WWW.SHROUDEATER.COM - Vampire of Nienstade

The Source:

Montague Summers :
"The Vampire in Europe" [1929]
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1929

The Case

In the year of 1603, in Neinstade, a village near Hamburg, the peasants exhumed a corpse and chopped off the head. The stench of the corpse was so bad that it killed a man, his wife, and two of their daughters.

The Date:

At least Montague Summers does give us a date: 1603.

The Place:

Summers mentions the place twice: once as Neinstade, once as Nienstade. The one is said to be "near Hamburg", the other "not far from Hamburg". Nowadays the village has become part of Hamburg and is called: Nienstedten.

Possible Follow-Up:

Check out the story (or rather stories) as rendered by Summers. Go find his sources. To help you get started, please note that the story also gets a mention in Hagen Schaub's "Vampire - Dem Mythos auf der Spur". You may find some further information there.

- Back to Top -