Silver bullets?

Where/when/why did the idea of silver bullets being effective against vampires/werewolves come into being? Is it really effective, if you believe in such creatures? Could melting a silver dollar down into a slug (like in King's novel It) be effective? I never really got the whole concept of silver bullets

well vampires arent real, so no it isnt effective

reply to post by Swatman


Except the root of most original legends or rumors begin with some sort of truth before being twisted this way and that.

Here's one article that perhaps has at least a partial answer to your question. Silver is linked to werewolves through the moon.

Pure Silver

I have also read that silver is supposed to be poisonous to vampires. Some sources say it is due to the 'holy' connotations of silver, others because silver was used in mirrors, and yet others claim that pure metals (silver and gold) are a preventive and/or harmful to all monsters.

Putting silver and vampires into a search engine (without the and) pulls up all kinds of interesting (and weird) stuff!

Swatman here's some proof that there are vampires.


www.geocities.com...


aneriaromana.tripod.com...



[edit on 9-8-2008 by King Seesar]

Ok, that's interesting... Are their any biological properties of silver that could be, for lack of a better word, poisonous to vampires, etc?

king seeser, who's that in your avatar? i know his face, but I can't quite place him...

[edit on 9-8-2008 by mr. wildflowers]

reply to post by mr. wildflowers


Silver bullets used to kill werewolves was started by the movie "The Wolfman" along with the idea a man could only change during the full moon. I think the movie and TV series "Dark Shadows" started the silver bullets stopping vampires. I think one of their writers got confused.

I researched this a bit more, and the myth of silver bullets apparently started with the Beast of Gévaudan, which was a wolf-like animal that terrorized southern France in 1770ish. It was apparently shot with a silver bullet, being previously unharmed by other attacks. This Beast was obviously a physical entity, why would silver affect it more that lead, or whatever they used during that time period?

The pic in my avatar is a actor named Biao Yuen when Bruce Lee died making his last movie Game Of Death Biao was one of the extras that played him.



I think you might wanna check this site on Werewolfs


aneriaromana.tripod.com...

Presented to Members of The House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations

William D. Moeller Chairman of Clifton and President of American Biotech Labs (ABL) was invited to testify before the Congressional House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International operations. Mr. Moeller testified concerning the ability (according to three completed human studies) of ABL products to help patients recover from malaria in an average of just 5 days.

Other groups who testified at the hearing included, The World Health Organization, USAID, and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership etc.

- link - www.americanbiotechlabs.com... alTestimonyProtected/congressionalTestimonyMenu.html

product -
www.americanbiotechlabs.com...

Possibly in werewolf mythology.. what was "transferred" from one "were-wolf" to another was a complex microbial life form that would produce a specific genetic change at triggered times via the moon's gravitational pull influencing the "bloom rate" within the bloodstream, akin to algae blooms being triggered during certain phases of the moon.

Possibly silver killed the microbial life responsible for it.

I never heard of silver bullets hurting vampires in the stories though. Thought that was garlic, stakes in the heart, and crucifixes.

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[edit on 10-8-2008 by prevenge]

reply to post by mr. wildflowers


I do know Hollywood used the silver bullets and full moon as a dramatic license. The writers of the movie did not look anything up. Silver could of been used or thought of earlier, but it is mainly Hollywood's invention, along with sunlight destroying vampires.

reply to post by prevenge


Just to extrapolate on what you have said here.

Silver has been shown to have antibacterial and antiviral effects within the human body and in lab trials. Rabies, which is often thought to be the basis for the lycanthrope and vampiric legends is caused by a virus spread primarily though saliva, that is bites. In many legends people can become lycanthropes after being bitten by other lycanthropes.

Therefore it is probably safe to say, that silver has toxic effects against the rabies virus and therefore the link to having 'toxic' effects on lycanthrope's is not much of a jump.


Similarly Garlic has been shown to have toxic effects on the eggs of mosquitoes. It has been proposed that this is the reason Garlic acts well as a repellent. Of course the jump between insect blood suckers and human blood suckers isn't to hard to make in this case either.

I like your point about Algae Blooms, I always knew that the moon had links to insanity, patients purportedly being worst during full moons, but it is interesting to suggest a microbial link.

reply to post by prevenge


awesome! thanks for this info, that's very interesting.

reply to post by King Seesar

Thats not proof it is unsubstantiated claims. I am not saying that they are not real, but that cannot be given as proof because it simply isn't.

It wasn't the fact that silver was used in the Beast of Grevauden killing. The bullets were blessed by priests.

Gold was also used in another case. A beast know as the Red Coyote had been killing off prospectors close to a gold mine. A prospector had been searching for nuggets and found some. On his way back, he came across the beast, fired all his bullets, and fled. The beast followed a short way behind. He then reached in his pocket, pulled out a small nugget, loaded it, and fired. The beast gave a yelp, and there was a trail of blood. The trail, which the prospector followed, led to a pile of old bones, no fur in sight. in the leg bone was the nugget.

The reason that silver/gold is mentioned is because silver is connected to the moon, just as gold is connected to the sun. silvery-moon, golden-sun.

The hunter in the Grevauden case went with two precautions: 1. The fact that silver was a protection against evil, and 2. Any object blessed by a priest has some power over evil. With these tools combined, he was then able to kill off whatever beast it was.

Lesson: Any object blessed by a priest should do the trick.

If you need any silver bullets. Let me know. I reload for a number of calibers, and casting is quite easy. Of course, you need to provide the "silver".

Take care,

Darn, I had a pet theory that it was becuase it's easier to fake silver than gold. Be easier to sell to folks who were scared or particularly supersticious.

reply to post by mr. wildflowers


The same place the idea of werewolves and vampires came from - someone's imagination. Seeing as neither werewolves or vampires exist, guessing what materials would affect them is an exercise of the most useless hypotheticals.

It would be like me asking "what's Bigfoot's favourite sandwich?".

If you really research the true roots of vampires, werewolves and other mysterious entities, you will find that a substantial amout of these beings can be warded off, injured or killed, not with silver or gold, but with iron. If you really dig deep enough into real history and know what you are looking for, you can find detailed descriptions and encounters with these beings that stretch back for centuries. Go on google or wikipedia and look up strigoi. Or you can do it the old fashioned way like I did and go to the library and scour every book on paranormal entities and monsters. Books and history can uncover the true roots of things.

Originally posted by dave420
reply to post by mr. wildflowers

 

The same place the idea of werewolves and vampires came from - someone's imagination. Seeing as neither werewolves or vampires exist, guessing what materials would affect them is an exercise of the most useless hypotheticals.

It would be like me asking "what's Bigfoot's favourite sandwich?".

um.. that would be A POSSUM SANDWICH.

they found possum DNA in the bigfoot corpse's stomach.

yum.

one by one the mysteries of the world unravel...

and tough guy skeptics get their own regurgitated primitive comments blown back in their face.... and it drips down their eyes.. their mouth.. their chin.. for all the world to look at in mild disgust, and quaint amusement.

and as man explores the universe and it's infinite possibilities.... people with a blinded arrogant know it all man-is-pinnacle of existence and everything his 5 senses perceive is all that exists- mindset, such as yours
..will become a laughable, pitiable, extinct species.


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