Harry Potter And Vampire

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of a wizard, Harry Potter and his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and WizardryHP Pavilion dv6-1299lx battery. The main story arc concerns Harry's quest to overcome the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort, whose aims are to become immortal, to conquer the wizarding world, subjugate non-magical people, and destroy all those who stand in his way, especially Harry Potter. Since the release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on 30 June 1997, the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwideHP Pavilion dv6-1299ez battery.[2] The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the increasingly dark tone. As of June 2011, the book series has sold about 450 million copies, making it the best-selling books series in history and has been translated into 67 languages,[3][4] and the last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in historyHP Pavilion dv6-1299es battery. A series of many genres, including fantasy and coming of age (with elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, and romance), it has many cultural meanings and references.[5][6][7][8] According to Rowling, the main theme is death,[9] although it is primarily considered to be a work of children's literature. There are also many other themes in the series, such as prejudice and corruptionHP Pavilion dv6-1299er battery.[10] The initial major publishers of the books were Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States. The books have since been published by many publishers worldwide. The books, with the seventh book split into two parts, have been made into an eight-part film series by Warner Bros. Pictures, the highest-grossing film series of all timeHP Pavilion dv6-1299eo battery. The series also originated much tie-in merchandise, making the Harry Potter brand worth in excess of $15 billion.[11] Plot Further information: Harry Potter universe Complete set of the seven books of the Harry Potter series. The novels revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers at the age of eleven that he is a wizard, living within the ordinary world of non-magical, or Muggle, people.[12] His ability is inborn and such children are invited to attend a school that teaches the necessary skills to succeed in the wizarding world. HP Pavilion dv6-1299ef battery Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and it is in here where most of the novels' events take place. As Harry develops through his adolescence, he learns to overcome the problems that face him: magical, social and emotional, including ordinary teenage challenges such as friendships and exams, and the greater test of preparing himself for the confrontation that lies ahead. HP Pavilion dv6-1299ea battery Each book chronicles one year in Harry's life[15] with the main narrative being set in the years 1991–98.[16] The books also contain many flashbacks, which are frequently experienced by Harry viewing the memories of other characters in a device called a Pensieve. The environment J. K. Rowling created is completely separate from reality yet intimately connected to itHP Pavilion dv6-1295el battery. While the fantasy land of Narnia is an alternative universe and the Lord of the Rings' Middle-earth a mythic past, the wizarding world of Harry Potter exists in parallel within the real world and this is how Potter's world contains magical elements similar to things in everyday life. Many of its institutions and locations are recognisable, such as LondonHP Pavilion dv6-1291es battery.[17] It comprises a fragmented collection of overlooked hidden streets, ancient pubs, lonely country manors and secluded castles that remain invisible to the Muggle population.[13] Early years When the first novel of the series Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in some countries as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) opens, it is clear some remarkable event has taken place in the wizarding world, an event so very remarkable, even the Muggles notice signs of itHP Pavilion dv6-1290ev battery. The full background to this event and to the person of Harry Potter is only revealed gradually, through the series. After the introductory chapter, the book leaps forward to a time shortly before Harry Potter's eleventh birthday, and it is at this point that his background begins to be revealed. Harry's first contact with the wizarding world is through a half-giant, Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of grounds and keys at Hogwarts. Hagrid reveals some of Harry's historyHP Pavilion dv6-1290es battery.[18] Harry learns that as a baby he witnessed his parents' murder by the power-obsessed dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, who then attempted to kill him also.[18] For reasons not immediately revealed, the spell with which Voldemort tried to kill Harry rebounded. Harry survived with only a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead as a memento of the attack, and Voldemort disappearedHP Pavilion dv6-1290en battery. As its inadvertent saviour from Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry has become a living legend in the wizarding world. However, at the orders of the venerable and well-known wizard Albus Dumbledore, the orphaned Harry had been placed in the home of his unpleasant Muggle (non-wizard) relatives, the Dursleys who had him safe but hid his true heritage from him in hopes that he would grow up "normal"HP Pavilion dv6-1290ec battery.[18] With Hagrid's help, Harry prepares for and undertakes his first year of study at Hogwarts. As Harry begins to explore the magical world, the reader is introduced to many of the primary locations used throughout the series. Harry meets most of the main characters and gains his two closest friends: Ron Weasley, a fun-loving member of an ancientHP Pavilion dv6-1288la battery, large, happy, but hard-up wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a gifted and hardworking witch of non-magical parentage.[18][19] Harry also encounters the school's potions master, Severus Snape, who displays a deep and abiding dislike for him. The plot concludes with Harry's second confrontation with Lord Voldemort, who in his quest for immortality, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's Stone a substance that gives everlasting lifeHP Pavilion dv6-1285es battery.[18] The series continues with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describing Harry's second year at Hogwarts. He and his friends investigate a 50-year-old mystery that appears tied to recent sinister events at the school. Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, enrols in her first year at Hogwarts, and finds a notebook which turns out to be Voldemort's diary from his school daysHP Pavilion dv6-1282et battery. Ginny becomes possessed by Voldemort through the diary and opens the "Chamber of Secrets", unleashing an ancient monster which begins attacking students at Hogwarts. The novel delves into the history of Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the Chamber. For the first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in the wizarding world, and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards who were descended from MugglesHP Pavilion dv6-1280us battery. Harry also learns that his ability to speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes, is rare and often associated with the Dark Arts. The novel ends after Harry saves Ginny's life by destroying a basilisk and the enchanted diary which has been the source of the problems. The third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, follows Harry in his third year of magical education. It is the only book in the series which does not feature Voldemort. Instead, Harry must deal with the knowledge that he has been targeted by Sirius BlackHP Pavilion dv6-1280sn battery, an escaped murderer believed to have assisted in the deaths of Harry's parents. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors—dark creatures with the power to devour a human soul—which are ostensibly protecting the school, he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who is eventually revealed to be a werewolf. Lupin teaches Harry defensive measures which are well above the level of magic generally shown by people his ageHP Pavilion dv6-1280ev battery. Harry learns that both Lupin and Black were close friends of his father and that Black was framed by their fourth friend, Peter Pettigrew.[20] In this book, another recurring theme throughout the series is emphasised—in every book there is a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, none of whom lasts more than one school year. Voldemort returnsHP Pavilion dv6-1280et battery "The Elephant House" – The café in Edinburgh in which Rowling wrote the first part of Harry Potter. During Harry's fourth year of school (detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) Harry is unwillingly entered as a participant in the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous contest where Harry must compete against a witch and a wizard "champion" from visiting schools as well as another Hogwarts studentHP Pavilion dv6-1280es battery.[21] Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, who turns out to be an impostor – one of Voldemort's supporters named Barty Crouch, Jr in disguise. The point at which the mystery is unravelled marks the series' shift from foreboding and uncertainty into open conflict. Voldemort's plan to have Crouch use the tournament to bring Harry to Voldemort succeedsHP Pavilion dv6-1280ep battery. Although Harry manages to escape from him, Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts champion in the tournament, is killed and Voldemort resurges. In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry must confront the newly resurfaced Voldemort. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works from Sirius Black's dark family home to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect Voldemort's targetsHP Pavilion dv6-1280el battery, especially Harry. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned.[22] In an attempt to counter and eventually discredit Dumbledore, who along with Harry is the most prominent voice in the wizarding world attempting to warn of Voldemort's returnHP Pavilion dv6-1277la battery, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a dictatorial regime and refuses to allow the students to learn ways to defend themselves against dark magic.[22] Harry forms "Dumbledore's Army", a secret study group to teach his classmates the higher-level skills of Defence Against the Dark Arts that he has learned. An important prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is revealed,[23] and Harry discovers that he and Voldemort have a painful connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions telepathicallyHP Pavilion dv6-1277el battery. In the novel's climax, Harry and his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters. Although the timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives, Sirius Black is killed in the conflict.[22] In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort begins waging open warfare. Harry and friends are relatively protected from that danger at Hogwarts. They are subject to all the difficulties of adolescenceHP Pavilion dv6-1275la battery; Harry eventually begins dating Ginny Weasley. Near the beginning of the novel, Harry is given an old potions textbook filled with annotations and recommendations signed by a mysterious writer, "the Half-Blood Prince". This book is a source of scholastic success, but because of the potency of the spells that are written in it, becomes a source of concern. Harry takes private lessons with DumbledoreHP Pavilion dv6-1275eg battery, who shows him various memories concerning the early life of Voldemort. These reveal that Voldemort, to preserve his life, has split his soul into pieces, creating a series of horcruxes, evil enchanted items hidden in various locations, one of which was the diary destroyed in the second book.[24] Harry's snobbish adversary, Draco Malfoy, attempts to attack Dumbledore, and the book culminates in the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape, the titular Half-Blood PrinceHP Pavilion dv6-1270st battery. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, begins directly after the events of the sixth book. Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione drop out of school so that they can find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. To ensure their own safety as well as that of their family and friends, they are forced to isolate themselvesHP Pavilion dv6-1270ss battery. As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learns details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives—he had worked on Dumbledore's behalf since the murder of Harry's mother. The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, in conjunction with members of the Order of the Phoenix and many of the teachers and students, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort, his Death EatersHP Pavilion dv6-1270la battery, and various magical creatures. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle. After learning that he himself is a horcrux, Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts a killing curse at him. However, the defenders of Hogwarts do not surrender after learning this, but continue to fight on. Having managed to return from the dead, Harry finally faces VoldemortHP Pavilion dv6-1270ev battery, whose horcruxes have all been destroyed. In the subsequent battle, Voldemort's curse rebounds off of Harry's spell and kills Voldemort. An epilogue describes the lives of the surviving characters and the effects on the wizarding world. Supplementary works See also: J. K. Rowling: Philanthropy Rowling has expanded the Harry Potter universe with several short books produced for various charities.[25][26] In 2001, she released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a purported Hogwarts textbook) and Quidditch Through the Ages (a book Harry reads for fun) HP Pavilion dv6-1270et battery. Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefitted the charity Comic Relief.[27] In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which was auctioned to raise money for the Children's High Level Group, a fund for mentally disabled children in poor countriesHP Pavilion dv6-1270eq battery. The book was published internationally on 4 December 2008.[28][29] Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.[30] In 2011, Rowling launched a new website announcing an upcoming project called Pottermore.[31] Structure and genre See also: Harry Potter influences and analogues The Harry Potter novels fall within the genre of fantasy literature; however, in many respects they are also bildungsromans, or coming of age novelsHP Pavilion dv6-1270el battery,[32] and contain elements of mystery, adventure, thriller, and romance. They can be considered part of the British children's boarding school genre, which includes Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co., Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girl series, and Frank Richards's Billy Bunter novels: the Harry Potter books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizardsHP Pavilion dv6-1270eg battery, where the curriculum includes the use of magic.[33] In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life".[34][35] They are also, in the words of Stephen King, "shrewd mystery tales",[36] and each book is constructed in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery adventureHP Pavilion dv6-1270ec battery. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of Philosopher's Stone and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince). In the middle of each book, Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules. If students are caught breaking rules, they are often disciplined by Hogwarts professors, who employ the use of punishments often found in the boarding school sub-genre. HP Pavilion dv6-1268tx battery However, the stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death–a point underlined, as the series progresses, by one or more characters being killed in each of the final four books. HP Pavilion dv6-1268nr battery In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore. In the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement.[37] Completing the bildungsroman format, in this part Harry must grow up prematurelyHP Pavilion dv6-1266el battery, losing the chance of a last year as a pupil in a school and needing to act as an adult, on whose decisions everybody else depends—the grown-ups included.[citation needed] Themes According to Rowling, a major theme in the series is death: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it." HP Pavilion dv6-1265tx battery Academics and journalists have developed many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series. HP Pavilion dv6-1265sg battery [39] Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going over one's most harrowing ordeals—and thus coming to terms with them" has also been considered.[40] Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and that also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".HP Pavilion dv6-1264tx battery While the books could be said to comprise many other themes, such as power/abuse of power, love, prejudice, and free choice, they are, as J. K. Rowling states, "deeply entrenched in the whole plot"; the writer prefers to let themes "grow organically", rather than sitting down and consciously attempting to impart such ideas to her readers. HP Pavilion dv6-1264ca battery Along the same lines is the ever-present theme of adolescence, in whose depiction Rowling has been purposeful in acknowledging her characters' sexualities and not leaving Harry, as she put it, "stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence".[42] Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems "blindingly obvious". The key for her was the choice between what is right and what is easy, "because that ... HP Pavilion dv6-1263cl battery is how tyranny is started, with people being apathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble."[43] Origins and publishing history The novelist, J. K. Rowling. In 1990, J. K. Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into her head". Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying: HP Pavilion dv6-1261tx battery "I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to meHP Pavilion dv6-1260tx battery." Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995 and the manuscript was sent off to several prospective agents.[45] The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to Bloomsbury. After eight other publishers had rejected Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury offered Rowling a £2,500 advance for its publication. HP Pavilion dv6-1260sn battery Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.[48] On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a womanHP Pavilion dv6-1260sh battery. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name.[47][49] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997.[50] It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic—the American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, HP Pavilion dv6-1260sg battery after Rowling had received US$105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author.[52] Fearing that American readers would not associate the word "philosopher" with a magical theme (although the Philosopher's Stone is alchemy-related), Scholastic insisted that the book be given the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the American marketHP Pavilion dv6-1260se battery. The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[53] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and ScholasticHP Pavilion dv6-1260ev battery.[54] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.[55] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.[56] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005, and it sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release. The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007. HP Pavilion dv6-1260et battery The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[58] Translations Main article: Harry Potter in translation The series has been translated into 67 languages,[3][60] placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history.[61] The books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Azerbaijani, Ukrainian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Welsh, Afrikaans, Albanian, Latvian and Vietnamese. The first volume has been translated into Latin and even Ancient GreekHP Pavilion dv6-1260ep battery,[62] making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.[63] Some of the translators hired to work on the books were well-known authors before their work on Harry Potter, such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth book. The Turkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentatorHP Pavilion dv6-1260ej battery.[64] For reasons of secrecy, translation can only start when the books are released in English; thus there is a lag of several months before the translations are available. This has led to more and more copies of the English editions being sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries. Such was the clamour to read the fifth book that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the best-seller list in France. HP Pavilion dv6-1260ei battery The United States editions of the Harry Potter novels have required the adaptation of the texts into American English, as many words and concepts used by the characters in the novels may have not been understood by a young American audience.[66] Completion of the series In December 2005, Rowling stated on her web site, "2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series."[67] Updates then followed in her online diary chronicling the progress of Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsHP Pavilion dv6-1260ec battery, with the release date of 21 July 2007. The book itself was finished on 11 January 2007 in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, where she scrawled a message on the back of a bust of Hermes. It read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (552) on 11 January 2007." HP Pavilion dv6-1259tx battery Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed "in something like 1990".[69][70] In June 2006, Rowling, on an appearance on the British talk show Richard & Judy, announced that the chapter had been modified as one character "got a reprieve" and two others who previously survived the story had in fact been killedHP Pavilion dv6-1259dx battery. On 28 March 2007, the cover art for the Bloomsbury Adult and Child versions and the Scholastic version were released. Achievements Cultural impact For more details on this topic, see Harry Potter fandom. Further information: Cultural impact of Harry Potter Crowds wait outside a Borders store in Newark, Delaware for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Fans of the series were so eager for the latest instalment that bookstores around the world began holding events to coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000 publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly featuring mock sortingHP Pavilion dv6-1256tx battery, games, face painting, and other live entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hours.[73][74] The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows became the fastest selling book in history, moving 11 million units in the first twenty-four hours of release HP Pavilion dv6-1255tx battery.[75] The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition's cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.[76] Besides meeting online through blogs, podcasts, and fansites, Harry Potter super-fans can also meet at Harry Potter symposia. The word Muggle has spread beyond its Harry Potter originsHP Pavilion dv6-1255eg battery, becoming one of few pop culture words to land in the Oxford English Dictionary.[77] The Harry Potter fandom has embraced podcasts as a regular, often weekly, insight to the latest discussion in the fandom. Both MuggleCast and PotterCast[78] have reached the top spot of iTunes podcast rankings and have been polled one of the top 50 favourite podcasts. HP Pavilion dv6-1255ee battery Awards and honours The Harry Potter series have been the recipients of a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher's Stone including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards (all of which were awarded in 2001),[80] three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),[81] two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001),[82] the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award (1999),[83] the WHSmith book of the year (2006),[84] among othersHP Pavilion dv6-1254tx battery. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and in 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award.[85] Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997),[86] a short listing for the Guardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly. HP Pavilion dv6-1253cl battery Commercial success See also: List of best-selling books The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[88] The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros. HP Pavilion dv6-1253ca battery, all of which have been highly successful in their own right.[4][89] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod). The Harry Potter brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $15 billion.[11] The great demand for Harry Potter books motivated the New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireHP Pavilion dv6-1252tx battery. By 24 June 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover best-seller list.[90] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[91] For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the bookHP Pavilion dv6-1250us battery.[92] Together, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.[92] In the United States, the book's initial printing run was 3.8 million copies.[92] This record statistic was broken by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince with 10.8 million copies.[93] 6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the U.S. within the first 24 hours of its release; in the United Kingdom more than two million copies were sold on the first day. HP Pavilion dv6-1250ss battery The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[95] Reception Literary criticism British editions of the seven Harry Potter books. Early in its history, Harry Potter received positive reviews. On publication, the first volume, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, attracted attention from the Scottish newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had "all the makings of a classic",[96] and The Glasgow Herald, which called it "Magic stuff".[96] Soon the English newspapers joined inHP Pavilion dv6-1250sp battery, with more than one comparing it to Roald Dahl's work: The Mail on Sunday rated it as "the most imaginative debut since Roald Dahl",[96] a view echoed by The Sunday Times ("comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified"),[96] while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit".[96] By the time of the release of the fifth volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began to receive strong criticism from a number of literary scholarsHP Pavilion dv6-1250eq battery. Yale professor, literary scholar and critic Harold Bloom raised criticisms of the books' literary merits, saying, "Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing."[97] A. S. Byatt authored a New York Times op-ed article calling Rowling's universe a "secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature ... HP Pavilion dv6-1250ep battery written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip".[98] Michael Rosen, a novelist and poet, advocated the books were not suited for children, who would be unable to grasp the complex themes. Rosen also stated that "J. K. Rowling is more of an adult writer." HP Pavilion dv6-1250eo battery The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was negative—"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", and he speaks of "pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style".[100] Ursula Le Guin said, "I have no great opinion of itHP Pavilion dv6-1250el battery. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the 'incredible originality' of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a "school novel", good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited." HP Pavilion dv6-1250eg battery By contrast, author Fay Weldon, while admitting that the series is "not what the poets hoped for", nevertheless goes on to say, "but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose".[102] The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating: "There are not many writers who have JK's Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep—openly, with tears splashing—and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokesHP Pavilion dv6-1250eb battery ... We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children's stories ever written".[103] Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic,[104] took issue with Byatt's criticisms in particular. While he conceded that she may have "a valid cultural point—a teeny one—about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art",HP Pavilion dv6-1249tx battery he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers. Taylor stressed the progressively darker tone of the books, shown by the murder of a classmate and close friend and the psychological wounds and social isolation each causes. Taylor also argued that Philosopher's Stone, said to be the most light-hearted of the seven published booksHP Pavilion dv6-1249eo battery, disrupts the childhood reassurances that Byatt claims spur the series' success: the book opens with news of a double murder, for example.[105] Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humour" to be "remarkable". However, he wrote that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle"HP Pavilion dv6-1248eo battery, the formulaic beginning of all seven books.[36] King has also joked that "Rowling's never met an adverb she did not like!" He does however predict that Harry Potter "will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages".HP Pavilion dv6-1248ca battery Social impacts Although Time magazine named Rowling as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year award, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom,[107] cultural comments on the series have been mixed. Washington Post book critic Ron Charles opined in July 2007 that the large numbers of adults reading the Potter series but few other books may represent a "bad case of cultural infantilism"HP Pavilion dv6-1247tx battery, and that the straightforward "good vs. evil" theme of the series is "childish". He also argued "through no fault of Rowling's", the cultural and marketing "hysteria" marked by the publication of the later books "trains children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media experience that no other novel can possibly provide".HP Pavilion dv6-1247ez battery Librarian Nancy Knapp pointed out the books' potential to improve literacy by motivating children to read much more than they otherwise would.[109] Agreeing about the motivating effects, Diane Penrod also praised the books' blending of simple entertainment with "the qualities of highbrow literary fiction", but expressed concern about the distracting effect of the prolific merchandising that accompanies the book launches. HP Pavilion dv6-1247et battery Jennifer Conn used Snape's and Quidditch coach Madam Hooch's teaching methods as examples of what to avoid and what to emulate in clinical teaching,[111] and Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics in a typical first-year sociology class: "sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation; stratification and social inequality; social institutions; and social theory".HP Pavilion dv6-1247eo battery Jenny Sawyer wrote in 25 July 2007 Christian Science Monitor that the books represent a "disturbing trend in commercial storytelling and Western society" in that stories "moral center [sic] have all but vanished from much of today's pop culture ... after 10 years, 4,195 pages, and over 375 million copies, J. K. Rowling's towering achievement lacks the cornerstone of almost all great children's literature: the hero's moral journey"HP Pavilion dv6-1247cl battery. Harry Potter, Sawyer argues, neither faces a "moral struggle" nor undergoes any ethical growth, and is thus "no guide in circumstances in which right and wrong are anything less than black and white".[113] In contrast Emily Griesinger described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makesHP Pavilion dv6-1246tx battery. She also noted the "deeper magic" by which the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother protects the boy throughout the series, and which the power-hungry Voldemort fails to understand.[114] In an 8 November 2002 Slate article, Chris Suellentrop likened Potter to a "trust-fund kid whose success at school is largely attributable to the gifts his friends and relatives lavish upon him". Noting that in Rowling's fiction, magical ability potential is "something you are born toHP Pavilion dv6-1246eo battery, not something you can achieve", Suellentrop wrote that Dumbledore's maxim that "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" is hypocritical, as "the school that Dumbledore runs values native gifts above all else".[115] In a 12 August 2007 New York Times review of Deathly Hallows, however, Christopher Hitchens praised Rowling for "unmooring" her "English school story" from literary precedents "bound up with dreams of wealth and class and snobbery"HP Pavilion dv6-1245et battery, arguing that she had instead created "a world of youthful democracy and diversity".[116] Controversies Main articles: Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series, Religious debates over the Harry Potter series, and Politics of Harry Potter The books have been the subject of a number of legal proceedings, stemming either from claims by American Christian groups that the magic in the books promotes witchcraft among children, or from various conflicts over copyright and trademark infringementsHP Pavilion dv6-1245es battery. The popularity and high market value of the series has led Rowling, her publishers, and film distributor Warner Bros. to take legal measures to protect their copyright, which have included banning the sale of Harry Potter imitations, targeting the owners of websites over the "Harry Potter" domain name, and suing author Nancy Stouffer to counter her accusations that Rowling had plagiarised her workHP Pavilion dv6-1245eo battery. Various religious conservatives have claimed that the books promote witchcraft and are therefore unsuitable for children, while a number of critics have criticised the books for promoting various political agendas. The books also aroused controversies in the literary and publishing worlds. In 1997 to 1998 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won almost all the UK awards judged by children, but none of the children's book awards judged by adultsHP Pavilion dv6-1245dx battery,[123] and Sandra Beckett suggested the reason was intellectual snobbery towards books that were popular among children.[124] In 1999 the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award children's division was entered for the first time on the shortlist for the main award, and one judge threatened to resign if Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was declared the overall winnerHP Pavilion dv6-1244tx battery; it finished second, very close behind the winner of the poetry prize, Seamus Heaney's translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.[124] In 2000, shortly before the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous three Harry Potter books topped the New York Times fiction best-seller list and a third of the entries were children's books. The newspaper created a new children's section covering children's books, including both fiction and non-fictionHP Pavilion dv6-1244sb battery, and initially counting only hardback sales. The move was supported by publishers and booksellers.[90] In 2004 The New York Times further split the children's list, which was still dominated by Harry Potter books into sections for series and individual books, and removed the Harry Potter books from the section for individual books. HP Pavilion dv6-1243cl battery The split in 2000 attracted condemnation, praise and some comments that presented both benefits and disadvantages of the move.[126] Time suggested that, on the same principle, Billboard should have created a separate "mop-tops" list in 1964 when the Beatles held the top five places in its list, and Nielsen should have created a separate game-show list when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? dominated the ratings. HP Pavilion dv6-1242tx battery Audiobooks The Harry Potter books have all been released in unabridged audiobook versions. The UK versions are read by Stephen Fry and the US versions are read by Jim Dale. Dale is also the narrator for the special features disc on the DVDs.[citation needed] Films Main article: Harry Potter (film series) The locomotive that features as the "Hogwarts Express" in the film series. In 1998, Rowling sold the film rights of the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900). HP Pavilion dv6-1242et battery Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern Europe actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such.[130] After many directors including Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme, and Alan Parker were consideredHP Pavilion dv6-1241tx battery, Chris Columbus was appointed on 28 March 2000 as director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States), with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire and proven experience with directing children as influences for their decisionHP Pavilion dv6-1241et battery.[131] After extensive casting, filming began in October 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London itself, with production ending in July 2001. Philosopher's Stone was released on 14 November 2001. Just three days after the film's release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus, began. Filming was completed in summer 2002, with the film being released on 15 November 2002. HP Pavilion dv6-1241eo battery Daniel Radcliffe portrayed Harry Potter, doing so for all succeeding films in the franchise. Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June 2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third's release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireHP Pavilion dv6-1240us battery, released on 18 November 2005.[135] Newell became the first British director of the series, with television director David Yates following suit after he was chosen to helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Production began in January 2006 and the film was released the following year in July 2007.[136] After executives were "really delighted" with his work on the film, Yates was selected to direct Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released on 15 July 2009HP Pavilion dv6-1240tx battery. In March 2008, Warner Bros. President and COO Alan F. Horn announced that the final instalment in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, would be released in two cinematic parts: Part 1 on 19 November 2010 and Part 2 on 15 July 2011. David Yates returned to direct his third and fourth Potter films, becoming the only director to have helmed more than one film since Columbus. Production of both parts started in February 2009HP Pavilion dv6-1240ez battery, with the final day of principal photography taking place on 12 June 2010. J. K. Rowling gained creative control on the film series, playing an active role within the filmmaking process of Philosopher's Stone and serving as producer on the two-part Deathly Hallows, alongside David Heyman and David Barron.[143] The Harry Potter films have been top-rank box office hitsHP Pavilion dv6-1240ep battery, with all eight releases on the list of highest-grossing films worldwide. Columbus' Philosopher's Stone became the highest-grossing Potter film upon completing its theatrical run in 2002, but it was eventually topped by Yates' Deathly Hallows. Yates' first two instalments grossed higher than any other film after Philosopher's Stone, while Cuarón's Prisoner of Azkaban grossed the least.[144] As well as financial success, the film series has also been a success among film critics. HP Pavilion dv6-1240eo battery Opinions of the films are generally divided among fans, with one group preferring the more faithful approach of the first two films, and another group preferring the more stylised character-driven approach of the later films.[147] Rowling has been constantly supportive of all the films and evaluated Deathly Hallows as her "favourite one" in the series. HP Pavilion dv6-1240el battery She wrote on her website of the changes in the book-to-film transition, "It is simply impossible to incorporate every one of my storylines into a film that has to be kept under four hours long. Obviously films have restrictions novels do not have, constraints of time and budget; I can create dazzling effects relying on nothing but the interaction of my own and my readers' imaginations".HP Pavilion dv6-1240ek battery At the 64th British Academy Film Awards in February 2011, Rowling was joined by producers David Heyman and David Barron along with directors David Yates, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell in collecting the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema on behalf of all the films in the series. Actors Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who play main characters Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, were also in attendance. HP Pavilion dv6-1240ei battery Games There are eleven Harry Potter video games, eight of which correspond with the films and books, and three other spin-offs. The film/book based games are produced by Electronic Arts, as was the Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup game, with the game version of the first entry in the series, Philosopher's Stone, being released in November 2001. The video games are released to coincide with the filmsHP Pavilion dv6-1240ef battery, containing scenery and details from the films as well as the tone and spirit of the books. Objectives usually occur in and around Hogwarts, along with various other magical areas. The story and design of the games follows the selected film's characterisation and plot; EA worked closely with Warner Brothers to include scenes from the films. The last game in the series, Deathly HallowsHP Pavilion dv6-1240ed battery, was split with Part 1 released in November 2010 and Part 2 debuting on consoles in July 2011. The two-part game forms the first entry to convey an intense theme of action and violence, with the gameplay revolving around a third-person shooter style format.[155][156] The other spin-offs games, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 are developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner BrosHP Pavilion dv6-1240ec battery. Interactive Entertainment. A number of other non-interactive media games have been released; board games such as Cluedo Harry Potter Edition, Scene It? Harry Potter and Lego Harry Potter models, which are influenced by the themes of both the novels and films. Attractions United States Main article: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Islands of Adventure) After the success of the films and books, Universal and Warner Brothers announced they would create "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," a new Harry Potter-themed expansion to the Islands of Adventure theme park at Universal Orlando Resort in FloridaHP Pavilion dv6-1240ea battery. The new land, promoted as the seventh themed "island" of the park, was built from land reserved for expansion outside of the park's original border, as well as from much of the existing "island," The Lost Continent. A soft opening was held at the end of March 2010, with the land opening on 16 June 2010 for reserved guests. The land officially opened to the public on 18 June 2010. HP Pavilion dv6-1239tx battery Guests enter the land through a recreation of the Hogsmeade station,[158] leading into the village of Hogsmeade, with a forced-perspective Hogwarts castle at the very end of the street. The castle contains the expansion's centrepiece attraction, Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey, a KUKA arm attraction which takes passengers through many realistic scenes influenced by the movies and booksHP Pavilion dv6-1239et battery, including soaring over Hogwarts, getting involved in a Quidditch match, and having close encounters with dragons, dementors, and the Whomping Willow.[159] Other attractions include a twin high-speed rollercoaster named the Dragon Challenge, a renovation of the previously existing rollercoaster, Dueling Dragons, and a family roller coaster called Flight of the Hippogriff, a renovation of the previously existing ride, Flying UnicornHP Pavilion dv6-1239es battery. In addition to the three rides are several themed shops and restaurants, heavily inspired by their appearances in the books and films: Honeydukes sells sweets, such as chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Ollivander's offers personalised magic wands, Zonko's Joke Shop sells various items including Sneakoscopes, and the Three Broomsticks serves food and drink, most notably Butterbeer and pumpkin juiceHP Pavilion dv6-1238nr battery. Developed at a cost of $265 million, the new land "has seen capacity crowds [and] waits of up to two hours just to enter the ... merchandise shop." Islands of Adventure saw a massive increase in attendance following the expansion, seeing gains of as much as 36%,[160] a period during which attendance to competitor resort Walt Disney World dropped slightly.[161] Disney had itself entered negotiations for a Harry Potter-themed expansion, but ultimately turned down the opportunity. HP Pavilion dv6-1238et battery United Kingdom In March 2011, Warner Bros. announced plans to build a tourist attraction in the United Kingdom to showcase the Harry Potter film series. Warner Bros. Studio Tour London will be a behind-the-scenes walking tour featuring authentic sets, costumes and props from the film series. The attraction will be located at Warner Bros. Studios, LeavesdenHP Pavilion dv6-1238es battery, where all eight of the Harry Potter films were made. Warner Bros. stated that two new sound stages would be constructed to house and showcase the famous sets from each of the British-made productions, following a £100 million investment.[163] Some of the sets have been revealed, and tickets have already been sold. It is scheduled to open to the public in March, 2012. HP Pavilion dv6-1238ca battery Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in many cultures, and may go back to "prehistoric times",[7] the term vampire was not popularized until the early 18th centuryHP Pavilion dv6-1237et battery, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe,[8] although local variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirismHP Pavilion dv6-1237es battery. While even folkloric vampires of the Balkans and Eastern Europe had a wide range of appearance ranging from nearly human to bloated rotting corpses, it was interpretation of the vampire by the Christian Church and the success of vampire literature,[9][10] namely John Polidori's 1819 novella The Vampyre that established the archetype of charismatic and sophisticated vampireHP Pavilion dv6-1237ca battery; it is arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century,[11] inspiring such works as Varney the Vampire and eventually Dracula.[12] The Vampyre was itself based on Lord Byron's unfinished story "Fragment of a Novel", also known as "The Burial: A Fragment", published in 1819. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and which provided the basis of modern vampire fictionHP Pavilion dv6-1236et battery. Dracula drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy".[13] The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, video games, and television shows. The vampire is such a dominant figure in the horror genre that literary historian Susan Sellers places the current vampire myth in the "comparative safety of nightmare fantasy".HP Pavilion dv6-1236eo battery Etymology The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the word vampire in English from 1734, in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in the Harleian Miscellany in 1745.[14][15] Vampires had already been discussed in German literature.[16] After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires".HP Pavilion dv6-1235ss battery These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.[16] The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian вампир/vampir, when Arnold Paole, a purported vampire in Serbia was described during the time Serbia was incorporated into the Austrian EmpireHP Pavilion dv6-1235sb battery. The Serbian form has parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian and Macedonian вампир (vampir), Croatian vampir, Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Ukrainian упир (upyr), Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarusian упыр (upyr), from Old East Slavic упирь (upir'). (Note that many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampir" subsequently from the WestHP Pavilion dv6-1235et battery; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature.) The exact etymology is unclear.[22] Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь.[23] Another, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for "witch" (e.g., Tatar ubyr).[23][24] An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise "Word of Saint Grigoriy", dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported. HP Pavilion dv6-1235es battery Folk beliefs See also: List of vampires in folklore and mythology The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern EuropeHP Pavilion dv6-1235eo battery,[8] when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. HP Pavilion dv6-1235ee battery Description and common attributes Further information: List of vampire traits in folklore and fiction Vampyren, "The Vampire", by Edvard Munch It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of bloodHP Pavilion dv6-1234tx battery. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open.[28] It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature.[29] Creating vampires The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undeadHP Pavilion dv6-1234nr battery.[30] A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive.[31] Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sicklesHP Pavilion dv6-1234eo battery,[32] near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the bodyHP Pavilion dv6-1233et battery, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire.[33] Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampireHP Pavilion dv6-1233eo battery; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains,[34] indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beingsHP Pavilion dv6-1232ss battery.[35] In Albanian folklore, the dhampir is the son of the karkanxholl or the lugat. If the karkanxholl sleeps with his wife, and she is impregnated with a child, the offspring is called dhampir and has the unique ability to discern the karkanxholl; from this derives the expression the dhampir knows the lugat. The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugatsHP Pavilion dv6-1232et battery; also, living people during their sleep. Dhampiraj is also an Albanian surname.[36] Identifying vampires Many elaborate rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly baulk at the grave in question.[31] Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white.[37] Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism. HP Pavilion dv6-1232eo battery Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition.[39] In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.[40] Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighboursHP Pavilion dv6-1230us battery. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects,[41] and pressing on people in their sleep.[42] Protection An image from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté Apotropaics Apotropaics, items able to ward off revenants, are common in vampire folklore. Garlic is a common example,[43] a branch of wild rose and hawthorn plant are said to harm vampires, and in Europe, sprinkling mustard seeds on the roof of a house was said to keep them awayHP Pavilion dv6-1230ss battery.[44] Other apotropaics include sacred items, for example a crucifix, rosary, or holy water. Vampires are said to be unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as those of churches or temples, or cross running water.[45] Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some culturesHP Pavilion dv6-1230sl battery, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul).[46] This attribute, although not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.[47] Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the ownerHP Pavilion dv6-1230sf battery, although after the first invitation they can come and go as they please.[46] Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.[47] Methods of destruction Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in southern Slavic cultures.[48] Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states,[49] or hawthorn in Serbia,[50] with a record of oak in SilesiaHP Pavilion dv6-1230sb battery.[51] Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany[52][53] and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia.[54] Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire; this is similar to the act of burying sharp objects, such as sickles, in with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenantHP Pavilion dv6-1230ew battery.[55] Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body.[48] This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures, was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent risingHP Pavilion dv6-1230et battery.[56] Gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice, a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006HP Pavilion dv6-1230er battery.[57] Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In the Balkans, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was takenHP Pavilion dv6-1230eq battery. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.[58] Ancient beliefs Lilith (1892), by John Collier Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries.[59] Today, we would associate these entities with vampires, but in ancient times, the term vampire did not existHP Pavilion dv6-1230eo battery; blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the Devil was considered synonymous with the vampire.[60] Almost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India, for example, tales of vetālas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the Baitāl PacīsīHP Pavilion dv6-1230ek battery; a prominent story in the Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.[61] Piśāca, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.[62] The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shardsHP Pavilion dv6-1230ej battery.[63] Ancient Babylonia and Assyria had tales of the mythical Lilitu,[64] synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies.[64] And Estries, female shape changing, blood drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victimsHP Pavilion dv6-1230ed battery. According to Sefer Hasidim, Estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before God rested.[65] And injured Estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given her by her attacker. Ancient Greek and Roman mythology described the Empusae,[66] the Lamia,[67] and the striges. Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creatureHP Pavilion dv6-1230ec battery. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood.[66] The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the gelloudes or Gello.[67] Like the Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on young men. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood. HP Pavilion dv6-1230ca battery Christianity With the arrival of Christianity in Greece, and other parts of Europe, the vampire "began to take on decidedly Christian characteristics."[69] As various regions of the continent converted to Christianity, the vampire was viewed as "a dead person who retained a semblance of life and could leave its grave-much in the same way that Jesus had risen after his death and burial and appeared before his followers." HP Pavilion dv6-1229tx battery In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church reinterpreted vampires from their previous folk existence into minions of Satan, and used an allegory to communicate a doctrine to Christians: "Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself." The interpretation of vampires under the Christian Church established connotations that are still associated in the vampire genre today. HP Pavilion dv6-1229sf battery For example, the "ability of the cross to hurt and ward off vampires is distinctly due to its Christian association."[10][72] Medieval and later European folklore Main article: Vampire folklore by region Many of the myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th-century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants,[27][73] though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.[74] The Old Norse draugr is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires. HP Pavilion dv6-1229et battery Vampires proper originate in folklore widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized. One of the earliest recordings of vampire activity came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672HP Pavilion dv6-1229er battery.[76] Local reports cited the local vampire Giure Grando of the village Khring near Tinjan as the cause of panic among the villagers.[77] A former peasant, Guire died in 1656; however, local villagers claimed he returned from the dead and began drinking blood from the people and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart, but when the method failed to kill him, he was subsequently beheaded with better results. HP Pavilion dv6-1228tx battery During the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants; even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires.[79] Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of EuropeHP Pavilion dv6-1228sf battery.[27] The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two famous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. Plogojowitz was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following dayHP Pavilion dv6-1228ez battery. Plogojowitz supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.[79] In the second case, Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighboursHP Pavilion dv6-1227sf battery.[80] Another famous Serbian legend involving vampires concentrates around a certain Sava Savanović living in a watermill and killing and drinking blood from millers. The character was later used in a story written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Serbian 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story. The two incidents were well-documented: government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.[80] The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", raged for a generationHP Pavilion dv6-1225tx battery. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them. Although many scholars reported during this period that vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial or rabiesHP Pavilion dv6-1225sv battery, superstitious belief increased. Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires. Calmet amassed reports of vampire incidents; numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed.[81] In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote: HP Pavilion dv6-1225ss battery These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into consumption; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, and Lorraine, that the dead made this good cheerHP Pavilion dv6-1225sf battery. The controversy only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local superstition. HP Pavilion dv6-1225ew battery Non-European beliefs Africa Various regions of Africa have folkloric tales of beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam,[83] and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children.[84] The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightningHP Pavilion dv6-1225et battery, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.[3] The Americas The Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the culture of Mauritius. However, the stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United StatesHP Pavilion dv6-1225er battery.[85] Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen.[86] Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American superstition.[35] Aztec mythology described tales of the CihuateteoHP Pavilion dv6-1225ei battery, skeletal-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.[31] During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the familyHP Pavilion dv6-1225ef battery, although the term "vampire" was never actually used to describe the deceased. The deadly disease tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves.[87] The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy BrownHP Pavilion dv6-1225ee battery, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.[88] Asia Rooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast AsiaHP Pavilion dv6-1224eo battery. South Asia also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul.[89] In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank bloodHP Pavilion dv6-1223sl battery. The figure of the Vetala who appears in South Asian legend and story may sometimes be rendered as "Vampire" (see the section on "Ancient Beliefs" above). Although vampires have appeared in Japanese cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it is western in origin.[90] However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.[91] The manananggal of Philippine mythology Legends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia and IndonesiaHP Pavilion dv6-1223sf battery. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog mandurugo ("blood-sucker") and the Visayan manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victimHP Pavilion dv6-1223eo battery. The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick peopleHP Pavilion dv6-1222tx battery.[92] The Malaysian Penanggalan may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant womenHP Pavilion dv6-1222sl battery.[93] Malaysians would hang jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns.[94] The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore.[95] A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia,[96] or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia,[97] is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villagesHP Pavilion dv6-1222et battery. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir. HP Pavilion dv6-1222eo battery Jiang Shi (simplified Chinese: 僵尸; traditional Chinese: 僵屍 or 殭屍; pinyin: jiāngshī; literally "stiff corpse"), sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body.[99] HoweverHP Pavilion dv6-1221tx battery, some have disputed the comparison of jiang shi with vampires, as jiang shi are usually mindless creatures with no independent thought.[100] One unusual feature of this monster is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.[101] Modern beliefs In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain.[29] Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities, occasional sightings of vampires are reported. Indeed, vampire hunting societies still exist, although they are largely formed for social reasonsHP Pavilion dv6-1221sl battery.[27] Allegations of vampire attacks swept through the African country of Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one individual to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires.[102] In early 1970 local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemeteryHP Pavilion dv6-1221eo battery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "Highgate Vampire" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area.[103] In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in BirminghamHP Pavilion dv6-1221ax battery, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. However, local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend.[104] In 2006, a physics professor at the University of Central Florida wrote a paper arguing that it is mathematically impossible for vampires to exist, based on geometric progression. According to the paper, if the first vampire had appeared on 1 January 1600, and it fed once a month (which is less often than what is depicted in films and folklore) HP Pavilion dv6-1220tx battery, and every victim turned into a vampire, then within two and a half years the entire human population of the time would have become vampires.[105] The paper made no attempt to address the credibility of the assumption that every vampire victim would turn into a vampire. In one of the more notable cases of vampiric entities in the modern age, the chupacabra ("goat-sucker") of Puerto Rico and Mexico is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampireHP Pavilion dv6-1220st battery. The "chupacabra hysteria" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s.[106] In Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is usually considered a fictitious being, although many communities may have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. In some cases, especially in small localities, vampire superstition is still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February 2004HP Pavilion dv6-1220ss battery, several relatives of Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it.[107] Vampirism and the Vampire lifestyle also represent a relevant part of modern day's occultist movements. The mythos of the vampire, his magickal qualities, allure, and predatory archetype express a strong symbolism that can be used in ritual, energy work, and magick, and can even be adopted as a spiritual system. HP Pavilion dv6-1220sp battery The vampire has been part of the occult society in Europe for centuries and has spread into the American sub-culture as well for more than a decade, being strongly influenced by and mixed with the neo gothic aesthetics.[109] Collective noun 'Coven' has been used as a collective noun for vampires, possibly based on the Wiccan usage. An alternative collective noun is a 'house' of vampires.[110] David Malki, author of Wondermark, suggests in Wondermark No. 566 the use of the collective noun 'basement', as in "A basement of vampires." HP Pavilion dv6-1220so battery Origins of vampire beliefs Le Vampire, lithograph by R. de Moraine in Féval (1851–1852) Commentators have offered many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs, trying to explain the superstition – and sometimes mass hysteria – caused by vampires. Everything ranging from premature burial to the early ignorance of the body's decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the cause for the belief in vampiresHP Pavilion dv6-1220sd battery. Slavic spiritualism Although many cultures possess revenant superstitions comparable to the Eastern European vampire, the Slavic vampire is the revenant superstition that pervades popular culture's concept of vampire. The roots of vampire belief in Slavic culture are based to a large extent in the spiritual beliefs and practices of pre-Christianized Slavic peoples and their understanding of life after deathHP Pavilion dv6-1220sb battery. Despite a lack of pre-Christian Slavic writings describing the details of the "Old Religion", many pagan spiritual beliefs and rituals have been sustained by Slavic peoples even after their lands were Christianized. Examples of such beliefs and practices include ancestor worship, household spirits, and beliefs about the soul after death. The origins of vampire beliefs in Slavic regions can be traced to the complex structure of Slavic spiritualismHP Pavilion dv6-1220sa battery. Demons and spirits served important functions in pre-industrial Slavic societies and were considered to be very interactive in the lives and domains of humans. Some spirits were benevolent and could be helpful in human tasks, others were harmful and often destructive. Examples of such spirits are Domovoi, Rusalka, Vila, Kikimora, Poludnitsa, and VodyanoyHP Pavilion dv6-1220ez battery. These spirits were also considered to be derived from ancestors or certain deceased humans. Such spirits could appear at will in various forms including that of different animals or human form. Some of these spirits could also participate in malevolent activity to harm humans, such as drowning humans, obstructing the harvest, or sucking the blood of livestock and sometimes humans. Hence, the Slavs were obliged to appease these spirits to prevent the spirits from their potential for erratic and destructive behaviourHP Pavilion dv6-1220ew battery.[112] Common Slavic belief indicates a stark distinction between soul and body. The soul is not considered to be perishable. The Slavs believed that upon death the soul would go out of the body and wander about its neighbourhood and workplace for 40 days before moving on to an eternal afterlife.[112] Because of this, it was considered necessary to leave a window or door open in the house for the soul to pass through at its leisureHP Pavilion dv6-1220ev battery. During this time the soul was believed to have the capability of re-entering the corpse of the deceased. Much like the spirits mentioned earlier, the passing soul could either bless or wreak havoc on its family and neighbours during its 40 days of passing. Upon an individual's death, much stress was placed on proper burial rites to ensure the soul's purity and peace as it separated from the bodyHP Pavilion dv6-1220er battery. The death of an unbaptized child, a violent or an untimely death, or the death of a grievous sinner (such as a sorcerer or murderer) were all grounds for a soul to become unclean after death. A soul could also be made unclean if its body were not given a proper burial. Alternatively, a body not given a proper burial could be susceptible to possession by other unclean souls and spirits. Slavs feared unclean souls because of their potential for taking vengeance. HP Pavilion dv6-1220ek battery From these deeply implicated beliefs pertaining to death and the soul derives the invention of the Slavic concept of vampir. A vampire is the manifestation of an unclean spirit possessing a decomposing body. This undead creature is considered to be vengeful and jealous towards the living and needing the blood of the living to sustain its body's existenceHP Pavilion dv6-1220ei battery.[114] Although this concept of vampire exists in slightly deviating forms throughout Slavic countries and some of their non-Slavic neighbours, it is possible to trace the development of vampire belief to Slavic spiritualism pre-existing Christianity in Slavic regions. Pathology Decomposition Paul Barber in his book Vampires, Burial and Death has described that belief in vampires resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decompositionHP Pavilion dv6-1220eg battery.[115] People sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. However, rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued lifeHP Pavilion dv6-1220ec battery.[116] Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look "plump," "well-fed," and "ruddy"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in lifeHP Pavilion dv6-1219tx battery.[117] The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.[40] Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.[118] The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they passed through the anusHP Pavilion dv6-1219ez battery. The official reporting on the Peter Plogojowitz case speaks of "other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect".[119] After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Plogojowitz case—the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as "new skin" and "new nails".HP Pavilion dv6-1218tx battery Premature burial It has also been hypothesized that vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried alive because of shortcomings in the medical knowledge of the time. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their headsHP Pavilion dv6-1218ss battery, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been "feeding."[120] A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies.[121] Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbingHP Pavilion dv6-1218ca battery.[122] Contagion Folkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community.[87] The epidemic allusion is obvious in the classical cases of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generallyHP Pavilion dv6-1217tx battery, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips.[123] Porphyria In 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstreamHP Pavilion dv6-1217ss battery. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms.[124] The theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folkloreHP Pavilion dv6-1217er battery, many of whom were not noted to drink blood.[125] Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely.[126] Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention[127] and entered popular modern folklore. HP Pavilion dv6-1217ax battery Rabies Rabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patternsHP Pavilion dv6-1216tx battery (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth. HP Pavilion dv6-1216ss battery Psychodynamic understanding In his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare, Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones noted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms. Emotions such as love, guilt, and hate fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the sameHP Pavilion dv6-1216sl battery. From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives, particularly their spouses, first.[131] In cases where there was unconscious guilt associated with the relationship, however, the wish for reunion may be subverted by anxiety. This may lead to repression, which Sigmund Freud had linked with the development of morbid dread.[132] Jones surmised in this case the original wish of a (sexual) reunion may be drastically changed: desire is replaced by fearHP Pavilion dv6-1216sa battery; love is replaced by sadism, and the object or loved one is replaced by an unknown entity. The sexual aspect may or may not be present.[133] Some modern critics have proposed a simpler theory: People identify with immortal vampires because, by so doing, they overcome, or at least temporarily escape from, their fear of dying. HP Pavilion dv6-1216er battery The innate sexuality of bloodsucking can be seen in its intrinsic connection with cannibalism and folkloric one with incubus-like behaviour. Many legends report various beings draining other fluids from victims, an unconscious association with semen being obvious. Finally Jones notes that when more normal aspects of sexuality are repressed, regressed forms may be expressed, in particular sadism; he felt that oral sadism is integral in vampiric behaviour. HP Pavilion dv6-1216ax battery Political interpretation The reinvention of the vampire myth in the modern era is not without political overtones.[136] The aristocratic Count Dracula, alone in his castle apart from a few demented retainers, appearing only at night to feed on his peasantry, is symbolic of the parasitic Ancien regime. In his entry for "Vampires" in the Dictionnaire philosophique (1764) HP Pavilion dv6-1215tx battery, Voltaire notices how the end of the 18th century coincided with the decline of the folkloric belief in the existence of vampires but that now "there were stock-jobbers, brokers, and men of business, who sucked the blood of the people in broad daylight; but they were not dead, though corrupted. These true suckers lived not in cemeteries, but in very agreeable palaces"HP Pavilion dv6-1215ss battery.[137] Marx similarly famously defined capital as "dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks".[138] In Das Kapital Marx repeatedly refers to capital as a vampire, because of its monstrous metabolism: according to the German philosopher and revolutionary, in fact, capital is capable at once to suck living labour out of the workers and to transform them in an integral part of itself (variable capital) HP Pavilion dv6-1215sl battery.[139] Werner Herzog, in his Nosferatu the Vampyre, gives this political interpretation an extra ironic twist when protagonist Jonathon Harker, a middle-class solicitor, becomes the next vampire; in this way the capitalist bourgeois becomes the next parasitic class.[140] Psychopathology A number of murderers have performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kürten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called "vampires" in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murderedHP Pavilion dv6-1215sg battery. Similarly, in 1932, an unsolved murder case in Stockholm, Sweden was nicknamed the "Vampire murder", because of the circumstances of the victim's death.[141] The late 16th-century Hungarian countess and mass murderer Elizabeth Báthory became particularly infamous in later centuries' works, which depicted her bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youthHP Pavilion dv6-1215sf battery.[142] Modern vampire subcultures Vampire lifestyle is a term for a contemporary subculture of people, largely within the Goth subculture, who consume the blood of others as a pastime; drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, horror films, the fiction of Anne Rice, and the styles of Victorian England.[143] Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood-related vampirismHP Pavilion dv6-1215sd battery, commonly referred to as sanguine vampirism, and psychic vampirism, or supposed feeding from pranic energy.[144] Vampire bats Main article: Vampire bat A vampire bat in Peru Although many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Indeed, vampire bats were only integrated into vampire folklore when they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century. HP Pavilion dv6-1215sa battery Although there are no vampire bats in Europe, bats and owls have long been associated with the supernatural and omens, although mainly because of their nocturnal habits,[145][146] and in modern English heraldic tradition, a bat means "Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos".[147] The three species of actual vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America, and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memoryHP Pavilion dv6-1215ez battery. It is therefore impossible that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the vampire bat. The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records their folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. Although the vampire bat's bite is usually not harmful to a person, the bat has been known to actively feed on humans and large prey such as cattle and often leave the trademarkHP Pavilion dv6-1215ew battery, two-prong bite mark on its victim's skin.[145] The literary Dracula transforms into a bat several times in the novel, and vampire bats themselves are mentioned twice in it. The 1927 stage production of Dracula followed the novel in having Dracula turn into a bat, as did the film, where Béla Lugosi would transform into a bat.[145] The bat transformation scene would again be used by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1943's Son of Dracula. HP Pavilion dv6-1215er battery In modern fiction Count Dracula as portrayed by Béla Lugosi in 1931's Dracula Main article: List of fictional vampires The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories, the first and most influential of which was John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven. Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the anti-heroHP Pavilion dv6-1215ei battery. The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel of all time: Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897.[149] Over time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th centuryHP Pavilion dv6-1215ee battery, with Varney the Vampire and Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth,[150] and Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight.[151] The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1920s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage.[152] Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore.[153] Implied though not often explicitly documented in folkloreHP Pavilion dv6-1215ax battery, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire film and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for blood of former equals.[154] Literature Main article: Vampire literature "Carmilla" by D. H. Friston, 1872, from The Dark Blue The vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger, Die Braut von Corinth (The Bride of Corinth (1797) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), John Stagg's "The Vampyre" (1810), Percy Bysshe Shelley's "The Spectral Horseman" (1810) HP Pavilion dv6-1214tx battery ("Nor a yelling vampire reeking with gore") and "Ballad" in St. Irvyne (1811) about a reanimated corpse, Sister Rosa, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished Christabel and Lord Byron's The Giaour.[155] Byron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: The Vampyre (1819). However this was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, John PolidoriHP Pavilion dv6-1214sl battery, who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient, "Fragment of a Novel" (1819), also known as "The Burial: A Fragment".[27][149] Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover Lady Caroline Lamb in her unflattering roman-a-clef, Glenarvon (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord RuthvenHP Pavilion dv6-1214ax battery. The Vampyre was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.[11] Varney the Vampire was a landmark popular mid-Victorian era gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer (alternatively attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest), which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as penny dreadfuls because of their inexpensive price and typically gruesome contentsHP Pavilion dv6-1213tx battery. The story was published in book form in 1847 and runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney.[153] Another important addition to the genre was Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire story Carmilla (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampire Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted. HP Pavilion dv6-1213ax battery No effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).[157] Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric traditionHP Pavilion dv6-1212tx battery, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire. Drawing on past works such as The Vampyre and "Carmilla", Stoker began to research his new book in the late 19th century, reading works such as The Land Beyond the Forest (1888) by Emily Gerard and other books about Transylvania and vampires. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of Vlad Ţepeş, the "real-life DraculaHP Pavilion dv6-1212sl battery," and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as Dracula's Guest.[158] The 21st century has brought more examples of vampire fiction, such as J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and other highly popular vampire books which appeal to teenagers and young adults. Such vampiric paranormal romance novels and allied vampiric chick-lit and vampiric occult detective stories are a remarkably popular and ever-expanding contemporary publishing phenomenon. HP Pavilion dv6-1211tx battery L.A. Banks' The Vampire Huntress Legend Series, Laurell K. Hamilton's erotic Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and Kim Harrison's The Hollows series, portray the vampire in a variety of new perspectives, some of them unrelated to the original legends. The latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics. The first of these was Gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross' Barnabas Collins series (1966–71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series Dark ShadowsHP Pavilion dv6-1211sg battery. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular and influential Vampire Chronicles (1976–2003).[160] Vampires in the Twilight series (2005–2008) by Stephenie Meyer ignore the effects of garlic and crosses, and are not harmed by sunlight (although it does reveal their supernatural nature). HP Pavilion dv6-1211sa battery Richelle Mead further deviates from traditional vampires in her Vampire Academy series (2007–present), basing the novels on Romanian lore with two races of vampires, one good and one evil, as well as half-vampires.[162] Film and television Main article: Vampire film Iconic scene from F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, 1922 Considered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more films than any other but Sherlock HolmesHP Pavilion dv6-1211er battery, and many early films were either based on the novel of Dracula or closely derived from it. These included the landmark 1922 German silent film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic Dracula's, Murnau could not obtain permission to do so from Stoker's widow, and had to alter many aspects of the filmHP Pavilion dv6-1211ax battery. In addition to this film was Universal's Dracula (1931), starring Béla Lugosi as the Count in what was the first talking film to portray Dracula. The decade saw several more vampire films, most notably Dracula's Daughter in 1936.[163] The legend of the vampire was cemented in the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated for a new generation with the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the CountHP Pavilion dv6-1210tx battery. The successful 1958 Dracula starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role.[164] By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), an African Count in 1972's Blacula, the BBC's Count Dracula featuring French actor Louis Jourdan as Dracula and Frank Finlay as Abraham Van HelsingHP Pavilion dv6-1210sv battery, and a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's Salem's Lot, and a remake of Nosferatu itself, titled Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski the same year. Several films featured female, often lesbian, vampire antagonists such as Hammer Horror's The Vampire Lovers (1970) based on Carmilla, though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character. HP Pavilion dv6-1210sr battery The pilot for the Dan Curtis 1972 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker revolved around reporter Carl Kolchak hunting a vampire on the Las Vegas strip. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter, such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' Blade films and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy, released in 1992HP Pavilion dv6-1210sl battery, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with adaptation to a long-running hit TV series of the same name and its spin-off Angel. Still others showed the vampire as protagonist, such as 1983's The Hunger, 1994's Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and its indirect sequel of sorts Queen of the Damned, and the 2007 series Moonlight. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a noteworthy 1992 film which became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever. HP Pavilion dv6-1210sf battery This increase of interest in vampiric plotlines led to the vampire being depicted in films such as Underworld and Van Helsing, and the Russian Night Watch and a TV miniseries remake of 'Salem's Lot, both from 2004. The series Blood Ties premiered on Lifetime Television in 2007, featuring a character portrayed as Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII of England turned vampire, in modern-day Toronto, with a female former Toronto detective in the starring roleHP Pavilion dv6-1210sb battery. A 2008 series from HBO, entitled True Blood, gives a Southern take to the vampire theme.[161] Another popular vampire-related show is CW's The Vampire Diaries. The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality and the perennial dread of mortality.[166] Another "vampiric" series that has recently come out is the Twilight Saga, a series of films based on the book series of the same nameHP Pavilion dv6-1210sa battery. Games The role-playing game Vampire: the Masquerade has been influential upon modern vampire fiction and elements of its terminology, such as embrace and sire, have become widely used. Popular video games about vampires include Castlevania, which is an extension of the original Bram Stoker Dracula novel, and Legacy of KainHP Pavilion dv6-1210ez battery.[167] Vampires are also sporadically portrayed in other games, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, when a character can become afflicted with porphyric haemophilia.[168] A different take on vampires is presented in Bethesda's other game Fallout 3 with "The Family". Members of the Family are afflicted with a manic desire to consume human flesh, but restrict themselves to drinking blood to avoid becoming complete monsters. HP Pavilion dv6-1210et battery