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The Historical Dracula
Chapter VI: Dracula and the
Vampire Myth
 It
is unclear why Bram Stoker chose this fifteenth century Romanian
prince as the model for his fictional vampire. Stoker was friends
with a Hungarian professor from Buda-Pest and many have suggested
that Dracula's name might have been mentioned by this friend.
Regardless of how the name came to Stoker's attention the cruel
history of the Impaler would have readily loaned itself to Stoker's
purposes. The events of Dracula's life were played out in a region
of the world that was still basically medieval even in Stoker's
time. The Balkans had only recently shaken off the Turkish yoke when
Stoker started working on his novel and the superstitions of the
Dark Ages were still prevelent.
Transylvania had long been a part of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it too had endured a long period of
Turkish domination and its culture was still largely medieval.
The legend of the vampire was and still is deeply rooted in that
region. There have always been vampire-like creatures in the
mythologies of many cultures. However, the vampire, as he became
known in Europe and hence America, largely originated in the Slavic
and Greek lands of eastern Europe. A veritable epidemic of vampirism
swept through eastern Europe beginning in the late seventeenth
century and continuing through the eighteenth century. The number of
reported cases rose dramatically in Hungary and the Balkans. From
the Balkans the plague spread westward into Germany, Italy, France,
England and Spain. Travellers returning from the Balkans brought
with them tales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire
that has continued to this day.
 Philosophers in the West began to
study the phenomenon. It was during this period that Dom Augustin
Calmet wrote his famous treatise on vampirism in Hungary. It was
also during this period that authors and playwrights first began to
explore the vampire myth. Stoker's novel was merely the culminating
work of a long series of works that were inspired by the reports
coming from the Balkans and Hungary.
Given the history of the vampire myth in Europe it is perhaps
natural that Stoker should place his great vampire in the heart of
the region that gave birth to the myth. Once Stoker had determined
on a locality Vlad Dracula would stand out as one of the most
notorious rulers of the selected region. He was obscure enough that
few would recognize the name and those who did would know him for
his acts of brutal cruelty; Dracula was a natural candidate for
vampirism. Why Stoker chose to relocate his vampire from
Wallachia
to the north in
Transylvania remains a mystery.
The vampire myth is still wide-spread in eastern Europe. Similarly
the name of Dracula is still remembered in the Romanian oral
tradition, but that is the end of any connection between Dracula and
the vampire myth in folklore. Outside of Stoker's novel the name of
Dracula was never linked with the myth of the vampire. Despite his
inhuman cruelty, in Romania Dracula is remembered as a national hero
who resisted the Turkish conquerors and asserted Romanian national
sovereignty against the powerful Hungarian kingdom.
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Attributes
& Copyright
All Text Rights Reserved.
"The Historical Dracula" is Copyright © Ray Porter, 1992
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