Hearts

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.
On this day of edible hearts made of chocolate, I think I will refer once again to the delightful book on 'heart-eaters' and related subjects by Christa Tuczay that I wrote a bit about here. The heart itself of course has its own history, see e.g. here, and in modern vampire fiction staking is no longer about fastening the corpse to the ground so that it cannot return, but rather about piercing the heart.