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Language: English

Everyone has heard of vampires, but few know about upiórs, strzygas, strzygońs, and wieszczys. Yet sources from Poland and the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth offer a wealth of fascinating material to discover Slavic beliefs in the living dead, which later became a universal myth known the world over.

This book contains a small but representative selection of texts spanning almost 500 years, ranging from scholarly works and religious treatises to official documents, ethnographic essays, and press reports on true events. These texts were not restricted to Polish ethnic groups but also dealt with peoples currently residing in Ukraine and even Kashubian settlers in Canada. However, this is not some attempt at culturally appropriating Ruthenian or Kashubian folklore but a natural consequence of the multicultural heritage of the commonwealth and the overlapping beliefs of its constituent nations. These transcended the borderlines both of ethnicity and religion and of folk and elite cultures.