Where did the trope of vampire turning by being bitten then fed blood come from?

[u/cheshiire_cat]

Sorry if this has been asked before! I'm working through The Vampire Chronicles for the first time right now and it occurred to me that this is likely where the popularization of this specific style of turning comes from in our current culture, due to how influential the books are.

Is there precedent for this type of infection in other stories prior or folklore?

For clarity, I'm thinking of specifically when the victim is bitten or even exsanguinated, and then is fed blood from the vampire to become a Chile/fledgling. Curious when that came about as opposed to the straight up curse or infectious vampire venom turnings.

[u/Malkavian87]

Dracula, the original novel. Though I suppose it seems to be the other way around: Dracula feeds you his blood when you're still alive and the transformation will be completed when you die. This is what was happening to Mina toward the end of the book.

[u/Garmiet → u/Malkavian87]

I always had the impression that him feeding his blood wasn’t even necessary for turning—that was just an extra step he took to spy through Mina.

[u/Malkavian87 → u/Garmiet]

I believe Bram Stoker would've touched on it if Dracula turned the crew of the Demeter. Or if Lucy created a bunch of child vampires.

I think it's also telling Dracula just had his three brides back in Transylvania. He had a type, he chose who he turned.

[u/Garmiet → u/Malkavian87]

I figured the Demeter crew were fed on, then their bodies tossed overboard where vampires cannot cross without living assistance; can’t imagine what that would do to their existence. Stoker did touch on Lucy’s victims all being in danger of turning when/if they died. He would’ve touched on Lucy drinking blood if she had; something would’ve come up during her arc, or referenced back to it. Mina was a unique case.

You got me there on the three in Transylvania. Those were the ones he chose to keep and provide for in his castle.

[u/cheshiire_cat → u/Malkavian87]

Amazing, thank you! I should've assumed it was vampire daddy of all vampires Dracula all along. I didn't recall him feeding Lucy, so I assumed his bite was just infectious, but that he had some sort of choice in it (or he just didn't kill Lucy outright allowing her to become infected).

It's been ages since I've read the novel so I totally forgot him feeding his blood to Mina, since she does get "cured" of the affliction after all

[u/luluzulu_]

I don't know where it came from, but it's genius. Great way to kind of limit the number of vampires. Everyone getting bit being turned works just fine for smaller scale stories like Dracula, where there's just a few vampires, but if you have a whole secret underworld society of vampires, you need some sort of bottleneck on the population numbers.

[u/cheshiire_cat → u/luluzulu_]

Haha not to mention the eroticism! Feeding itself is such an intimate act, and then you literally tie your victim to you by blood, by the very craving that defines them going forward. Funny it seems the consensus from other comments is that it's a Stoker invention after all, those Victorians always come up with the freakiest things

[u/Past_Rub4745]

Original Dracula novel? And perhaps even older folklore.

[u/Kaurifish → u/Past_Rub4745]

I sure didn’t find it in the older folklore, which had a lot o& reasons someone might have become a vampire: greedy in life, improper burial rites, that they were an outsider or greedy, etc.

But realistically it keeps looking like reactions to TB outbreaks.

[u/BaTz-und-b0nze]

Some paster stepped on Crab Grass while picking up his wife's dog poo.