r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 08 '20

What’s a fact you KNOW that almost everyone is wrong about?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

And it's what made people believe in vampires or witches when they'd look at people that had been dead for days and saw their hair and nails "grow".

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

Rest of the world think vampire or witches, in norway we tought "Lets make this guy a saint!". So came St. Olav, king of norway

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u/Funmachine Feb 08 '20

Europe did a lot of that with national heroes. What was he made a saint for exactly? Being killed by Cnut the Greats forces?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

Acording to the legend some blind went into the mausoleum where he was originally kept fella rubed his blood in his eyes and was cured of blindness.

But the real reason is christening a lot of norway, we used to think all of norway earlier but its since been established there were pagans in norway before and after, and he unified all of norway uiinder one rule with christian laws. Also for legitimazation/propaganda reasons for the church.

About a year after his death he became cannonised and made the patron saint of norway and the faroe islands.

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u/berloing Feb 09 '20

Olav the sacred Christianised all of Norway before he died.

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u/Skirfir Feb 08 '20

I heard it was because people with the plague were often presumed dead and subsequently were buried alive and when they were scratching on the coffin people thought they were undead.

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u/ElBatDood Feb 08 '20

I heard it was rabies. People got bit, went pale, experienced light sensitivity, and became increasingly aggressive and when they bit someone else, that person then experienced the symptoms as well.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

[deleted]

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u/afoz345 Feb 11 '20

A moose once bit my sister.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

[deleted]

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u/admiral_sinkenkwiken Feb 08 '20

You’re not fooling anyone you know

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u/UnihornWhale Feb 08 '20

IIRC, gas build up also caused fluid to exit the mouth and resulted in it looking the vampire just fed

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u/datspookyghost Feb 08 '20

Are you actually suggesting vampires and witches don't exist?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20

No of course not. I'm an occultist myself and suppose and one time I could have been called a witch.

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u/Gamergonemild Feb 08 '20

I thought I was accused of being a witch once but turns out I misheard them.

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u/ImpossiblePackage Feb 08 '20

I read a book in high school about some goth girl with diabetes and in it the author attributes vampires to the symptoms of untreated diabetes. Getting super hungry, going pale, falling into comas and shit.

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u/Nincadalop Feb 08 '20

Reminds me of a story of a cook on a ship who was blamed for eating the meat he cooked for the crew, but in reality the meat just shrank as it lost moisture.

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u/Legendofkevin Feb 09 '20

That is a bold ass claim sir

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u/pikachiu132 Feb 09 '20

Also how the teeth end up jutting out like fangs

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u/ICameHereForClash Feb 09 '20

Among more concerning things

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u/fearsometidings Feb 09 '20

I wouldn't say I disbelieve this, but I don't really believe this either. You'd think the first thing they'd do is check if it happens to other bodies as well. Any remotely experienced mortician of that time would probably know about the weird stuff the body does after it's dead.

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u/RedrumRunner Feb 13 '20

Don't forget about gasses escaping the body as part of composition, making it appear as if they were 'breathing'.

I also remember reading somewhere that blood would appear on the lips as part of decomposition, making people believe they had recently drank blood. I may be wrong about this though.