This is a really strong disclaimer for violence. We've told some dark stories, but this week gets pretty gruesome.

It's not bloody, goal bad, but it's close. In other words, it's not a great week for kids.

This week, on the Mythos and Legends podcast, there are vampires and stories from the Middle Ages, and some of the most messed up things I've ever had the misfortune of reading.

You'll see that vampire fiction might have been one of the first big hits after the proliferation of the printing press, and will meet a countis with one weird trick for reducing wrinkles.

Peasants hate her. Then, on the Creature of the Week, you'll see a way to save your marriage, by feeding your spouse tar, and the moss that you scraped off the chimney.

This is the Mythos and Legends podcast, Episode 50, Bad Blood.

This is a podcast where I tell stories from folklore, some are incredibly popular stories you think you know, but with surprising origins.

Others are stories you might not have heard, but really should. This week's episode is brought to you by Stranglers.

There's a new and fascinating true crime podcast from Earwolf. It's called Stranglers.

Okay, so you've probably heard of the Boston Strangler. 13 gruesome murders happened between 1962 and 1964. The city was terrified, and thousands of suspects were questioned, but no was ever convicted.

On this new podcast, you can hear from the victims, and the detectives close to the case, and the investigators who are still in the job, you'll even hear the voice of an alleged killer, whose confession raised more questions than it answered.

Subscribe to Stranglers on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

This week, we're talking all about vampires. From the creepy otherworldly noosefraw to the swavv depictions of Dracula, to Sparkling and Sunlight, the past century has seen some very depictions of vampires.

Despite their popular resurgence, people in nearly every culture have been telling stories of vampires. Basically, since there were stories.

It's always strange when a folk belief like that of vampires transcends culture, geography, and time to be so thoroughly imprinted on the human psyche. Case in point, even if you've never heard of vampire story or seen a movie, you probably knew what I meant the instant-ice vampire, even if it's just the bare bones of the concept.

A human light creature who drinks the blood of humans to take their life or energy from them.

From that basic definition, though, there are many, many different types. Some are humans that come back from the dead to drink the blood of the living. Some are just creatures that drink blood, some are spirits, some are deities. For the sake of clarity and my sanity, we're going to stick with humans who have died and return to vampires.

Now, unlike in popular fiction, there are many, many ways you can become a vampire. In Transylvania, a real region in modern Romania, which we'll talk about later, it's said that criminals, bastards, witches, magicians, people excommunicated from the Eastern Orthodox Church, people born with teeth, unbaptized children, and people who have committed suicide can all spontaneously become vampires when they die, and many of these ideas are similar across cultures.

For instance, it wasn't until the 1800s that they finally outlawed staking people, driving to stick through their heart, who had committed suicide and Britain. In addition, if you suffer an attack from a vampire, you too can become a vampire when you die.

In the novel Dracula, and in many portrayals of vampire sense, it's a complex system in which the vampire drinks a person's blood, and if the vampire wants to turn them, the vampire will compel the human to drink the vampire's blood as well, otherwise the person just dies.

But there are more fun folklore versions of how to become a vampire. If a cat jumps over a body before it's buried, or a man's shadow falls on a corpse, it might become a vampire.

So keep cats, and I guess people too, away from corpses, and meers as well. If a dead body is reflected in a mirror, the reflection apparently helps the spirit leave the body, and it might become a vampire.

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