On several occasions, particularly on the periphery of the Habsburg Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries, dead people were suspected of being revenants or vampires, and consequently dug up and destroyed. Some contemporary authors named this phenomenon Magia Posthuma. This blog is dedicated to understanding what happened and why.
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Worth longing for?
When looking at ebay, one German book keeps popping up numerous times. I have so far resisted buying it, but it keeps turning up so I have considered buying it: Norbert Borrmann's Vampirismus oder die Sehnsucht nacht Unsterblichkeit (Vampirism or the longing for immortality). So why have I resisted? Well, Peter Mario Kreuter in his Der Vampirglaube in Südosteuropa calls it "einfach nur eine literarische Gemischtwarenhandlung" (simply just a literary mixed bag), and adds: "Bei der Lektüre dieses Buches muß man sich manchmal sogar fragen, ob Borrmann überhaupt verstanden hat, über was er da schreibt." (While reading this book one must often ask if Borrmann has at all understood what it is he is writing about). On the other hand, Rob Brautigam writes of the book on his Shroudeater web site: "This nice hardbound book was published at such a ridiculously low price that I was afraid that the quality of its contents would be of the same low level. I was wrong. Norbert Borrmann presents us with an interesting overview of Vampirism in which most vampire aspects seem to get a mention.". So, perhaps, it is not as bad as Kreuter would have us believe? Comments are welcome.
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