Toothpickings

Looking forward to talking Blacula on Vamp Chat with Dan & Eva tonight at 7pm central!

www.podbean.com/pi/pbblog-wg...

YouTube video by toothpickings The vampire folk-fiction feedback loop with Dr. Nina Trzaska

We’re used to the notion that vampire folklore led to vampire fiction. But what if the flow if influence reversed? Nina Trzaska had been studying vampire folklore in Greece for years and has uncovered some surprising sources of inspiration for more recent folk tales!

youtu.be/H1SN6QJgrSI?...

YouTube video by toothpickings Are Werewolves Undead? Robert Carlisle charts the motifs of vampires and werewolves

When did silver bullets become a thing? And other vampire/werewolf motifs with Prof Bob Carlisle

Somerset was a slave in Jamaica who’s master brought him along to England in the 1770s, where slavery was outlawed. After getting baptized, Somerset declared himself free.

The phrase was a real crowd pleaser, for Curran. It’s no wonder later abolitionists wove it into their own writings

But instead they all probably borrowed the phrase from Irish lawyer John Philpot Curran, who deployed it often, especially during his defense of self-emancipated slave James Somerset.

Did Stowe and Douglass borrow this phrase from my favorite obscure vampire novella by an uncertain author?

That would’ve been cool

There’s a phrase employed by both Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass that’s found decades earlier in “The Black Vampyre”

“…disenthralled by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation!”

That entire viral moment led to this meme. Worth it.

I may not be a vampire hunter or a zombie sniper, but if the ghouls would only stand perfectly still at 20 yards or less, I’ve got a 1-in-6 chance at a killshot.

CONvergence 2025 was a blast! More updates to come, but wanted to share a photo from this complex and faithful game “Dracula 1897” made by local creator David Allison.

Dracula Beyond Stoker Issue 2: Renfield — DBS Press Experience Renfield - servant of Dracula - in ways you never have before with 10 all new tales of madness, servitude and bug eating!

www.dbspress.com/shop-1/p/dra...

When I wrote about the origins of Renfield for www.dbspress.com/shop-1/p/dra..., I never thought I’d get a chance to actually walk on the street I’d pointed out as being a possible point of inspiration for Stoker.

But luck revealed two fangs when it smiled:

Further reading: "Hunting the Monster with Iron Teeth"
by Sandy Hobbs and David Cornwell gwern.net/doc/sociolog...

But David Castleton at The Serpents Blog suggested that the "iron teeth" aspect had much deeper roots in Glasgow: "Jenny With The Iron Teeth" circulated for generations earlier. Jenny kidnapped children for her meals. Alexander Anderson penned a poem about her in 1911.

Paul Gallagher at Dangerous Minds identified a comic book that might actually have inspired the fear-- a copy of Weird Tales from the previous year

If you thought Slenderman and deadly Grimaces were new, you're wrong. And if you think mob hysteria is a thing only adults do after sports events or political rallies, you're also wrong.

But the children returned a second night, absolutely certain that the iron-toothed monster was hungry for more innocent blood.

Authorities blamed the usual suspects-- movies and comic books
(articles from The Boston Daily Globe and The Birmingham (UK) Post)

Hundreds of kids scaled the walls of the cemetery, armed with rocks and sticks, convinced that the graveyard held a vampire who had already killed two children.

The hunt for what? A 7' tall vampire with iron teeth!

In 1954, hordes of schoolchildren were reported to have swarmed the Southern Necropolis in the Glasgow borough of Gorbals. They were on the hunt.

I used this image in a presentation last year and supposed that the person on the right, leaning forward over the table, is d’Argens. Do you know for sure?

Snapped in a Glasgow cemetery today. Yes, there is a vampire connection.

Tenuous, but it’s there.

That’s a great bit of trivia, thanks!

Ahhh I’m too late in checking my alerts; I’m en route to Edinburgh now.

I did visit old St Pancras and even sat on the fallen tree. I failed to see how anyone got down on Wollstonecraft’s grave… it just looked uncomfortable!

Found it!

But there’s also fun slides like this