"The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him." Vampire. The word conjures up a clear picture in the mind. A tall, elegantly dressed male figure, black—haired and palefaced. Powerful and hypnotic eyes gaze out from...

No creature haunting Western society's collective imagination has proven more enduring, more compelling, or more alluring than the vampire. But it was only with the his transformation from emaciated, plague-carrying "nosferatu" (literally, "not dead")...

in popular legend, a bloodsucking creature, supposedly the restless soul of a heretic, criminal, or suicide, that leaves its burial place at night, often in the form of a bat, to drink the blood of humans. By daybreak it must return to its grave or to...

In popular legend, a bloodsucking creature that rises from its burial place at night, sometimes in the form of a bat, to drink the blood of humans. By daybreak it must return to its grave or to a coffin filled with its native earth. Tales of vampires...

In south Slavonic folklore, the spirit of a dead person, or a corpse revived by an evil spirit. Vampires arise by night from graves and suck people’s blood. In the literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—for example, in...

Vampires are mythological or folkloric creatures, described as undead beings who feed by draining the blood of humans. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century,...