Jakob Battick & Friends

“The Czech and Slovakian vampire-called a up’r, and to a lesser extent, nelapsi, in both Czech and Slovak-was a variety of the Slavic vampire. The upir was believed to have two hearts and hence two souls. The presence of the second soul would be indicated by a corpse’s flexibility, open eyes, two curls in the hair, and a ruddy complexion. Among the earliest anecdotes concerning Czech vampires were two fourteenth-century stories recounted by E. P. Evans in his volume on the Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906), as mentioned in Dudley Wright’s survey. The first concerned a revenant that terrorized the town of Cadan. The people he attacked seemed destined to become a vampire like him. They retaliated, attacking his corpse and driving a stake through it. That remedy proving ineffective, they finally burned him. In 1345, in Lewin, a woman believed to be a witch died. She returned in various beastly forms and attacked villagers. When uncovered in her grave it was reported that she had swallowed her face cloth; when the cloth was pulled out of the grave, it was stained with blood. She also was staked, which again proved ineffective. She used the stake as a weapon while walking around town. She was finally destroyed by fire.”

(This song and video is from Portland, Maine ‘nightmare folk’ band Jakob Battick and Friends. It’s off their forthcoming Bloodworm Songs EP, out March 11th.) (Excerpt above from Answers.com)(Everything else via No Fear Of Pop)

Jakob Battick and Friends – Three Orphans

Tags: john battick and friends, nightmare folk, no fear of pop, vampires