Devilry

In October of 2018 The Washington Post ran an article titled “Archaeologists find ‘vampire burial’ site of a child feared capable of rising from the dead” the Articled went on to detail a strange burial ritual they have come to be familiar with in the field. More than fifteen hundred years ago, in a vast Roman villa a young child was buried with a stone the size of an egg in their mouth. Researchers speculate the child likely died from a Malaria outbreak at the time. The reason, it turned out, was a custom among Europeans at the time, to stop the child from rising from the dead to spread the disease to others. Another child, a three-year-old girl was found not far from there with stones weighing down all limbs. Locals dubbed the find “the Vampire of Lugnano” and a quote from an archaeologist working the site stated, “beyond these bizarre discoveries were human beings who lived in fear” The question is, fear from what?

Many, familiar only with the sparkling erotica of the Hollywood Vampire craze might be perplexed to hear of a Vampire being dispatched with stones. In fact, the Vampire of folklore could be destroyed many ways. A popular method was to drive an iron stake through the suspects head. Our ancestors viewed things with a spiritual or otherworldly sense, much like the vampires themselves. Some materials possessed properties that were purer than others, metal being at the top of the list, in fact the more pure or rare the metal, the better it seemed to work against the undead. This is where the idea of a silver bullet should be used to kill a Werewolf comes from.

Devilrypodcast.com

Music by Kevin Macleod

https://soundcloud.com/kevin-9-1

"Shadowlands 1 - Horizon", "Shadowlands 2 - Bridge", "Shadowlands 3 - Machine", "Shadowlands 4 - Breath", "Shadowlands 5 - Antechamber", "Shadowlands 6 - The Pit", "Shadowlands 7 - Codex"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In last weeks episode Tell me Strange Things, we looked at the curious life and works of Montague Summers and explored his odd views on the literal existence of Vampires, Werewolves and Witches. His exploration and translations of works of Inquisitors and Witchfinder generals did not endear him to the prevailing sentiment at the time and now-being that the trial, torture, and execution of witches was a sad and disturbing byproduct of overzealous and misguided Religious charlatans. Although many of the examples produced in the hysteria of the day, like that of the reviled Matthew Hopkins and the Salem Witch trials read like psychopathic horror novels, what is often overlooked is the real cases of witchcraft and devil worship practiced by the supposed enlightened nobles and aristocrats of the Middle ages and Renaissance era.

Music by Kevin Macleod

https://soundcloud.com/kevin-9-1

"Shadowlands 1 - Horizon", "Shadowlands 2 - Bridge", "Shadowlands 3 - Machine", "Shadowlands 4 - Breath", "Shadowlands 5 - Antechamber", "Shadowlands 6 - The Pit", "Shadowlands 7 - Codex"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In 1926 a strange looking man, with a black cape, black shovel hat, wearing a black cassock with a white collar came bounding out of the reading room of the British Museum of Oxford, cape fluttering behind him. In one hand was a silver doped cane, in another, a black portfolio with the words "VAMPIRE" written in blood red across it. "Monty" a man called after him. The man in black turned, a mischievous grin came across his face. "Yes sir? Tell me strange things..."

https://devilrypodcast.com/

https://twitter.com/devilrypod

Photo by Jordan Connor

https://unsplash.com/@jordonsconner

Ian Espinosa

https://unsplash.com/@greystorm

"Shadowlands 1 - Horizon", "Shadowlands 2 - Bridge", "Shadowlands 3 - Machine", "Shadowlands 4 - Breath", "Shadowlands 5 - Antechamber", "Shadowlands 6 - The Pit", "Shadowlands 7 - Codex"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/