It’s my favorite time of year! The leaves are changing, the weather is cooling and it’s spooky season! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (when my house isn’t haunted–which it isn’t… currently).
This month I wanted to talk about the two classic Halloween monsters, vampires and werewolves. So first… a brief history about vampires–which is surprising and kinda cool!
Vampires in Legend
After a quick google search, I thought I’d find that the first legends of the vampire came from Vlad III (or Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula) from Romania. Vlad III was a ruler who was known for his barbaric executions by impaling. I’ve read articles and seen documentaries about him and how his name inspired the name of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. (Have you read it? It’s a great read!)
But he was not the first! The first was inspired by a legend about a man named Jure Grando Alilović or Giure Grando. There isn’t much information about his life, but he lived in a small village in what is now Croatia, died in 1656, and was buried in the local cemetery. Shortly after he was buried, legend says that Jure would rise from his grave and could be seen walking through town and knocking on doors**shudders** Whenever he knocked on a door, a person of that household would die a few days later. They said that he came back to eat them… ugh…
Jure terrorized the town for 16 years until the mayer finally decided to recruit some brave young men to stop him. They tried stabbing him with a hawthorn stick, but couldn’t penetrate his skin. Finally, one man decapitated his corpse with an axe and the terror stopped.
I recognized two things as I was researching that I thought were cool since they’re related to two very popular vampire series.
First, the name the called the creature who knocked on doors was called strigon which is very similar to the strigoi of the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead.
Second, was that the children of Jure Grando fled from Croatia to Volterra, Italy at a young age. If you’re a Twihard, you know that Volterra is where the original vampires of the Twilight universe, the Volteri, live.
Which has the better vampire:
Twilight or Vampire Academy?
I want to know which vampires you like better! If you haven’t read the books/series, I put a brief description below.
Twilight
Immortal, glistens in the sun, drinks blood of animals, is insanely strong, dies in sunlight
Vampire Academy (two types)
Moroi - mortal, drinks blood but also eats food, has elemental magic, the sunlight is uncomfortable
Strigoi - Immortal, insanely strong, has no humanity, dies in sunlight
Tell me in the comments which is your favorite!