13 How can one kill a vampire?
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This article is from the Vampires FAQ, by BJ Kuehl bj@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu with numerous contributions by others.
13 How can one kill a vampire?
Vampires in legend and fiction are usually already dead...er...UNdead.
Therefore, the aim is not to kill them but to destroy them in such a
way that they can never again rise up to walk among the living. Some
time-honored ways of destroying a vampire include:
- Burning. This seems to be a universal method in both legend and
fiction of destroying vampires.
- Cutting out the heart and burning it.
- Cutting off the head. Some legends say that this must be done with a
gravedigger's shovel. In fiction, however, Van Helsing's autopsy
knives seemed to work just fine on Lucy. Other legends require that
the head be moved away from the body lest the head and body re-unite.
- Driving a stake through the heart. This method seems to work best on
fictional vampires. In legendary vampire lore, staking a vampire
serves merely to "nail" him in place so as to prevent him from leaving
the coffin or to allow other procedures [as above] to be performed
without having to worry about the vampire moving, shapeshifting, or
otherwise escaping. In many of these legends, the stake must be of a
particular wood, such as ash, hawthorne, maple, blackthorn, buckthorn,
or aspen. The power of these woods is often claimed to lie in Christian
symbolism. For example, ash has been cited as the wood from which
Christ's cross was made. Plants with thorns, such as hawthorn, wild
roses, and blackthorn, are associated with the crown of thorns worn by
Christ at his crucifixion. However, in his book _Fasti_ [which was
written prior to the death of Christ], Ovid describes the value of
hawthorn in warding off vampire striges [see 2.04 Stryx] who like to
feed on the blood and guts of human infants, so the roots of some of
these legends obviously predate Christian influences.
- Exposing to sunlight. Like staking, exposing a vampire to sunlight has
become one of the more common methods of destroying fictional vampires,
at least since Count Orlock greeted the dawn through a window in the
1922 classic movie "Nosferatu". Legendary vampires are not quite so
sun-sensitive. [see Vrykolakas 2.04, vulnerabilities 2.06, and
dhampirs 2.08]
- Dispelling the vampire with holy symbols, such as the Eucharist or
holy water. This idea seems to derive from the Christian belief, as
espoused by Leo Allatius (and later by Dom Augustin Calmet) that
vampires are in league with Satan. In modern fiction, however, this
tactic is more commonly used to prevent a vampire from returning to
his coffin, and he is consequently killed by exposure to the sun.
- Calling in a dhampir.
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