Silver and Vampires and Werewolves

As we watch True Blood and read the Charlaine Harris novels, we are seeing the various mythologies being used in conventional and non conventional ways. This was the inspiration behind a series of informative posts on the myths surrounding Vampires and Werewolves and Shape-shifters and the other creatures who wander around Bon Temps and in out of the life of Sookie Stackhouse.

Though the stories are ancient, modern story tellers have felt as free as their fore bearers to shape the myths to fit their own cultures and social views of the world. Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball and the wonderful team of writers of True Blood are no exceptions.

The first topic, the effects of silver on Vampires and Werewolves, examines how and why this metal is sovereign against these children of the night and why the ancients chose it above all precious metals to fight the things that go bump in the night.

Silver is supposed to react against Vampires and Werewolves because of it’s association with the moon. Ancient mythology said that silver came from the goddess of the moon and contains all the purity of the goddess. (Diana and Athena were the Roman and Greek goddesses of the moon and were considered virgins, huntresses and protectoresses)

Werewolves are controlled by the energies of the waxing and waning of the moon, being that they cannot control their change when the full moon rises. Because they become beasts of violence, creatures who hunt the helpless, they insult the goddess. The goddess sends silver to man to protect them from the creatures who hunt them. Anyone wearing silver is safe because they cannot touch them.

Presumably, this would apply to Vampires as well, as Vampire stories and Werewolf stories are inextricable. There is the strong element of the Christian influence as well (more so than with Werewolves), as silver is associated with the Virgin Mary (the woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, associating her with the goddess of the moon) So wearing silver, especially in the form of a religious medallion becomes a controlling factor in the Vampire mythos concerning silver.

Vampire Eric hit with silver cross

In the Sookieverse of Bon Temps, Vampires exhibit an allergy to silver where they are weakened and burned by silver and whereas in mythology the werewolf can only be killed by silver, the weres and shifters can be killed with plain old bullets.

Sources:
The Vampire in Lore and Legend by Montague Summers
The Werewolf in Lore and Legend by Montague Summers
The Malleus Malficarum by Kramer and Sprenger

Written by Aslinn Dhan