by friendociate » 17 Nov 2018, 16:32
'Everybody knows' Bram Stoker's
Dracula was inspired by Vlad Dracul (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, because his military battles usually ended with his enemies' bodies left skewered on poles sticking out of the ground).
But did you know that the 'dead souls preying on the living'-factor in the story was inspired by some case-files (found among Mr. Stoker's documents) behind the folk-tale (from early American pioneer-days) that
tuberculosis-plagues were actually caused by 'the vengeful souls of people who were buried before they were completely dead'?
(Folk-
Lore which was strengthened by the fact that some people--who got so sick that they
seemed dead--
would be buried but would come back to life only to suffocate-to-death in a panic ... leading to the invention of graves hooked up with 'calling bells' that the person-buried-too-early could ring if they came back to life---which is where the phrase 'saved by the bell' gets its original meaning*.)
The particular case (mentioned in the article found in Stoker's possession) was of Mercy Brown, who died of 'tuberculosis' (a.k.a. The Consumption) followed by many others in her family and -who was therefore suspected of 'being The Consumption Demon' ... "Vampire" was the word that the local newspapers used.
*Tho the phrase applies more-readily to 'Boxing & Wrestling & other violent sports' (where the player that's about to be knocked-out can be "saved by the bell" that tells 'the player who's about to knock them out' to stop and let them recover a little.) Or of course to the Saturday-morning sitcom about
the cool slackers in high-school.
'Everybody knows' Bram Stoker's [b][url=https://amzn.to/2DtUdhp]Dracula[/url][/b] was inspired by Vlad Dracul (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, because his military battles usually ended with his enemies' bodies left skewered on poles sticking out of the ground).
But did you know that the 'dead souls preying on the living'-factor in the story was inspired by some case-files (found among Mr. Stoker's documents) behind the folk-tale (from early American pioneer-days) that [url=http://preformus.blogspot.com/2018/11/tuberculosis-theconsumption-tb.html]tuberculosis[/url]-plagues were actually caused by 'the vengeful souls of people who were buried before they were completely dead'?
(Folk-[url=https://amzn.to/2Bd2Uvl]Lore[/url] which was strengthened by the fact that some people--who got so sick that they [u]seemed[/u] dead--[b]would[/b] be buried but would come back to life only to suffocate-to-death in a panic ... leading to the invention of graves hooked up with 'calling bells' that the person-buried-too-early could ring if they came back to life---which is where the phrase 'saved by the bell' gets its original meaning*.)
The particular case (mentioned in the article found in Stoker's possession) was of Mercy Brown, who died of 'tuberculosis' (a.k.a. The Consumption) followed by many others in her family and -who was therefore suspected of 'being The Consumption Demon' ... "Vampire" was the word that the local newspapers used.
*Tho the phrase applies more-readily to 'Boxing & Wrestling & other violent sports' (where the player that's about to be knocked-out can be "saved by the bell" that tells 'the player who's about to knock them out' to stop and let them recover a little.) Or of course to the Saturday-morning sitcom about [url=https://amzn.to/2qSU7bC]the cool slackers in high-school[/url].
