WWW.SHROUDEATER.COM - Vampire of Levin

The Source:

Erasmus Francisci:
"Der Höllische Proteus"
Nürnberg, 1690

The Case:

For your convenience I will translate Erasmus Francisci's German version of the story.

In the Bohemian town of Levin, in the year of 1345, suddenly died the wife of a potter who was thought to be a witch. Before she could have been put on trial, which is why she was buried at the crossroads. After this she appeared to many people, among other things in the shape of cattle, and she killed several people. So they opened her grave and saw that in the meantime she had eaten half of her shroud, which they pulled out of her mouth and which was covered in blood. They hammered a stake through her breast, on which the blood came pouring out. After she had been buried again, she pulled out the stake and killed even more people than before. And so they finally burnt the witch together with the stake. The ashes as well as the earth were put into the grave. Some days later a whirlwind was seen at the place where the corpse had been cremated, but since then she was seen no more and there were no further troubles.

The Date:

We are told that these things happened in 1345.

The Place:

Levin can be found about 60 km North of Prague.

Personal Comments:

You can find this story retold by many writers, like Montague Summers and dozens of others. I have taken the oldest version I could find which happens to be the one retold in "Der Höllische Proteus", published in 1690. Erasmus Francisci informs us that his source for this story is Hagec's "Böhmischen Chronic".

Possible Follow-Up:

Find yourself a copy of Francisci's "Der Höllische Proteus". there are more interesting stories in there about "Schmätzende Todten". Then try to find Hagec's "Böhmischen Chronic".

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