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 recipes, as well
Speaker 2: as traditional Celtic venerations of the dead. These various tales
Speaker 2: would have likely been known to Bromstoker, infusing his iconic
Speaker 2: vampire lord with Irish traditions of the undead. Even the
Speaker 2: name Dracula calls to mind the Irish word dracola, which
Speaker 2: means bad or tainted blood. Now let's turn to the
Speaker 2: world of video games and one of the more popular
Speaker 2: vampires to emerge from that realm in recent years. In
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one Capcom survival horror video game Resident
Speaker 2: Evil Village, the character Ethan Winters finds himself beset by werewolves, vampires,
Speaker 2: and other creatures of darkness in an unnamed Eastern European
Speaker 2: rural location. Particular village is governed by four lords, but
Speaker 2: the most impressive of these strange rulers is Lady Dimitrescu
Speaker 2: of Castle Dimitrescu. Her lordship might otherwise be mistaken for
Speaker 2: any other Gothic fem fatale figure, resplendent with classic vampiric
Speaker 2: qualities and a stylish ensemble, but she also stands well
Speaker 2: over nine feet tall and is forced to duck as
Speaker 2: she moves through doorways in her otherwise high ceilinged castle.
Speaker 2: While she often employs brute giant strength and dispatching her enemies,
Speaker 2: she can also manifest scimitar like claws to cut them
Speaker 2: limb from limb. She is arrogant in vain, but also
Speaker 2: highly protective of her three vampiric daughters. The character has
Speaker 2: proven highly popular, quickly joining the likes of pyramid Head
Speaker 2: and Nemesis in the pantheon of great memorable horror video
Speaker 2: game monsters. In dissecting the influences that brought this character together,
Speaker 2: we of course have to give a proper nod to
Speaker 2: both Dracula and Countess Elizabeth Bathory. But many commentators have
Speaker 2: also pointed to the modern Japanese yuri or yokai known
Speaker 2: as Miss eight foot Tall or Hashaku Sama, who is
Speaker 2: depicted in a wide brimmed hat, much like the Lady Demetrescu.
Speaker 2: According to Haiki Issohani in a twenty eighteen thesis paper
Speaker 2: titled Mythology Marches to Modernity Yokai in contemporary Japan, this
Speaker 2: spirit seems to have originated in a Japanese internet forum
Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight. However, the author stresses that
Speaker 2: Hasakusama's origins might actually extend back much further to an
Speaker 2: older yokai named taka Ona literally tall Woman, briefly mentioned
Speaker 2: in the Illustrated Night Parade of one Hundred Demons, published
Speaker 2: in seventeen seventy six. However, the idea of a fearsome
Speaker 2: giantess is far older than any of these exams. Some
Speaker 2: variations of the Irish and Scottish winter Hag and deity
Speaker 2: Kieligak are described as a giant test and she is
Speaker 2: credited with kidnapping the spirit of Summer. Other legendary hags
Speaker 2: are also given giant proportions from time to time, including
Speaker 2: the Baba Yaga. There's also Zunu Quah of the Quakutel
Speaker 2: people of British Columbia, who hunts the children of Man.
Speaker 2: Multiple giant testes of varying temperaments can be found in
Speaker 2: Norse mythology, and these are often described as beautiful to behold,
Speaker 2: and in Hindu traditions, the demon giant tests Putana attempts
Speaker 2: to kill the infant Krishna by taking on a human
Speaker 2: appearance and breastfeeding him poisoned milk. Baby Krishna, however, turns
Speaker 2: the tables on the demon by draining her of all
Speaker 2: her milk and her life essence. Suffice to say, Lady
Speaker 2: Demetrescu is but the latest in a long line of
Speaker 2: an intriguing fictional giantesses employed to express varying ideas about
Speaker 2: 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: folklo where 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 Khan was the
Speaker 2: region most impacted by this, it became an empire wide
Speaker 2: crisis because it wasn't just about the dead, but a
Speaker 2: perceived cultural decline in funeral custom and even devotion to
Speaker 2: one's ancestors. While solutions finally emerged, such as public cemeteries
Speaker 2: and coffin homes, the specter of the jiangxi remained in
Speaker 2: the Chinese imagination, a specter of the abandoned and vengeful dead.
Speaker 2: These beliefs, along with other records Sue writes quote, demonstrate
Speaker 2: unburied dead bodies as highly abnormal and deeply problematic, representing
Speaker 2: a dysfunctional aspect of popular death custom. Jiuang Xi 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 farm 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 would
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 pro procrates of vampire bat saliva. Arise, Arise,
Speaker 2: Count Drugula, a Rise. Tune in for additional episodes of
Speaker 2: the Monster Fact each week, and periodically we'll bust out
Speaker 2: an omnibus episode to collect some related episodes of the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact or even the Artifact. As always, you can
Speaker 2: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
Speaker 2: dot com.
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