Editing Lord Ruthven (vampire) (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Clan member crest badge - Clan Ruthven.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|Crest badge of [[Clan Ruthven]]]]
There is a genuine title of [[Lord Ruthven of Freeland]] in the [[Peerage of Scotland]], which is now a subsidiary title of the [[Earl of Carlisle]] in the [[United Kingdom]]. At the time "The Vampyre" was written, the title was held by [[James Ruthven, 7th Lord Ruthven of Freeland]], though the fictional character is not related to the historical title holders.<ref name="Switzer 1955">{{cite journal|journal=The French Review|title=Lord Ruthwen and the Vampires|first=Richard|last=Switzer|page=107|volume=29|issue=2|date=December 1955|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/382161 }}</ref>

The name Ruthven was used for the title character in the 1816 [[Gothic novel]] ''[[Glenarvon]]'' by [[Lady Caroline Lamb]]. This character was based on the genuine [[Lord Byron]] and was not a vampire. Lady Caroline was a former lover of Lord Byron's and the novel did not offer a flattering portrait.<ref name="Switzer 1955"/>

The character of Lord Ruthven in [[John William Polidori]]'s "[[The Vampyre]]" was based on Augustus Darvell in Byron's "[[Fragment of a Novel]]".<ref>{{Citation |last=Byron |first=George Gordon |author-link=Lord Byron |title=The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre |editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Morrison |editor2-first=Chris |editor2-last=Baldick |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=0-19-955241-X}}</ref>

In a copy of "The Vampyre" annotated by Polidori—presumably for a revised second edition of the book which was never published—the author changed the name of the vampire from "Lord Ruthven" to "Lord Strongmore".<ref name="macdonald">{{cite book | first=John William | last=Polidori | editor-first1=D.L. | editor-last1=Macdonald | editor-first2=Kathleen | editor-last2=Scherf | title=The Vampyre and Ernestus Berchtold | chapter=A Note on the Texts | page=35 | year=2008 | publisher=Broadview Editions }}</ref>