The appearance of a vampire in Eastern European folklore is very different from modern beliefs. In modern lore and fiction, the vampire is pale (due to its lack of sunlight) and incredibly handsome.
In earlier folklore, however, signs of vampirism were believed to include a ruddy complexion and "incorruptible" body, often with blood coming out of the mouth and nose. These signs are now understood to be part of the natural process of decomposition.
The Vampire's Appearance
There are several traits which were believed to signify a vampire. The main one was that a vampire's body would bloat after feeding. Its face would become red and the face and body would swell, signifying that it had consumed human blood, which might pour out of the body's orifices.
The body remained flexible, signifying that it had not corrupted. Another sign was the mouth, which would freeze in a snarl, and teeth appeared to lengthen into fangs. Some cultures, such as the Romani of Yugoslavia, believed that vampire's body would turn black before burial.
Medical Explanations of Vampiric Traits
It is now known that what were thought to be signs of vampirism and incorruption are actually natural parts of the body's process of decay. For example, a body may turn black if its is left too long in the heat before burial without being properly embalmed.
The basic stages of decomposition are initial decay (0-3 days after death), putrefaction (4-10 days), black putrefaction (10-20 days), butyric fermentation (20-50 days), and dry decay (50-365 days). The traditional signs of a vampire - bloating, redness, and fluid coming from the body - are not signs that the body is not decaying, but rather, they are a normal part of putrefaction.
Bloating is caused by gases released by bacteria as they break down the body's tissues. The pressure caused by this bloating pushes bodily fluids such as blood into the body cavity, where it might exit from the nose, mouth, or genitals. The groan that vampires were said to emit as they were staked is merely the release of gases from the decaying body.
Transformation of the Vampire's Appearance
The transformation of the vampire's appearance from a decomposing body to a sexual creature can be credited to early vampire fiction such as John Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Once the vampire's weakness to sunlight caught on in modern fiction, the idea of a pale vampire stuck. In fact, the traditional Eastern European concepts of vampires and their appearances has a lot more in common with modern perceptions of zombies than with modern portrayals of vampires.
Sources:
- Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. Binghamton: Yale University, 1988.
- Stages of Decomposition from Death - The Last Taboo
- Summers, Montague. The Vampire, His Kith and Kin. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1929.
- Wolf, Leonard. Dracula: The Connoisseur's Guide. New York: Broadway Books, 1997.
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