FINAL

Vamps Final

My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick is a vampire book different from all of the others. This story does not deal with the image that most of us have of the charismatic handsome rich and powerful vampire of Hollywood, but more the dark and terrible monster of Eastern Europe.

Were you to read the legends of Eastern Europe and Russia, you would find many cases of supposed vampires which led to widespread terror. The vampire to them was far more than a story told to scare children, or to make romantic movies out of, it was a sickening reality. Hey believed, as they believed the sun would rise the next day that vampires were real and common.

This particular account of these legends begins with a scene in a dark and deserted forest at night. A farm hand I out chopping wood when he is attacked and killed gruesomely by what is believed to be a wolf or some other manner of creature. The body is found hanging by the trees and is promptly buried in the cemetery of the small town.

Soon after the events with the farm hand a woodcutter and his son move into the town. They build themselves a small cabin on the far edges of the village and surround it with what could only be described as a moat and several other attempts at protection. Though the son wonders why they are doing such things, his father is known for actions such as this and seeing as he is now almost a man he has learned not to question his father’s motives. The two of them had moved around often from the time the boy was born and every time they did his father took the same extreme measures. His father also carried with him a box that he was forbidden to ever open or look inside, his father kept it under a loose floorboard.

Though they were suspicious of the newcomers the villages welcomed the wood they chopped and hauled into the village often. While on one of his regular trips to the village with his father the son meets a young woman. He is soon very taken with her and wishes to marry her, but she is already promised to a wealthy merchant’s son and therefore they meet in secret for some short while.

Within weeks of them being there reports come of livestock such as sheep and cattle being terrorized by a sort of creature, their throats ripped out in the night. At first the farmers brush these incidents off as wolf attacks, a sign of the frigid winter making it harder for them to hunt. The object of the son’s affections, Maria, has been caring for her ill mother for years, but as the frequency of these livestock attacks increase her mother’s health worsens.

Soon Maria and her betrothed husband marry, while the son watches painfully at the back of the church. She refuses to look at him through the whole ceremony, and soon succumbs to tears, most assume it is out of happiness but the son knows differently. Not hours after the ceremony, once it grows dark and Maria’s husband is staggering home after a long night of celebration with his comrades, one he does not return from.

His body is found dismembered in the streets and his funeral follows soon after. The son believes that maybe he now has a chance, but he does not know the customs of the area. It is customary when a man’s wife dies for her to cover herself in black and be locked in a small one room cabin in the woods for a mourning period of one month. Not even an hour after the funeral Maria is snatched away, clothed in new black garb and sent, followed by a group of older women of the town to the mourning cabin.

The son attempts to find a way to visit her, even though it is forbidden. One of the women from the village bring her food every day and the only things she are allowed to do are pray, read the Bible and knit from the children of the village. There is no way he could go to see her, especially now with the “wolves” about at night. He decides to risk it anyway and one night he sneaks out from his father’s cabin and walks through the woods to the mourning cabin. He knocks on her boarded window which she son opens. She is obviously surprised to see him, but not out of sheer gratitude. She confuses him by telling him he has been by here earlier that evening and had promised to come every evening that she was incarcerated.

He wonders what she means and she explains to him that she had a figure knock on her window not two hours earlier. The figure was standing far enough back by the time that she rose and opened the door that all she could see was his silhouette in the darkness. When she asked him to come closer he told her that this was when asked she could truly say she had not seen him. She hadn’t questioned him and soon the figure made his declarations that he would return every night that she was locked in the cabin.

The sun steps into the light from the fire smoldering in her fireplace so she can see clearly that it is him. Confused, Maria and the son decide to set a trap for the mysterious figure. The next night when he returns, the son is already hiding in the cabin with Maria. She opens the door when she knocks and when he goes to leave she asks for a hug. He agrees but only if she closes her eyes. She does so and talks about how horrible the person smelled, and while she hugged him she quickly hooked a small pin with attached yarn to the back of his coat.

In the morning the son leaves the cabin and follows the trail of string through the town into the cemetery where it disappears into the dirt of the grave of the farm hand.

Seeing as I hate ruining the end of books for people, if you would like to know how it ends either talk to me privately or read the book (however I must say I suggest the latter as it is much more entertaining)

Dracula

Chapter 11
• You’d think that they would have told the mother that they put the garlic in and why
• Creepy doctor, not vampire, but definitely deranged
• Way to fail mother
• Werewolf agent of vampires
Chapter 12
• Very lucky they all have her blood type
• Lucy converted, or in the process of being converted
Chapter 13
• Definitely turned
• Lucy is feeding
Chapter 14
• Bout time someone got it
• Harker seems to journal a lot
Chapter 15
• She is no longer your fiancé, and it’s that or lose the lives of all the kids
• Wonder why she targets kids
Chapter 16
• Why take out communion wafers?
• Steak slows but doesn’t kill
Chapter 17
• Asylum not really all that gun a place for newlyweds.
Chapter 18
• Renfield’s madness might be receding, as his moments of lucidity are growing in frequency
Chapter 19
• If you think he’s insane why try and get information out of him when he doesn’t know reality from fiction
• Dracula tracking down mina
Chapter 20
• Either Dracula killed him for cooperating, Renfield is a vampire, or he attempted suicide
Chapter 21
• Feeding on mina as he did Lucy
• Mina has been turned
Chapter 22
• Feel sorry for mina, it really wasn’t her fault but now she will be turned
Chapter 23
• Funny that transformation takes years as opposed to minutes or hours
Chapter 24
• As her husband, I’m amazed Harker isn’t more angry with Dracula for turning Mina
Chapter 25
• Should not tell Mina plans if they believe her connection with Dracula gave them away.
Chapter 26
• Why are they taking Mina with them to the castle?
Chapter 27
• They seem to heavily rely on Communion wafers
• Still no explanation of Dracula’s communication with gypsies.

week 10

Chapter 6:

I still find it very odd that Mina isn't more distressed over Johnathan's lack of communication. Even with the considerable ammount of time it takes to pass information, a month is a long time to go without hearing from someone. Lucy's sleepwalking could be a sign of her being preyed upon by a vampire. Not all vampires merely drain a person in one go many of them take little bits over weeks or months at a time.

Chapter 7:

More than likely the boxes contain dirt from Romania. It is often said in legends that a vampire cannot live on anything but the "earth of his homeland" so whenever they move they have to take dirt from where they were born and either spread it around the perimeter of the house or keep it under the house (in the basement). The vampire who is responsible for the deaths of the crew members more than likely stowed away in one of the boxes of dirt.Also,the black dog that ran off of the ship is a sign that vampires were involved because black dogs are said to be a sign of evil, which most would say includes vampires.

Chapter 8:

After seeing the evidence in these chapters I definitely believe that Lucy is being preyed upon by a vampire. Maybe Dracula is planning on making her one of his brides. Dracula probably sent the news of Johnathan's admittence to the hospital so that if he died Mina would not come poking around for him and think that it was jsut a disease that he caught while in Romania.

chapter 9:

On the subject of Mina and Johnathan getting married while in Budapest, I wonder if a wedding ring would somehow repel a vampire. Wedding rings are supposed to represent a bond made by God, and therefore are signs of God, so I wonder if that fact would have any bearing on a vampire. Also, the obvious use of the name Van Helsing by Stoker, is well used, Van Helsing was a famous vampire hunter, or so the legends say however I believe he was Austrian and not Dutch.

Chapter 10:

Th idea of having someone keep watch over Lucy's bedside was a good one but, it might be wise to do so using multiple people because one person cannot stay up every night, its not possible. Also, this book has shown that vampires grow more powerful the more they feed, so garlic flowers may not be enough to repel a vampire of that level of strength.

Week 8/9

CHAPTER 1:

My first thought was that Jonathon Harker seemed like you're average guy, had a fiance, a good job, on his first real assignment, normal. The author doesn't waste any time in setting the mood of the book in describing the scene. Also the talk of the carriage driver on the way to the Borgo Pass including the fact that Harker can see through him and that the driver randomly picks up stones from the fires he checks, which would rattle any person, let alone one as truly normal as him.

CHAPTER 2:

Bram Stoker seems to truly embrace the Hollywood vampire, then again, we only really see him as the Hollywood vampire because that typical vampire is based on Bram Stoker's vision of the vampire. For example, the vampires incredible pale skin, but no mention of visible veins or blood, the lack of mirrors in his house, his pointed ears, etc. Also, I noticed that most vampires, with age, gain restraint in their hunger, however when Dracula saw Harker cut himself shaving, he had no restraint whatsoever, which when you think about it is really odd.

CHAPTER 3:

I think that Harker made a really bad decision by choosing to leave his crucifix in his room when it was clearly all that negated Dracula at their last encounter, also, if a man like Dracula tells you something about himself or tells you not to do something, ti would be wise to listen to him. I've also noticed that Bram Stoker is obviously a Catholic or has a strong Catholic bias. I say this because the crucifix averted Dracula, would a cross have done the same? the crucifix and other Catholic paraphernalia were said to avert evil, which I find odd.Also, I think that the three beautiful women were Dracula's brides, in many of the legends vampires would steal young beautiful women from nearby villages and turn them feed on them and keep them as "mates" of a sort, and Dracula specifically was always romoured to have three at any one time.

CHAPTER 4:

I wonder why Dracula would let gypsies within his castle if not as a food supply. I suppose that the legends of gypsies having magical abilities, and being able to communicate with spirits, I guess he might be using them for that purpose. Blood also seems to make Dracula younger and stronger, an effect mimicked in many other vampire legends, also like in other legends, wolves are often considered close companions of vampires, as are spiders, bats and snakes.

CHAPTER 5:

Mina slightly annoys me, you would think that the tone of his letter, even if Dracula decided to screen it, would have hinted at least at his distress. You can tell, just from certain phrases and the like, if someone is upset or afraid when they write something especially if you are engaged to the person and therefore, in theory, know them better than anyone else.

Assignment 4

The Vampyre:

I found this story really interesting, though, the writer's style was very hard to get used to, for nearly the first two pages I couldn't really understand what was happening, but when I settled into it it became much easier. I found it an interesting part of the legend that the Lord made Aubrey promise he wouldn't speak of his faults until a year after his death. the man knew he would become a vampire, and was not going to give Aubrey a chance to ruin his plans.

Vampire Knight:

At first, it wasn't bad, predictable, a little boring,but not all that bad. I did think the way they did the blood interchange was interesting. In many vampire stories if the victim is drained they merely die, but if the vampire also gives them a drink of their blood the victim becomes a vampire. The author adapted this idea with Zero, if he drank the blood of Shizuka-sama or not he was still a vampire, but if he didn't he'd become a Class E and eventually have to be killed. As the mangs went on it got more and more confusing and it got to the point where for the last 6 or so chapters I had absolutely no idea what was going on,

Assignment3

I found many of the vampire stories interesting, especially the one from Russia and Roumania.

Moravia:

I found it funny when in the Moravian legend the priests of the area tried contacting Rome and the Vatican for help on the problem they literally saw as an epidemic, and Rome refused to help them because they said their fears were of "no more than falses or fancies". Yet the Roman Catholic church tried and killed thousands for something as equally far-fetched as witchcraft.

Russia:

The thing I found most interesting about this tale wasn't the vampire's rise from the dead with a carriage and horses and coachmen, but was when they tried to block off the bridge so that the apparition could not get to town, and the vampire was able to raise the gate bar without touching it. There are very few stories that I've heard at least in which vampires have telekinetic abilities, especially not in one of the old legends.

Botsoni:

I found this one the most interesting because it seemed to almost combine stories of witchcraft and vampirism. The vampire confined her to the woods, and after the death of both of them in their feud the girl was left alone in the woods, but the woods sadly enchanted her too much. Its the first story I've ever heard in which a person could be bewitched into being a vampire instead of merely bitten.

Assignment 2

I found a very interesting site (http://strangedayz.co.uk/2007/09/highgate-vampire.html ) that talks about various incidents of reported vampire attacks in London from 1922 to 2007, I found it interesting mostly because when we hear about vampire attacks we think of the 18th or 19th centuries, not the 20th. This site also goes into detail about other paranormal activity in the UK, specifically the London area.

As for the Poe stories, I have read Usher many times and there are elements of all the characters that to me scream vampire, from the obvious aversions to sunlight to their solitude. Vampires are not pack-dwelling creatures, they live on their own, hunt alone, not only that but Poe's very language hints to the undead.

Assignment 1

I have been reading about vampires since I was about six-years-old. I have read the old Slavic stories, of dead not given proper burials who rose from the dead to terrorize and drink of the living. These creatures were nothing but beasts, wanting food and only food. The stories evolved, making them more and more human, making them capable of thought, feeling, compassion. I’ve heard very far-reaching legends from them being able to transform into bats, spiders or other animals, to being able to make themselves invisible.

I actually have written a book with my own vampires. They age slowly, and can die of old age, but it takes thousands of years so by human perceptions they live forever. They appear human, some are pale, some aren’t, some have dark hair, some are blond, they are as individual as we are. When they go out in the sun they do not burst into flame or die, but their skin starts to smoke, a chemical in their skin reacts with the vitamin D in sun rays causing that reaction, if they’re out for extended periods of time it can start to burn, and like if you had an acid on your skin the only thing that will cease this burning is flushing the affected skin with lots of water. The only difference that is visible difference from humans is their eyes. Their irises are green or blue, red when they’ve fed recently, and the pupils and “whites” are both black. They can reproduce as we do or change people into them, either way they choose. They have the ability to transform, each vampire has two forms. One of these forms is that of a black dragon, they use this form to hunt, which can be blood of any kind, they usually choose human blood purely out of tradition. Their other form is their spirit animal, the animal that embodies their personality. The two forms start at their age and age with the vampire. This is only a basic summary, there’s much more to them but that’s the basics.

I have read many books on vampires; one of them was called Sweetblood which was about a girl who was diabetic and obsessed with vampires. That book made an argument about the origin of the vampire that actually makes a lot of sense to me and what I think probably really happened. In early history they did not know much about medicine or disease and a lot of the time if there was something wrong with you, you were possessed by a demon or something equally absurd. Well, then they had no idea what diabetes even was let alone how to treat it. Untreated diabetes causes sensitivity to light, deep comas with death-like symptoms which they awake from without warning, their gums recede, making their teeth look much longer and they become ravenously hungry, leading to them eating anything, even breaking into neighboring houses and eating raw meat. Naturally it would make sense for the legend to evolve as it has. I have also read the Twilight series, and several other series I don’t remember the specifics of.

As to the books that will be taught in this course I have read Dracula and Interview
With a Vampire and as I mentioned before Twilight and I bought The Historian this summer and have been looking for a reason to read it. I’m also interested in reading Encounters With the Undead. One book I have read that I think would be beneficial to this class is My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgewick. It is a relatively short book, only about 200 pages, but it portrays the traditional vampires, not the aristocratic ones portrayed in most novels.

just a little hello, to make sure this is working