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