Going on a Vampire Hunt! Trivia Quiz

Answer: A village in Serbia

Though many fiction writers (most notably Bram Stoker) cite Transylvania as the cradle of vampires, there really weren't that many stories from that region until after vampires became well-known throughout Europe. The real epicenter of traditional vampire folklore is further south in the Balkan peninsula in countries like Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece. There are a lot of vampire stories in other Slavic countries as well, but vampire belief in places like Russia, Poland and Bohemia was rarely as immediate as its parallel in the Balkans.

Answer: All of these

One thing that is not typically reported is the mysterious vampire bite. Though there are a couple of stories that mention these marks, more usually a vampire case is evidenced by a general feeling that something is "sucking the life" out of an area rather than concrete physical evidence.

Answer: Have a virgin boy lead a horse around the cemetery

Seances are a product of industrialized cities in the nineteenth century. First held by the Fox sisters in upstate New York in 1848, the seance is not mentioned in reputable collections of vampire folklore. "Working the roots" is a Voodoo term, and has nothing to do with East European vampire lore.

Generally speaking, this situation does not arise--folks usually have a very concrete idea of who the vampire they're hunting is. The virgin-boy-with-a-horse ritual is mentioned in many collections of vampire folklore, however, and should be in the arsenal of any serious vampire hunter.

Answer: Small holes around the grave that allow the vampire to surface

Other physical manifestations traditionally cited are the sounds of chewing coming from the grave, hands reaching from the earth, and even the grave glowing in the dark. Like many other items on this quiz, details of these signs can be found in Paul Barber's book, "Vampires, Burial, and Death" (Yale, 1989).

The other effects may sound cool, but I have never seen folktales referring to them. If you have any concrete examples of same, please let me know!

Answer: Excommunicate the person from the Church

Burying the body face down is supposed to fool the vampire into digging down instead of up, while cutting the leg tendons is supposed to keep him from being able to walk. Since Excommunication is often thought to CAUSE vampirism, this would not be an appropriate choice.

Answer: A handful of poppy or mustard seeds

The gun may indeed be reassuring, but firearms are notably absent from most folkloric vampire stories. So are holy water and, interestingly enough, crosses. If one wanted to use a holy item against a vampire, one would be advised to use a blessed icon created with prayer and fasting; two sticks taped together are just silly.

Folk tradition holds that if you throw the small seeds on the ground, a vampire will stop and pick each one of them up before pursuing you. This belief was the center of an "X-Files" episode about vampires; somebody did their homework on that one!

Answer: Getting a letter from the local bishop absolving the vampire of sin, then placing it on his grave

If this works, you should be able to hear the corpse disintegrate on reception of the letter. Good luck trying to get this letter from most modern bishops, though. Similarly, trying to offer communion in the way suggested above would be regarded by most priests as a supreme blasphemy, and it's not mentioned in any ethnographic collections I've seen anyway. Sage smudging is a traditonal practice of personal blessing that has found favor with many modern pagans, but it is absent in collections of vampire folklore. Finally, dogs jumping over bodies have been known to CAUSE vampirism, not cure it.

Answer: Driving the stake through the body and into the ground, pinning the vampire in the grave

The staking technique is common for bodies in several contexts all over the world. For example, the victim of an ancient murder was pulled out of a Northern European peat bog with a stake through it. Along the same lines, suspected vampires in nineteenth-century Rhode Island were pinned to the ground with iron spikes through their exremities.

As far as I know, no one in folklore ever destroyed a vampire going mano a mano Buffy-style or firing a crossbow bolt. It is often explicit that the stake is intended to hold the body in the grave, not "set it free"--the latter view is more prevalent in the movies.

Answer: Cremation

Sunlight usually does not destroy vampires. In fact, some vampires have been known to conduct business in broad daylight, running butcher shops or doing farm chores. Cremation, on the other hand, almost always spells the end of a vampire story. In one Russian story, however, it is perilous. In that tale, vermin and magpies come streaming from the pyre. If any of these escape, the vampire will survive.

Answer: Plum brandy

It is no exaggeration to call Slivovitz the favorite drink of the Balkans. When my doctoral advisor was staying in a convent during some of his research, he was served the drink for breakfast! It's good stuff if you're a connoisseur of international wines or brandies.

Thanks for playing! If you have any questions on this topic, please send me a message.