ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that some of what is likely to seem surprising to an Anglophone reader of Spanish vampire fiction may be attributable to that component of Spanish culture that derives from its rich and diverse folklore, folklore that seeps into everyday language, and proverbs. It explains the range of treatments of religion in Gothic scholar’s corpus to seek to understand the effects and implications of the Roman Catholic culture which is the baseline for Spanish authors, irrespective of any personal religious affiliation or lack thereof. Vampires as they appear in cultural production are a blend of Eastern European folklore and the accumulated imaginations of the literary and cinematic creators of stories about them, imaginations which are they informed by such creators’ personal experience, and other stories they have read, watched, or heard. Indeed, Spanish folklore has just as strong a tradition of belief in positive or white magic as it does in its negative dimension.
