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After 90 Years: The Story of Serbian Vampire Sava Savanovic
A classic of Slavic vampire literature from 19th century Serbian author Milovan Glisic, “After Ninety Years“ tells the tale of Sava Savanovic, who haunted the watermill in the village of Zarozje. Because Glisic wrote 17 years before Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” introduced bats and Transylvania to the vampire trope, he based his story on the folktales and folk beliefs of villagers in the mountains of western Serbia along the Drina River valley. As such, it represents a treasure trove of ethnographic information and offers insights into authentic vampire lore before the creation of the modern pop culture vampire.
The language Glisic employs is the vernacular of the uneducated and illiterate rural population in the mountainous regions of western Serbia along the Drina River valley in the 18th and 19th centuries. In contrast to the heavily ornamented and wordy prose so common among his 19th century contemporaries in Russia and the west, Glisic deliberately wrote in a sparse, plain, and raw style, accurately reflecting the mannerisms of village life and culture, an approach used by Mark Twain in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.
Similar to 19th century American author Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Rip Van Winkle, Glisic mined local folklore to retell the story of the vampire Sava Savanovic. As such, the text presents a wealth of ethnographic material.
Glisic offers valuable insights into the roles of women and children in the traditional patriarchal Serbian zadruga, a family-based agricultural cooperative that formed the basis of village life. The role of alcohol in hospitality, causing and settling disputes is also quite evident. And village gossip plays an important role in the everyday life of both men and women. Of particular note is Glisic’s description of the folk beliefs surrounding vampires, how they are found, how they are killed, the forms they take, their physical appearance, etc. In this, Glisic accurately reflects folk beliefs still present today in many rural areas of the Balkans.
The language Glisic employs is the vernacular of the uneducated and illiterate rural population in the mountainous regions of western Serbia along the Drina River valley in the 18th and 19th centuries. In contrast to the heavily ornamented and wordy prose so common among his 19th century contemporaries in Russia and the west, Glisic deliberately wrote in a sparse, plain, and raw style, accurately reflecting the mannerisms of village life and culture, an approach used by Mark Twain in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.
Similar to 19th century American author Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Rip Van Winkle, Glisic mined local folklore to retell the story of the vampire Sava Savanovic. As such, the text presents a wealth of ethnographic material.
Glisic offers valuable insights into the roles of women and children in the traditional patriarchal Serbian zadruga, a family-based agricultural cooperative that formed the basis of village life. The role of alcohol in hospitality, causing and settling disputes is also quite evident. And village gossip plays an important role in the everyday life of both men and women. Of particular note is Glisic’s description of the folk beliefs surrounding vampires, how they are found, how they are killed, the forms they take, their physical appearance, etc. In this, Glisic accurately reflects folk beliefs still present today in many rural areas of the Balkans.
64 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1880
9 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
Milovan Glišić
50 books14 followersMilovan Glišić (1847–1908) was a famous Serbian writer, dramatist, and literary theorist. He is sometimes considered to be the Serbian Gogol, due to the Ukrainian author's influence on his writing.
Glišić began his literary translations in satirical newspapers, and then moved to the original short story. His original work includes two theater pieces, "Two coins" and "Spoofing" and two collections of short stories. The collections are, among others, his popular humorous and satirical stories: "Sugar Head", "Roga", "Not about what", "Pricker for fire", "Walk after death," An ominous number"," Rare beast " ; also "After ninety years" and a lyrical sketch "The first furrow".
Glišić is the most worked on translations from Russian and French literature and eighties was the main and best translator from Russian and French. Conscientious and talented translator, and also a great connoisseur of Public language, he did the most to learn Serbian audience with the great Russian writers, and significantly influenced the development of his translations of literary language and style. The best and most important are his translations from Russian: "Dead Souls" and "Taras Bulba" by Gogol, "The Kreutzer Sonata "and" War and Peace" by Tolstoy, "Oblomov" by Goncharov, with the rest of Ostrovsky and Danchenko. The French had translated Balzac , Merimee, Jules Verne and others. For the theater has translated more than thirty pieces of Russian, French and German literature.
Milovan Glišić was known mostly for his realist stories, but he also had a few which included motifs of Serbian folklore and superstition. Most famous one is the story "After ninety years" (1880) who he wrote 17 years before Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula". In Glišić story the main character is Strahinya, a poor lad in the 19th century rural Serbia. He falls in love with a lovely daughter of a wealthy but ill-tempered Živan. He is almost driven from the village when the village boss, the priest and a few village elders see an opportunity for Strahinya. The village is plagued by a vampire attacking millers in an old mill: since no one dares to stay the night over there, the people are on the verge of famine. Strahinya agrees to do the job, and manages to survive the night hiding in the attic. After some troubles, the villagers manage to discover the vampire's grave. They pierce the (unopened) coffin with a stake, but due to clumsiness and fright of one of the company, a butterfly escapes from the coffin before it is sprinkled by the Holy water. It represents the soul of the vampire which remains undestroyed. Everybody thinks it's all over now, but in the end – the real horrors await Strahinya during his wedding night. Based on the story "After ninety years" (1880) in a 1973 a horror TV movie "Leptirica" ( The She-Butterfly) is made. "Leptirica" is considered one of the top Serbian and former Yugoslav horror films.
Glišić began his literary translations in satirical newspapers, and then moved to the original short story. His original work includes two theater pieces, "Two coins" and "Spoofing" and two collections of short stories. The collections are, among others, his popular humorous and satirical stories: "Sugar Head", "Roga", "Not about what", "Pricker for fire", "Walk after death," An ominous number"," Rare beast " ; also "After ninety years" and a lyrical sketch "The first furrow".
Glišić is the most worked on translations from Russian and French literature and eighties was the main and best translator from Russian and French. Conscientious and talented translator, and also a great connoisseur of Public language, he did the most to learn Serbian audience with the great Russian writers, and significantly influenced the development of his translations of literary language and style. The best and most important are his translations from Russian: "Dead Souls" and "Taras Bulba" by Gogol, "The Kreutzer Sonata "and" War and Peace" by Tolstoy, "Oblomov" by Goncharov, with the rest of Ostrovsky and Danchenko. The French had translated Balzac , Merimee, Jules Verne and others. For the theater has translated more than thirty pieces of Russian, French and German literature.
Milovan Glišić was known mostly for his realist stories, but he also had a few which included motifs of Serbian folklore and superstition. Most famous one is the story "After ninety years" (1880) who he wrote 17 years before Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula". In Glišić story the main character is Strahinya, a poor lad in the 19th century rural Serbia. He falls in love with a lovely daughter of a wealthy but ill-tempered Živan. He is almost driven from the village when the village boss, the priest and a few village elders see an opportunity for Strahinya. The village is plagued by a vampire attacking millers in an old mill: since no one dares to stay the night over there, the people are on the verge of famine. Strahinya agrees to do the job, and manages to survive the night hiding in the attic. After some troubles, the villagers manage to discover the vampire's grave. They pierce the (unopened) coffin with a stake, but due to clumsiness and fright of one of the company, a butterfly escapes from the coffin before it is sprinkled by the Holy water. It represents the soul of the vampire which remains undestroyed. Everybody thinks it's all over now, but in the end – the real horrors await Strahinya during his wedding night. Based on the story "After ninety years" (1880) in a 1973 a horror TV movie "Leptirica" ( The She-Butterfly) is made. "Leptirica" is considered one of the top Serbian and former Yugoslav horror films.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 20, 2015
The Translator did an excellent job on this difficult text. :-)
Great classic 19th century Slavic vampire folklore.
Great classic 19th century Slavic vampire folklore.
October 25, 2015
Wonderful. This short story is long overdue. The text is rough at points, as the dialogue is different - it's like the story of the stone soup we read in school. Blunt and quick, natural. The writing is clean, without the morass of prose that 19th century writers entrap their readers in. This short story gives the reader a glimpse into the lives of those who quite firmly believed in vampires, not as romanticized anti-heroes, but as vessels of endless hunger created by the evil they perpetrated in life. The true horror is that it took this long for it to be translated. The vampire is actually almost a side-note. We know he's the villain, but he has competition. I can't put it more plainly, Sava's rival for villain is just mean, but there's no reason given or resolution. The author might have considered this unimportant, but modern readers should be aware, as we have been spoiled into expecting resolution. However, to let that hold you back would be dumb. I could not say enough, this must be read.
September 10, 2020
As a Slovene I'm not fluent in Serbian but I'm familiar enough with it to know that the translation of Posle devedeset godina is stiff at beast. Which is weird since the sintax of the English translation is acutally quite simple. After Ninety Years tries too hard to stay true to a Serbian dialect and the end product reads like a Google translate project, unfortunaltey. I'm very glad the story of Sava Savanović will get a wider international audience but a revised edition would be very welcome.
June 1, 2023
Sava Savanovic not a lustful Lestat or a seductive Dracula who use sweet words and erotic neck nibbles to seduce their victims. He is a repulsive, violent, and hate-filled creature with fangs like switchblades to strip the veins from the body and suck them dry. He is single-minded in his aim to kill and destroy any human who has the misfortune to require the use the communal mill where he stalks his prey. He is a true monster because he cannot be reasoned with.
This is a great combination of horror and history. I learned much about the funerary customs of the Serbian people in the late 1700s-early 1800s.
This is a great combination of horror and history. I learned much about the funerary customs of the Serbian people in the late 1700s-early 1800s.
January 15, 2025
Primerjalno s slovensko književnostjo v istem času kratka zgodba premore precej več psihologije in realizma. Sicer nekajkrat vmes izgubi fokus, ruši enotnost na vseh ravneh in menja glavne osebe, tudi suspenz ni ravno razvit, ampak s stališča etnologije in folklore zelo zanimivo branje, tudi s precej humorja (baka Mirjana in njena naglušnost ter menjavanje njenih sogovornikov delujejo že pravljično). Vampir je v slovanski mitologiji povezan z metuljem oziroma veščo, ne netopirjem, junak se ga loti s samokresi s srebrom itd. Vseeno je bolj romanca (prepovedana ljubezen, ukradena nevesta in končno poroka) kot grozljivka.
January 5, 2018
This is a neat little tale and reads very much like folklore, which it pretty much is I suppose. I very much appreciate the translator's note and the foreword as they're both packed with information and help frame the story which follows. You can tell that everyone involved in getting this out is passionate and knowledgeable, not only on this story, but the language and cultural context it was written in. I feel confident that this is a faithful translation of the original text and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read it, there's a lot of interesting regional information and idioms which I enjoyed a lot.
The story itself is very basic, and it's not told in a particularly interesting or eloquent way. All of which is explained in the prologue and it makes sense why it is the way it is, but that doesn't change reality and the result is just not very compelling. I like the themes it deals with and the setting is cool, and as I mentioned earlier it's got a lot of unique details that make it worth reading, but if you're after a flat out good story about a vampire and won't appreciate the external factors, then you might be disappointed here. Having watched the movie Leptirica beforehand, which is based on this book (admittedly I also found it boring at times, however I do not speak Serbian so that accounts for some of that) I had a frame of reference for my visualisation, but there's some notable differences and if I may say so the actual narrative of the film was more interesting and exciting than the original, despite it's less faithful liberties. Anyway, I would recommend this book but not for the usual reasons such as story, plot, voice etc. and more for the cultural significance and the local knowledge it imparts.
The story itself is very basic, and it's not told in a particularly interesting or eloquent way. All of which is explained in the prologue and it makes sense why it is the way it is, but that doesn't change reality and the result is just not very compelling. I like the themes it deals with and the setting is cool, and as I mentioned earlier it's got a lot of unique details that make it worth reading, but if you're after a flat out good story about a vampire and won't appreciate the external factors, then you might be disappointed here. Having watched the movie Leptirica beforehand, which is based on this book (admittedly I also found it boring at times, however I do not speak Serbian so that accounts for some of that) I had a frame of reference for my visualisation, but there's some notable differences and if I may say so the actual narrative of the film was more interesting and exciting than the original, despite it's less faithful liberties. Anyway, I would recommend this book but not for the usual reasons such as story, plot, voice etc. and more for the cultural significance and the local knowledge it imparts.
March 31, 2023
A coleção Vólvense os paxaros contra as escopetas da editora galega Hugin e Munin é uma porta para obras pouco habituais mas que contam com um espaço próprio na história da cultura. Este relato de Milovan Glišić tem as formas e as convenções dos contos tradicionais e na sua meirande parte está centrado nos costumes de dúas pequenas vilas sérvias mais que no elemento sobrenatural do vampiro. De facto existe pouca ou nenhuma sensação do sobrenatural, do que está fora do ordinário, pois os protagonistas agem ante o perigo vampírico coa normalidade própria da tradição eslava: rematam com a sua forma física, investigam quem foi em vida e montam uma partida de caça com os voluntários da vila e uma boa quantidade de auga benta, um pope e uma afiada estaca. Não são necessárias explicações da natureza do sobrenatural, todo o mundo sabe o que há que fazer porque forma parte do seu imaginário coletivo. Resolto o problema vampírico, o que fica é o conflito entre as vilas por um Romeu e Julieta rurais.
Assim a novelinha mora entre o relato tradicional e o gótico. A sua importância reside no seu valor como elemento fundacional do género de terror moderno na literatura sérvia, a sua recolha da tradição eslava dos vampiros (que inspiraria o Dracula uma década depois) e por inspirar mais dum século depois o primeiro filme jugoslavo de terror, Leptirica de Đorđe Kadijević.
A minha recomendação pessoal é ler este relato entre Carmilla de Sheridan Le Fanu e o Dracula de Stoker para apreçar a progressiva mutação e universalização do mito vampírico.
Assim a novelinha mora entre o relato tradicional e o gótico. A sua importância reside no seu valor como elemento fundacional do género de terror moderno na literatura sérvia, a sua recolha da tradição eslava dos vampiros (que inspiraria o Dracula uma década depois) e por inspirar mais dum século depois o primeiro filme jugoslavo de terror, Leptirica de Đorđe Kadijević.
A minha recomendação pessoal é ler este relato entre Carmilla de Sheridan Le Fanu e o Dracula de Stoker para apreçar a progressiva mutação e universalização do mito vampírico.
August 17, 2023
More of a love story than true blood and gore, but it relates a Serbian legend of one of the first known vampires. It is also a great insight into Serbian mentality and culture (although the scope is understandably limited in regards to culture).
January 31, 2019
Loved it, loved the ethnographic treasure of the translation and the front matter. I am a history major and an afficionado of Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian culture. It's a well written and well translated vampire folk tale. I look forward to tracking down other references to vampires from Serbian culture and reading them, too.
May 27, 2018
Excellent snapshot of 19th century Serbian ethnography.
March 7, 2019
Rich in plot and character whilst light on horror it perfectly delineates the hero's journey.
November 5, 2023
While the story won't leave a lasting impression, the wealth of information on old time Serbian folklore certainly will.
Odd expressions and context-sensitive jokes are translated literally, giving a sense of the flavor of rural Serbian life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while footnotes quickly step in to make them intelligible to the outsider.
The footnotes are the real stars of this show. They never ceased to delight me with tidbits of vampire folk beliefs that existed long before Dracula and Hollywood locked down the ubiquitous tropes that all writers and film makers feel obligated to replicate. For example, did you know that vampires wear their burial shrouds around their necks and are the source of their supernatural power? Or that, when we die, our souls exit our mouths in the form of a butterfly? And this, as we all know, is why vampires transform into butterflies. Wouldn't Stephenie Meyer, with her sparkly bloodsuckers, love to know that the oldest vampire legends had them transform into butterflies and not bats?
After 90 Years should be required reading for any vampire enthusiasts or creators of vampire media wanting to break free of old tropes. See the vampire legend made new by viewing them through the eyes of the people who believed that they existed.
Odd expressions and context-sensitive jokes are translated literally, giving a sense of the flavor of rural Serbian life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while footnotes quickly step in to make them intelligible to the outsider.
The footnotes are the real stars of this show. They never ceased to delight me with tidbits of vampire folk beliefs that existed long before Dracula and Hollywood locked down the ubiquitous tropes that all writers and film makers feel obligated to replicate. For example, did you know that vampires wear their burial shrouds around their necks and are the source of their supernatural power? Or that, when we die, our souls exit our mouths in the form of a butterfly? And this, as we all know, is why vampires transform into butterflies. Wouldn't Stephenie Meyer, with her sparkly bloodsuckers, love to know that the oldest vampire legends had them transform into butterflies and not bats?
After 90 Years should be required reading for any vampire enthusiasts or creators of vampire media wanting to break free of old tropes. See the vampire legend made new by viewing them through the eyes of the people who believed that they existed.
October 26, 2025
Сборник рассказов, обещающий погружение в сербский фольклор.
Отсылка к Гоголю настраивает на определенный лад, помню, как не по себе мне было во время чтения “Вия”.
Ожидания оказались сильно завышены…
Если первая половина книги еще содержит в себе мистические нотки и так очень легко, “на минималках” рассказывает о народных поверьях и разной нечисти, то во второй части уже сложно и приписать рассказы к мистическим.
Не жалею о прочитанном, для ознакомления - ок. Но на полках не остается.
Кстати, само оформление издания - шикарно! Цветной срез просто шикарен!
Ну и сама серия магистраль мне очень даже нравится.
Отсылка к Гоголю настраивает на определенный лад, помню, как не по себе мне было во время чтения “Вия”.
Ожидания оказались сильно завышены…
Если первая половина книги еще содержит в себе мистические нотки и так очень легко, “на минималках” рассказывает о народных поверьях и разной нечисти, то во второй части уже сложно и приписать рассказы к мистическим.
Не жалею о прочитанном, для ознакомления - ок. Но на полках не остается.
Кстати, само оформление издания - шикарно! Цветной срез просто шикарен!
Ну и сама серия магистраль мне очень даже нравится.
October 4, 2025
Interesting as an ethnographic piece and a sort of slice-of-Serbian-village-life story, it completely fails as a vampire story. The vampire is dispatched in a sentence and basically by accident, then the rest of the narrative is about the central “romance” (if you can call it that) with no mention of the vampire. I fail to see how the vampire was even important to the narrative other than as an inciting incident.
I suppose it was an alright folktale and I appreciated the copious notes the author added.
I suppose it was an alright folktale and I appreciated the copious notes the author added.
November 2, 2025
I wouldn't call it a frightening stand alone work to curdle your blood or tingle your spine, but this did illuminate the vampire tradition for me by knowing the antecedents that influenced the tropes that horror fiction community has grown to love and in some quarters to laugh at (namely the portrait of the superstitious villagers!) Although I'm somewhat disappointed the watermill didn't become as iconic as Quixote's windmill, I truly appreciated all the translator's readable footnotes that were included to create an almost documentary recreation of Slavic life.
December 31, 2023
Чувена прича Милована Глишића прати младића Страхињу који индиспониран љубавним мукама пристаје на позив сељака да истражи чудне околности у уклетој воденици у Зарожју где се дешавају честе и мистериозне смрти млинара. Прича препознатљива по елементима хорора дотад веома ретких у српској књижевности, као и сусрету са Савом Савановићем, такође је испуњена и комичним одушцима, локалним, на махове застарелим, говором и романтичним елементима.
November 13, 2024
O livro é tão interessante quanto o filme, onde eu descobri a história. Achei fascinante como praticamente tudo no folclore sérvio tem um motivo por trás, como o porquê dos vampiros serem representados por uma borboleta e não por um morcego. Enfim, ótimo livro, fizeram um bom trabalho com a tradução, não tive nenhuma dificuldade na leitura. Vale a leitura!
August 6, 2025
while the vampire part of this story is weak, I'm giving it a high rating for the excelent translation (given with a lot of care) and for being a very entertaining window into local serbian culture from the 1800's. a very important piece of pre-dracula vampire history!
November 27, 2024
"Um. um…. okay!"
January 4, 2025
There's a really funny scene in this that reads like an early modern Balkan Trailer Park Boys. I'm here for it tbh.
January 21, 2025
Read this for vampires class🧛🏻♀️ Serbian vampire lore wooo!
August 6, 2025
Delightful!
January 15, 2026
słowiańskie wampiry to vibe który się zatracił a szkoda bo jesteśmy nieźle pierdolnięci
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews