, you can email
us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters.
In time, I have a special omnibus episode for you
this week, once more, collecting four past episodes, this time
(00:31):
regarding vampires upbursts. Let's consider a possible Irish origin for
Count Dracula. Count Dracula was Irish, or at least that's
the case made by various historians and folklors. Now certainly
(00:52):
to be sure, the eighteen ninety seven novel Dracula places
the character's origins firmly in Transylvania, famously draws on the
legacy of historical fifteenth century Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler.
But on the other hand, Dracula's author, Bron Stoker, was
himself an Irishman. As pointed out by Celtic historian Bob
(01:14):
Curran in was Dracula an Irishmen published in the Journal
History Ireland in two thousand. Stoker never visited Eastern Europe,
but he certainly would have been exposed to various Irish
legends of evil blood drinking kings and chieftains, including tales
of Irish vampire king Aertuck. As is often the case
(01:35):
with such tales, the details of our Tuck's evil varies
from telling to telling. It may be more accurate to
think of him as a tribal chieftain rather than a king.
He would have reigned in the fifth or sixth century
CE in the district of Glenullin in Northern Ireland. He
is often described as a dwarf, or as possessing a
physical deformity that sets him apart from other men. He
(01:58):
was also a powerful and evil wizard, so when life
finally managed to kill him, undeath was the natural next step.
Some accounts say that Aurtuk fell to his death while
jealously creeping about the ledges of his castle's towers, trying
to spy and his own wife. In other accounts, his
(02:18):
people were so terrified of the chieftain's evil that they
convinced or hired a rival chieftain, Kathan, to assassinate him.
Either way, once dead, his people buried Aartuk upright in
his grave, as was befitting a man of his rank.
But you know what happened next, Aurtuk returned from the grave,
(02:41):
and with a thirst for blood, he demanded his people
bleed for him, filling a great drinking bowl. Horrified by
his return, Aurtuk's people had him murdered or re murdered,
depending on the telling by a hero, rival or assassin.
They buried him, and once more he returned for blood.
(03:02):
This cycle repeated itself, and finally the would be slayer
consulted with a local druid or priest and learned the
secret of what must be done to keep Auertuck dead. First,
skewer the undead creature's heart with a u wood sword,
then bury them upside down in the grave, head toward hell,
(03:25):
and cap the grave with thorns, ash twigs, and a
great stone. And so it was done. But if the
stone were ever removed, we are told this blood drinking dwarf,
more than a millennium dead, would once more rise to
quench his evil thirst. As Karan explains in his article,
there are other tales of Irish vampires, and several stand
(03:48):
out tales involve blood drinking nobles. Uniquely Irish spins on
the global vampire myth often entail the mixture of blood
and oats, a reference to famine air are recipes, as
well as traditional Celtic venerations of the dead. These various
tales would have likely been known to Bromstoker, infusing his
(04:09):
iconic vampire lord with Irish traditions of the undead. Even
the name Dracula calls to mind the Irish word dracola,
which means bad or tainted blood. Now let's turn to
the world of video games and one of the more
popular vampires to emerge from that realm in recent years.
(04:36):
In the twenty twenty one Capcom survival horror video game
Resident Evil Village, the character Ethan Winters finds himself beset
by werewolves, vampires, and other creatures of darkness in an
unnamed Eastern European rural location. Particular village is governed by
(04:57):
four lords, but the most impressive of these strange rulers
is Lady Dimitrescu of Castle Dimitrescu. Her lordship might otherwise
be mistaken for any other Gothic fem fatale figure, resplendent
with classic vampiric qualities and a stylish ensemble, but she
also stands well over nine feet tall and is forced
(05:20):
to duck as she moves through doorways in her otherwise
high ceilinged castle. While she often employs brute giant strength
and dispatching her enemies, she can also manifest scimitar like
claws to cut them limb from limb. She is arrogant
in vain, but also highly protective of her three vampiric daughters.
(05:43):
The character has proven highly popular, quickly joining the likes
of pyramid Head and Nemesis in the pantheon of great
memorable horror video game monsters. In dissecting the influences that
brought this character together, we of course have to give
a proper nod to both Dracula and Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
(06:04):
But many commentators have also pointed to the modern Japanese
yuri or yokai known as Miss eight foot Tall or
Hashaku Sama, who is depicted in a wide brimmed hat,
much like the Lady Demetrescu. According to Haiki Issohani in
a twenty eighteen thesis paper titled Mythology Marches to Modernity
(06:26):
Yokai in contemporary Japan, this spirit seems to have originated
in a Japanese internet forum in two thousand and eight. However,
the author stresses that Hasakusama's origins might actually extend back
much further to an older yokai named taka Ona literally
tall Woman, briefly mentioned in the Illustrated Night Parade of
(06:49):
one Hundred Demons, published in seventeen seventy six. However, the
idea of a fearsome giantess is far older than any
of these exams. Some variations of the Irish and Scottish
winter Hag and deity Kiligak are described as a giant
test and she is credited with kidnapping the spirit of Summer.
(07:13):
Other legendary hags are also given giant proportions from time
to time, including the Baba Yaga. There's also Zunuqua of
the Quakutel people of British Columbia, who hunts the children
of Man. Multiple giant testes of varying temperaments can be
found in Norse mythology, and these are often described as
beautiful to behold, and in Hindu traditions, the demon giant
(07:37):
tests Putana attempts to kill the infant Krishna by taking
on a human appearance and breastfeeding him poisoned milk baby Krishna, however,
turns the tables on the demon by draining her of
all her milk and her life essence. Suffice to say,
Lady Demetrescu is but the latest in a long line
(07:59):
of an intriguing fictional giantesses employed to express varying ideas
about feminine power. Her ancestors run the gamut of hads, demons, heroes,
and goddesses. Now let us consider a vampire from Chinese folklore,
(08:34):
the Jiangshi. Imagine yourself out on the road, so frustratingly
close to the walls of the city you've been traveling too,
and yet night is falling, the mist is rolling in,
and then up ahead you see several figures in the gloom,
fellow travelers, a patrol of guards from the city. You
(08:56):
entertain the possibility that they are bandits, and then they
do something quite unnatural. They hop like a creature whose
legs are bound or stiff with rigamortis, or perhaps even
forgetfull of proper bipedal locomotion, and forced to lunge itself
forward through physical space like a great writhing worm. The
(09:20):
creatures hop and hop again, ever closer to you, and
as they get closer you see that they are undead horrors,
dressed in robes from the Ching dynasty, decayed corpses, burning
with unnatural life. As they hop they reach out towards
you with elongated fingernails, they gasp with bloody fang toothed jaws,
(09:42):
and if they catch you, they will drain every last
ounce of precious chi from your body. In some ways
relatable to Western concepts of the zombie and the vampire,
this is the jiang shi. And while Chinese mythology and
focal or is filled with various ghosts and monsters, this
(10:03):
particular horror seems to emerge from a Qing dynasty crisis
concerning the burial of the dead. According to the Afterlife Corpses,
A Social History of Unburied dead Bodies in Chengina sixteen
forty four through nineteen eleven by historian Johi Su, numerous
records from the eighteenth to nineteenth century discussed the problem
(10:25):
of unburied bodies left upon the ground without proper burial.
These were not exclusively the victims of war, famine, or
disaster either. They were seemingly, for the most part, individuals
who simply had no permanent grave. This Sioux rites was
due to changing socioeconomic structure and the resulting imbalance between
(10:45):
population and arable land. A family would need to secure
claim to the land in order to bury deceased loved ones.
If a grave could not be obtained, they were left
out and often abandoned or lost. While jong Yan was
the region most impacted by this, it became an empire
wide crisis because it wasn't just about the dead, but
(11:07):
a perceived cultural decline in funeral custom and even devotion
to one's ancestors. While solutions finally emerged, such as public
cemeteries and coffin homes, the specter of the jiangxi remained
in the Chinese imagination, a specter of the abandoned and
vengeful dead. These beliefs, along with other records Sue writes quote,
(11:30):
demonstrate unburied dead bodies as highly abnormal and deeply problematic,
representing a dysfunctional aspect of popular death custom. Jiangxi famously
play a role in an entire subgenre of Chinese supernatural
horror and comedy films, including nineteen eighty five's Mister Vampire,
(11:50):
which we watched on Weird House Cinema last year. They're
also now featured in Dungeons and Dragons, listed in twenty
twenty one's Van Richton's Guide to Ravenloft as a challenge
level nine monster capable of changing shape and of course,
draining the energy of its victims. While sometimes played for comedy,
(12:11):
there is a deep and unnatural horror to the Jangshi,
and it absolutely demands a place in your nightmares and
at your gaming table. Finally, let's discuss a particular vampire
from the world of Doom and Stoner Rock. The two
(12:35):
thousand and seven track The Satanic Rites of Drugula by
Electric Wizard paints exactly the sort of picture you might
expect from this horror obsessed doom metal in Stoner Rock mainstay.
While the vampires of old thirsted only for human blood,
the lyrics to this song speak of quote dope laced
(12:56):
blood that has only served to introduce the vampiric hordes
and its dark prints to new hives. Now, we are
not here to question the wisdom of these lyrics, but
we might well wonder how this dark tale of dope
smoke matches up to the realities of the natural world. Now. Historically,
(13:17):
the concept of blood drinking monsters being in any way
drawn to cannabis is interesting in part because of cannabis's
historical associations with the treatment and prevention of parasites. In
the medical use of cannabis among the Greeks and Romans
by James L. Buttrica, the author points to Greek writings
(13:39):
in which cannabis seeds were prescribed in the treatment of tapeworms.
Interestingly enough, fifth century CE Greek physician Atius described the
use of cannabis seeds as a means of drying up
the semen and preventing nocturnal emissions as well. Buttrica also
writes that an ancient Greek work on far a test
(14:00):
to the use of cannabis is a deterrent to blood
drinking mosquitoes. By spreading cannabis below your bed or leaving
a quote blooming sprig of fresh cannabis by your bedside,
your blood might be protected from the nefarious thirst of mosquitoes.
Now why these notions don't sound encouraging for Count Drugula
(14:21):
and his spawn. It's also worth noting that the Greek
physician Galen wrote of the alleged blood purifying properties of
cannabis seeds, and that sounds like something of interest to
the vampiric children of the night. The study of bat
biology offers few answers, but it's worth considering that common
vampire bats do not learn taste diversions, as explored by
(14:45):
Ratcliffe at all. In a two thousand and three study
in animal behavior, the bats did not seem to quote
learn to associate a novel flavor with averse gastro intestinal events.
In other words, they're not capable of associating the symptoms
caused by a toxic, spoiled, or poisonous substance with a
particular taste. On the other hand, they're certainly susceptible to
(15:07):
some of the effects of various human drugs, but with
these effects pass on through their blood to a parasitic
consumer well. Randal Monroe explored a similar topic on the
what iff website and found that a human being would
have to consume an absurd amount of human blood to
become drunk on the blood's alcohol content. We can apply
(15:30):
a similar line of thinking to other substances in the blood,
but that need not dissuade count drugula. After all, he
is clearly an immortal, undead being, and perhaps he does
consume the copious amounts of rockstone or blood required to
attain this level of high. But our story does not
end here. Perhaps Count Drugula would be interested to know
(15:54):
that a stroke medication dubbed draculin has been derived from
the anticoagulant protys of vampire bat saliva. Arise, Arise, Count
Drugula a Rise. Tune in for additional episodes of the
Monster Fact each week, and periodically we'll bust out an
(16:17):
omnibus episode to collect some related episodes of the Monster
Fact or even the Artifact. As always, you can email
us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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