# A question about vampires **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732 "2021-11-03T15:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/1 "2021-11-03T15:36:01Z")
If a person who was born in New York is vampirized on a cruise from Los Angeles to Hawaii by a vampire from Bohemia what earth should he have in his coffin? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/2 "2021-11-03T15:40:46Z")
Depends on the vampire, doesn’t it. The more classic one doesn’t become a vampire until after buried. The earth they need is the dirt they were buried in. I’m not sure if a vampire that becomes a vampire without being buried has any need for earth or even a coffin. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/3 "2021-11-03T15:41:22Z")
A globe. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/4 "2021-11-03T16:01:05Z")
I feel like this is a form of dual citizenship, and that either NY or Bohemian dirt would suffice. LA is straight out, though, as it’s 72 suburbs in search of a city. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/5 "2021-11-03T16:09:36Z")
Bram Stoker didn’t give many details about how that worked. At one point, he stated that a vampire could only rest in consecrated earth, but then you render it uninhabitable by putting holy water or communion wafers on it, which seems contradictory to me. In some chapters, the boxes-of-earth shtick seems to be a mechanical device: Drac is incapable of voluntarily crossing water, so while he sleeps, someone else moves him across the water. The first explicit explanation I remember is from Lon Chaney, Jr. in _Son of Dracula_. “I must return to my grave during the day. This coffin, plus a layer of soil, constitutes the grave.” If he wasn’t buried at sea, and was laid to rest when the ship reached port, I think his official domicile would become Hawaii. (I am now picturing Bela Lugosi in a Hawaiian shirt.) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/6 "2021-11-03T16:13:09Z")
Maybe in that case, more of a waterbed than an earth-filled coffin. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/7 "2021-11-03T16:16:57Z")
If he was buried at sea, maybe he could claim the entire ocean as a grave. How deep would he have to dive to escape from the sunlight? He would probably still need a coffin, to keep scavengers from eating him while he slept. Would sharks, or crabs, be a bigger threat? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/8 "2021-11-03T17:17:31Z")
the whole “must rest in his consecrated earth” thing appears to be from Stoker, who codified so much of our vampire “fakelore”. I don’t recall anything about it in earlier accounts of vampire legends, or in _Varney_ or _Carmilla_. Stoker wanted to create a whole “ancient Evil” vs. "Modern Science’ vibe in his story. He appears to have set up the basic problem , making it up himself – “vampire must rest in earth where he was buried” and then having his vampire solve the restriction cleverly – “Well, I’ll just take my Native Earth with me!” . the idea of making the Earth unusable to the vampire by using consecrated wafers or holy water or garlic or whatever was therefore Stoker’s, to, since he made up the restriction in the first place. Bottom line – there is no hard-and-fast rule. Stoker made it up. If you’re writing your own vampire story, don’t feel that you have to abide by it. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/9 "2021-11-03T17:29:10Z")
Heck, one of those horror comics back in the '60s had a story where the vampire snuck onto an interstellar space ship and systematically drained everyone on board (he never had to return to his coffin since it was perpetual night). Sadly, the last person killed was the pilot so there was no one to **WARNING: BIG REVEAL** steer the ship away from the star it was heading into, dispatching the vampire – although whether he died from sunlight or burned up with the ship was never stated. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/10 "2021-11-03T17:36:22Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Bram Stoker didn’t give many details about how that worked. At one point, he stated that a vampire could only rest in consecrated earth, but then you render it uninhabitable by putting holy water or communion wafers on it, which seems contradictory to me. What if the vampire is Jewish? …or Atheist? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/11 "2021-11-03T17:42:30Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > How deep would he have to dive to escape from the sunlight? 1000m deep is the Aphotic Zone where sunlight doesn’t penetrate. He can hide from the giant squids and cuttlefish in a giant resin aquarium castle. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/12 "2021-11-03T19:08:50Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > What if the vampire is Jewish? Orthodox would starve to death (OK, that doesn’t work with the undead. But according to William the Bloody, a vampire that doesn’t feed wastes away to a skeleton.) Blood isn’t kosher. As a spin-off on the OP, what if the newly-minted vampire is cremated immediately after the vamping, but before they can rise? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/13 "2021-11-03T20:42:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Blood isn’t kosher. interestingly, it’s probably because The Blood is the Life (as Renfield said over and over) > [@](#): > > “You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it. But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man! Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make man” (Gen. 9:4-6). > [@](#): > > The [Torah](https://www.jewfaq.org/cgi-bin/def.pl?torah) prohibits consumption of blood. [Lev. 7:26-27](https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.7.26-27?lang=he-en&utm_source=jewfaq.org&utm_medium=sefaria_linker); [Lev. 17:10-14](https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.17.10-14?lang=he-en&utm_source=jewfaq.org&utm_medium=sefaria_linker). This is the only dietary law that has a reason specified in Torah: we do not eat blood because the life of the animal (literally, the soul of the animal) is contained in the blood. This applies only to the blood of birds and mammals, not to fish blood. Thus, it is necessary to remove all blood from the flesh of kosher animals. > **[Kashrut: Jewish Dietary Laws - Judaism 101 (JewFAQ)](https://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm)** > > Learn about the Jewish dietary laws of kashrut (kosher), why we observe these laws, the various foods and combinations that are forbidden, and the certification of kosher foods. According to this site, human blood isn’t covered by the restriction in Leviticus, but it’s still not kosher [https://www.chabad.org/library/article\_cdo/aid/838386/jewish/Is-Human-Blood-Kosher.htm](https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/838386/jewish/Is-Human-Blood-Kosher.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/14 "2021-11-03T23:38:26Z")
@CalMeacham brings up an interesting point, to a devout Jew, blood would not be kosher, true, but it would likely be acceptable under the exception provided for starvation. After all, most vampires cannot consume (or at least cannot gain benefit from) the consumption of any other food. The blood should be accompanied by a blessing under the circumstances, which, again, given the variety of vampires, could cause damage in and of itself. 🤷‍♂️ Back to the OP, for those times I’ve delved into vampiric “lore” it would either be irrelevant ( modern takes on the myth) or lethal - after all, they’re crossing moving water without any protection of the home soil, whichever answer you would have chosen. So it’s an ex-vampire. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/15 "2021-11-03T23:44:06Z")
I thought the prohibition was against crossing _running_ water. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/16 "2021-11-04T00:17:39Z")
Depends on the lore. Stoker’s Dracula couldn’t pass over the sea on his own - he had to be shipped in his coffin (although he could apparently emerge to slaughter the crew of the _Demeter_ as they sailed). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/17 "2021-11-04T00:49:25Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If a person who was born in New York is vampirized on a cruise from Los Angeles to Hawaii by a vampire from Bohemia what earth should he have in his coffin? I haven’t checked the other answers, just saw your OP pop up, but I’d say it will depend on where the body is originally buried. If the vamp is on a ship, s/he won’t turn until they are buried. That soil would then be their home soil, though, honestly, there is a ton of contradictory info about vampires, so depends on exactly which type and culture we are talking about. I assume you mean those from Bram Stoker, but my recollection of the book is it is full of contradictions done for plot reasons. Hope you didn’t need answer fast… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/18 "2021-11-04T00:51:05Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Hope you didn’t need answer fast… I was asking for a fiend…er, I mean _friend_. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/19 "2021-11-04T01:09:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I was asking for a fiend…er, I mean _friend_ . Well, that, er, bites. Hawaii for a vampire would, um…suck. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/20 "2021-11-04T01:24:00Z")
Stoker invented the literary vampire, and I think said literature should suck, er, stick with him. I am particularly critical of Stephen King’s vampire book, and am criticized that Stoker’s story doesn’t match vampire legends. Perhaps I have a Meistersinger von Nuremburg concept of vampire literature, but I’m sticking to it. I think I’ll go with XT, The Boefer Lady, (The beautiful lady) Lucy didn’t turn until she was buried. Czarcasm, do you have a lot of time on your hands to come up with this stuff? Have you considered building model airplanes, or knitting? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732.md?page=2)