Obsolescit nempe vivus omnis inter mortuos.
The words of Asmundus (Asmund), when he returns from the grave of Asuithus (Asvith) in the Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes), here in an English translation from 1884:
Why do you stand aghast, you who see me colourless?
For every living man fades once he is among the dead.
The tale of Asmund and Asvith is often recounted in books about vampires. Here the original Latin text can be found. The illustration below of Asmund being drawn out of Asvith's grave is one of many drawings by Louis Moe that accompanied a popular Danish translation of Saxo's chronicle originally published in 1898.
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