pesky revenants revealed

pesky revenants revealed

Charlotte Montagne, in Vampires, the complete guide to vampire mythology, centers the origins of vampires, at least modern views of their origins, in Eastern Europe.  As noted by numerous authors, the origin of vampires is strongly associated with the belief in revenants; people who have come back from the dead.  Often just a nuisance, revenants could be mischievous and bring disease.  At some point, revenants or vampires became associated with bats.  In general, as humans grow old their appearance changes, with larger ears, sunken and bony faces and arms, leathery skin, facial warts, and such; in short, hags.  Perhaps the similarly unappealing facial and skeletal features of bats have played some role in linking bats with vampires.  More importantly, most bats sleep in caves, that is, inside the Great Earth Mother-- in crypts.  Thus bats, like revenants, exemplify a kind of coming out from the grave.  In addition, bats come alive only when darkness falls, the same time that we are aware of ghosts and revenants.  When sleeping, bats wrap themselves in a shroud (their wings), not so far removed from the wrappings and simple coffins of earlier times.  Thus, bats became a symbol of existing after death; a non-Christian notion of rebirth grounded in pagan, animalistic beliefs.  Bats come out at night when our own eyes fail us, and are generally silent, avoiding our hearing. They are easily able to brush across our hair or face without any warning. Ghostly, to be sure.  Thus, bats fit into beliefs about revenants as frightening nuisances that won’t stay in their graves.  The connotations of the original words used to describe vampires are unclear though one, disputed, line of thought suggests ‘witch’.  The modern word vampire (vampyr, etc.) appears only in the 1700’s, and at this time additional characteristics of vampires become salient as discussed below. Before that we primarily have pesky revenants.

Questions such as whether vampires actively avoid sunlight, would be damaged by it, miss the fact that theydo only come out at night, therefore do avoid bright light.  Certainly to see their animal avatar, a bat, flying about during daylight is a pretty sure sign that the bat is sick. The hope that “the light” might destroy the fiends comes from a different set of myths, ones about possible ‘therapeutics’.  Today we recognize that many humans, for example some autistics, are startled and annoyed by bright light and often avoid it, but we don’t expect them to burst into flames or crumble into ashes.  That is beyond present-day credulity.  Overall, then, revenants, subsequently vampires, won’t stay in their graves and make a nuisance of themselves.