Do vampires exist in real life? Ghoul in Slavic mythology - how to deal with ghouls

Whose prey?

  The soldier took time off on leave to his homeland - to see his bride, to bow to his parents. He walks past the cemetery, but it's already dark. Suddenly he sees - ghouls have gathered over the graves and are eating someone's dead body. The soldier's legs were rooted to the ground, and at the same moment one ghoul saw him.

  - And here is my prey! - screams.

  Then the soldier's tetanus passed - he gave such a tear that the wind curled. And the ghoul from behind is already catching up, the back of his head almost clicks with his teeth. The soldier sees - there is a chapel ahead. I ran in there, and there was a coffin with a dead person, candles were burning around. The soldier huddled in a corner, sitting neither alive nor dead, and the ghoul flies into the chapel, pulls a blue bony hand towards him ...

  And suddenly the dead man got up from the coffin, opened his eyes.

  - Why did you show up here? - menacingly asks the ghoul.

  - I brought a soldier, I want to eat him.

  - No matter how! He came running to me - I'll eat him.

  “Honest mother,” the soldier thinks, “he got, they say, out of the fire and into the frying pan. Surely this one is also a ghoul ?!”

  And at that time they began to argue:

  - No, I'll eat it!

  - No, me!

  Word for word - it came to a fight. Only ashes flew from them! They would have fought for a long time, but the roosters would crow: both ghouls fell dead on the floor, and the soldier hobbled home on trembling legs, saying:

  - Glory to those, Lord, who saved and protected!

A. Remizov. Ghoul

  It’s not the witch Dunducha who covers the table with a tablecloth at night, it’s not the pious witch who has ossified with a mortar - white snow covers the earth, they fly - flakes fall in tattered tatters, howls, a blizzard winds, a whirlwind swells, a blizzard sweeps, a blizzard blows.

  The third day, and sad and sad, Princess Chuchelka spends her days in a silver chamber.

  The third day, how sad and sad Prince Kostrub left for Lukorye.

  Across the sea is Lukorye, where the rivers flow well, the shores are jelly, there are sugar springs, and the birds do not stop all year round.

  The tsarevich did not make it halfway, fell ill on the way and died. He was buried in a foreign land.

  In the middle of the night, the princess hears - under the window someone is calling:

  - Scarecrow, Scarecrow, open up!

  The princess blushed all over - Kostruba recognized.

  The princess thinks: "This is he, this is the groom, the prince has returned from the road!" Got up. Opened.

  - Take your white dresses, pearls. I conquered my land in a foreign land, my underground palace is more beautiful than Lukorya.

  Scarecrow put on white dresses, pearls. Hurry to the porch.

  And he took her by the hand and on the horse.

  The horse took off, and rushed off.

  Rushing. The prince and the princess are racing. Fear creeps over the heart like a snake: the princess sees - it’s not a horse under her, such things don’t happen, but the wind.

  The whirlwind carries them through dark forests, through mosses and swamps - rusty swamps into balls-bars - an empty place.

  We caught up with the church, turned to the cemetery.

  Then the horse disappeared.

  And the two of them remained over the grave: Tsarevich Kostrub and the princess. And in the grave, a hole blackens from under the snow.

  - Here are my lands, there is my palace, there we will celebrate the wedding: the days will be eternal and our merry feast without sadness, without tears ... climb!

  - No, - the princess answers, - I don’t know the way, you go ahead, I follow you.

  The prince obeyed the princess, disappeared in the grave.

  And the princess remained above the black hole. She took off her dresses - and threw them into the grave.

  - Come on, pull yourself along. Here are white dresses, here are pearls! - and, throwing everything down to the morocco boots into the grave, she plugged the hole, but she didn’t know where to run without a road through the snow.

  The princess flew, flew - in the distance a light flickers - runs faster. She ran, looks: a hut - one lonely hut stands in the middle of the field. She rushed to the door, broke into the hallway, and into the room ...

  The dead man lies on the bench, there is no one else, and the candle shines.

  The princess with fear on the stove, huddled in a corner, sits quietly.

  And there in the cemetery, and there on the grave, the deceived prince came out of the coffin. He called the Kostrub of the dead and flew with the dead after the princess.

  He flew to the hut, shouting through the window:

  - Dead man, open the dead man! Let's feast with the living!

  The dead man stirred: now with his foot, then with his hand he will lead. And then, as he got up from the bench and went, he opened the door.

  And found the dead full-full hut. They surrounded the stove, they called the princess:

  

  - I do not have a shirt and morocco boots, bring me: there they are, on the grave! - the princess says to the dead.

  The prince sends the dead man to the grave.

  And the dead man returned, brought both a shirt and boots.

  And again they call the princess.

  And she told them: either, she says, there are no mittens, then she doesn’t have a scarf, then a belt ...

  But the dead got her everything from the grave: all the dresses, all the pearls to the last grain.

  They call the princess:

  - Get out, get out - let's feast!

  And the princess put on white dresses, pearls - she went out.

  The princess came out. And in the circle of the dead she froze.

  BUT! How glad the dead are to the living!

  “I am faithful to you beyond the grave,” the dead prince kissed the princess, and with a kiss the living blood subsided - warm blood flowed into his cold blue veins.

  Third roosters crowed - the dead scattered over the dark graves, there, in the graves, they licked their red lips.

  The princess did not return to her silver tower. We found Scarecrow in the morning - white as white snow, without a single blood, far away in an open field in a dead hut.

  A blizzard winds and howls, knocks down and, overturning, rushing, knocks down. She turned, not easy, dubya-kolodya, covered the door, covered the windows - burying the silver Chuchelkin tower.

  Cold winter - white snow.

A. Pushkin. Ghoul

Poor Vanya was a coward:
Since he is late at times,
Covered in sweat, pale with fear,
I went home through the cemetery.

Poor Vanya is barely breathing,
Stumbling, wandering a little
over the graves; suddenly he hears
Someone bone, grumbling, gnaws.

Vanya became; cannot step.
“God!” the poor man thinks.
That's right, it gnaws at the bones
Red-lipped ghoul.

Woe! Small I am not strong;
The ghoul will eat me completely,
If the earth itself is a grave
I won't eat with prayer."

What? Instead of a ghoul
(Imagine Vanya's anger!)
In the darkness before him is a dog
A bone gnaws at the grave.

  Ghouls (ghouls) akin to vampires, evil dead, in which forty days after death an unclean spirit is infused. The ancient Slavs "laid trebs", that is, they made sacrifices to ghouls even before they began to worship the thunderer Perun.

It is believed that a person becomes a ghoul after death, born from evil spirits or spoiled by it (the future ghoul can be recognized by double rows of teeth); the deceased, over whose coffin the devil jumped in the form of a black cat; mortgaged dead (suicide, murdered and unburied) or sorcerer.

At night, ghouls rise from their graves, overwhelmed by the desire to suck the blood of sleeping people.

When people suspect some dead man of such terrible night walks, they dig him out of the grave and, seeing that he does not look like a dead man at all, but on the contrary, is fresh and rosy-cheeked, as if alive, they drive an aspen stake into his heart, and then they burn the corpse . At the same time, one should beware of the jet of black blood that will gush from an evil heart, otherwise, if even a drop falls on someone, incurable ulcers will remain on the body. Well, when the fire flares up, black toads, vipers and worms will crawl in different directions, and you need to make sure that not one of these evil spirits escapes, because with it the ghoul can escape, in order to be reborn later - and again do his terrible deeds.

The moon is the sun of the dead. On this ancient belief founded one of the most terrible actions undertaken by the village sorcerers. In order to cause damage, such a sorcerer, closer to midnight, always with a full moon, goes to the cemetery where the dead are buried: strangled suicides and drowned. Behind the bosom of the sorcerer is a round mirror - copper or silver. It is wrapped in a mortal handkerchief (sorcerers cover the faces of the dead with such handkerchiefs for their insidious purposes). Pulling off the scarf, the sorcerer directs the lunar reflection on the grave - and the dead man slowly rises - a ghoul or ghoul. Looking intently in the mirror, he follows his reflection to the house where the victim is intended. At that moment, when the sorcerer points the mirror at an open window or an open door, the dead man enters the dwelling - to the detriment of its sleeping inhabitants. That is why from ancient times all windows and doors were locked at night.

But the trouble is for the sorcerer himself, if on the way from the cemetery to the village he stumbles, drops the mirror, or the moon is covered by a cloud, or at least a shadow flickers in the mirror. bat. The enraged ghoul will return to the grave, but in the future, when the sky shines full moon- the sun of the dead, - the dead man will visit the blundered sorcerer, sucking the life force out of him. That is why only notorious sorcerers decided to have round mirrors in "death plates".

In the dead of midnight, leaving the graves where they lie as imperishable corpses, ghouls take on various forms, fly through the air, prowl on horseback around the neighborhood, raise noise and uproar and frighten travelers or penetrate into huts and suck out the blood of sleepy people, who, after that, will certainly are dying. If the ghoul's folded hands are stiff and he is not able to part them, then he resorts to the help of his teeth. Gnawing through the doors, he first of all rushes to the shaky, sucking out the blood of the child, and then attacks the adults. The pre-dawn cry of a rooster makes the ghoul instantly disappear or throws him, bloodied, to the ground - in complete insensibility.

Akin to ghouls, the evil spirit is dead. At night, he rises from the grave, enters the bedroom of pregnant women and frightens them. There is a belief: in order to scare away the dead, you need to sleep by a candle for the last three weeks before giving birth.

E.A. Grushko, Yu.M. Medvedev
"Russian legends and traditions"

Recently, Russian people began to often complain about ghouls. But not always those whom we call this word belong to this rare type. What are ghouls really?

Who is this ghoul?

Ghouls in Slavic mythology called the dead, who, due to certain circumstances, rose from the grave. Outwardly, ghouls differ from humans only in sharp teeth, red eyes and a bright blush on their faces. It is believed that after death, sorcerers turn into ghouls, but a living person who has become a victim of a curse or bitten by a ghoul can also become a ghoul. The book "Myths of the Russian people" says that the meaning of the word ghoul is unclear. Some believe that it means "bloated" (from the blood of the victims), others believe that ancient form This word means "not committed to fire."

How is a ghoul different from a vampire?

Having attacked a person, the ghoul first drinks all his blood, after which he eats the flesh. The vampire is limited only by blood. There is a belief that if a monster leaves its victim bleeding but not eaten, it will also turn into a ghoul.

Where do ghouls live?

Slavic beliefs say that during the day ghouls hide in dark places inaccessible to sunlight: most often these are crypts and graves. It is believed that the ghoul lies face down or on his side in the grave and even sometimes smokes a pipe. At night, the creature crawls out of its shelter and visits its home, as well as the homes of neighbors and acquaintances. The ghoul is outrageous, as a rule, within the limits of his native village, in extreme cases - several neighboring ones, because at dawn he must return to the grave.

"Family life" of ghouls

Often the walking dead crawl out of the grave and visit their ex-wives. The most dangerous dead are those who died young as a result of an accident or violent death, the so-called mortgaged dead. In East Slavic legends, it is said that one should not cry for such dead (especially for a wife), because it worries the dead man in the "other" world and he may want to return. From the visits of a dead husband, a woman withers, weakens, falls ill and dies if measures are not taken in time. The people believed that a woman could even give birth to a child from a dead husband.

What abilities does he have?

According to legend, the ghoul has superhuman physical strength and speed: he is able to lift huge weights and break through log walls with a blow of his hand. A running ghoul cannot be overtaken even on a horse. Another distinguishing ability is the amazing vitality of the ghoul, he practically does not feel pain and is not susceptible to stabbing and cutting blows. Ghouls can come out of the grave not only in human form, but also in the form of a cat, or a bat, or any other. It was believed that ghouls cause crop failures and droughts, and are also the cause of plague, cholera and other terrible diseases.

What kind of enemies do ghouls have?

The enemies of ghouls are many animals, both wild and domestic. Often there are skirmishes between ghouls and wolves and bears, who are infuriated by the smell of a ghoul. Domestic animals are also enraged by the smell of a dead man who has risen from the grave.

Fighting ghoul husbands

On her own, a woman will not be able to get rid of the visits of the deceased “dried” to her. She must tell about this to any stranger - mother, mother-in-law, priest, neighbor. Only an outsider is able to correctly understand what is happening and give a woman advice on how to be saved. To do this, a number of techniques are used, built on the same principle - to surprise a dangerous alien with something unusual, out of the ordinary, impossible in normal human life. For example, one of the beliefs says: “Dress your children in wedding clothes and dress in them yourself. When a dead husband comes to you at night and asks what is happening, you should answer him: "I'm going to a wedding - a brother marries a sister." “But is it possible for a brother to marry a sister?” - the dead man will ask. And you answer him: “Is it possible that the dead would go to the living?”

There is another way: sit on the doorstep, comb your hair and chew cannabis seeds at the same time. The dead man will ask: "What are you doing?" It is necessary to answer: "I eat lice." The dead man will say to this: “Is it possible to eat lice?” And the woman must give the already known answer: “Is it possible for the dead to go to the living?” After that, the walking dead will leave his wife alone forever.

Fight against ghouls

In A.S. Pushkin's poem "The Ghoul" it says: " Woe! small I am not strong; The ghoul will eat me completely,
If I myself do not eat the earth of the grave with a prayer.

It was believed that only a piece of earth taken from the grave, eaten with a prayer, could save from a ghoul.

Another method said that the corpse needed to be blindfolded, fill its mouth with sand, cut the veins under the knees and put bristles there - it was believed that then he would not be able to leave the grave. For the same purpose, the coffin with the body of the ghoul was carried around the village three times. It is also considered an effective remedy against the walking of the dead to sprinkle the grave with wild poppies or millet, or to sow poppies during the funeral on the way from home to the cemetery - the deceased will not be able to return until he has collected all the grains.

How to kill a ghoul?

According to Slavic mythology, the ghoul is very difficult to eliminate. It is almost impossible to deal with him in an open confrontation. Due to its physical strength, the monster easily defeats ten people. Our distant ancestors believed that the most effective remedy- drive a ghoul into the body or into the grave with an aspen stake. Or dig up a grave, cut off the head of the deceased and put it face down between the legs. True, it is still desirable to be one hundred percent sure that you are dealing with a ghoul.

Dhampir, ghoul, strigoi and moroy - all this different types vampires. Some of them refer to the mortgaged dead - common definition for the evil that rises from the graves. Find out how they differ and whether all vampires are dangerous to humans.

In the article:

Descendant of a human and a vampire

A dhampir is a child born to a human woman from a male vampire. The female half of these entities is incapable of conception. This phenomenon is new in . Dhampirs are a rarity today, because their fathers rarely breed in the ways we are used to. They consider their descendants turned into vampires by people.

Dhampirs have appeared recently, as well as information that vampires are capable of traditional reproduction. However, not every woman is able to conceive and bear a child from evil spirits. This role is for the elite, as well as turning into a vampire - many die instead of becoming evil spirits living in the eternal night. Often mothers of dhampirs die during difficult childbirth or during pregnancy - the fetus feeds on her blood, may reject human food.

The first dhampirs appeared in the middle of the last century. They receive the abilities of their father, but do not have the weaknesses inherent in vampires - they are not afraid of the sun and can live without human blood. Otherwise, dhampirs are very similar to vampires - they are fast, strong and hardy, able to regenerate at high speed. They grow up just like people do.

Dhampirs live much longer than humans, but not forever. Nor can they turn into a vampire with their blood. Their fangs rarely differ from human ones, but they are large. In general, a dhampir sits between a human and a vampire. If he drinks blood, approaches the latter, he will become afraid of the sun and feel thirsty, and living like a man, he will lose some of his dark abilities. Dhampir must maintain a balance between evil spirits and man.

Stregoni Benefici

An unusual descendant may not know about his origin, but sooner or later the vampire abilities will wake up. Already in childhood, he will stand out from the crowd of his peers. Dhampirs make ideal vampire hunters - they feel them, and can also oppose their abilities to evil spirits, especially if they were born from a strong representative of bloodsuckers. Killing them is just as difficult as a normal vampire.

Dhampirs were often referred to as particularly successful vampire hunters. That was Murat Barnabar, a gypsy, known in Serbia in the 50s of the last century. Stregoni Benefici considered one of the dhampirs. He did not drink blood, but he had unusual abilities. Stregoni Benefici hunted bloodsuckers who killed people. He himself made do with the blood of animals.

strigoi

Strigoi is a character from Moldavian and Romanian mythology. In the old days, he was considered similar to a vampire or ghoul. Suicides hanged of their own free will or criminals executed in this way, as well as people whose body went to evil spirits, turn into a strigoi. It can be both male and female, but in the latter case, this evil spirits are commonly called strigoayks.

Strigoi are often confused with moroi, but they are different creatures. Learn about their similarities and differences below. According to legend, Strigoi have two hearts. Some ancient legends say that only red-haired and blue-eyed people can become evil after hanging, but other sources say that this creature can have any appearance.

After death, the strigoi comes out of the grave and returns to the place of his former life. He drinks blood from people who could be his good acquaintances or friends, sends nightmares to neighbors. A strigoi can terrorize the relatives of the person who owned the body during life. He counts on help, and also on the fact that their emotions will prevent him from killing him.

Strigoi cannot be found without opening the coffin, in which he returns in the morning every night. Sometimes evil spirits leave the grave dug up, and hide themselves nearby. If it is possible to find the body of a person who is suspected of possession after death, it is easy to recognize a strigoi. It is not subject to decay, the body looks like it was buried yesterday, and not a few months or weeks ago.

If the relatives did not give their consent to the exhumation, they drove a horse around the cemetery and forced it to step over the graves. The strigoi hides where the animal will rear up and refuse to go any further. It is easiest to kill evil spirits during the day, when she sleeps and does not wake up until the sun sets. In the old days, the heads of such dead people were cut off, the heart was pierced with an aspen or metal stake, sometimes the deceased was still placed face down.

Moroy

If a strigoi is a physically existing dead person who rose from a coffin and went in search of living blood, then a mora is a ghost who left the grave. Despite the incorporeality, it causes a lot of problems for the residents of the nearest settlement to the cemetery. Moroi are classified as a type of vampire, for the most part, due to harmfulness, as well as descent from the deceased.

Both a man and a woman can become a Moroi. In the latter case, the evil spirit is called a moroaika. Sometimes a vampire was considered a moroi, who in the past was not a person who accepted death, but was turned into a bloodsucker during his lifetime by the same creature.

The name of this unclean force comes from the word "pestilence", and there is nothing surprising in this. Moroi not only drank blood and appeared in a ghostly form, scaring people. He knew how to send drought and cause epidemics. In the old days, everyone knew that if a mora appeared in the district, soon many people would die from the disease.

How witches and sorcerers die and what they become after death

People interested in esotericism are concerned about the question - how do witches and sorcerers die? It is believed that they leave hard, they can suffer for several days, until one of the villagers guesses to dismantle the roof, open the stove damper or take away the magical gift.

The abilities transferred by the sorcerer are considered black. A person is first sick for several weeks, after which he gets magical powers. Village beliefs say that those who accept the gift of a dying witch change greatly. The fact is that he does not want to leave the world and prolongs the life of the sorceress, stretching her death throes. Only after the gift finds a new bearer can the witch die.

Modern psychics and magicians are sure that the matter is in the astral part of the sorceress, who has a mind and wants to get a new carrier instead of a dying one. This method is compared with the subsistence of the essence, this explains the changes that occur to a person. Because of them, the villages were wary of accepting the gift. It was believed that he did not bring good, moreover, many were truly scared terrible death witches.

In the old days they believed that the deceased sorcerer is the future mortgaged dead man, which can be reborn as a ghoul. So that after death he would not disturb fellow villagers, the sinews were cut to the deceased magician, sometimes they cut off his head, pierced aspen stake and performed other manipulations to kill evil spirits.

Whom the earth did not accept

Mortgage dead - that is what they called people who are so sinful that the earth did not accept them after death. They were forced to wander, scaring and harming people and livestock. Often, those who have departed to another world before their hour or who have accepted a violent death become the mortgaged dead.

In the old days, suicides, black sorcerers and witches, unbaptized, and in some regions also drowned were attributed to the mortgaged dead. All of the above cannot go to the afterlife. Unsettled souls roam the earth and harm the living.

Such dead people are called mortgages because of the method of burial, which prevented them from getting up from their graves and roaming the earth. They were laid face down, and branches and stones were laid on top of the coffin. This was done in advance when a suicide, a murderer, or a person with a reputation as a strong sorcerer was buried.

Such dead people were not buried in church or cemetery territories. As a rule, their graves stood at crossroads outside settlements, in the fields away from habitable places, in the forest. Sometimes the bodies were dumped into a swamp or ravine to devilry couldn't get to people. There was even a belief that suggested throwing the corpse of the deceased, which the earth would not accept, into the swamp to bring rain and end the drought.

In regions famous for an abundance of evil spirits, even separate cemeteries appeared where people with a bad reputation were buried. Their land was not consecrated, churches and chapels were not set up on the territory. Cemeteries(from the word "scary") were simple plots lands fenced with sharp stakes.

Passing by such graves, it was supposed to give something as a gift to a restless soul, so that it would not confuse on the way, would not send illness or attack, in order to drink blood and eat the flesh of a passerby. They brought things of little value like straw or stones, sometimes they threw a handful of earth. So people seemed to participate in the burial ceremony, in which the unclean deceased was denied, which was appeasing him.

Ghouls in Slavic mythology

From other varieties of mortgaged dead, the ghoul is distinguished by its particular aggressiveness. At night, he gets out of the grave and goes in search of fresh blood, returning to the coffin only after the cry of the third roosters. It differs from a vampire in that You can only become one after death.

In Slavic mythology, the ghoul is rather illegible, drinking the blood of not only people, but also domestic animals, and then eats their bodies. In some regions, it was believed that if the ghoul did not touch the flesh of a person, but drank only blood, he would become a bloodsucker immediately after burial. Those killed by evil spirits were buried in the same way as all those suspected of turning into a pawn dead man.

Ghouls cause droughts, epidemics and famines, send pestilence on people and livestock. People became them, especially if the curse was imposed by a priest. It was called an anathema and imposed on murderers and heretics who distinguished themselves by particular cruelty. Werewolves and sorcerers also had a high chance of becoming ghouls upon death.

What a ghoul looks like, in the old days everyone knew. He looks like a human, except for the reddish tint to his skin due to the blood he has drunk. These creatures do not decompose and do not have a characteristic putrid smell. They don't have fangs like the . The teeth are pointed, like those of a shark, and this feature is noticeable only when evil spirits attack - he knows how to hide it.

Often ghouls lived among the living, pretending to be ordinary people. They were feared, because the consequences of finding such a creature in the village were fatal - there are stories from the past about entire settlements destroyed by ghouls. Often, living people were accused of belonging to evil spirits, for which they were most often burned. Bloodsuckers also have natural enemies - bears and wolves, which can defeat a strong monster. Animals sense his approach and become enraged or run away in fear.

How ? Defeating this monster at night is extremely difficult. Through the centuries, information has reached that he could not be killed even by detachments of several dozen people. Doesn't take normal ghoul weapons. It was impossible to escape from him even on a horse. You can hide only where there are crosses and other Christian symbols. The ghoul is able to break through the walls of ordinary houses with his hand without much effort.

Therefore, the monsters were first calculated, and during the day they killed the sleeping ones - they do not get up while the sun is shining. The most reliable way to get rid of the creature was considered to be chopping off the head, followed by burning the body. Sometimes this was done too late, and people rose from the graves, turned into evil spirits by a ghoul a few weeks and even months ago.

There are many varieties of vampires, and not everyone perceives a person solely as food. Dhampirs consider it their mission to protect the human race from the creatures of darkness. However, most of those turned into ghouls and other evil spirits after death are extremely dangerous, in the old days they were considered the main culprits of pestilence, crop failure and drought.

In contact with

Slavic mythology is the richest cultural layer left by our pagan ancestors. After the Baptism of Russia, the Slavs, not ready to immediately abandon their usual traditions, introduced a share of paganism into Christianity. Therefore, the answer to the question of who the ghouls and ghouls are must be sought in Old Slavonic mythology.

Who is this ghoul?

In modern terminology, a ghoul is a vampire that emerges from its grave at night to feed its hunger. But, unlike the European "bloodsuckers", real ghouls in Russia did not shun the flesh of the victim. There was a belief that if the ghoul did not eat the body of the victim, but only drank all the blood, the victim himself would become a monster.

In the pre-Christian tradition, ghouls are spirits that bring death, drought and pestilence. One touch to a person was enough for them, so that he would soon die from an unknown disease. After the adoption of Christianity in Russia Slavic ghoul- a dead man who did not receive a church funeral and was buried in unconsecrated ground. In addition, a chance to become a monster received:

• suicide;
• drunkards;
• sorcerers;
• inveterate heretics and sinners.

The ghoul woman is a former sorceress and heretic. Not finding peace after death, he returns home at night and sorts out cutlery. She tortures people whom she hated during her lifetime, tries to bring them to death, especially often the striga mocks her unloved daughters-in-law, pulling them out into the street by the braid.

What does a ghoul look like?

Slavic ghouls were absolutely not similar not only to modern ideas about vampires, but even to their foreign counterparts. Legends describe them as werewolves, able to take on any form or become invisible at will. Often the ghoul took the form of a dead man with iron teeth, whose eyes burned with hellish fire.

If the search for a ghoul went as far as digging up a grave, it turned out that:

1. The dead man does not rot.
2. His clothes are torn.
3. Hands and feet bitten to the bone.

Are there ghouls?

It is difficult to say with certainty that ghouls exist, but it is also impossible to refute this belief. This problem has never been thoroughly studied in Russia. But in Europe in the middle of the 18th century, cases of vampirism were investigated at the very high level. The personal physician of Empress Maria Theresa, Gerard van Swieten, and the famous theologian Antoine Augustine Calmet expressed absolutely opposite opinions on this matter in their treatises. Which one to believe is up to you.

What is the difference between a ghoul and a ghoul?

Now it is believed that ghouls and ghouls are the same creatures, slightly different in their habits and abilities. We owe the appearance of this delusion to A. S. Pushkin and his poem "Ghoul". In fact, the poet, most likely, incorrectly spelled the word "volkolak", which meant a werewolf. The literary tradition was continued in 1839 by A. K. Tolstoy, who wrote the gothic story "The Vampire Family".

Evidence of ghouls

The first chronicle mention of ghouls dates back to the 11th century and took place in Polotsk. Then on the streets of the city at night there was a clatter and a person who inadvertently went out into the street soon died of an unknown disease. Immediately after the appearance of ghouls in the Principality of Polotsk, throughout Kievan Rus troubles began:

• epidemics;
• drought;
• Polovtsian attacks.

Later stories about ghouls appeared in fairy tales and anecdotes, often featuring a soldier who, with the help of cunning and luck, managed to elude the ghoul. Most of all, these beliefs were widespread in the southern provinces, on the territory of modern Ukraine and Belarus.

How to deal with ghouls?

The methods of dealing with these monsters were similar among many nationalities. If there was a suspicion that a ghoul was terrorizing the village, the inhabitants went to look for a grave on which the earth would be dug up or there were some other signs that the deceased was not lying quietly in the coffin. Or, if a person died recently, about whom they said that he was known with evil spirits, they dug up his grave. Then they did the following.

1. The corpse was turned face down.
2. They drove an aspen stake into the back.
3. They cut the tendons and broke the bones in the legs.
4. They cut the tendons over the heels and covered the bristles in the wound.
5. They cut off the head, drove something iron into it and put it at the feet.
6. To completely destroy the ghoul, it was necessary to burn it.

When meeting with a ghoul, they defended themselves with a cross or strong abuse, it was believed that evil spirits were afraid of swearing. It was also possible to distract the monster with poppy seeds, rice, wheat - something small and available in large quantities- ghouls in Slavic mythology in this case immediately began to count the grains and could not stop until everything was counted.

To protect the house used:

1. Pieces of iron thrown into the fire or laid out on the windowsill;
2. Crosses burned over window and doorways candle, from Good Thursday;
3. Dogs that were born first or had spots above their eyes that resembled another pair of eyes were considered enemies.

Books about ghouls

1. "Ghoul" A.K. Tolstoy. A story about young nobleman who attended the ball with the ghouls.
2. "Ghoul" A.N. Afanasiev. Russian processing folk tale about a girl who married a ghoul.
3. Revolving City Andrey Belyanin. The book is written in the genre of humorous fantasy and tells about the Cossacks guarding order in the city where witches and ghouls live.

Movies about ghouls

1. "Viy". Screen adaptation of the story by N.V. Gogol, which has earned recognition both in the USSR and abroad.
2. "Ghoul". A Russian and very unusual movie about ghouls and ghouls who intimidated crime bosses.

Ghoul- so the Slavs called the restless dead, who during their lifetime sinned so much (not necessarily in the strictly Christian sense) that the earth "does not accept" them.

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Nadezhda Antipova
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Boris Zabirokhin
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"Vukodlak and the Ghoul" Ivica Stevanovich
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Viktor Korolkov
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Valery Slavuk
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Ghoul- a word coined by A. Pushkin (volkolak + ghoul), in fact, the same ghoul.

It was only later - in the XVIII-XIX centuries - there was a fashion for vampires and vampire aristocrats appeared in Europe, changing the putrid ghoul into a noble vampire.

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And only in the twentieth century, thanks to Stoker and Hollywood, the image of a handsome vampire appears. And with the development of the gaming industry, vampire ghouls began to look for parallels in all world cultures.

The evolution of vampires in the Might&Magic game series

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And they found - from Africa to India and Latin America. Although the parallels of these curves to disgrace. Because the European vampire is a revived (well, or half-dead) dead man. In cultures, the bloodsuckers, who are put on a par with the niche dead, are often some kind of demonic spirits or supernatural beings.
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Vampires- the dead, risen from the graves and suck the blood of the living. And they are in fashion now.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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Lestat from "Interview with the Vampire"
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"Blade"
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"Van Helsing"
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"Twilight"

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And this is only a small part of the vampire filmography, which God knows where it has gone from the classics. Because here is the father of modern vampires - Count Dracula.

Stills from the film "Dracula" (1992). Starring Gary Oldman.

Frame from the film "Dracula" (1931). Starring Bela Lugosi