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. When I first made this page, I took the oldest version I could find at that moment, 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".

I found a rather nice rendering of the tale in Frank Hamel's "Human Animals" (1915):

"A gruesome story is told of a witch who chose to wander in animal shape. She died in 1345 and her body was cast rudely into a ditch, but instead of resting quietly she roamed at night in the form of various unclean beasts, leaving havoc and death in her tracks. On exhumation she was found to be a vampire, and a stake was driven through her breast, which, however, failed to have the desired effect. She still prowled around in the dark, using the stake as a weapon with which to slay her victims, nor did she cease her nefarious deeds until her body had been reduced to ashes."

And a German newspaper from 1824 gives us some additional information, i.e. the name of the vampire:

"In dem böhmischen Städtchen Lewin, hatte ein Töpfer, Namens Duchacz, ein bößes Weib, die Brodka hieß, und als Zauberin bekannt war."

Possible Follow-Up:

Find yourself a copy of Francisci's "Der Höllische Proteus". there are more interesting stories in there about "Schmätzende Todten". In the meantime I found a slightly older version in Heinrich Roch's "Neue Laußnitz- Böhm- und Schlesische Chronica, Oder Allerhand Denck- und Merckwürdiger Unglücks- und Trauer-Fälle, etc." which dates back to 1687. This too is a book that has further vampire cases. And of course you can always try to find Hagec's "Böhmischen Chronic".

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