Many cultures have produced mythologies of the frightening undead. But in the modern American imagination, our ideas about Vampires can largely be traced to the early 1700’s. In Eastern Europe, tales of the deceased who somehow caused the deaths of their living neighbors began to arise.
The first documented episode came out of the Serbian village of Kisiljevo, featured here. In 1725, a man named Petar Blagojevic passed away . . . Day after day, immediately after Petar’s death, his fellow villagers began to die. His wife claimed he visited her in a frightening dream — she actually fled the village. Then Petar’s own son allegedly was visited by his late father, who eventually killed him and drank his blood.
Eventually after nine villagers died, the inhabitants made an official and a local priest watch as they exhumed Petar’s corpse. Apparently, Petar had signs of Vampirism — blood in his mouth, growing hair and nails, and new skin. The locals staked his heart and burned his dead body.
Stories like this followed, and spread westward to Britain, where Vampire tales became trendy and entered popular literature.
Source(s): Much of the recent research on this has been done by Nick Groom. Photo by “The Case of Peter Blagojevich,” Dec 21, 2018, _Last Podcast on the Left_. “Days when vampires were a real nightmare: 17th and 18th century research says creatures were infesting villages in Eastern Europe” Steve Doughty, 30 Oct 2016. _Daily Mail_. _Newstatesman_ Hardly the basis of a healthy relationship”” A brief history of the Vampire. 31 Oct 2019. Rebecca Rideal.
