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Kanjirottu Yakshi: The Vampire Spirit of the Sacred Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple

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Sealed away in Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala is an old and bloodthirsty deity said to pray to atone for her sins. Known as the vampiric Kanjirottu Yakshi, people still fear her wrath and refuse to open her vault. 

Along the backwaters and shaded groves of Kerala, where river and forest blend into shadows long before nightfall, old folk tales speak of a being as beautiful as she is deadly. She is known as the Kanjirottu Yakshi, a female spirit once human, now hunting for blood. 

Read More: Check out all haunted legends from India

The yakshi spirits are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies. The benign ones are worshipped as tutelaries and are attendees of Kubera, the treasurer of the gods, and also the Hindu god of wealth who ruled Himalayan kingdom of Alaka. There are also malign and mischievous yakshinis with poltergeist-like behaviours. Many folk stories feature murdered women reborn as vengeful yakshis. Among these, the Kanjirottu Yakshi is one of the most feared, admired, and enduring figures.

Yakshi Spirits: Here depicting The Besnagar Yakshi, from the 3rd–1st century BC.

The Vengeful Courtesan

Kanjirottu Yakshi, also known as Mangalathu Sreedevi or Chiruthevi was said to have been born into a Padamangalam family called Mangalathy. She grew up in Kanjiracode, a small village in Southern Travancore that is now in Tamil Nadu.

Said to have been a beautiful courtesan, she had a relationship with Raman Thampi, son of King Rama Varma and rival of Anizhom Thirunal Marthanda Varma in the 1700. She was also known as a flirtatious woman, playing with men’s feelings and driving them to financial ruin for sport. 

She loved her servant and palanquin-bearer named Kunjuraman though. The job of Kunjiraman was to carry Sreedevi and her brother Govindan on his back. He was a married man and one of the few that had no interest in her romantically. 

He was close with her brother, Govindan though, some even claiming they were lovers. They often shared the same room, but she didn’t do anything about this. Instead, she directed her anger toward his wife.

Frustrated and arrogant, she plotted to have his wife killed, although her brother intervened and stopped the plan by spilling it all to Kunjiraman. Thinking she had gotten her way, Kunjiraman agreed to sleep with her. But he was plotting for himself and murdered her to avenge his wife. Some say he strangled her to death when they were in bed together. Her brother turned a blind eye to his crime and protected his friend. 

After her death, she turned into a yakshi, the malevolent kind. She was reborn in the village of Kajirottu in Kundara as a grown woman, still as beautiful as always. Hunting Kunjuraman and terrorising the rest of the villagers, she drank their blood. She said that she would stop if he decided to marry her. 

Her brother was a devoted upāsaka and follower of Lord Balarama, a deity of farming. She made a deal with him that she would spend a year with Kunjuraman if she agreed to become a devotee of Narasimha after this year ended. 

Narasimha: is a deity in Hinduism, revered as the fourth of the ten principal avatars (Dashavatara) of the god Vishnu. Narasimha is venerated as a fierce protector who destroys evil and safeguards his devotees. He is the destructor of not only external evil, but also one’s own inner evil of “body, speech, and mind”

She also had to agree to pray for Govindan and his relationship with Kunjuraman in this birth and all subsequent ones. The yakshi swore on ‘ponnum vilakkum’ in agreement.

Later, she was installed at a temple that Kanjiraccottu Valiaveedu owned. devotees used to give ‘Pongala’ to the Sreedevi Yakshi Amma on Pooram on the first Friday in every Malayalam month except Meenom. This temple no longer exists, so where is she now?

Pongala: Pongala is a harvest festival of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The name ‘Pongala’ means ‘to boil over’ and refers to the ritualistic offering of porridge made of rice, sweet brown molasses, coconut gratings, nuts and raisins. Generally women devotees participate in this ritual. Here from the Kalam Karikkal festival on Makara Chovva at Kalathil Sree Rudhiramala Bhagavathy Temple, Manatthala, Chavakkaadu, Thrissur. // Source

The Vampire of the Night in the Vault

The Kanjirottu Yakshi is now said to reside in Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. This is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. which supposedly also contains an enormous treasure and secrets inside of their sealed vaults.

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B vault is one of the six vaults of the temple and its original name being “Mahabharata Kallara” and is the largest cellar. A four-day Ashtamangala Devaprasnam conducted in August 2011 declared Kallara B as a “forbidden zone”. The enchanting and ferocious forms of this Yakshi are painted on the south-west part of Sri Padmanabha’s shrine. This is where Kanjirotty Yakshi is said to dwell. 

The temple was originally built in 6th century A.D., and later beautified further by the Kings of Travancore after 10 centuries. The royal family of Travancore is believed to be descendants of the adored saint Kulashekhara Alwar and are the ones watching over it.

Interior of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple from the early 20th century.

The vault remains unopened due to ongoing legal issues and the legend of the Yakshi, whom some believe will wreak havoc on the world if her prayers to Lord Narasimha within Vault B are disturbed by opening the vault.

Around a hundred years ago, when the area was grappling with serious famine, the temple authorities tried to open the chamber to use the treasure kept locked behind the doors. But, when they heard the sound of gushing ocean waves from behind the door, they stepped back and gave up the idea. Since then, it is believed that the chamber is connected to the Arabian Sea, and any attempt made with the modern technology to open the door will unleash catastrophes across the state and in Kerala.

Legend has it that in the 1930s, when a gang of temple invaders tried to siphon off the belongings of Vault B. But when they encountered Cobras, they fled the scene. 

In 2011 following the Supreme Court’s order five of them were opened and were found to be one of the largest treasure troves in the world. bags full of ancient gold coins, diamonds, gemstones, very heavy and huge gold and diamond necklaces.

The untimely death of Sundarajan, the petitioner, a month after the doors were opened. Another observer lost his mother to death as a result of the curse.

Kanjirottu Yakshi of Fear and Reverence

So what of the bloodthirsty Yakshi? Has all her years in prayers changed her terrorizing nature, or would she go back to her old ways if let out? 

Over the years, her deity has also garnered followers. Sundara Lakshmi, an accomplished dancer and consort of HH Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, was an ardent devotee of Kanjirottu Yakshi Amma.

In July 2020, the Supreme Court of India upheld the rights of the Travancore royal family to manage the Temple. The royal family has maintained that they oppose the opening of Vault B, stating that it is a “secret and sacred place.” According to them, no amount of treasure hidden inside would be worth the danger of letting her out. 

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References:

Kanjirottu Yakshi – Wikipedia

Yakshini – Wikipedia

Kanjirottu Yakshi: Blood Drinking Tale of Kerala – Scientific Monk

Padmanabhaswamy Temple ‘Vault B’: facts about the scary, inaccessible chamber, Thiruvananthapuram – TimesTravel

Kanjirottu Yakshi – Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

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Krasue: The Floating Head of Southeast Asian Nightmares

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Floating in the air in rural parts of Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia, the disembodied ghost of the Krasue is hunting for blood. 

Across Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and parts of Malaysia, villagers share a haunting vision that lives in whispered folklore. They speak of Krasue, a spirit unlike ghosts tied to graveyards or old houses. Krasue is a night creature that floats, haunting fields, villages, and the spaces between human life and the unseen world. In tradition she is known as a flying female ghost whose existence is bound to hunger, loss, and a body untethered from death.

Read More: Check out more ghostly tales from Thailand

While exact details differ by region, the core of the legend remains consistent: Krasue is a detached head with its internal organs trailing below like shimmering tendrils. She moves by night, drawn to life, to blood, and to the living body.

An Unquiet Spirit of Loss

Origins of Krasue vary in telling. In some versions she was once a human woman who died a violent or untimely death. In others she was cursed, punished, or transformed because of forbidden knowledge or unclean acts. After she dies, her sins cause her to be reborn as a phut (Thai: ภูต) that has to live off wasted, uncooked or rotten food.

There are others claiming that this spirit was formerly a rich woman, who had a length of black gauze or ribbon tied around the head and neck as protection from the sunlight. This woman was possessed by an evil spirit and cursed to become a Krasue.

Perhaps most popular is the origin story of the Krasue, a woman dabbling in black magic. While casting a spell, she made a mistake or used the wrong spell, causing her head and body to separate. These witches and witchcraft are also called “Mae Mot” (แม่มด) or “Yai Mot” (ยายมด). If not the witch turned into a Krasue herself, her daughters or granddaughters could, like an ancestral curse.

Usually, her upper part is described as a young and beautiful woman, at least in visual media. She has also been described as an older woman. Her head glows faintly in the dark, often compared to a flickering lamp or a will-o’-the-wisp, floating in the air.  

Below the head hang her organs, trailing down from the neck. In contemporary representations her teeth often include pointed fangs in yakkha (Thai: ยักษ์) or vampire fashion. This as well as the belief she is hunting blood, has made people see her as a vampire-like creature as well as a restless spirit. 

A Predator of Night and Flesh

Krasue is not content to wander silently. She hunts. In the day she looks like any other person, perhaps a bit tired. But at night she sheds her lower par of her body at home or somewhere else to seek substance. Every night she floats through the forest looking for food. Most often this consists of rotting meat or the blood of living animals. 

But although her victims are often livestock, she loves the blood of humans as well. Especially children, and sleeping villagers whose breath and warmth draw her closer. 

In some regions she feeds by licking blood from wounds or drinking from open water. There is a legend that says that the people who are wounded should be aware of the Krasue because it can smell the blood and will come to eat the blood at night when people fall asleep. Thai people also believe that it’s a bad idea to leave your clothes hanging outside overnight because the Krasue might just come by and wipe the feces and blood from her mouth on them. 

Her lust for blood of children has especially struck a cord in the collective fear against the Krasue. This makes many in the olden days fear when someone is giving birth, as they believe a Krasue will be able to smell it and come devour on fresh placenta and newborns.

Protection Against the Night

The Krasue is, as mentioned, mostly spotted in rural areas, especially in marshy places. According to Thai ethnographer Phraya Anuman Rajadhon, the Krasue is accompanied by a will-o’-the-wisp-like luminescent glow. The explanations attempted about the origin of the glow include the presence of methane in marshy areas. The Krasue is often said to live in the same rural areas as Krahang, a male spirit of Thai folklore and these two spirits are often mentioned or represented together.

The Krahang: The Krahang (กระหัง) manifests itself as a shirtless man, wearing a traditional loincloth, who flies in the night. Krahang uses two large kradong (กระด้ง), round rice winnowing baskets to fly in the It also often rides a sak tam khao (สากตำข้าว), the long wooden pestle of a traditional manual rice pounder. Legends of the Thai oral tradition say that this is an evil spirit that may harm people walking at night in out of the way areas.

Because belief in Krasue was strong, so were the protective practices to keep her out of the house. House-owners usually build spiky fences or grow spiky bamboo to protect themselves from the Krasue. The Krasue is scared of spiky things because it fears its intestines will get stuck and it will not be able to escape.

If the top part of the body fails to find the lower half before daybreak it will die in terrible pain. The Krasue will also die if its intestines get cut off or if its body disappears or gets hidden by someone and exposed by the sun. Some folk beliefs hold that the creature can be destroyed by burning it. 

But can you destroy her completely? Some say the danger of her transforming someone into one of her own is high. It is said that if a human consumes food that is stained with the blood or saliva of a Krasue, they will be doomed to become one. In some versions she also shares her saliva when she is at the brink of death to move host bodies. 

The Southeast Asian Fear and Krasue in Modern Imagination

In modern interpretation, the Krasue has been morphed into a Khmer princess. One story tells about a Khmer princess many years ago who was in love with a man from a lower status even though she had been set to marry a Siamese nobleman. Eventually, he found out about this and sent her to be executed by burning at the stake. The night before the execution, the Khmer princess got in touch with a powerful witch and placed a spell over her to protect herself from the flames. Unfortunately, the affect arrived too late and only her head, neck, and her internal organs remained intact while the fire charred her body.

As mentioned, the Krasue is not only told in one place, but across many southeast asian countries and cultures. There are many variations to the legend, but one common denominator to it is the floating head and torso with her organs hanging down. 

The Name of the Monster: Krasue กระสือ (Thai), អាប Ahp (Khmer, Penanggal or Palasik (Malay), Kuyang ກະສື (Lao), Kui’yang, Leyak or Pok-Pok (Indonesian), Ma lai (Vietnamese). 

There have been written records of this lore since the Ayutthaya period (around 14th – 18th century), but even today she is grabbing headlines of people claiming to have seen her, causing panic and fear, and also a bit of intrigue. Often, women acting strangely in a community are suspected of becoming a Krasue at night by other members of the village. Many sightings are still being reported each year in rural areas with people blaming Kra Sue activity for mysterious livestock deaths and villages have set up night patrol squads after a reported Krasue sighting in the last few years.

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References:

Krasue – Wikipedia

The Tale of Phi Krasue and Her Floating Head – Spooky Stories From Thailand

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A Vrykolakas Vampire in Sunny Mykonos

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A vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore was said to terrorize the inhabitants on Mykonos island. To stop the haunting, they exhumed, burned and buried the remains of the body on an inhabited island. But did it work?

On the sunny Greek Island, Mykonos, people mostly think of vacationing, the blue sea and nightlife lights. What Greece was known to the western Europeans centuries ago was a wild and haunted country, and many came back with ghost stories. 

Read More: Check out all ghostly tales from Greece

One of the stories told from the time when the Venetians and Ottomans fought for the island at the start of the 1700s. A story about the dead coming back from the dead to terrorize the living. 

Mykonos: Is a Greek Island part of the Cyclades islands. Today it’s known for its booming tourism and vibrant nightlife. It was in ancient times a poor island though, windy where the locals worshiped many gods, and where stories about the dead coming back was plentiful.

The Manic Panic of the Fear of the Vrykolakas

In 1701, a French botanist named  Joseph Pitton de Tournefort arrived in Mykonos and witnessed something that he didn’t believe in himself, but swept the whole local community in a panic.   

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort: French botanist sent by Louis XIV to catalog plants in Greece and Asia Minor. He detailed his journey in, A Voyage Into the Levant, posthumously published in 1717 after he was run over by a carriage. It turned out to be one of the most detailed accounts of the belief in Vrykolakas and what the community did in face of a supposed haunting.

An annoying local resident was murdered and buried in a chapel in the remote countryside. It’s not specified what happened to his killer and if someone ever paid for his death. In life he had been ill natured and argumentative, and not many liked him alive. No one liked him in his afterlife.  

Read Also: The Atoning Vrykolakas Vampire in Santorini

A few days after his burial he was reported by the locals to be stalking the village as a vrykolakas, harassing people in their homes, emptying wine barrels, and causing much disturbance of a poltergeist nature. Doors rattled and the lights went out on their own. 

Exorcising a Vrykolakas

The things and haunting the vrykolakas caused were said to be mostly harmless, but when he started harassing the wealthy people and when a donkey was found beaten up. The villagers gathered to call a priest to stop it all. 

Locals insisted that the man be exhumed and exorcised to stop the haunting of the vrykolakas. The church allowed it, at least, the rituals went ahead anyway and they buried the man up to look at his corpse. The witnesses claimed that the body was not decaying as it should have and that it was unnatural how well preserved it was. 

It’s worth noting that according to de Tournefort and his other foreign associates, it was well decayed. How it really was is unknown today, but as we have seen in other stories about the Vrykolakas, a decaying corpse in the ground doesn’t necessarily stop people from believing it needs to be exorcised.  

The Vrykolakas Vampires: In Greek folklore, they believed in the vampiric Vrykolaka. Traditionally believed that a person could become a vrykolakas after death due to a sacrilegious way of life, but also through other means, like A cat leaping across a fresh grave, Consuming meat from a sheep slain by a wolf or werewolf. Some believed that a werewolf itself could become a powerful vampire after being killed. This revenant wasn’t after just the blood, but also the flesh, some saying the liver was its favorite.

Burn the Heart of the Vrykolakas

As a final thing, they decided to remove the person’s heart to burn it, but there were no trained doctors there, and they brought a butcher to the chapel instead. The butcher had problems finding the heart however and ended up mutilating the body in search for it. It was a horrible stench, and although the priests burned incense to cover it up, fear spread through the crowd. The author things that the smell, sight and superstition caused people to hallucinate, and they started screaming “Vrykolakas” to his mutilated body, warm with what seemed like fresh blood. 

Read Also: The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle

The corpse’s heart was removed, taken to the seashore and burned. A detail of the ritual that also happened on the other side of the world in the New England Vampire Panic a century later. His body was reinterred, but then the haunting of the vrykolakas’ only increased. He was apparently entering their homes now, beating people up in their sleep. According to lore, knocking on people’s doors appears in many stories about the vrykolakas. They only knocked once, calling the names of those living there. If you opened for the vrykolakas, everyone inside could die. That’s why there still is a saying in Greece, you should only answer the door on the second knock. 

They tried holding a chanting march of prayers through the village, but it didn’t work. They tried hammering nails into the body, but no luck. People fled their home, the streets were empty after dark. 

Read More: The Vrykolakas Vampire in Patmos

Finally the body was taken to another island and cremated. Lore tells that the Vrykolakas can’t cross salt water on their own, so on the Greek islands, bodies of those suspected of being vampiric would be put on uninhabited islands. In this case, his body was transported in secret, since this was apparently against Orthodox canon and the local priest feared an official reprimand. According to Ortodox doctrin, it’s not compatible with the doctrine of bodily resurrection. On January 16th, 1701, they took the boat out, some believing it could be to the islet of Baos just off the coast of Mykonos. With that extreme measure, all phenomena ceased, according to de Tournefort’s account.  

When the travel account was published in 1717, the timing coincided with the European vampire panic that would take hold of the continent, and the cases of vampires in Serbia and other places in eastern Europe would cement the lore of vampirism into modern folklore. 

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References:

By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture

The Vroucolaca of Mykonos: An Enlightenment Eyewitness to Greek Vampire Panic 

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t4th9mz1d&seq=368

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort – Wikipedia 

https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Voyage_into_the_Levant/zDYZAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor%3A%22Joseph%20Pitton%20de%20Tournefort%22&pg=PA103&printsec=frontcover

Vrykolakas – Wikipedia

Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas

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Manananggal: The Night Splitter of Filipino Folklore

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As part of the shapeshifting Aswang demons of the Phillipines, the Manananggal was soaring the sky in her bat-like appearance on her hunt for human blood. 

Magtatangal. A witch. They say that it flies and eats human flesh, but when it flies, it only has half its body, and that is why it is called that because it’s tangal which means that it can disengage, and he dislodges half of his body and carries the other half home.
— Fray Domingo de los Santos, Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala (1703)

In the haunted forests and rural villages in the Philippines lives one of the most terrifying figures. Known as the Manananggal, this creature is a type of vampire spirit that strikes under the cover of night, feeding on the living.

Unlike the typical vampire tales of Europe, the Manananggal is not a corpse that rises from a grave nor a spirit that floats invisibly through walls. It is a living woman by day who becomes a monster by night, revealing a grotesque dual nature that makes her one of folklore’s most haunting night beings.

A Woman Who Becomes Night

The legend holds that the Manananggal appears in human form during the day, indistinguishable from any ordinary person. She may be a neighbor, a villager, or a quiet woman passing through town. But when darkness falls, her body undergoes a terrible transformation. Its name comes from the Tagalog word tanggal, meaning “to remove,” because this being literally separates itself in two before it hunts. The torso splits from the legs. The lower half remains rooted to the earth, while the upper body sprouts bat-like wings and soars into the night on stealthy wings. 

Once airborne, the Manananggal hunts for her prey. She is very similar to other vampiric Visayan legends like of the Mandurug, vampiric being that live as people during the day. Sometimes the Mandrugo is said to have a bat-like appearance, but one thing setting them apart is the victims of the Manananggal. 

Read More: Mandurug is said to live in the region of Capiz and disguises itself as a beautiful woman. It sucks blood using a proboscis-like tongue. Some live in forests far from human communities, but the Mandurug can infiltrate human society by marrying into a community, either slowly draining their husband of blood or using him strictly as a hideout and leaving at night to raid other villages, thereby maintaining their cover. // Image: Capiz/ Source

The Manananggal’s favorite victims are sleeping humans, especially pregnant women. According to tradition, she uses a long, thin proboscis-like tongue to penetrate sealed doors and windows without disturbing the sleepers. With this horror-like organ she drains the blood of her victim or feeds on the unborn child inside the womb.

She is also said to target newlyweds and lovers, newborn children and men who were left before marriage. It’s not just a single bite, but often a slow death of feeding on them over a longer period of time. 

The Manananggal is not always hunting alone. The Tiktik is a type of bird that makes a “tik-tik” sound, warning people of the creature’s presence. As the sound gets louder, the farther away the Manananggal is. If it goes completely quiet, the Manananggal is too close for comfort. 

Image: Gian Bernal/Wikimedia

How to Battle the Manananggal

Can you fight against a creature like the Manananggal? According to legends, you have to strike on the body left behind while the Manananggal is out hunting. Folklore holds that if villagers find and sprinkle salt, garlic, or ash onto the detached lower half before sunrise, the monster cannot rejoin its body. When morning light arrives, the separated torso will burn and the creature will die. They are also thought to avoid daggers, light, vinegar, spices and the tail of a stingray, which can be fashioned into a whip and fight them. 

But the safest thing to do is to protect your house for the Manananggal before it gets close. Small containers of salt, ash and raw rice, and the smell of burning rubber are said to deter the Manananggal from approaching one’s house.

Birth of a Creature

But where does Mananaggal really come from? In some instances, shamanists or other practitioners of the occult have also been called Manananggal, using the word as a type of witch. And according to some lore, a Manananggal is not born, but created. 

The Filipino Shaman: Filipino shamans, commonly known as babaylan, were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. Babaylan were women serving in spiritual leadership roles or effeminate men (asog or bayok). There are also sorcerers who are said to have hereditary powers. This type of sorcerers are often conflated with the aswang, evil vampire-like supernatural beings capable of appearing human (or were originally human). The Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the introduction of Catholic Christianity resulted in the extinction of most native shamanistic practices and persecution of the practicioners. // Image: Babaylan Festival in Bago City by Hptina24

Some say that to become a Manananggal you need a special ointment and an egg containing a black chick. While chanting a special incantation you should anoint yourself with the ointment and place the egg in your armpit until it disappears.

Other traditions say when a Manananggal does not kill their victims outright they will turn into another Mananaggal.

Origins of the Manananggal Legend

The Manananggal appears most prominently in Tagalog and Visayan folklore, especially in Capiz, but similar beings are recorded throughout Philippine culture. The Manananggal is a part of the Aswang, or evil spirit lore in the Phillipines. 

Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil and malevolent creatures in Filipino folklore and the Spanish colonists noted that the aswang was the most feared among the mythical creatures of the Philippines in the 16th century. Aswang are traditionally described as one-dimensional monsters and inherently evil by nature, with no explicable motives beyond harming and devouring other creatures.

Among the Aswang types, the Manananggal is also often compared to the Wakwak, a vampiric and bird-like creature as well. The main way to tell the difference between the Manananggal and the Wakwak is that the Wakwak cannot separate its torso from its body.

Wakwak: The Wakwak is a vampiric, bird-like creature in Philippine mythology. In some places the Wakwak is believed to be another form a vampire can take or a type of witch-like entity. The Wakwak is generally described as a very large bird with either feathery or leathery wings, which is said to be as sharp as a knife. It is often described by old folks to have long sharp talons, which it uses to slash its victims and to get their heart. The sound associated with the Wakwak is considered to be an indicator that something is nearby. 

Colonizing Folklore

There are many witness accounts written down from the Spanish colonizers about the locals witnessing these types of entities. But what is the truth about the Manananggal legends, and exactly who shaped it into being what it is today?

The Manananggal legend is most likely from colonial times. The way to repel these entities are very similar to European vampire lore, especially Balkan lore. Chances are that the Spaniards likely villanised and demonized the Aswang entities when they came with Christian missionarries, trying to convert them from their pagan ways. 

The Spanish Colonizing the Phillipines: The colonization of the Phillipines by the Catholic Christian Spaniards shaped the way we view Filipino mythology today. // Image: The Principalia of a rural parish in colonial Philippines, joining the Holy Week procession. Illustration, c. 1870.

Spanish chroniclers like Antonio de Morga and Francisco Ignacio Alcina provided some of the earliest written accounts of Philippine beliefs and have therefore shaped them a lot in terms of how we view them. 

Why the Manananggal showed up during this time period is up for debate and even some conspiracy theories. Some speculate during this time of conversion, the Spaniards created the legend of the Manananggal, as an attempt to draw the local people out of the forests and into the cities. Making them easier to control.

What the truth is difficult to say today, and how the Manananggal legend changed and was shaped before colonisation is tricky as the lack of written documentation. 

A Legend Alive in Story

In modern times the Manananggal remains one of the Philippines’ most iconic supernatural figures. She appears in horror films, literature, and oral storytelling. 

When the moon rises and the world grows quiet, some still say she watches from treetops and rooflines, awaiting the moment when the last lamp goes out and the night feeds again.

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References:

Manananggal – Wikipedia

Aswang – Wikipedia

https://mythologicaencyclopedia.com/Manananggal

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The Atoning Vrykolakas Vampire in Santorini

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After a man died before atoning for his crimes, he came back from the dead as a vampiric Vrykolakas when his wife failed to follow his final wishes. What followed was a month full of terror and haunting.  

Perhaps the sunny Santorini is not the place people think vampire-like creatures roamed, although history would tell you otherwise. 

Read More: Check out all ghostly tales from Greece

From the text from a French priest, we have some of the oldest stories of the vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore documented in writing. One of them being the tale of a merchant from Patmos called Patino. 

Santorini: The Greek Island, officially Thira or Thera, is around 200 km from mainland Greece in the Aegean Sea. As well as ancient Greek mythology, the folklore was influenced from the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman rule as well as Orthodox Christianity. Pyrgos Kallistis was the former capital of Santorini.Some speculate that there are so many vrykolakas stories from here because of the volcanic soil so the body doesn’t decompose as well.

The Atoning Vrykola

One of the stories we have written down from a Jesuit priest came from the cousin of a man who had died on Santorini. He was known as a usurer and money lender named Lanettis. He is also sometimes given the last name Anapliotis. Lanettis reformed in the last year of his life and started to make amends to the people he had wronged. When he died he asked his wife to pay his remaining debts, and rectify his wrongdoings if the people came to her. 

Read Also: The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle

She ended up not adhering to his final wishes though. Instead, she spent the money meant as alms on people she liked, not those in need. Lanettis began haunting his village six weeks after his death as something between a vampiric monster and a revenant ghost. 

Vrykolakas Stories: Jesuit Priest François Richard was a missionary to the Greek island of Santorini. In Paris, his accounts about the Vrykolakas appeared titled: Relation de l’Isle de Sant-erini, 1657. He believed the devil kept some corpses and animated them. For the Jesuit, the “vrykolakas” was simply “a special case of diabolic possession. He said that when a village is visited by vrykolakas, the villagers gather in one house for protection, and apply to their Bishop for permission to exhume the suspect. This is done on a Saturday, the only day when a vrykolakas may rest in its grave. If the body is found “fresh and gorged with new blood”, it is “exorcised” with prayer or cremated.

Almost like a poltergeist, Lanettis started terrorising the villagers. But as a Vrykolas, as the Greek knew these types of the returned dead as. 

Read More: The Vrykolakas Vampire in Patmos

He was known to be yanking the bedclothes off of sleeping people, waking up the priests for matins, emptying wine kegs, and generally abusing and terrorizing people. It seemed to not be targeted toward any particular person, and everyone could become a target. 

The Vrykolakas Vampires: In Greek folklore, they believed in the vampiric Vrykolaka. Traditionally believed that a person could become a vrykolakas after death due to a sacrilegious way of life, but also through other means, like A cat leaping across a fresh grave, Consuming meat from a sheep slain by a wolf or werewolf. Some believed that a werewolf itself could become a powerful vampire after being killed. This revenant wasn’t after just the blood, but also the flesh, some saying the liver was its favorite.

He visited the Mother Prioress of a Dominican convent, awakened her by rolling her rosary on the floor, jeered at her prayers. She spat in his face and asked what he wanted. as a parting joke, threw her shoes into the water cistern. Simply praying the ghost away would do no good. 

Exhuming and Exorcising a Vrykola

This haunting went on for around a month. His wishes to atone in his life had turned into terrorising more people in his afterlife. After a woman lost her speech for three days after encountering him, the villagers gathered up the courage to go to his wife, trying to make her do the right thing and comply with her husband’s final wishes. 

This was not enough however, certain rites had to be done to make sure he strayed in his grave. His body was exhumed, and examined. According to the story, his body didn’t really show signs of being undead, and was badly decayed. Just for good measure though, he was exorcised for an entire day with prayers before being dismembered before he once again was buried. This happened not only once, but twice, and he didn’t stop his haunting until his wife repaid his debt back to everyone to atone for his sins in life. 

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References:

Vampirólogos. Francois Richard 

By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture

Vrykolakas – Wikipedia

Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas

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The Vrykolakas Vampire in Patmos

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After terrorizing his village, the Vrykolakas Vampire from Patmos in Santorini were taken to an inhabited island and set on fire. The question is, did it really work?

Perhaps the sunny Santorini is not the place people think vampire-like creatures roamed, although history would tell you otherwise. 

Read More: Check out all ghostly tales from Greece

From the text from a French priest, we have some of the oldest stories of the vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore documented in writing. One of them being the tale of a merchant from Patmos called Patino. 

Santorini: The Greek Island, officially Thira or Thera, is around 200 km from mainland Greece in the Aegean Sea. As well as ancient Greek mythology, the folklore was influenced from the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman rule as well as Orthodox Christianity. Pyrgos Kallistis was the former capital of Santorini.Some speculate that there are so many vrykolakas stories from here because of the volcanic soil so the body doesn’t decompose as well.

The Merchant from Patmos

The story was relayed to the Jesuit Priest, by the abbot of the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Amourgo on an island not too far from Patmos, Santorini where the story is set.

A merchant from Patmos called Patino went on a business trip to Anatolia, the peninsula in West Asia that is mainly the land area of Turkey today. While he was there, he died, although the sources don’t say from what. They put him in a coffin and got him ready to be shipped home for his burial. When lifting him into the boat, one of the sailors on the ship was placed on top of it, and claimed he felt something move inside of the coffin. 

He talked the other sailors to lift the lid of the coffin to check it out, and saw that his body was perfectly preserved, with no signs of decay. It doesn’t really say how long time had passed since his death though. According to the story, the sailors said nothing of what they had seen to his wife when they returned her husband. 

Vrykolakas Stories: Jesuit Priest François Richard was a missionary to the Greek island of Santorini. In Paris, his accounts about the Vrykolakas appeared titled: Relation de l’Isle de Sant-erini, 1657. He believed the devil kept some corpses and animated them. For the Jesuit, the “vrykolakas” was simply “a special case of diabolic possession. He said that when a village is visited by vrykolakas, the villagers gather in one house for protection, and apply to their Bishop for permission to exhume the suspect. This is done on a Saturday, the only day when a vrykolakas may rest in its grave. If the body is found “fresh and gorged with new blood”, it is “exorcised” with prayer or cremated.

The Merchant Returning as a Vrykolaka

His wife had him buried with full honors according to the story, so his transformation wasn’t because of anything with an improper burial as many vampiric stories allude to. He began appearing in houses in the area, violently assaulting people and causing damage. Fifteen people are said to have died after his beating, or just in pure terror. 

Read Also: The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle

Prayers and exorcisms were fruitless in stopping the haunting. Patino’s body was ordered sent back to Natolia, but the thoroughly spooked sailors charged with its transport stopped on the first island they passed and burned it, which ended the phenomena. 

The Vrykolakas Vampires: In Greek folklore, they believed in the vampiric Vrykolaka. Traditionally believed that a person could become a vrykolakas after death due to a sacrilegious way of life, but also through other means, like A cat leaping across a fresh grave, Consuming meat from a sheep slain by a wolf or werewolf. Some believed that a werewolf itself could become a powerful vampire after being killed. This revenant wasn’t after just the blood, but also the flesh, some saying the liver was its favorite.

The same Jesuit priest notes elsewhere in his writings that vrykolakas were commonly thought to be unable to cross salt water by themselves, and they were often dispatched on uninhabited islands. Like on the island of Amourgo, where they were said to roam freely often in groups of five or six, feeding on raw green beans. Who knows, perhaps there is still someone roaming the sunny islands around Santorini?

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References:

Vampirólogos. Francois Richard 

By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture

Vrykolakas – Wikipedia

Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas

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The Churel: The Vengeful Vampire Woman of South Asian Folklore

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Fueled by anger and vengeance, the vampiric Churel of South Asian folklore, is said to haunt down men to drain their blood as a vengeful spirit brought back from the dead.

Across South Asia, there are countless legends of spirit beings that stalk the night and prey on the living like a vampire. Among the most feared and vivid of these is the Churel (चुडैल in Hindi and چڑیل in Urdu), a female spirit often associated with death, betrayal, and unfulfilled fate. 

The Churel appears in stories from all over South Asia, but is perhaps most predominantly told in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, and today she remains one of the most potent ghost figures in regional folklore. Her presence is distinct, terrifying, and symbolic.

A Spirit Born of Suffering

The legend tells that a woman might become a Churel under tragic or unjust circumstances. Most commonly after she died during childbirth or pregnancy, but also that she was murdered by her family or husband can make her come back as the bloodsucking Churel. 

Instead of finding peace, she becomes trapped between realms, bearing resentment and a thirst for retribution. This way, she is known as an entity much like a vengeful ghost as well as a vampiric or even demonic creature. 

Other names she is known under: There are so many variations of this legend, she also comes under different names depending where her tales are told. She is called Chudail, Chudel, Churrail, Churreyl among otheres. In Gugarat she is also known as Jakihn, Jakhai, Mukai, Nagulai, Alvantin. In Punjabi they are often called Pichal peri or pichhal pairī.

The Churel is often described with a face that may be hideous and distorted. Her hair is long and unkempt. Her eyes are dark and burning with rage, her breast saggy, and her hands like claws. They are also described to have pig faces with large fangs or human-like faces with sharp tusks

Her appearance is based on what people deem unattractive in their time and culture it seems like. Sometimes she has the ability to shapeshift into a beautiful woman or a little girl to lure the men to her. 

One thing about her appearance she is known for is her backward-facing feet. Something that could be the only way to set her apart from other livingn women when she appears in her beautiful form. 

The Backward Facing Feet Vampire in Other Cultures: In Dominican folklore, people have the legend of ‘La Ciguapa’, a beautiful woman roaming through the trees at night. The only way you can tell she’s something other than human is by her backwards facing feet, and she as well lures men into their death. How did such a similar legend appear on the opposite side of the world? Some believe that it has African roots. Some believe it came with the Spaniards from the classics.  

Predator of the night

In folklore, the Churel is known to stalk men and especially young men traveling alone at night. She may call to them in the voice of a loved one, lure them to isolated places, and then reveal her true form. At that moment, the victim becomes trapped by fear and confusion.

Some tales describe the Churel’s attack as sucking the life force or blood from her victims. She is often said to attack people from the youngest to the oldest, or perhaps most handsome to the least. Working herself through families and friend groups. Legend also tells about Churel’s kidnapping of young men, imprisoning him until he is elderly, or else using him sexually until he withers and dies.

It is also said that she is a danger to new mothers as well. In other versions, the Churel’s goal is not consumption but revenge. Her victims may be men who wronged women, men who harmed others, or simply those unlucky enough to encounter her.

She stalks her prey close to graveyards, forests, crossroads and cremation grounds, feeding on her victims blood, and even semen. Some are said to die instantly, some youth surviving her initial attack is slowly wasting away and dying. 

Types of Churel According to Lore

Although it is a rather old legend spanning across countries, languages and religions, the variations of the legends are vast and many. There are those who have tried to break the types of legends down into three categories though. 

Most Churel are Soshi Churel, women who were neglected in life and now stalk men to drain their blood and semen. Often they will be particularly fond of the blood of their own relatives.

Some Churel specifically target and molest children. Known as Poshi Churel, they only feed upon children and are submissive to their husbands, should he still be alive.

Toshi Churel, and are kind and beneficial to their families. They often become protectors of their family and serve their husbands after death.

Regional Variations of the Legend

But from where does the legend come from, this particular bloodsucking monster with her feet backwards? The Churel myth likely originated in Persia, where similar spirits were said to arise from women who died with unfulfilled desires. And there are Persian accounts of travelers seeing reversed footprints and by mistake, running right toward her. 

The legend spread into South Asia and merged with local traditions. In some accounts, they are associated with demonic entities or identified with dakinis female spirits or servants linked to the goddess Kali.

The Dākinī: The concept of the ḍākinī varies by context and tradition. In early Hindu texts and East Asian esoteric Buddhism, it refers to demonesses who consumed human flesh or essence. In Hindu Tantric literature, Ḍākinī is a goddess linked to specific chakras or the seven elements of the body. In Nepalese and Tibetan Buddhism, ‘ḍākinī’ can signify fierce female embodiments of enlightened energy or spiritually developed women who aid Tantric initiates in achieving enlightenment.

There are many variations of the legend, many of them found in Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Among the Korwas of Mirzapur, a woman who dies in a lying room for childbirth can become a Churel. The Pataris and Majhwars say a girl who dies during pregnancy or in an “unclean” state becomes a Churel, appearing as a girl in white who lures men into mountains. To free the captives they need to sacrifice a goat. 

The Kharwars believe that when the soul leaves the body, it becomes air but if it comes in contact with a person, the soul becomes troublesome. The Bhuiyars claim a girl who dies before 20 days of age becomes a Churel.

In Punjab, it is believed that women who die without proper funeral rites related to their bed may return as Churels. In Punjabi they are often called Pichal peri or pichhal pairī (ਪਿੱਛਲ ਪੈਰੀ, پچھل‌ پيری), meaning reversed footed. They are said to roam the mountains of India and Pakistan and are found in the Himalayas, though it occasionally comes from the mountains and enters some Indian villages.

In Pakistan, sightings are usually reported in the rural mountainous regions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, however sightings in the Punjab province are also occasionally reported.

The Reversed Feet Tribe: Abarimon or antipode in mythology are people whose feet are reversed, however, in spite of this disability, were able to run at extreme speeds. This majestic tribe was first described in Europe by Pliny the Elder, in his book, Natural History (VII 11), who believed them to be native to India or somewhere in the Himalayan mountains.

In Gujarat, any woman who dies unnaturally may become a Churel, though earlier traditions linked this specifically to lower-caste women. In South Gujarat, a village near Mandvi is battling an unusual crisis as it is named the same as the monster, creating problems for the locals. For more than a decade, villagers have been striving to change the name. They say they do not even know how the village came to be called Chudel. Families face difficulties during marriage negotiations. Young men struggle to find brides, as many families hesitate to send their daughters to a village with such a name. Similarly, girls from the village find it hard to secure matches elsewhere, as prospective grooms are reluctant to visit.

It is also believed if a woman died during the Diwali festival, she would return as one of the undead as well as days where she was menstruating. Churel is also the word for a living witch.

Rituals and protection

The best way to avoid a Churel is to prevent her creation. Across regions, people believed in various ways to protect themselves from a Churel and various rituals to appease or ways to content them, like spitting three times, reciting prayers and other spiritual rituals. 

In Tamil culture human priests gather and collectively propitiate her with offerings. In some villages, a Stonehenge-like structure is used to ward off the Churel.

How to prevent a Churel Forming: The body of the woman is anointed with five different products of a cow and sacred texts recited. The place where she died is cleaned thoroughly and mustard (Sarson) is sprinkled on the spot, and along the path used to carry the body. Mustard is said to grow in the land of the dead, and the sweet smell keeps her pacified. Sometimes a Baiga who is someone who pacifies spirits, will step in. In some villages, people believed that placing a corpse face down or burying it in a specific posture would prevent the spirit from rising. If Hindu, the remains are cremated as per Hindu tradition.

The Churel in modern memory

Today the Churel appears in South Asian horror films, television dramas, and contemporary storytelling. She is often depicted as a terrifying female figure, her feet turned backward, her eyes glowing in moonlit fields.

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References:

Churel – Wikipedia

The Name Of This Gujarat Village Has Become A Curse For Its Women

Pichal Peri – Wikipedia

Rajaram Narayan Saletore (1981). Indian Witchcraft. Abhinav Publications. pp. 121–2. ISBN 978-0-391-02480-9

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The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle

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After a humble life as a shoemaker on Santorini in Greece, a man was said to have come back as a Vrykolakas, the vampire of Greek folklore. But for this Vrykolaka, it wasn’t to devour human life that kept him going. 

Perhaps the sunny Santorini is not the place people think vampire-like creatures roamed, although history would tell you otherwise. 

Read More: Check out all ghostly tales from Greece

From the text from a French priest, we have some of the oldest stories of the vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore documented in writing. One of them being the tale of Alexander from Pyrgos. 

Santorini: The Greek Island, officially Thira or Thera, is around 200 km from mainland Greece in the Aegean Sea. As well as ancient Greek mythology, the folklore was influenced from the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman rule as well as Orthodox Christianity. Pyrgos Kallistis was the former capital of Santorini.Some speculate that there are so many vrykolakas stories from here because of the volcanic soil so the body doesn’t decompose as well.

The Shoemaker at Pyrgos Castle

His name was said to be Alexander, and he had been a shoemaker at Pyrgo Castle. He was known as a gentle and kind man when he was alive.

It’s not mentioned exactly what happened that turned Alexander into a vrykolaka after his death. Most often, Greek vampire stories tell about people living sinful lives that are turned into vampires. In Alexander’s case however, it seems something else must have triggered the transformation. One thing worth noting is that Alexander is far from the only shoemaker that turned into a vampire, although the connection to the profession is unknown. 

Vrykolakas Stories: Jesuit Priest François Richard was a missionary to the Greek island of Santorini. In Paris, his accounts about the Vrykolakas appeared titled: Relation de l’Isle de Sant-erini, 1657. He believed the devil kept some corpses and animated them. For the Jesuit, the “vrykolakas” was simply “a special case of diabolic possession. He said that when a village is visited by vrykolakas, the villagers gather in one house for protection, and apply to their Bishop for permission to exhume the suspect. This is done on a Saturday, the only day when a vrykolakas may rest in its grave. If the body is found “fresh and gorged with new blood”, it is “exorcised” with prayer or cremated.

The Helpful Vampire of Pyrgos

According to the story, Alexander returned from the grave, not to attack or eat the flesh from the living like in many stories, but appeared to his living wife as he had in life. He returned to mend his children’s shoes, carry water for the family, work on their house and chop their firewood. 

The Vrykolakas Vampires: In Greek folklore, they believed in the vampiric Vrykolaka. Traditionally believed that a person could become a vrykolakas after death due to a sacrilegious way of life, but also through other means, like A cat leaping across a fresh grave, Consuming meat from a sheep slain by a wolf or werewolf. Some believed that a werewolf itself could become a powerful vampire after being killed. This revenant wasn’t after just the blood, but also the flesh, some saying the liver was its favorite.

Although his family’s reaction to this is not talked about, it seems this went on for a while, and it was his neighbors who took matters into their own hands. After seeing him going on with his chores, fetching water from the cistern and chopping wood in the valley, they decided to exhume his body from his grave. According to lore, all vrykolakas went back to their graves on Saturdays, so it’s most likely this is what happened. Here, even the helpful dead needed to go. 

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References:

Vampirólogos. Francois Richard 

By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture

Vrykolakas – Wikipedia

Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas

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The Mandurugo Vampire Bride of Philippine Folklore

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Hidden among human society, the vampiric Mandurugo creature is slowly draining her unassuming husbands of their blood and life to sustain her eternal youth and beauty. 

In Philippine folklore terminology, Mandurugo is distinguished from the broader category of aswang, a general term for malevolent shape-shifters. The name mandurugo itself comes from the root word dugo, which means “blood” in several Philippine languages. A mandurugo is literally “one who deals in blood.”

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from the Philippines

The mandurugo is typically described as a woman of striking beauty by day, indistinguishable from any other person in her community. And unlike many vampiric notions, she is not seen as a revenant or a part of the undead, but rather a real life woman or creature with powers.

A Beautiful Woman in the Dark

As mentioned, the mandurugo blends in with the rest of human society and targets mainly young men. She marries time and time again to feed on her husbands.  She feeds on her husband at night, laying in bed next to him as he sleeps. She has a pointed tongue she uses to prick and suck his blood and life. 

She also has the ability to shapeshift into a harpy-like creature with wings and at night she can fly and hunt her prey, something she has in common with another vampiric creature in Filipino mythology we’ll come back to.

Her appetites give rise to fear and mystery. If a man suddenly falls ill without explanation, communities whisper that a mandurugo may have visited him in the night. If livestock weaken or drain perplexingly, people suspect the same hunger at work. 

For protection, some would make a concoction of duhat (Java plum) mixed with ginger, manzanitas bark, yantok, blood and makahiya leaves and used as an offering to the mandurugo, so she wouldn’t harm those in the household.

Folklore and Fear of the Filipino Shapeshifters

The Mandurugo is thought of being a type of Aswang creature, shapeshifting monsters in Filipino myths and legends. These creatures were documented to be some of the most feared in folklore and their motifs were often nothing but causing most harm.  

Asawang: Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil and malevolent creatures in Filipino folklore, such as vampires, ghouls, witches, viscera suckers, and transforming human-beast hybrids. Spanish colonists noted that the aswang was the most feared among the mythical creatures of the Philippines, even in the 16th century.

Most of the stories and legends about the Mandurugo are found in both Tagalog and Bicol lore, specifically around Capiz, Panay Island it seems to have been most prominent.

We have documented tales about the lore from the Spanish from the 16th century and where the lore about the Asawang and Mandurugo were seen and understood through the Christian lense and demonology, that made an impact about how they are seen today. 

It seems that the lore about the Mandrurugo changed drastically. In pre-colonial Philippines the Mandurugo used protective rituals during vulnerable life stages such as childbirth. It is also likely that once, the mandurugo were a type of Kinnara or kinnari, gentle and beautiful winged creatures that resemble slim youths. They have wings same as birds on their backs, some on their buttocks, in oral tradition it is believed that the Kinari will love and serve devotedly any human who has treated it kind and when the human breaks the creature’s heart the kinari turns into a blood sucking monster.

Kinnara: (Sanskrit: किन्नर Kiṃnara) is a creature from Hindu and Buddhist mythology that the monster of Mandurugo could have sprung out from. They are described as part human and part bird, and have a strong association with music and love. Believed to come from the Himalayas, they often watch over the well-being of humans in times of trouble or danger. // Source: Wikimedia

The Manananggal Vampiric Creature Targeting Pregnant Women

As mentioned, the Mandurugo is only one of many vampiric creatures with a bird-like appearance. The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings. 

They are definitely similar and have sometimes been used interchangeably in stories. The main difference being who they are hunting. The Manananggal prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. The myth of the manananggal is widely recognized in the Visayan regions of the Philippines.

The word manananggál is derived from the Tagalog word tanggál, meaning “to remove” or “to separate”, and literally translating to “remover” or “separator”. They also use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat the heart and the liver and the phlegm of sick people. Folklore also associates the creature with targeting newlyweds, lovers, newborn children, and occasionally grooms who were abandoned before marriage.

Traditional practices for killing a manananggal include applying salt, garlic, ash, or fire to the lower half, thereby preventing the upper torso from reuniting with it. If it fails to recombine before sunrise, the creature is believed to die.

The Girl With Many Lovers

One of the most famous stories about the husband hunting mandurugo vampire, is the Tagalog story of The Girl With Many Lovers. 

A young girl said to have been the most beautiful in the land, married at the age of sixteen. Although she was from an unknown place and an unknown family, her beauty won everyone over. Her husband was young and strong, but something was wrong. Although there were no clear signs of illness or disease, he withered away within a year and died. 

After his death she remarried, but her second husband, and then her third, suffered the same fate. After all the death that kept following her, suspicion around her grew, although nothing could be proved. 

Her fourth husband, having been warned, feigned sleep one night while keeping a knife close at hand. At midnight he felt a presence looming over him and then a prick in his neck. He stuck at the creature with his knife, and heard a screech and the flapping of wings. 

The next day, his bride was found dead near their house with a knife wound in her chest, having been a blood sucking Manurugo the whole time. 

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References:

Mandurugo – Wikipedia

mandurugo | Facts, Information, and Mythology

https://solarspell-dls.sfis.asu.edu/mea/wikipedia/wp/v/Vampire.htm

Bicolano Myths : ASWANG (BIKOLANO MYTHOLOGY)

Mandurugo: A vampire from Filipino folklore

Kinnara – Wikipedia

Manananggal – Wikipedia

https://www.aswangproject.com/creatures-mythical-beings-philippine-folklore-mythology/
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Dun Dreach-Fhoula – The Blood-Soaked Castle of the Reeks

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Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax. 

The Castle of Tainted Blood or the Castle of The Blood Visage is supposedly a fortress in the mountains in Kerry in Ireland, said to be inhabited and built by the blood sucking and shape-shifting fairies from ancient times.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories in Ireland

But how much truth is the legend of the supposed bloodthirsty fairies? Is it truly as old as the story claims? And what is the truth about its connection to Dracula? Let’s first have a look at what the legend tells. 

The MacGillycuddy’s Reeks: The Coomloughra Horseshoe Loop Walk in Co. Kerry is one of Irelands best ridge walks. It is a strenuous 6 to 7 hour (12 km) hiking trail over several mountain peaks in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks range including 4 of the top 5 highest mountains in Ireland. Thought to be the place where the ruins of fairy folk with a taste for blood lives. // Photo:Valerie O’Sullivan

The Legend of the Castle of Tainted Blood

High among the jagged slopes of Kerry’s MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, meaning Black Stacks in Irish, it goes on for 19 kilometers from Gap of Dunloe in the east to Glencar in the west. It’s Ireland’s highest mountain range with the highest peak and sharpest ridges. 

 It is said that this is the place where the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula, a fortress of blood and death, is hidden away in the misty mountains. The “Castle of the Blood Visage,” as it translates, was said to guard a lonely mountain pass where few dared to travel. The silence of the peaks, the thick mist that curls around their ancient stones, and perhaps it was the strange crimson hue  of the stone that sometimes stains the walls after rainfall gave rise to whispers of a darker truth. It was said that the very rock itself was cursed, steeped in the blood of the living and haunted by creatures that were neither mortal nor divine.

The legends tell that Dun Dreach-Fhoula was not built by human hands alone. According to the old stories, the fortress was raised by beings from the Otherworld and blood-drinking fae who hid from sunlight and feasted upon travelers who strayed too close. The pass they guarded was more than a road through the mountains; it was a threshold between life and death. 

The Dracula Connection

Bram Stoker: There has been a lot of work connecting vampires and the fame and lore of vampires to Ireland. But how true are these claims? How was the Irish vampiric lore before modern fame?

Now, the legend is not really told as a stand alone story, but it is certainly mentioned when talking about alternative theories to the inspiration behind Dracula. Many have argued that this Irish legend, rather than the history of Vlad the Impaler, may have inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Though Stoker himself claimed otherwise, the rumour about it being more Irish than anything exists and has taken hold in lore since at least the 90s.

He never visited Eastern Europe and relied on travelers’ tales to construct his vampire’s homeland. At the same time, in Dublin’s National Museum, Geoffrey Keating’s History of Ireland was displayed, filled with accounts of undead spirits and ancient chieftains who rose from their graves to drink blood.

One such tale was that of Abhartach, the blood-drinking lord of Irish legend, whose grave was said to exude darkness even in daylight. Around the same period, writer Patrick W. Joyce published a story about this same chieftain, spreading his name throughout Ireland. I

Read More: The Legend of Ireland’s Vampire King Abhartach and the Haunted Giant’s Grave

The words alone, “the place of tainted blood”, seem like something born from Gothic imagination, yet they belong to Ireland’s own folklore. Or does it? Is it really just a piece of Gothic imagination? Some say that the very word Dracula comes from the word, Droch-fhoula. But if we start to dismantle the grammar and linguistic history of the Droch-fhoula, it seems to fall apart. And the question is, does the whole legend of Droch-fhoula fall apart if you take a close look at it?

The Hunt for Droch-fhoula Castle

Now, the tale gets passed around that Droch-fhoula comes from ancient Irish legends. The expression is believed to refer to blood feuds between people or families. Could it also be for a vampire legend native to Ireland?

It looks like this claim comes from Peter Haining and Peter Tremayne in their book The Un-Dead from 1997. According to them, they got the story sent to them in a letter from Cathal Ó Sándair in 1995. It is supposed to be from a lecture delivered by a man called Ó Súilleabháin, the head of the Irish Folklore Commission, who supposedly mentioned a castle called Dún Dreach-Fhola in Magillicuddy’s Reeks inhabited by blood-drinking fairies:


It was Ó Sándair, writing to the authors in April 1995, who also made the observation that Bram might have been guided to use the name of the historical Wallachian hero – Dracula – because it sounded the same as the Irish droch-fhola (pronounced drok’ola), bad blood; he might even have connected the name with a Kerry folk-tale about ‘Dún Dreach-Fhola’ (pronounced drak’ola), the castle of blood visage. The castle was said to be high up in a lonely pass among the Macgillicuddy’s Reeks, a range in Co. Kerry, which contains Ireland’s highest mountain. Ó Sándair may well be right: Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the Kerry-born one time registrar and archivist of the Irish Folklore Commission, mentioned this same oral folk-tale in a lecture at UCD in 1961, prior to the publication of his book on Irish death customs, Caitheamh Aimsire ar Thórraimh, translated into English six years later as Irish Wake Amusements. He said it was told to him in the Macgillicuddy’s Reeks. The story concerns an ‘evil fairy fortress’ – Dún Dreach-Fhola, inhabited by neamh-mhairbh (Un-Dead), who sustained themselves on the blood of wayfarers. Unfortunately there is no reference to the story in Caithreamh [sic] Aimsire ar Thórraimh.
Source: The Un-dead, page 71

Folklorist, Owen Harding believes the origin of the word could come from this word and that the connection comes from a manuscript about another vampiric legend about The Abhartach. An article says: 

“Owen Harding says there was a manuscript published about this legend from an anonymous writer. It was entitled The Abhartach, Dreach-Fhoula. This document was exhibited up till 1868 in none other than Trinity College which Stoker attended. So is it likely that Stoker used this story to base his novel on? Harding believes it is.”

Is it true that these writers got the story from a folklorist who collected Ó Súilleabháin was a folklorist, but there are as of now, no primary sources directly from him about this legend. In fact, an article about his work actually said: Vampires are not to be found in Seán Ó Súilleabháin’s A Handbook of Irish Folklore, published in 1942. So that this part is true is rather dubious. It is also worth noting that both Hauning and Tremayne also wrote a lot of fiction and perhaps were not careful enough in their research. 

Although they are claiming these folklorists and writers have been straight up lying about it and most hits searching for it is a blog post dedicated to expose the story as fabricated and not ancient and local of Kerry at all. So it begs the question, was it more of a mistranslation and confusing old Irish text, or about fabricating them to make stronger claims about Irish connection to Dracula? Or is it really a piece of evidence somewhere, where the tales and ruins of a castle inhabited by blood thirsty fairies exist?

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References:

Dun Dreach-Fhoula

dún dreach-fhola | cassidyslangscam 

How Bram Stoker created Dracula with the aid of Irish folklore

More on Irish Vampires – The Bad Blood of Dracula | cassidyslangscam

https://archive.org/stream/CreepyStories/EncyclopediaOfVampireMythology_djvu.txt

‘Ancient’ Vampire Legends from 1997! | cassidyslangscam 

Vampires A Field Guide To The Creatures That Stalk The Night [PDF] [6pe6eq38o090]

https://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2008/08/perhaps-little-too-high.html