SPOILERS
| Added | Mon, 04/12/2017 |
| Release date | 1813
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| Original title | The Giaour
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| Феномены | |
| References | Лорд Байрон Собрание сочинений в четырех томах. Том 3 Год издания: 1981 г. Перевод С. Ильина
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The Giaour is a poem by Lord Byron, first published in 1813 by T. Davison. It is the first work in Byron's series of Oriental romances. The poem is known not only for its commercial success, which strengthened the reputation of Lord Byron, but also for its vampire theme: Byron included in the poem the theme of vampirism, the concept of which he met during his Grand Tour.
Here vampirism is a curse received by giaur as punishment for his crime. Despite the fact that vampires are mentioned only in passing in the work, thanks to its success, it greatly influenced the popularization of the vampire image in literature and art.
Lord Byron's poem "The Giaour" (1813) is the first mention of vampires in English literature and, thanks to its success, greatly influenced the popularization of the vampire image in literature and art.
The work consists of several episodes (chapters). It begins with a description of the beautiful nature, among which a gloomy figure of a demonic alien rider (giaura) appears, scaring the locals, bearing the burden of an eternal fatal curse. Then there is a brief episode telling how a rich Turk Hassan hires a boatman, telling him to dump a heavy bag into the sea (as it turns out later, this is the Turk's wife who cheated on him with a foreigner). The next episode tells how Hassan is eager to take revenge on an enemy-a foreigner, because of which he had to kill his own wife. Giaur suffers from the death of his beloved and also wants to put to death the one who killed his beloved. Giaur kills Hasan. Hasan turns out to have fallen to the death of the brave, and the soul of a foreigner, according to local beliefs, is cursed, and he is doomed to become a vampire who is destined to bring death to all his descendants. The final episodes of the poem take us to a Christian monastery, where a strange guest has been living for the seventh year. Giaur cannot find peace in any way, blaming himself not for the murder of Hassan, but for the fact that he could not save his beloved from the painful execution.
Phenomena in artwork: A vampire
The character becomes a vampire after his curse for the murder. Description of the vampire in the piece boils down to the following lines:
But before that, from the grave
You should again out in the world
And as a monstrous vampire
Under the roof to come native
And you drink blood you are alive
Their own children.
In the darkness of the lingering night,
Fate and cursing the sky,
Under the shelter of the gloomy silence
Will dig into the chest of children, wives,
Moments of life shortening.
[...]
When bloody lips,
Gnashing his sharp teeth,
To the grave with a howl you'll come
You will repel spirits of hell
His terrible stamp
Inevitable curse.
Thus, in the work of the vampire kills people (primarily his family), drinking their blood. This meagre description is the first mention of vampires in English literature.
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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