Friday, September 2, 2011

It Devoured The Remains

"Nachzehrer are a German sort of vampire, and are much like zombies, though they would become restless in their graves and chew through their burial shrouds."

READ MORE and HERE as well.

Perhaps it was fitting that Bram Stoker was an Irishman...

In Ireland, a folk tale exists of the Dearg-due, a type of vampire. Legend tells that a beautiful woman committed suicide to escape a terrible marriage. She was buried in Waterford, but arose from the grave to exact revenge on those men who conspired to make her so miserable in life. Thenceforth, she would rise one night a year to lure other men to their death with her beauty. Her arrival could only be held off if her grave were found and stones piled high atop so that she was unable to dig herself out.

Dearg-due is likely a corruption of the word dréag or driug, which in Gaeilge means a portent or harbinger. This, in turn, was probably borrowed from a word used by the oft-invading Norse Vikings, draugr. Draugar were creatures that "walked again" after death, which included ghosts.

2 comments:

Sharon Day said...

I just love local legends and cultural stories passed on. It intrigues me to no end! What I hope to do some day is visit these places, walk the roads, feel the feelings and atmosphere that were the birth place of such mystical creatures and ghosts. Within the context of the place, it all seems to make perfect sense how it came to be.

Jessica Penot said...

I love fatal beauty stories. This is an interesting variation on the vampire story.