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Alternative Origin of Dracula
From The Fortean Times #138 October 2000 Page 10, Strange Days section
Dracula was from Derry: Did the legend of a bloodthirsty wizard
inspire Bram Stoker's Dracula?
It has always been assumed that the original Dracula story, written
by the Irishman Abraham (Bram) Stoker in 1897, was based on the
Transylvanian folk hero Vlad Dracul, known as "the impaler" because
of his favourite method of punishment.
However, an intriguing alternative inspiration for the Dublin civil
servant's story has been put forward by Bob Curran, lecturer in
Celtic History and Folklore at the University of Ulster, Coleraine,
in the summer edition of History Ireland, a sober academic journal
edited by historians from the Univeristy College, Cork.
In the district of north Derry known as Blenullin (Glen of the
Eagle), between Garvah and Dungiven, lies the remote townland of
Slaughtaverty. Here, in the middle of a field, can be found the
remains of a megalithic monument known (like many all over Ireland)
as the "Giant's Grave."
This one also has the more specific name of Leacht Abhartach
(Abhartach's sepulchre). According to folk tradition, Abhartach was a
fifth or sixth century petty king or chieftain with an evil
reputation for sorcery. His terrified subjects prevailed upon
Catha'n, a neighbouring chieftain, to get rid of him.
Catha'n slew the wizard and buried him standing up in an isolated
grave; but Abhartach returned the following day and demanded a bowl
of blood, drawn from his subjects' veins, to sustain his corpse.
Catha'n killed and buried him again, but the indefatigable man
reappeared, demanding his cup of blood as before.
Catha'n now consulted either a local Druid or a Christian saint--
there are variation in the tale--and was told that Abhartach had
become one of the neamh-mhairbh (the undead) and a dearg-diu'lai' (a
drinker of human blood).
He could not be killed, but could be put under restraint. He had to
be run through with a sword made from yew wood, buried upside-down
surrounded by thorns and ash twigs, and his grave surmounted by a
heavy stone. Catha'n followed these instructions and the people of
Glenullin ceased to be unwilling blood donors.
In 1997, attempts were made to clear the land; in conformity with
folklore, workmen who attempted to cut down the thorn tree arching
across Abhartach's sepulchre allegedly had their chain saw
malfunction three times. While attempting to lift the great stone, a
steel chain snapped, cutting the hand of one of the labourers, and
ominously, allowing blood to soak into the ground.
Mr Curran himself suffered "a severe and inexplicable fall" after
visiting the site. During a lecture in 1961, the Registrar of the
National Folklore Commission, Sea'n O' Suilleabha'in, mentioned a
site which he called Du'n Dreach-Fhoula (pronounced droc'ola) or
Castle of the Blood Visage.
This was allegedly a fortress guarding a lonely pass in the
Magillycuddy Reeks in Kerry, and inhabited by blood-drinking fairies.
He did not give its exact location, and cultural historians have
spent years hunting through archives for more specific information.
Droch-fhoula pronounced droc'ola, can also mean "bad" or "tainted
blood" and while it is now taken to refer to "blood feuds," it might
have a far older connotation. It might indeed have been the
inspiration for the name Dracula rather than Vlad Dracul. Stoker,
after all, never visited Eastern Europe and relied entirely on
travellers' accounts.
"There is no tradition of vampires here (in Romania)," said Prof
Sabina Ispas, director of the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore
in Bucharest, addressing the World Dracula Congress held in
Transylvania last May. "Bram Stoker presented his fiction with a
special identity of his own making . . . Until 10 years ago, we
Romanians hadn't even heard of the Dublin writer or his character,
Dracula . . . Dracula did not live in Romania, there are no vampires
in our mythology and no vampiric castle."
Abhartach is only one among many blood-drinking noble and chieftains
that populate Irish folklore; and the blood-drinking undead feature
in Geoffrey Keating's History of Ireland, written in 1626-31.
Stoker may well have read the legend of Abhartach in another History
of Ireland, written by Patrick Weston Joyce and published in 1880.
Around the same time, manuscript copies of Keating's work were on
display in the National Museum in Dublin.
Irish Times, 29 May; History Ireland, Summer 2000
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