Conversation:

Lovely work, well deserved on the EG. Not sure on thr pic though, seeing as that's just the image the slavic vampire is trying to escape from!

Good article. Just need to finish watching Queen of Damned.

Good article. I was aware that the modern idea (ala Bram Stoker) was based on an older version, but I didn't know how.
I think the popularity of vampires is all to do with sex & danger. It has a moralistic tone, 'Don't go & do naughty things, or bad things might happen to you'.
Very good.

Best content on original Slavic concepts of the vampire that I've found anywhere.

I think the concept of the vampire was originally all about horror, but as soon as it was linked with nightmares -- and hence bedrooms -- and as soon as the visual media came along (to say nothing of the blogosphere), it was always going to get more and more sexualised.

To go into a couple of linguistic bits:

Following up on this article, I find that the web says Perkowkski translates "Upyr' Likhij" as "wicked vampire". Though he was using this in identifying himself as though by name, it therefore becomes complicated...
Could there be a connection between "likhij"/"likhyj" and "lich", as in corpse? This is common to the Germanic language family including the Swedes/their descendents who ruled Novogorod and the rest of Rus'.

I'm keen to know what the apostrophe signifies in words like "upyr'", having also seen it in the name of the early medieval state of "Kievan Rus'".

Cheers!
--Os.