Vampir (South Slavic)

Ñu ngi koy wooye itam: вампир, vampir, vukodlak

Léeb ak cosaanNéew yu dundaatDee wu bon walla suul gu baaxul1500 ba 1899

The vampir of the Balkans is the original vampire, and in its folk form it is a walking corpse and not a caped aristocrat. It rises from a neighbour's grave, takes forty days to become solid and preys on its family and village until the body is staked, beheaded or burned. Austrian officials documented the belief in occupied Serbia in the 1720s and 1730s, and the word spread across Europe. It is included here as the base tradition from which the literary vampire and the plague-like walking dead both descend.1 2

Xeexal ko

Jëkk a bindu

1725

Brought to European attention by the Austrian reports from Serbia of 1725 and 1732

Cosaan

South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian)

Serbi, Bulgari, Korowasi, Bosni-Ersegowin

Lan moo ko waral

Dee wu bon walla suul gu baaxul

A bad life, a bad death or a flawed burial; an animal or bird passing over the corpse was a classic trigger.

Naka ngay doone benn

Sorcerers, suicides, the excommunicated, the improperly buried and people born with a caul, teeth or a tail were at risk; so was any corpse an animal had stepped over.

Xel

Am na tuuti xel

Fi mu néewe doole