Historical Vampires - Part II
Jure Grando Jure Grando was a peasant from Istria, Croatia who died in 1656. He allegedly terrorized villagers in the area for 16 years after his death. Official documents from that time name him a “strigon,” the local name for “vampire.” Jure Grando’s case is important in vampire folklore as it was the first time in history that the word “vampire” was officially applied to a person. According to locals, he would wander the village by night and knock people’s doors. Whoever’s door he knocked would die. When he wasn’t doing that, he was bothering his widow for sex. Eventually, people got tired of being terrorized by an undead monster, so a local priest took a stand and went out to face him. Grando was no match for the priest, who warded him off with a cross. The priest and some of the villagers chased him back to his grave, dug him up, and decapitated his corpse.
The Hunderprest Of Melrose Abbey The “Hunderprest” was a nickname given to an 11th-century priest of Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders. He was given the nickname because of his favorite pastime: hunting on horseback with a pack of hunting dogs. (“Hunderprest” means “dog priest.”)
The story of the vampire of Melrose Abbey is based sometime around the year 1138. In life, the Hunderprest was a bit of a bad man, so when he died, he returned as a revenant. He was forced to drink the blood of innocents and change into a bat. It’s said that the monks of the abbey, displaying some impressive turn-the-other-cheekery, were content to let him run around being all undead and stuff—until he began to bother his mistress for sex. Eventually, the frightened monks and priests banded together in order to bring him down. They laid out a watch at the Hunderprest’s grave where he rose at nightfall. The monks, showing a rather un-monkish capacity for kicking butt, took him down with a well-timed blow to the head from an axe. They cremated the vampire’s body and spread his ashes, ending his reign of terror. But some legends say that he still haunts the area.
The Gorbals Vampire This tale started with the rumor that a vampire with iron teeth was at Gorbals graveyard in Glasgow, Scotland. The vampire had apparently taken two children. Within a few hours, the graveyard was full of children with makeshift weapons like sticks and knives, hunting for the vampire.
Authorities blamed the occurrence on hysteria and the influence of American comics like Tales From The Crypt. But it’s since been pointed out that there were no comics from this period featuring vampires with iron teeth. Was there some truth to the iron-toothed vampire prowling the graveyard at night and feeding on children? Was the vampire imaginary? Or had it just been scared off by the sight of dozens of armed Glaswegians excited by the prospect of beating and stabbing it back to hell?
