BIOGRAPHY
Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847-1912), Irish writer, best
known for his vampire novel Dracula(1897).
Bram Stoker was born
near Dublin on November 8, 1847, the third of seven children. An unidentified
illness kept him virtually bedridden until age seven. Although he remained shy
and bookish, in his adolescence Bram Stoker was anything but sickly. Perhaps to
make amends for his earlier frailty, he was by this time developing into a fine
athlete. At Trinity College, Dublin, he would conquer his shyness and be named
University Athlete.
Young Bram had always dreamed of becoming a writer,
but his father had safer plans. Yielding to the father's wishes, Bram followed
him into a career as a civil servant in Dublin Castle. While climbing the civil
service ladder, he wrote a dry tome entitled Duties of Clerks of Petty
Sessions in Ireland. This book of rules, however, would not be published
until 1879, by which time Stoker would be married, living in another country,
and immersed in a new career.
During his eight-year stint in the civil
service, Stoker continued to write stories, the first of which, a dream fantasy
entitled "The Crystal Cup" (1872), was published by The London Society. A
serialized four-part horror piece, entitled "The Chain of Destiny" followed
three years later in the The Shamrock. He also found time to take unpaid
positions as theatrical critic for Dublin's Evening Mail and, later, as
editor of The Irish Echo.
In 1878, Henry Irving offered Stoker
the job of actor-manager at London's Lyceum Theatre. Stoker promptly resigned
the civil service, married Florence Balcombe and set off for his new life in
London. Within a year, Florence had given birth to their only child, a son,
Noel, but Stoker and his wife, though continuing to keep up appearances, are
said to have become estranged.
Despite his heavy professional duties,
Stoker somehow found the time to write fiction. His first book, Under the
Sunset (1882), consisted of eight eerie fairy tales for children. His first
full-length novel, The Snake's Pass, was published in 1890. That same
year marks the beginning of Stoker's research for his masterwork,
Dracula, which, would be published in 1897 to world-wide acclaim. Stoker
wrote several short stories, novels and essays but his name is inextricably
linked with Dracula.
Stoker continued to pursue a writing career
until his death on April 20, 1912.
TOP 10 MISCONCEPTIONS
1. Dracula originated in a nightmare which Stoker had after eating too much dressed crab.
2. Stoker began writing Dracula in Whitby.
3. Stoker began writing Dracula in Cruden Bay.
4. Stoker was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn.
5. Stoker was in love with his employer, Henry Irving.
6. Immediately after its publication, Dracula was a phenomenal success.
7. Stoker travelled to Transylvania to do research on vampires.
8. "Dracula's Guest" was the excised first chapter of Dracula.
9. Count Dracula is destroyed by having a stake driven through his heart.
10. Count Dracula cannot go out in the sunlight.
What are the origins of Count Dracula?
What about the name "Dracula? Where did that come from? As most of you may
know, there was a historical Dracula, a 15th century Romanian prince
better known to historians as Vlad the Impaler. He also used the nickname
"Dracula", a reference to the fact that he was the son of Vlad Dracul who had
been initiated into the Order of the Dragon ("dracul" was Romanian for "the
dragon"). Contrary to popular opinion, Bram Stoker knew very little about the
real Dracula, certainly not enough to have been inspired to base Count Dracula
on him. All we know for certain is that he found the name "Dracula" in an
obscure history book he borrowed from the public library in the English seaside
resort of Whitby where he was spending a summer vacation in 1890. He was already
working on a vampire novel, and had even selected a name for his Count --
Wampyr. Then he saw the name "Dracula" with a footnote that suggested it came
from a Romanian word for "devil". As this fit into Stoker's conception of his
vampire as the epitome of evil, he appropriated the name, and Dracula became a
vampire.
What about Transylvania? This region has for many in the West become synonymous with Dracula and vampires, much to the puzzlement of people who live there. Stoker was originally going to have his vampire come from Austria. But during his research he came across an article entitled "Transylvanian Superstitions" (which included references to beliefs in vampires in that part of eastern Europe) and was sufficiently intrigued to change the locale to Transylvania (Latin for "the land beyond the forest").
Characteristics of the
Vampire
Count Dracula possesses the following powers and supernatural
traits:
he is potentially immortal
he survives on the blood of others
he has the strength of twenty men
he can shape-shift into the form of a wolf or a bat
he can appear as mist or elemental dust
he has no reflection in a mirror
he casts no shadow
he has hypnotic power over his victims
he can turn victims into vampires
But on the other hand, he does have limitations:
he may not enter a household unless he is invited in
he loses his supernatural powers during daylight hours
he must sleep on the soil of his native land
he can cross running water only at the slack or the flood of the tide
he is repelled by garlic and holy symbols (crucifix, holy wafer)
he can be destroyed by driving a stake through his heart and decapitating him
Vlad the Impaler: A Brief
History
Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes in Romanian) was descended from Basarab the Great, a fourteenth-century prince who is credited with having founded the state of Wallachia, part of present-day Romania. The most famous of the early Basarabs was Vlad's grandfather, Mircea cel Batrin (Mircea the Old). As Wallachian "voivode" (a word of Slavic origin, used in Romania for the leader of a principality, a war-lord, or a supreme chief), Mircea was prominent for his struggles against the Ottoman Empire and his attempts to exclude permanent Turkish settlement on Wallachian lands.
In spite of the attention paid to Vlad by historians both in Romania and the West, he is still to some extent an enigma. Even the name by which he is called is a matter of disagreement. While there is ample evidence that he himself used the sobriquet "Dracula" (or variations thereof) and was referred to as such in several 15th and 16th century sources, many Romanian historians still insist on using the name "Tepes" (meaning "Impaler"), a hardly flattering nickname first assigned to him by Turkish chroniclers. Historians attempting to reconstruct his life have had to sift through numerous printed accounts of his atrocities (many of which are clearly biased) as well as equally biased Romanian oral narratives and legends that paint him as a heroic patriot. There are also conflicting versions about key events, most notably how he was killed and where his remains are buried. But one fact does emerge from all of this material. Whatever Vlad might have been, nowhere is it stated that he was (or was believed to have been) a vampire. That association is clearly the result of the fact that Bram Stoker decided to appropriate the name "Dracula" for his villainous Count - much to the chagrin of many Romanians who see the novel as a denigration of one of their national heroes.
Order of the Dragon
The Order of the Dragon (German "Drachenorden" and Latin "Societatis
draconistrarum") was an institution, similar to other chivalric orders of the
time, modelled on the Order of St George (1318). It was created in 1408 by the
Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (while he was still king of Hungary) and his queen
Barbara Cilli, mainly for the purpose of gaining protection for the royal
family. According to its statute (which survives in a copy dated 1707), the
Order also required its initiates to defend the Cross and to do battle against
its enemies, principally the Turks. The original Order comprised twenty-four
members of the nobility, including such notable figures as King Alfonso of
Aragon and Naples, and Stefan Lazarevic of Serbia.
In 1431, Sigismund summoned to the city of Nuremberg a number of princes and vassals that he considered useful for both political and military alliances. His primary objective was to initiate the group into the Order of the Dragon. One of these was Vlad (father of Vlad the Impaler), a claimant for the throne of the principality of Wallachia (now part of modern Romania), who was at the time serving in Sighisoara as frontier commander guarding the mountain passes from Transylvania into Wallachia from enemy incursion. While at Nuremberg, Vlad also received Sigismund's pledge to support his claim to the throne of Wallachia. But it would be another five years before that ambition could be realized.
Vlad was obviously proud of this achievement. Later he had coins minted which show on one side a winged dragon. His personal coat-of-arms also incorporated a dragon. In all of these cases, the dragon was intended to convey a favourable image drawn from medieval iconography in which the dragon represents the Beast of Revelation (Satan) who is slain by the forces of good (Christianity). Vlad took on the nickname "Dracul" in reference to his induction into the order. The word "dracul" has its origins in the Latin "draco" meaning "the dragon".
His son Vlad (better known as Vlad the Impaler) used the sobriquet "Dracula"in the context of "son of Dracul" or "son of he who was a member of the Order of the Dragon". Once again it was used as a term of honour. On a number of occasions, Vlad (the Impaler) signed documents using the name. The word "dracul", however, took on a second meaning ("the devil") which was applied to members of the Dracula family by their enemies and possibly also by superstitious peasants. It was this second meaning that found its way into William Wilkinson's An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (1820), the book in which Bram Stoker found the name "Dracula". There is no evidence whatsoever that Stoker knew about the Order of the Dragon.
Vlad The Impaler (1431?-1476)
Vlad the Impaler was a historical figure upon whom Bram Stoker partially built the title character of his novel Dracula.
The name Dracula was applied to Vlad during his lifetime. It was derived from drac, a Romanian word that can be interpreted variously as "devil" or "dragon." Vlad's father had joined the Order of the Dragon, a Christian brotherhood dedicated to fighting the Turks, in 1431, shortly after Vlad's birth. The oath of the order require, among other things, wearing the order's insignia at all times. The name Dracula means son of Dracul or son of the dragon or devil.
The actual birth date of Vlad, later called Vlad the Impaler, is unknown, but was probably late in 1430. He was born in Schassburg (aka Sighisoara), a town in Transylvania. Soon after his birth, his father was invested with the insignia of the Order of Dragon.
In 1451, while he was at Suceava, the Moldavian capital, the ruler was assassinated. For whatever reasons, Vlad then went to Transylvania and placed himself at the mercy of Hunyadi, the very person who had ordered his father's assassination.
Hunyadi died of the plague at Belgrade on August 11, 1456. Immediately after that event, Vlad left Transylvania for Wallachia. He defeated Vladislave II and on August 20 caught up with the fleeing prince and killed him. Vlad then began his six-year reign, during which his reputation was established. In September he took both a formal oath to Hungarian King Ladislaus V and, a few days later, an oath of vassalage to the Turkish sultan.
Vlad committed his first major act of revenge. On Easter Sunday, after a day of feasting, he arrested the boyer families, whom he held responsible for the death of his father and brother.
Vlad's brutal manner of terrorizing his enemies and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he had people punished earned him the nickname "Tepes" or "the Impaler," the common name by which he is known today. He not only used the stake against the boyers, whom he was trying to bring into subservience, he also terrorized the churches, both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic, each of which had strength in his territory.
Vlad also used terrorist tactics against his foreign enemies. When he thought that merchants from Transylvania had ignored his trade laws, he led raids across the border in 1457 and again in 1459 and 1460 and used impalement to impose his will. During the latter incursion he looted the Church of Saint Bartholemew, burned a section of Brasov, and impaled numerous people. That raid was later pictured in anti-Dracula prints showing him dining among the impaled bodies.
During his reign, Vlad moved to the villiage of Bucharest and built it into
an important fortified city with strong outter walls. Seeing the mountains as
protective bulwarks, Vlad built his castle in the foothills of the Transylvania
Alps. Later, feeling more secure and wishing to take control of the potentially
wealthy plans to the south, he built up Bucharest.