VAMPIRE MYTHS

VAMPIRE MYTHS
One of the questions I'm often asked is about vampire myths. Below are a number of books dealing with myths from around the world.

THE VAMPIRE BOOK: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNDEAD. by J. Gordon Melton. Visible Ink Press. 1994  ISBN 0-8103-2295-1
You would be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive book on everything you ever wanted to know about vampires. The topics in its 852 pages are listed alphabetically and cross referenced. To find information on myths for any country, you can look up the country, and in many cases you can look up the mythical vampire itself. Note that this book also contains information on Vlad the Impaler, fiction, authors, film, bats, etc.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE by Anthony Masters. Rupert Hart-Davis Pub. 1972. ISBN 0-246-10544-5
Probably out of print, but it contains information on a number of vampire myths including some from out of the way places like Africa, etc. Also contains information on premature burial, diseases, and other facts of life and death that would probably have helped promote vampire myths.

THE VAMPIRE: HIS KITH AND KIN (1928) & THE VAMPIRE IN EUROPE (1929) by Montague Summers.
Over the years these books have been republished and are currently available in bookstores. Summers was a cleric who believed in vampires in the old mythical sense. There is a lot of information to wade through and you have to take his information with a grain of salt (and a Latin dictionary for the sections he didn't bother to translate into English!), but his books contain interesting information on vampire myths nevertheless.

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