This may well be the most interesting of the four tales concerning walking corpses related by William of Newburgh. The description of the bloated corpse corresponds to the descriptions of vampires in the Slavic vampire cults. Again there is no evidence or suggestion that the corpse was sucking blood from the living, but the corpse certainly seemed abnormal to the two young men, its bloated condition not what they had expected in a corpse.
The name given to these animated corpses was prodigy.
A second oft-quoted source for a possible tale of a vampire in early England comes from William Map (Gualteri Mapes – ca. 1140-1210) in his De nugis curialium distinctions quinque. Raymond T. McNally gives the word “vampire” in his translation of the excerpt (McNally, pp. 35-38), but the original text does not support this, and it is more aptly translated as “demon”. However, since this excerpt is often quoted as evidence of a vampiric tradition in England, it is worth reproducing here in the translation by Frederick Tupper and Marbury Bladen Ogle as a rebuttal.
“Of the same Apparitions.
“II.xiv
“A CERTAIN knight found that his first-born of a wife who was very dear
to him, and a worthy and well-born woman, had its throat cut in its cradle
on the first morning after its birth, and so with a second child a year later,
and with a third in a third year, despite all the watchings of himself and
his friends which proved lamentably futile. He and his wife therefore anticipated
the fourth childbirth with many fasts and alms and prayers and tears; and
when a boy was born to them, they environed the whole neighbourhood with fires
and lights, and all kept their eyes upon the child. Just then arrived a stranger,
weary as from a long journey, who, seeking hospitality in God’s name,
was most devoutly welcomed. He sat watching with them, and lo, after midnight,
when all the others were plunged in sleep, he, who alone was very wakeful,
suddenly saw a reverend matron bending over the cradle and seizing the child
to cut its throat. He then sprang up all alert, and held her fast in his grasp,
until, when all were aroused and gathered around, she was recognized by many
of them, and indeed soon by all, everybody protesting that she was the noblest
of all the matrons of that city in birth, manners, wealth, and all honour.
But to her name and to various questions she deigned no reply. And because
the father himself and many others attributed this silence to her shame at
detection, they pleaded for her release; but the stranger, without yielding,
declared that she was a demon and held her tight, and with one of the keys
to the nearest church he branded her face as a sign of her evil. Then her
captor instructed them to bring thither with all speed the lady for whom she
had been mistaken. And while he was still holding his captive, the lady was
led forward and resembled her double in every way, even to the mark of branding.
Then the stranger said to the others, who stood foolishly agape with wonder,
‘I opine that she who hath now come is very virtuous and very dear to
God, and that she hath provoked by her good deeds the envy of demons against
her, whence it cometh to pass that this base messenger of theirs, this baleful
instrument of their wrath, hath been moulded, as far as possible, in the likeness
of this good woman, that she may shed upon this noble soul the disgrace of
her wicked deeds. But that you may have faith, see what she will do after
her release.’ Then the creature flew away through the window with great
weeping and wailing.”44
It’s clear this is more a story about an impersonating demon than a vampire – it contains no animated corpse and no blood-sucking.