Upiór

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Burning the exhumed body of a person believed to be a vampire – Vampire, aut. R. de Moraine, 1864
Fight with an upiór - Maciej Sieńczyk

Upir (modern Polish: upiór, also: wąpierz, wupi) is a demonic being from Slavic folklore, a prototype of the vampire.[1]

Etymology[edit]

The term upir (upir – Proto-Slavic language *ǫpirь, OCS ǫpyrь/ѫпырь) was introduced to the English-language culture as a "vampyre", mentioned by Lord Byron in The Giaour in 1813, described by John William Polidori in "The Vampyre" in 1819, and popularised by Bram Stoker's Dracula. With the development of mass culture, he returned as a "vampire" recognizable in literature and film.[1] In Slavic folk culture, the upir has features that are strongly present in strzyga[2] and so Adam Mickiewicz has theorized upir developed from an ancient Roman and Greek strix.[3] In the territory of present-day Ukraine (e.g. in the Chigirinsky Uyezd), the term martvyets was used to describe the upir.[4]

Folk beliefs[edit]

Origin, appearance and activity of the upir[edit]

Calling the upiórs with whistle play, Maciej Sieńczyk

A upir was a person cursed before death,[5] a person who died suddenly, or someone whose corpse was desecrated. Other origins included a dead person over whom an animal jumped, suicide victims,[5][6] witches, unchristened children and those who were killed by another upir.[7][8]

It was believed that those who were physically different in a community were potential upir candidates: redheads, the left-handed, those with a limp, unibrow, a double set of teeth[9] or with a gray mark on their back[10] and religiously "other" (e.g. Lutherans in Catholic communities).[1] Suspicious traits among the living also included walking by moonlight, having a big head, or no armpit or pubic hair.[11]

Many of these ideas are reproduced in the legends and ethnographic records of strzygas,[9] therefore upirs are often described as having two hearts and two souls just like strzygas.[10]

Women who died during or after childbirth were particularly vulnerable to the transformation. It was feared that they would return to the orphaned child as upirs to feed it at night. That is why in Silesia, for example, those who died in childbirth were buried by the edge of the cemetery, near the wall.[12]

Lack of rigor mortis, a flushed face or blood beneath the nails were signs that a deceased person could become an upir/wąpierz. The signs of its misdeeds among family or neighbours could be fatigue, pallor, sweating or recurring nightmares.[1][5] A upir could haunt its family if the family burned the photograph or portrait of the deceased.[6] A dead person buried in an old shirt could also become an upir.[12]

A way to recognize an upir was to have an innocent child ride a horse to a cemetery and have them indicate the grave of the upir.[10] A upir could be seen in the mirror in the evening, so in the Sieradz region people would not look into mirrors after dusk.[12]

Upirs arrived at night, carrying their heads in their arms, or, if the head was not detached, with glowing "wolf-like" eyes.[13][4] Some of them caused menace during daytime, climbing up bell towers and killing everyone who heard their shriek.[8]

Upirs drank human blood, and used their superhuman strength to tear their victims to shreds. They could also kill with their breath or shrieks.[8] They harassed people at night, making them suffocate or sleepwalk. There were claims of husbands and wives becoming upirs and visiting the widowed spouse after death. They would do the chores they did during lifetime, and sometimes harass the family.[4][1]

Cattle and human plagues were often blamed on witches or upirs, causing the communities to accuse and lynch innocent people.[3]

Remedies against upirs[edit]

It was said that the dead should be taken out of the house through a special exit or hole, because if they were taken out via the main door they could become upirs.[6]

Dead people thought to be upirs had garlic heads, bricks, or iron chunks placed in their mouths before burial.[12] Branches of wild rose, hawthorn, or blackthorn were put into their coffins. The coffins were sprinkled with poppy-seed, so the upirs would have a chore (picking all the seeds up) to occupy them.[12] Another method of keeping the upirs busy was to give them little knots or nets or other small things to untangle in the grave (Pomerania).

If a person thought to be an upir died, or if someone's grave was believed to be upir's grave, a vampire burial was performed. The head could be cut off and put between the legs of the corpse,[3] the corpse could be burned,[10] nailed to the coffin,[3] or repositioned to lie face-down.

Upiór – Adam Mickiewicz

If an upir harassed a human at night, the remedy was to stop the upir returning to its grave - at dawn it would disappear or change into black tar.[1][13] Another protective measure was to drink the upir's blood or eat soil off its grave.[10]

Local variations[edit]

  • Near Słupia a young man who committed suicide due to unrequited love was thought to be an upir. After burying him in a secluded hole, the upir was supposed to appear and attack people and cattle. It disappeared when the rooster called at dawn.[13]
  • Near Warsaw, a body found on the road was treated as a potential upir and branches were thrown over it. In spring those stacks of branches were burned, so that the soul of the dead underneath would be purged of its sins.[8]
  • Near Kraków a way to free a upir's soul was recorded in 1847: one was supposed to stake the upir's head with a nail, and then put paper with writings by a teacher/professor underneath its tongue. Then a priest would be asked to cut the upir's head and reposition it face-to-the-pillow in the coffin.[10]
  • In Liszki village a story was told about a woman who found an upir in one of three coffins at night. She cut its liver out to make a meal for her husband. The upir later harassed the family until they fell ill and died.
  • In Lubelskie, the dead were buried face-down with hands tied with blessed herbs to prevent them from becoming upirs.[12]
  • In Pokuttia, a Ruthenian woman who was said to be "loved by an upir", was taken out of her house after her death via a hole made in a wall, and then buried at the crossroads, in accordance with her wishes.[6]
  • In Volhynia housewives baking bread would cover the ovens, so they "would not die with open mouth" which would cause them to "become a man-eating everyone".[6]
  • A story from Ukrainian farmers from Chigirinsky Uyezd was recorded, about an upir who protected a Cossack from a hangman.[4]
  • A story from a 1701 journey to Mykonos described a days-long fight between the locals and a upir. The deceased man was supposed to enter houses, throw candles and scare families so that they would sleep outside. His heart was taken out and burned by the sea, and when this measure combined with prayers did not help, the exhumed body was burned entirely.[10]
  • Near Gradiška until the end of the 19th century a story was told about a dead father haunting his son and asking for food. After one visit, six family members fell sick and died. After a commission examined the body and decided it looked unusual, the father was deemed an upir. The heart was staked, and body burnt.[10]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Jarosław Kolczyński (2003). "Jeszcze raz o upiorze (wampirze) i strzygoni (strzydze)". Etnografia Polska. 1–2.
  2. ^ Strzelczyk, Jerzy. (2007). Mity, podania i wierzania dawnych Słowian. Poznań: Rebis. ISBN 9788373019737. OCLC 228025091.
  3. ^ a b c d Adam Mickiewicz (1865). Literatura słowiańska: Wykładana w Kolegium francuzkiem przez Adama Mickiewicza. Poznań.
  4. ^ a b c d A. Podbereski (1880). "Materiały do demonologii ludu ukraińskiego: z opowiadań ludowych w powiecie czehryńskim". Kraków.
  5. ^ a b c Adam Mickiewicz (1823). Upiór.
  6. ^ a b c d e Henryk Biegeleisen (1929). U kolebki. Przed ołtarzem. Nad mogiłą. Lwów.
  7. ^ L. Stomma (1986). Antropologia kultury wsi polskiej XIX w.
  8. ^ a b c d Oskar Kolberg (1970). "Dzieła Wszystkie – Lud..."
  9. ^ a b "Strzygoń/strzyga – Polska bajka ludowa. Słownik – red. Violetta Wróblewska". bajka.umk.pl. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Oskar Kolberg (1874). Lud: jego zwyczaje, sposób... Vol. t. VII -Krakowskie, cz. 3.
  11. ^ "Upiór – Polska bajka ludowa. Słownik – red. Violetta Wróblewska". bajka.umk.pl. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Adam Fischer (1921). "Zwyczaje pogrzebowe ludu polskiego".
  13. ^ a b c Oskar Kolberg (1964). "Lud..."
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