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.
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.
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.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
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.
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?
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
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.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
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.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
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.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
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.
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
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?
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
Rising from their graves, the vampiric Amalanhig from the Philippines are after your flesh and blood. But where did these creatures come from?
Across the Philippine archipelago, amidst thick jungles and quiet villages where the night air seems to hum with ancient secrets, there exists a terrifying legend told in hushed voices: the tale of the Amalanhig. Part vampire, part restless revenant or some sort of zombie-like creature, these undead beings are feared in Visayan mythology, especially among the Hiligaynon-speaking people of the central Philippines.
Though the shapeshifting creature aswang often steals the spotlight in Filipino lore, the Amalanhig is a uniquely haunting breed of monster. Neither entirely living nor fully dead, these creatures stalk the night in search of the warmth of human blood… or the eerie sound of laughter in the dark.
The Birth of the Amalanhig
According to myth, the Amalanhig were once human aswangs which is sinister, flesh-hungry creatures of Filipino legend known for their bloodlust and shape-shifting abilities. But unlike their counterparts, these particular aswangs failed to successfully pass on their dark powers before death. Stripped of their chance for a peaceful afterlife and denied their monstrous legacy, they rose from their graves — stiff, unyielding, and ravenous for human blood.
These undead beings are said to haunt burial grounds, thick forests, and isolated villages, forever cursed to chase down the living. Their appearance mirrors that of ordinary humans, though their upper canines are often unnaturally long and sharp, betraying their true nature.
It is also said that some humans could turn into these creatures as well. Most often people who died with some unfinished business or are after revenge after being murdered.
Death by Bite… or Tickle
In some versions, they relentlessly pursue the living, aiming to sink their oversized canines into the necks of unsuspecting victims.
But in one particularly strange and eerie variant of the myth, the Amalanhig dispatches its victims not with fangs, but through tickling. Yes — these deathless beings are said to chase humans until they catch them, and then proceed to tickle them to death. A grotesque and terrifying ordeal, where the victims perish from a mixture of laughter, breathlessness, and sheer horror.
The Army of Undead
Some legends claim that the Amalanhig was created by humans. According to one legend, a long time ago before the Spaniards came to the Philippines a chieftain ordered his priestess to create an army of warriors that couldn’t be killed.
They were created by killing ordinary men with dark rituals like putting dark soot, and putting a cursed pebble in their mouths. After three days they came back to life but they were mindless, walking corpses that only died after accomplishing their task.
How to Escape an Amalanhig
Due to the rigor mortis-like stiffness of their corpses, Amalanhigs can only walk in straight lines. A would-be victim can escape by running in a zigzag pattern, weaving unpredictably to confuse the creature.They can also be outrun as they are unable to bend their knees.
Another time-honored method is to seek refuge in high places like trees, rooftops, or raised platforms as the Amalanhig’s rigid limbs prevent it from climbing. Deep bodies of water are another safeguard; these undead fear rivers and lakes, and will not follow their prey into the depths.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural.
Long before the vampire became a figure of Gothic fiction, the fear of blood drinking witches already haunted the villages of medieval Spain. One of the earliest recorded cases emerged in the late fifteenth century in the coastal settlements around Gijón in Asturias. There, a woman named Teresa Prieto became the center of one of the strangest accusations in Spanish history. To her neighbors she was not simply a witch. She was believed to be a creature that slipped into homes at night and drank the blood of children.
Read More: Check out all ghostly stories and legends from Spain
The case of Teresa Prieto, later known as “the Witch of Jove” or “the Vampire of Xove,” sits at the crossroads between folklore and historical reality. It reveals how medieval fears of night demons, witchcraft, and vampirism could merge into a single terrifying accusation.
GijónCity: It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. This is also where the first recorded vampire court case in Spain happened.
Night Visitor of the Village
In the late 1400s the area of Jove, today called Xove, was not the modern district of Gijón known today. It consisted of small scattered villages connected by narrow paths and surrounded by forests and fields. Oral traditions and superstition shaped daily life. Local healers lived on the margins of society, gathering herbs from the woods to make remedies and potions.
The Asturian Guaxa: The Guaxa is said to be an old and thin woman-like entity, ugly and covered in warts. She is said to have a single sharp tooth she stalks her prey with. She sneaks into people’s homes in the middle of the night and feeds on them with her one sharp tooth. Children are preferred, but also young women and handsome men are in danger. She doesn’t kill them at once, nor does she transform her victims to one of her own. She slowly kills them, draining their life, bit by bit. In Asturia, people can say “It looks like the Guaxa has swallowed you,” when people have lost a lot of weight, as the Guaxa slowly over time drained people’s lives. Although this is a very Asturian legend, the case of Teresa Prieto was called a Strix or Estrige.
Within this environment strange rumors began to circulate.
Parents claimed that something entered their homes during the night. The intruder moved silently while families slept and approached the beds of children. When morning came, some children were found dead. According to the stories told by villagers, the bodies bore two small marks on the neck, signs that their blood had been sucked during the night.
Fear quickly turned toward a human suspect. The villagers accused Teresa Prieto.
The Shadow of the Strix
The accusations against Prieto did not arise in isolation. At the end of the fifteenth century European folklore still carried strong beliefs in striges or strigias, monstrous female beings said to prey on infants. These creatures were described as winged women with the claws and beaks of birds of prey who drank the blood of children to use in magical brews.
Such beliefs had deep roots in classical mythology and medieval superstition. The Roman strix and the Greek lamia were both imagined as female night predators who attacked infants. In medieval Europe these creatures slowly merged with the idea of witches. A woman accused of sorcery could easily be accused of vampiric acts as well.
The Strix: The strix (plural striges or strixes), in the mythology of classical antiquity, was a bird of ill omen, the product of metamorphosis, that fed on human flesh and blood. It also referred to witches and related malevolent folkloric beings. The strix is described as a large-headed bird with transfixed eyes, rapacious beak, greyish white wings. In Romanian, strigăt means “scream” and strigoaică is the name of the Romanian feminine vampire while strigoi is the Romanian male vampire. Albanian folklore tells of the shtriga, and Slavic of the strzyga/stryha.
In the isolated communities of Asturias, the old legends were still alive. When children died unexpectedly, the ancient explanation returned. A blood drinking witch must be responsible.
Accusation and Trial
Around 1480, Teresa Prieto was formally denounced by her neighbors. She was accused of being a striga, a night witch who entered homes and drained the blood of children. The case reached the attention of the Spanish Inquisition, which opened proceedings against her.
The accusations described her as a woman who wandered through villages at night and entered houses secretly, harming Christians and sucking blood from children. In essence, the first documented case of vampirism in Spain, although the lore behind the blood sucking entity looked a little bit different than the modern version.
She was turned in to Juan de Acebal, at the time a prosecutor and litigant who would lead the first Asturian case in the renewed Tribunal of the Inquisition, which had just been re-established in the kingdom of Castile, precisely on All Souls’ Day in 1478.
Prieto was arrested and subjected to interrogation and torture. She was bound hand and foot, twisting and turning on her back, and she was forced to drink liters of water continuously for at least an hour. Despite the ordeal she maintained her innocence and never confessed to the crimes attributed to her.
Torture: Water cure was among the forms of torture used by the Spanish Inquisition. Before pouring the water, torturers often inserted an iron prong (known as the bostezo) into a victim’s mouth to keep it open, as well as a strip of linen (known as the toca) on which the victim would choke and suffocate while swallowing the water.
The tribunal or the Bachelor Brecianos, eventually condemned her to death by hanging. There, it was ordered that she be taken “on horseback, riding a donkey, her hands and feet bound with an esparto rope around her neck,” publicly and shamefully before the townspeople, to the stone gallows where the witch or sorceress of Gijón would be hanged and her flesh burned to ashes.
Yet the case did not end in the way many witch trials did.
Escape From the Gallows
Before the sentence was carried out, Teresa Prieto appealed the verdict. As she stated in her protest, when she was arrested she was not informed of the charges or anything else; she had not been told who had denounced her; the accuser turned out to be the only witness and, aside from contradicting himself, was a personal enemy of hers, which should legally disqualify his testimony; furthermore, she had not been provided with the required legal representation, and the lieutenant corregidor had acted against her unjustly and contrary to the laws of the kingdom. She also emphasized that she had been subjected to torture without cause or reason and was summoned repeatedly without any new evidence or proof appearing. To conclude her plea, she stressed that by appearing before the court she demonstrated her good faith and should be able to atone for any possible crime.
The appeal succeeded. Instead of execution she was imprisoned while the case continued. Her conduct during the proceedings appears to have influenced the authorities, and eventually the sentence was overturned.
In November of 1500 she was released from prison and allowed to return to Asturias as a free woman. Neither party was ordered to pay costs, but Teresa requested a written copy of the sentence and the return of the property and assets that had been confiscated from her.
In the end the supposed vampire of Jove was never proven to be anything more than a victim of fear and rumor.
The Birth of a Spanish Vampire Legend
Even though Teresa Prieto survived the trial, her reputation never disappeared. Folklore continued to describe her as a vampire witch who crept into houses at night to feed on children. Later historians and folklorists such as Julio Caro Baroja and Juan Uría Ríu recorded the story as one of the earliest examples of vampiric belief in Spain.
The witch of Jove belongs to a darker chapter of European folklore. She stands at the boundary between legend and historical record. A woman once accused of slipping through the night to drink the blood of children. A case where ancient fears of witches, demons, and vampires converged in the life of a single unfortunate person.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
The Lamia was a feared bloodsucking monster that worked as the boogeyman of ancient Greece. Many will say that her tale has helped shape the vampire legends in Europe, but before that, she was said to have been the beautiful Queen of Libya.
Among the many monstrous figures that haunt ancient mythology, few have cast as long and disturbing a shadow as Lamia. Her story begins not with a demon but with a woman. In early Greek tradition Lamia was remembered as a beautiful queen of Libya, a mortal ruler whose fate became entangled with the gods. Over time her legend transformed from tragedy into horror. The grieving mother of myth became a night wandering predator associated with witches, vampires, and the devouring of children.
The evolution of Lamia’s legend is one of the clearest examples of how a mythological figure can slowly change across centuries, absorbing fears about motherhood, sexuality, death, and the supernatural.
Fragments of a floor mosaic from 1213 in “San Giovanni Evangelista (Ravenna), Italy.
The Queen of Libya Turned Monstrous
The earliest sources describe Lamia as the daughter of Belus, king of ancient Libya stretching across North Africa. Ancient writers often emphasized her beauty. That beauty drew the attention of Zeus, the king of the gods, who took Lamia as his lover. Their relationship produced children. The Greek lyric poet, Stesichorus also said that she was a daughter of Poseidon and mother of the sea monsters Scylla and Acheilus, the Shark.
The tragedy that shaped Lamia’s transformation came from Hera, Zeus’s jealous wife. According to the most widely repeated version of the myth, Hera punished Lamia by destroying or stealing her children. Some accounts say Hera killed them outright. Others claim Lamia herself was driven mad and killed them under Hera’s influence. In every version the result is the same. Lamia lost her children and was left to suffer with the memory.
The Real Queen of Libya: Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC) gave a de-mythologized account of Lamia as a queen of Libya who ordered her soldiers to snatch children from their mothers and kill them, and whose beauty gave way to bestial appearance due to her savageness. The queen, as related by Diodorus, was born in a cave. // Image: “Lamia” from “The History of Four-footed Beasts” (1607).
Grief twisted into obsession and Lamia began stealing the children of other mothers. She crept into houses at night, snatching infants from their cradles and devouring them. The myth explains this as a cruel attempt to make other women experience the same loss she had suffered.
The transformation did not stop there. The once beautiful queen was said to have changed into something monstrous. Later descriptions gave her the body of a woman above the waist and a serpent below, or portrayed her with a grotesque face and terrible jaws suited for devouring children.
Hera prevented her from closing her eyes so she would never escape the vision of her lost children. Zeus eventually took pity on her suffering and granted her an unusual ability. Lamia could remove her eyes from their sockets and replace them later, allowing herself moments of rest from the constant grief.
This strange detail would later contribute to Lamia’s reputation as a creature of dark magic and prophecy. Some traditions even described her as possessing the “mark of a Sibyl”, a gift of supernatural sight.
From Monster to Night Demon Vampire
By the classical period the name Lamia had already begun to change meaning and became part of Hellenistic folklore. Greek writers started using the word not only for the individual queen but also for a whole class of creatures known as lamiai (λάμιαι). These beings were night demons who haunted lonely places, caves, and the edges of cities.
Parents frightened disobedient children with warnings that Lamia would come for them in the dark. Ancient authors such as Diodorus and Horace mention this practice, suggesting the creature had already become a kind of mythic bogey figure in the ancient world.
Descriptions of lamiai also grew increasingly vampiric. Later stories from the first century depict them as succubus phasmas or ghosts, seducing young men before draining their blood or devouring their flesh. Some sources portray them as shapeshifters who appeared as beautiful women before revealing monstrous forms.
This is also when she started appearing in classical literature and lore with the Empusa, demons working for Hecate. They were companions of the goddess Hekate which followed her to earth from the depths of the underworld.
As a monster the Lamia transformed into something ugly. Lamia had the tail of a serpent in place of legs. The ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus simply describes her as having a distorted or disfigured face. They were also associated with caves and damp places. In more modern Greek folktales, the Lamia is said to live in remote houses, also having magical powers like a witch.
Lamia and Lilith
Lamia’s story also developed striking parallels with the figure of Lilith from Jewish folklore. Both were portrayed as female night spirits associated with the death of infants and the seduction of men. Lamia may originate from the Mesopotamian demoness Lamashtu.
Lilith, by John Collier
In the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, the name Lamia was even used to translate the Hebrew word Lilith in the Book of Isaiah. Lamia is used in early translations of the Bible for screech owls and sea monsters. This linguistic overlap reinforced the idea that the two figures represented similar demonic beings.
Later occult traditions strengthened the connection further. Both Lamia and Lilith became associated with female demons who preyed on children, drained blood, and moved through the night as embodiments of uncontrolled desire and vengeance.
The Birth of the Vampire Witch
During late antiquity and the early Middle Ages the word lamia expanded even further in meaning. Christian writers and scholars began using it as a general term for witches or female demons who preyed on humans. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the term could refer directly to witches believed to harm children or drink blood.
Lamia (second version, 1909) by John William Waterhouse
The shift shows how Lamia’s myth merged with broader fears about witchcraft and nocturnal spirits. Occult writers and demonologists sometimes used the term lamia for women who had entered pacts with demonic forces. In this way Lamia became linked not only with monsters but with the image of the blood drinking witch, a concept that would echo through later vampire legends.
The creature that once belonged to Greek myth became part of the developing European folklore of the night. Many of the vampiric, witch and demonic legends found around the continent can be traced back to her.
Even today the core elements of the legend remain intact. Lamia is still remembered as a creature of the night. She is a devourer of children, a seductress of men, and a figure whose tragedy transformed her into something monstrous.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
Although few written sources, the fear of the Estries Vampires from the Jewish community in Europe in the middle ages still lingers.
Across old European folk traditions there are many stories of night spirits that feed on life rather than blood, of creatures that stalk the living when the stars have risen and the world lies silent. Among these legends is that of the European Jewish Estries folklore from the medieval period.
The Estries vampire is a rather obscure legend for many, even the Jewish community it comes from because of its old and limited text sources discussing it. Unlike the archetypal corpse-vampire that rises from its burial place, the Estries is typically described as a being that moves freely among the living by night and hides by day while drawing life from others.
Origins in Language and Belief
The folk lore and imagery surrounding them has some overlap with that of Lilith as many succubus and life draining female demons often do. However, there are not many written down sources specifically mentioning the Estries by name. Most of the lore is traced to Sefer Hasidim, a medieval text chronicling Jewish life and practices in twelfth and thirteenth century Germany.
The Rhineland Jews and their Fears: The Estries legend emerged within the context of the Ashkenazi Hasidic movement in 12th- and 13th-century Germany, a period marked by intense external pressures from the Crusades and the onset of blood libel accusations against Jewish communities. The Hasidei Ashkenaz, or “Pious of Ashkenaz,” arose in the Rhineland following the devastating massacres of 1096 during the First Crusade, which claimed thousands of Jewish lives and instilled widespread trauma and calls for spiritual renewal. // Image: Friedrich Hottenroth – Jewish pogroms in Germany during the First Crusade led by Emich of Leiningen, 1096
The book is attributed to Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg, a descendant from a long line of Northern Italian Kabbalists and mostly writing about members of the Hasidim Ashkenazi, who were descended predominantly from two main families from Northern Italian and France.
The word Estries is derived from the French word for night owl, strix, which is in keeping with the connection between the Hasidim Ashkenazi and the French. In pagan European lore, the owl was seen as mystical, and a lot of old vampiric and magical stories center around the owl.
Also in ancient times, the Greeks wrote about the striges and strix, a bloodthirsty screech owl. In both traditions the Estries occupies a place between human and demon. It was not simply an animal or a ghost. It was something that walked at night with intent.
Night Visitors
Key passages in Sefer Hasidim detail Estries’ behaviors and vulnerabilities. In Siman 1465, Estries are described as women “created at twilight” who can transform into animals like cats or birds, fly by loosening their hair, and sustain themselves by drinking human blood, particularly from newborns or the ill.
The Law of Parua: The Hasidim Ashkenazi lived a life of rigid self-discipline and self-deprivation. They abided by the law of parua, which requires the marital binding of hair. If a woman appeared with her hair unbound, this was grounds for divorce. The concept of a woman flying with loose hair was therefore a scandalous and horrifying thought for the Jews at this time.
They are said to feed only on the blood of Jewish men and children and can fly when they let their hair down, although her way of feeding and the practicalities about flying with her hair down is a rather vague description.
Because the Estries was believed to have a daytime life indistinguishable from other villagers, suspicion and fear often spread through communities. People whispered that a neighbor who seemed healthy by day could still be an Estries at night. Her true nature was revealed only in the wearied bodies of others who slept nearby.
In Jewish mystical interpretations and cross-cultural retellings, the Estries was sometimes equated with demonic feminine figures who prey on men or children in their sleep. Like the Lilith and other night spirits, she represented both the danger of the unseen and the vulnerability of the sleeping body.
The Legend of Lilith:Lilith is a feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology. According to accounts in the Talmud she is a primordial she-demon. Lilith does not appear in the Hebrew Bible or any other biblical source, although her name is derived from a single word in the Book of Isaiah, the meaning is debated. She first appears in Mandaean and Jewish sources from late antiquity (500 AD onward). In Mesopotamian religion, lilû (Lilith) are a class of demonic spirits, consisting of adolescents who died before they could bear children. In modern day Christianity and Judaism, she is often considered demonic. // Lilith, by John Collier
The Oldest Stories of the Estries
As mentioned, there are only a few stories and sources about the Estries from the middle ages. One of the first and most telling though is how they are introduced in Sefer Hasidim:
“1465 There are women that are called Estries… They were created at sunset before the first Sabbath before creation. As a result of this, they are able to change form. There was one woman who was a Estries and she was very sick and there were two women with her at night; one was sleeping and one was awake. And the sick woman stood up and loosened her hair and she was about to fly and suck the blood of the sleeping woman. And the woman who was awake screamed and woke her friend and they grabbed the sick Estries, and after this she slept. And moreover, if she had been able to grab the other woman, then she, the Estries, would have lived. Since she was not able to hurt the other woman, the Estries died, because she needs to drink the blood of living flesh. The same is true of the werewolf. And since….the Estries need to loosen their hair before they fly, one must adjure her to come with her hair bound so that she cannot go anywhere without permission. And if a Estries is injured or seen by someone, she cannot live unless she eats of the bread and salt of the one who struck her. Then her soul will return to the way it was before.
Cleansing and Protection
Unlike many of the vampiric creatures around the world, Estries were considered undeterred by religious iconography and religious verses and chants. Estries were believed to be able to walk into holy places, and synagogues and sometimes to seek prayer for healing from unsuspecting religious people. Blessing an Estries was considered an evil act, but how did you know, and how did you fight her?.
An Estries can only fly when her hair is loose, and it was believed you could subdue her by tying her hair back. Estries were also thought to be mortal, so it doesn’t take much to hurt them. According to the “Sefer Hasidim,” striking or even looking at an Estries might kill her or at least weaken her.
When an Estries is hurt, in the stories, most often by being observed in her demonic state and weakened, she can heal herself by consuming bread and salt. while Siman 1467 depicts a more merciful Estries who permits her victim to obtain the bread and salt, sparing her life and highlighting their potential for good.
The Monsters from the Tower of Babel:According to Rabbi Menahim Zioni, a Kabbalist from the 14th century, Estries, giants, werewolves, dybbukim came from those who had built the Tower of Babel, cursed by God for their hubris. Some say that Estries are the children of Lilith. Others say they were created on the twilight of the sixth day of creation and left unfinished by God and is why they’re able to change form and lack souls.
The most reliable way to kill one is to bury her and shove a stake through her mouth, pinning her to the coffin/dirt. When a broxa or an Estries is being buried, one should notice whether or not her mouth is open; if it is, this is a sure sign that she will continue her vampirish activities for another year according to the Rabbi Eliezer Rokeah. Her mouth must be stopped up with earth, and she will be rendered harmless.
Testament of Solomon and the Ancient Vampires
But how old are the biblical vampires? Are the Estries’s more of a jewish version of the European vampire myth or the other way around. Perhaps it is both?
The first explicit reference occurs in Late Antiquity and is from the Testament of Solomon. In this book, the story is told of a boy loved by the king. But day by day, the boy grows thinner. When King Solomon asks why, the boy says that each night he is visited by a demon. It takes his money, his food and sucks the life force out of him while sucking on the boy’s thumb. Because of this, King Solomon fashions his famous ring and uses it to enslave the demon.
What name the demon goes under is perhaps of less importance. Estries, Lillith Akuha, there are many names, many leading back to the same figure. A seductive and deadly woman, praying and hunting down the blood of the innocent and the good.
In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
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In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Said to be cursed forever after mistreating his prisoners, the jailer in Bern’s former prison tower, Käfitier is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monstrous calf.
For decades, parents have told their children to be home before dark in Lafayette, Colorado. The reason being that local lore tells of a vampire rising from his grave in the cemetery. But who exactly was the man behind the story, buried under the tombstone?
Buried in the same place as the Danish kings and queens, a legend about one of the smaller graves haunts the Roskilde Cathedral. It is said that a horse was buried here before any people, and it haunts the graveyard as the three legged helhest, an omen of death.
As a place of dubious drug testing and the place where most lobotomies were done, the Lier Hospital and former asylum was left with a haunted rumor lingering in the decaying walls. Although most of the buildings are now torn down, it is still remembered as one of Norway’s most haunted places.
The Danish ghostly horse spirit Helhest is said to roam around St. Canute’s Cathedral in Odense, Denmark. It is believed seeing the three legged horse is an omen of imminent death.
According to old legends and Danish folklore, there are stories of three legged horses haunting the churches and graveyards in the country. in Saint Olaf’s Church, the spirit of the helhest is said to be the omen of death.
Could it be that the oldest church in Oslo also has the oldest haunting? From legends about a dragon’s den underneath the structure and the ghostly silhouette haunting, the Gamle Aker Church perhaps has more activity than what meets the naked eye.
During a time when Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, there was talk about a vampire haunting the streets of Veliko Tarnovo. The rumours got so bad, that the Islamic rulers had to turn to pagan belief to rid themselves of the bloodthirsty creatures.
In the windswept landscape of Norway’s west coast lies the Utstein Monastery, a site steeped in history and haunting tales. Known as Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery, its ancient stone walls and iconic Gothic windows whisper stories of faith, love, and loss as well as the ghost of a Lady in White.
After dying for the cause of Irish Independence, it is said the ghost of Lord Edward is haunting the pub he is buried close to and bears his name.
In the ancient St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, there are said to be restless spirits still lingering. One of the more well known is said to be the ghost of Jonathan Swift, perhaps best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
