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"Is he a ghoul or a vampire?"
So muses Nelly Dean on the day before
Heathcliff's death. She soon dismisses this thought, for she has
known Heathcliff throughout the course of his life. At dawn,
however, with her superstitions renewed, she goes outside to
"ascertain if there were any footprints under his
window". This quotation of Nelly's is the single direct reference
to vampirism that Emily Bronte offers in Wuthering Heights, but
other hints about vampirism may be scattered about the text.
Writer James B. Twitchell calls these hints "footprints," and the
purpose of this essay, in case you have not figured it out,
is to seek out such footprints in Wuthering Heights -- to
discover if a credible case may be made for Heathcliff (or any
other character) as vampire.
First of all, what are the characteristics of vampires? For a
working definition of a classical vampire, one may refer to John
Heinrich Zophius's 1733 dissertation called Dissertatio de
Vampiris Serviensibus: "Vampires issue forth from their
graves in the night, attack people sleeping quietly in their beds,
suck out all their blood from their bodies, and they destroy them.
They beset men, women, and children alike sparing neither age
nor sex. Those who are under the fatal malignity of
their influence complain of suffocation and a total deficiency
of spirits, after which they soon expire. Some who, when at the
point of death, have been asked if they can tell what is
causing their decrease, reply that such and such persons, lately
dead, have arisen from the tomb to torment and torture them."
To these classical features of the vampire, James Twitchell adds
seven more generally accepted characteristics:
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1. Although many need human blood to survive, there is
also a breed of psychological vampires who parasitically
live off the experiences of others, and who only occasionally,
if ever, take blood.
2. They bleed their victims dry but do not kill them.
3. Their canine teeth become pronounced before and after the
bloodletting, with their "red lips drawn back."
4. They sleep with their eyes open.
5. They can go for weeks without food after a human repast.
6. They usually roam at night, as they can see in the dark.
7. And no vampire is particularly happy about being involved in
this process (the Hollywood version notwithstanding).
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Heathcliff does not seem to share many of the qualities
described by Zophius, but Heathcliff may provide footprints
for the characteristics in Twitchell's description. In any
regard, who can guess what was in Bronte's mind? Maybe she
had a more subtle approach to the topic, giving an almost
imperceptible nod to vampirism in Wuthering Heights (other,
that is, than in Nelly's statement), or maybe it was far more
pronounced.
If she had decided to give her character pronounced vampiric
attributes, she was in good company. Several other English
writers of Bronte's time touched on vampirism to a greater or
lesser degree. Coleridge, Southey, and Keats wrote poems in
which characters had vampiric qualities, and John Polidori
wrote a popular novella called "The Vampyre."
Also, it is likely that Emily Bronte was familiar with
vampire legends of the English countryside, even
though her sister Charlotte
Bronte wrote, "I am bound to avow that she had scarcely more
practical knowledge of the peasantry amongst whom she lived
than a nun has of the country people who sometimes pass
her convent gates."
England and Scotland had many legends of vampiric happenings.
A representative tale from England is the story of the vampire
of Alnwick Castle. This story involves a servant who has an
unfaithful wife. Intent upon catching her in the act, he
hides himself on the roof above their bed. Unfortunately, he
falls from his perch and dies the next day. Soon there are
reports of his corpse wandering through the town. This, of
course, coincides with an epidemic that kills several
townspeople. It is blamed on the "vampire." On Palm
Sunday, the local priest assembles a group, and they proceed
to the cemetery. Upon exhumation, the body appears
engorged with blood. (It gushes out when the body's
poked with a spade.) The body is dragged out of town
and burned, and soon the epidemic ends.
In Scotland, there was the legend of the "baobban sith."
These creatures normally appeared in animal forms, but
sometimes they appeared as maidens in long green dresses
(to conceal their deer's hooves). One story involves
four hunters who camp for the evening. To entertain
themselves, one man sings, and the others dance. They
are joined by four beautiful maidens, apparently attracted
to the music, who dance with them. The singer soon
discovers that his friends have blood on their shirts and
collars. Frightened, he runs away into the woods and finds
shelter among the horses. On the next morning, he finds his
comrades dead and drained of blood.
Stories like these probably did find their way to Hayworth
parsonage, and the work of other English writers probably
did influence Emily Bronte, but essayist Mary A. Ward
viewed Nelly's remark in an entirely different fashion.
She wrote: "The remark is not hers in truth, but Emily
Bronte's, and where it stands it is of great significance.
It points to the world of German horror and romance, to
which we know that she had access. The world was congenial
to her, as it was congenial to Southey, Scott, and
Coleridge; and it has left some ugly and disfiguring traces
upon the detail of Wuthering Heights."
What, then, were these works of German horror and romance?
A truly classic example of vampires is found in Heinrich
Ossenffelder's 1748 work called "Der Vampir." A segment of this
poem includes:
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And as softly thou art sleeping
To thee shall I come creeping
And thy life's blood drain away.
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Other German works include "Lenora" by Gottfried Burger and "The
Bride of Corinth" by Johann von Goethe. Though neither is
precisely a vampire poem, both include themes which involve returning from death and love that reaches beyond the grave.
These German writers, in turn, were no doubt influenced by their
own folklore. In Germany, the popular vampire myth depended
on where in the country one lived. In northern Germany, der
Nachtzehrer, or "night waster," was a recently deceased
person who arose from the grave to attack family members and
village acquaintances. In southern Germany, der
Bluatsauger, or "blood sucker," was a dead person who
arose from the grave to attack humans and animals and suck
their blood. Citizens who were not baptized, who were involved
in witchcraft or lived an immoral life, or who committed
suicide were at risk of becoming eine Bluatsauger.
"Is he a ghoul or a vampire?" (Nelly Dean) Whatever Bronte's
intentions, whether the "disfiguring traces" of Mary Ward or the
"footprints" of James Twitchell, one must turn to text of
Wuthering Heights to discover more.
From the beginning, Heathcliff's origins are mysterious. Mr.
Earnshaw, opening his greatcoat, produces the young Heathcliff.
(This may be considered Heathcliff's figurative birth in the
story.) Earnshaw introduces him by saying: "See here, wife! I
was never so beaten with anything in my life; but you must
e'en take it as gift of God, though it is as dark almost as if it
came from the devil."
Interestingly, young Heathcliff arouses no motherly feelings in
the three females present in this scene. Mrs. Earnshaw's first
instinct was to "throw it out of doors." Catherine and Hindley
refuse to admit the boy into their room or bed, and even Nelly
leaves the child "...on the landing of the stairs, hoping it
might be gone on the morrow."
Perhaps one should not think these reactions extreme. Heathcliff
is described as being "dark." In Christianity, at least, darkness
represents evil. Numerous passages in Wuthering Heights refer to
Heathcliff's coloration, and in many places he is called a gypsy,
which also had unwholesome connotations in Bronte's time.
Lockwood initially describes Heathcliff: "He little imagined how
my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes
withdraw so suspiciously under their brows..." Lockwood also
describes Heathcliff as "...a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in
dress and manners a gentleman..."
When Nelly returns to Wuthering Heights after her brief banishment
by Mr. Earnshaw, she finds that the child has been christened
Heathcliff, "...the name of a son who died in childhood."
This rather startling and unconventional move illustrates
Earnshaw's somewhat pathetic hope that the dark child can fill
the void left in the Earnshaw family by the younger son's
death.
As the story develops, Heathcliff does fill this void, but not
in any way that Mr. Earnshaw can imagine. Comments Nelly, years
later: "...where did he come from, the little dark thing,
harboured by a good man to his bane?"
Bronte gives little information about the years between
Heathcliff's arrival and first departure, except that Heathcliff fought with Hindley, the children had the measles, and that Catherine was "much too fond of Heathcliff." In fact, it is in
this bond that develops between Catherine and Heathcliff that
is pivotal in later action.
At Mr. Earnshaw's funeral, Hindley's new wife Frances has a type
of fit and reveals to Nelly "with hysterical emotion the effect
it produced on her to see black" being worn by the
mourners. This description of Frances' fear of death is in
marked contrast to Catherine's later feelings, but this certainly
constitutes another association of the word "black."
When Hindley takes over ownership of Wuthering Heights, one of
his first acts is to strip from Heathcliff the status of an
adopted son. He turns Heathcliff out, relegating him to
"labour out of doors instead ...as hard as any other lad on
the farm."
This does not, however, have the effect of driving a wedge
between Heathcliff and Catherine. Says Nelly, "They both
promised to grow up as rude as savages..." and "it was one
of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the
morning and remain there all day..."
Bronte leaves to be imagined further details about the
relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine, but it is
markedly altered when Catherine is bitten by the Linton's
dog. Heathcliff describes the Linton residence to Nelly:
"It was beautiful -- a splendid place carpeted with crimson,
and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white
ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging
in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with
little soft tapers." With both children being accustomed
to roughhewn Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange must
have appeared an alien and alluring world to them, but only
Catherine is invited inside. In this way, the wedge is
finally driven between the two children that Hindley could not.
It is soon after Catherine's return that Heathcliff, feeling
himself alienated from Catherine, goes to Nelly and says,
"Nelly, make me decent, I'm going to be good." Nelly's
immediate response: "High time, Heathcliff..." Later
in the conversation, Nelly provides an unflattering description
of Heathcliff. "Do you mark those two lines between your eyes;
and those thick brows, that instead of rising arched, sink in
the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried,
who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under
them, like devil's spies?" This unsparing description of
Heathcliff's appearance is the most sinister yet.
In the following year, leading up to Catherine's fifteenth
birthday, Catherine and Heathcliff again become companions,
but their relationship is changed. Nelly relates,"...he had
ceased to express his fondness for her in words, and recoiled
with angry suspicion from her girlish caresses, as if conscious
there could be no gratification in lavishing such marks of
affection on him."
Soon afterwards, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say that to
marry him would degrade her, but fails to hear her profess
her love for him. Catherine makes the famous statement,
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff -- he's always, always in my
mind -- not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a
pleasure to myself -- but as my own being -- so don't talk
of our separation again -- it is impracticable..."
This reveals a bond between Catherine and Heathcliff that can be
described as unnatural. James Twitchell argues that this bond
between the teens can be seen as a type of symbiosis, or
mutual psychic vampirism, in which each draws sustenance from
the other. In any regard, this marks Heathcliff's departure
from Wuthering Heights and the end of the first movement in
the story.
The second movement reaches from Heathcliff's return to Catherine's
funeral. When Heathcliff returns, Nelly describes him as
"...a tall, athletic, well-formed man... His countenance...
looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation.
A half-civilized ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and
eyes full of black fire... his manner was... quite divested of
roughness, though too stern for grace."
He returns at a time in which Catherine has overcome her
illnesses and has settled comfortably into her relationship with
Edgar. Nelly says, "I believe I may assert that they were
really in possession of deep and growing happiness." Heathcliff's
arrival creates an upheaval at Thrushcroft Grange that continues
until Edgar, at the extremity of his endurance and in response
to Heathcliff's provocation, attacks Heathcliff and orders
him away from the Grange. Once again, Heathcliff is deprived
of Catherine.
Catherine, however, feels more the negative effect of the
separation. Predicting the future, she tells Nell,
"...say to Edgar, if you see him again to-night, that
I'm in danger of being seriously ill. I wish it may prove
true. He has startled and distressed me shockingly."
Catherine, in a delirious episode in which she does not seem to
understand her illness, tells Nelly, "I wish I were a girl
again, half savage and hardy and free, and laughing at injuries,
not maddening under them! Why am I so changed? Why does my
blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words? I'm sure I should
be myself were I once among the heather on these hills."
A reader might also wonder why Catherine is so changed. Could it
be due to a vampiric influence from Heathcliff, who, feeling
himself betrayed by Catherine, is drawing too deeply on
deeply on Catherine's vitality? Evidence for this possibility
is soon put forward when Heathcliff elopes with Isabella. During
the two months that the pair are gone, Catherine recovers from
her "brain fever." Might this illustrate a "proximity effect"
beyond which Heathcliff's psychic vampirism can not operate?
When Heathcliff returns with his bride, Catherine becomes ill
again. Heathcliff, contemptuous of Edgar's care for Catherine,
tells Nelly, "He might as well plant an oak in a flower-pot, and
expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigour in
the soil of his shallow cares."
At their next and final meeting, brought about with Nelly's
reluctant assistance as letter carrier, Catherine grasps
Heathcliff's hair and complains, "I shall not pity you, not I.
You have killed me -- and thriven on it, I think. How strong
you are! How many years do you mean to live after I am gone?"
Catherine prefaces this by saying that she is talking about
both Edgar and Heathcliff, but this sentence might apply more
directly to Heathcliff alone. Despite the symbiosis of their
teenage years, Heathcliff might now be literally killing her,
increasing his own strength to the point that she might die
and he long survive her.
"I wish I could hold you," Catherine continues, "till we were
both dead!" This unendearing statement expresses a bittersweet
sentiment that may best be viewed, along with the previous
comment, as Catherine yearning, even at this late date, to
recover her former, symbiotic, relationship with Heathcliff.
"Don't torture me till I am as mad as yourself," cries
Heathcliff in response, "wrenching his head free and grinding
his teeth." (This grinding of teeth is a recurring leitmotif
in Wuthering Heights.) "Are you possessed with a devil... to
talk in that manner to me, while you are dying?"
They separate for a short time, and then Catherine says,
"Do come to me, Heathcliff."
At that earnest appeal, he turned to her, looking absolutely
"desperate. His eyes wide, and wet at last, flashed fiercely
on her; his breast heaved convulsively. An instant they
held asunder; and then how they met I hardly saw, but
Catherine made a spring, and he caught her, and they were
locked in an embrace from which I thought my mistress
would never be released alive. In fact, to my eyes, he seemed
directly insensible. He flung himself into the nearest seat,
and on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she had
fainted, he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and
gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. I did not feel that
I were in the company of a creature of my own species; it
appeared that he would not understand, though I spoke to him;
so I stood off, and held my tongue, in great perplexity."
This portion of the final scene between Catherine and Heathcliff
contains many vampiric qualities. First, there is the leap with
which the two came together. Too rapid for Nelly's eyes to
follow, was it inhumanly rapid? Then, with the long embrace from
which Nelly wonders if Catherine will be released alive, is not
the mental imagery evocative of the embrace between a vampire
and his victim? Finally, with Heathcliff's gnashing of teeth
and foaming at his mouth, is not the image of one altered
complete? Nelly might well wonder if she were in the company
of another of her own species.
Soon after, Catherine says that she is dying and has forgiven Heathcliff. Would Heathcliff forgive her? His response:
"I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer -- but yours! How can I?"
This statement is a bit ironic. Ostensibly, he seems to mean Edgar, but could also mean himself.
Nelly brings the scene to a close by observing a crowd gathered outside the Gimmerton chapel. Her comment is, "Service is over."
This statement serves as a benediction for this passionate scene. Nelly may as well have said, "Amen."
Catherine gives birth that same night, to a premature child who
will also be named Catherine. Catherine, the mother, dies two
hours later. Heathcliff, in grief, mounts vigil outside the
house, and remains there until, on the third day, he is given
opportunity to enter the Linton's house to view Catherine's body.
Inside, he removes a strand of Catherine's hair from her locket and
replaces it with his own. Nelly finds the strand on the floor,
twists it with Heathcliff's strand, and places both in the locket.
It is described as "curl of light hair, fastened with a silver
thread..." To whom did the removed strand belong? If it were
Catherine's, would Heathcliff have so easily disposed of it?
If it were Edgar's, the symbolism would be of Heathcliff
attempting to replace Edgar in Catherine's affections for eternity.
This portion of Wuthering Heights is complete when Catherine is
buried. Says Nelly, "The place of Catherine's interment, to the
surprise of the villagers, was neither in the chapel, under the
carved monument of the Lintons, nor yet by the tombs of her own
relations, outside. It was dug on a green slope, in a corner of
the kirkyard..." No explanation is offered for this particular
placement, but one may note that Catherine's resting place is
neither with the Lintons or the Earnshaws, but in between both.
Also, the placement of the grave at the edge of the "kirkyard"
is noteworthy. Twitchell observes that it is "just outside the
pale of the church yard..."
This placement may have been necessary to provide Heathcliff
access to the grave. Heathcliff visits the grave that night,
but this is not revealed until years later, on the evening
after Edgar's funeral, when Heathcliff explains his actions to
Nelly: "
I got a spade from the toolhouse, and began to delve with all
my might -- it scraped the coffin... I was on the point of
obtaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a
sigh from some one above me... There was another sigh, close
at my ear. I appeared to feel the warm breath of it displacing
the sleet-laden wind. I knew no living thing in flesh and blood
was by; but... certainly I felt that Cathy was there, not under
me, but on the earth."
That incident took place soon after Catherine's death, but
Heathcliff had revisited her grave the previous day (the day
of Edgar's funeral. Heathcliff explains: "I got the sexton, who
was digging Linton's grave, to remove
the earth off her coffin lid, and I opened it... When I saw her
face again -- it is hers yet -- he had hard work to stir me; but
he said it would change if the air blew on it, and so I struck one
side of the coffin loose, and covered it up -- not Linton's
side, damn him!"
Both of these incidents reveal supernatural influence. In the
first, Heathcliff feels that the spirit of Catherine continues to
exist, even though she is in the grave. Would any one but
Heathcliff, who so well knew the nature of Catherine's soul,
be as perceptive? That love continues to exist beyond the grave
is a persistent theme in vampire literature.
In the second incident, Heathcliff finds that Catherine's
features have been preserved. Seventeen years have elapsed
since Catherine's death, so it is surprising that Catherine's
body should be well preserved. A possible explanation is that she
is still deriving some form of psychic nourishment from her link
with Heathcliff. It is even possible that Heathcliff, feeling
remorse for his contribution to Catherine's death, has been
deliberately sacrificing a part of himself to keep a portion of
Catherine alive. This could be an example of what is described
by Melton as "astral vampirism," in which the actual body remains
in the grave, but the astral (psychic) component goes into the
world and derives energy from the living that sustains the
body in the grave.
It is around this point, chronologically, that Lockwood arrives
and finds Catherine's diary. Later that night, Lockwood has a
nightmare and awakens Heathcliff, who is so upset that he is
"crushing his nails into his palms, and grinding his teeth to
subdue the maxillary convulsions." Is Heathcliff exerting an
extreme effort to keep his canines from becoming prominent?
Heathcliff, like Catherine before him, predicts his own death:
"Nelly, there is a strange change approaching; I'm in its
shadow at present. I take so little interest in my daily
life, that I hardly remember to eat, and drink."
Interesting here is Heathcliff's use of the word "change,"
which is reminiscent of Catherine's plaintive, "Why am I so
changed?" Martin Turnell, writing of this, says:"This
'change' amounts to a completely new relationship between
Catherine and Heathcliff... which can only be completed
(so the writer implies) in another world."
In the closing scenes of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff's
behavior becomes more and more erratic. Says Heathcliff, "I
have to remind myself to breathe -- almost remind my heart
to beat." Heathcliff begins to take long overnight walks,
and further refrains from eating. When Nelly confronts him,
he says, "To-day, I am within sight of my heaven. I have my
eyes on it -- hardly three feet to sever me! And now you'd
better go. You'll neither see nor hear anything to frighten you,
if you refrain from prying."
This is most peculiar behavior, but Bronte gives no further
information. What could be causing Heathcliff's strange
excitement? What is Heathcliff's destination on his nightly
walks?
Even though he refuses food, it is likely that Heathcliff has
not found another form of nourishment. Nelly describes his
appearance:"...I cannot express what a terrible start I got, by
the momentary view! Those deep black eyes! That smile, and
ghastly paleness! It appeared to me, not Mr. Heathcliff, but
a goblin..."
From this description, it is evident that Heathcliff's energy
is running out. Is he visiting Catherine's grave on his nightly
walks? Is her remnant continuing in astral fashion to draw from
his energy to a point where he has little left? Is Heathcliff,
unmindful of his own demise and preparing to join with Catherine
in eternity, now sacrificing himself? Conversely, might Heathcliff
have been drawing some remaining essence or spiritual
communion from Catherine? And without it, Heathcliff no longer
has the will to live, and he welcomes his impending death?
On the next day, Heathcliff appears to stop breathing for a period
of thirty seconds at breakfast. He is distracted, seeming to see
someone that Nelly cannot see. That night, Nelly hears him in
conversation with someone, but no one is there. She catches the
name of Catherine. Is Heathcliff, nearing his own death, somehow
communicating with Catherine, who has been dead for eighteen years?
Two days later, Nelly notices Heathcliff's window open, and she
goes to check on him:"His eyes met mine so keen and fierce, I
started; and then he started to smile. I could not think him dead,
but his face and throat were washed with rain; the bedclothes
dripped, and he was perfectly still. The lattice, flapping to and
fro, had grazed one hand that rested on the sill; no blood trickled
from the broken skin, and when I put my fingers to it, I could
doubt no more -- he was dead and stark! ...I tried to close his
eyes -- to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze
of exultation, before any one beheld it. They would not shut;
they seemed to sneer at my attempts, and his parted lips and
sharp, white teeth sneered too!"
That Heathcliff's wound had not bled is perhaps not remarkable.
Bronte probably knew then, as is known today, that no bleeding is
expected in an elevated extremity if the person to whom it
is attached has no blood pressure.
That Heathcliff died with a life-like gaze of exultation
is more mysterious. If he really were in psychic communication
with Catherine he could only consider his death a release.
That this might bring him to a state of jubilation in his last
moments is, at last, understandable.
Is he a ghoul or a vampire?
Certainly, Heathcliff seems to share some of the characteristics
described by James Twitchell, but whether or not one finds
vampiric qualities attributable to Heathcliff (or Catherine)
scattered throughout Wuthering Heights depends on what set of
filters one applies. One such filter is psychic vampirism, which
accommodates the teens' unnatural relationship. A related filter
is the concept of astral vampirism, which seems to
neatly explain Heathcliff's continuing involvement with Catherine
long after her death and the preserved state of Catherine's body
after seventeen years. Yet another filter is vampiric traits,
particularly teeth. In
fact, of the eighteen references to teeth in the text, eight
involve Heathcliff's. They are described as "closed," "grinding,"
"cannibal," "tearing," "visible," "gnashing," "sharp," and
"sneering."
Whether these points are the "disfiguring traces" of Mary A. Ward
or the "footprints" of James Twitchell depends on the
interpretation. Montague Summers offers this description: "The
Vampire is... a man of foul, gross, and selfish passions, of
evil ambitions, delighting in cruelty and blood."
Does this description fit Heathcliff? If so, pity
him. As Charlotte Bronte wrote: "Heathcliff, indeed,
stands unredeemed."
Sources
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1850. 3rd ed.
William M. Sale, and Richard Dunn, eds. New York: W.W.Norton
& Company, Inc. 1990.
Bronte, Charlotte. Untitled. Nineteenth Century Literature
Criticism 16:64-65.
Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the
Undead. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1994.
Summers, Montague. The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. 1928.
New York: University Books, Inc., 1960.
Twitchell, James. "Heathcliff as Vampire." Southern Humanities
Review. 11:355-362.
Turnell, Martin. Untitled. Nineteenth Century Literature
Criticism 16: 85.
Ward, Mary. A. Untitled. Nineteenth Century Literature
Criticism 16: 70-73.
Images:
Index page: Illustration of the 1943 edition of Wuthering Heights,
wood engraving by Fritz Eichenberg, Arts of the Book Collection,
Yale University Library
Copyright © 2000 Lamar Stonecypher
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