Description

Ted-Ed uses amazing cartoons and a darkly love-able vampire narrator to discuss the history and origins of vampires.  It begins with a cross-cultural survey of centuries of these creatures of the night.  It then discusses the origins of our familiar version of the vampire in Eastern Europe.  This is a great example of how superstitions and fear can result from a reasonable inferences based on a lack of information about our very natural world.

Discussion Questions

• What were some early versions of our vampire stories from around the world?
• Where and why did our familiar vampire stories originate?
• When people came across corpses with bloated stomachs, longer hair and nails, and blood on the corner of their lips was the conclusion that these people were vampires reasonable?
• Why do you think that stories of such life-sucking creatures of the night are present in some many times and places?

Keywords: vampires, folklore, literature, history, Eastern Europe, superstition,