Also called Upir, Upiór, Vampir, Vampyr, Lampir.
The tale
The word appears early: a Novgorod priest called himself Upir Likhyi in a manuscript of 1047, and the Sermon on Idols says the Slavs first sacrificed to upyri and beregini. In later folklore the upyr is a corpse that leaves its grave to drink the blood or life of the living, often someone who died badly or lived as a sorcerer. Reports by Austrian officials from Serbia in the 1720s and 1730s, such as the case of Arnaut Pavle at Medveđa, spread the South Slavic word vampir across Europe.
When they are met
- Radonitsa
- Dziady
- after a death in the community
Staying on their good side
- proper burial rites and remembrance
- remembering the dead at their graves
- kutia for the ancestors
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Remember your dead well and speak of them kindly, which folk belief held kept them at rest.
- Use the tales to think about grief and how communities faced epidemics.
What their tales teach
- understanding fear of death
- the importance of mourning
- history of epidemics
Symbols
- a swollen, ruddy corpse
- an aspen stake
- garlic
- a shroud
Vampire belief varied widely by region and is tangled with later literary vampire fiction.
Sources
- Old Russian sermon "Slovo o idolakh" (Sermon on Idols)
- Johann Flückinger, Visum et Repertum (1732)
- Linda J. Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief
More Slavic folklore
- Baba Yaga The witch in the hut on hen's legs
- Domovoi The grandfather who lives behind the stove
- Leshy The master of the forest
- Rusalka The maiden of river and birch
- Kikimora The spinner in the dark corner
- Koschei the Deathless The sorcerer whose death is hidden
- Kostroma The straw maiden of spring and summer
- Dodola The rain-bringing girl of summer