Baron Vordenburg

This is today's countdown to Halloween post and I wish to give an homage to a rather unknown character of horror fiction. I hope that some among you recognize the name in the title. Anyway, let's not forget that in scary stories, as there are Forces of Darkness, there are people to fight them. Which means, in vampire stories, there are vampire hunters. Baron Vordenburg is one of them. He appears in Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. His role in the story is small, indeed he only shows up near the end, but essential.Not to give anyone spoilers if they have not read the novella (stop reading of you haven't), but he is the one who finds out the tomb of Countess Mircalla Karnstein, aka Millarca, aka Carmilla and kills her. He is, in effect, the grandfather of all vampire hunters. Unlike many of his spiritual children and very much in the Victorian tradition he belongs to, Baron Vordenburg is more an academic than a fighter (in fact he looks very geeky). Stoker's Van Helsing owes a lot to him. And who remembers him? Almost nobody! I only rediscovered his name reading In a Glass Darkly and thus re-reading Carmilla recently. My apologies to the baron. And let this post be an homage to him.