Vampires! History + Influences Pt1: Countess Elizabeth Báthory.

Hello Poison Friends! We are still on our spooky kick for the season here and I want to discuss the history behind vampires. We have mentioned some vampire scares here before when discussing tuberculosis, because the disease did carry some superstition behind it in some parts of the world. However, the idea of undead or spiritual entities eating human flesh or drinking blood has been around for centuries. There have been many words for such a beast in various cultures and stories worldwide, so we are touching on a few notable ones that gave rise to the vampire myths and characters that we know today.

That being said, we need to mention some real figures from history that inspired such characters as Bram Stoker's Dracula, a character we all associate with early modern vampires. This episode we are talking about the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, or as you may know her, the Blood Countess. She was said to have bathed in the blood of young virgins she killed to keep herself looking youthful, but how much of this story is true? There are witness statements and trial records of her crimes of torturing and killing young girls and women that she specifically invited to her manor, from both peasant and noble families. Among these records it is written by servants/witnesses that she tortured and murdered between 36-51 girls. Another witness counted up to 80 and still another was told of a register of 650 women killed by the bloody Countess. Obviously, there will be some mentions of torture, gore (nothing too descriptive mind you), and murder. So trigger warning for at least the second half of this episode!

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