Vampire + Vlad Dracula = Bram Stokers "Dracula"?

Great thread sir.

This is my favorite novel of all time, I have read it probably 10 times at the least. Very good thread my friend.

I wrote a novel some years ago published through iUniverse.com, "Blood of the Dragon: The journals of Vlad the Impaler." By David T. Pudlevitcz. You ought to read it. I spent fifteen long years writing my book, and it is now in rewrite. As a researcher myself I can say your article is very well researched on a lot of levels. But you are still barely scraping the surface. I am always happy to find other Dracula researchers. Right now I am reading "Bram Stoker's Dracula, A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon" edited by Elizabeth Miller. Lots of great information in the book about Stoker, Dracula and the vampire. I also run two FB fan pages on vampires (The Vampyre Society est 1476 fan page and The Vampyre Society group page), you're always welcome to join and post there. I've done a couple of Blogs called The Vampyre Society as well and have published some letters, editorials and articles on vampires over the years, internationally. So welcome to the Funhouse! The idea by the way is not to "impale" a vampire...rather it is to keep him in his coffin. This can be done with a wooden stake, and iron stake, a bullet, or even a brick in the mouth. In fact the whole idea of a "Headstone" was not as a marker or monument, but something devised to keep all dead people in the ground. You see, ancient people were just as scared of zombies and vampires as we are.

What a great thread,well researched and a fine read.One issue though,am using my mobile so couldn't highlight the X rated section but that's ok I've read all about Vlad and how his victims slid down the greasy pole.lol.

I don't know if it was mentioned in that section but allegedly while a hostage the Turks sexually abused and sodomised Vlad and his brother.It was said to be endemic within Turkish court.

Often this abuse has been cited as a highly likely factor in his choice of staking as his favoured method of execution.

I've always believed that Bram Stoker was inspired to use the name Dracula due to Vlad's apparent cruelty and bloodlust,it never occured to me that anyone believed Vlad was an actual vampire or that there was suggestion of it in history because I've never read any accounts of that.

I think it can be said he was a cruel man but Wallachia was right out there on the frontier between the Turks and Europe,it suffered at the hands of both sides caught up in their politics and power struggles.A last bulwark against the Muslim horde and disposable.

It took an incredibly strong,resourceful and determined man to try and protect Wallachia,one prepared to plant a 'forest' of staked victims as a statement for the Turkish invader.In history you find that many of these 'great' men were cruel in nature as thats what it took to do what was necessary.

reply to post by Ben81


Thanks for adding this Ben feel free to delve into it if you wish. I thought maybe it would be too much for the OP but I would like to read more if you have it.

Great thread Agarta. The only way to kill vampires at night is with stake through the heart. A flaming cross of christ can weaken them enough to be able to strike.

reply to post by clintdelicious


Thanks for posting, I have found no historical evidence that he actually ate is victims or drank their blood in any capacity but It could be true and it would serve his purpose in creating an aura of fear beyond what he had already created.

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni


Great info FS and thanks for posting, There are quite a few stories and accounts I did not cover in the interest of the OPs length. I had to whittle them out but was contemplating posting some more and I think I just might do that. Feel free to add more stories as you wish and I will attempt to not double up on them.

reply to post by CeeRZ


Thank you so much for the pictures they are awesome. Unfortunately one must be there to experience the true reality the pictures can only show. It is a beautifl place with a very odd, calm, almost timeless feel to it. I spent a Halloween in the Castle Frankenstein one year when I was younger and have often thought of doing a thread on it much like this one to compare the lore and Mary Shelly's adaptation in her story. Maybe I will after all. Thanks for posting.

reply to post by whisperindave


Thank you for posting, as I told FraternitasSaturni above I chose to leave several stories and accounts out due to the length of the OP and have been thinking of adding them to the thread. Please feel free to do so, your knowledge would be a great addition to the thread. I will for sure look up the info you posted. Thanks again.

reply to post by fastbob72


I agree, if Vlad had not done what he did and when it could very well have been at the very least a very bloody rampage through Europe and at the other end it could have meant the end of Christendom and we would be living in a very different world. He was brutal but his laws were very simple and the punishment equally as simple.

To everyone I did not specifically reply to, thank you for posting and the positive feedback given. Please stay tuned as more information will be added.

Star and Flag because you are one of the few to post facts about Vlad Dracul and not assumptions that make him more vampire-like (the suffix that gave you Dracula doesn't exist, he was simply Vlad Dracul, you mistook "al lui" as a suffix when in reality its like "Vlad al lui Dracul" - Vlad, son of Dracul).

Wow, what a waste of space and text. Vlad was the basis for the Dracula character. The myth of the vampire dates back long before Vlad Tepes. Stoker combined the two.

Because of Stoker's Dracula, Vlad is thought of today as a vampire? Gimme a break.

To the post above: Dracul=Dragon. Vlad is Son of the Dragon.

Excellent thread Agarta.

I don't have many things to add,just that Vlad was supposed to suffer from porphyria and some of the symptoms are constant with the traits of the modern vampires(photosensitivity is one of them) or according to others he suffered from some sort of anemia and that is the reason he was craving blood.

A few months ago i wrote about the vampire legends and tales in Greece.As i mention in the thread in small villages people still believe in the existence of vampires.Of course we are not talking about the "romantic" side of the legend,as has been presented in fiction,but for demonic creatures that used to be human and for different reasons have turned into vamps.

I believe that there is some truth behind the legend.Whether a sickness like porphyria or anemia mistaken by the people of the past or cases of apparent death,in which cases the victims managed to escape the grave,something triggered such tales to remain in the traditions of almost every culture of the planet.

Hello, I joined just to post in this thread, I have some info, that I am sure won't be suprising, but before I say anything because it is SOOOO friggin personal and I am so ashamed of it that I would never want anyone to find out who I am.....

So, silly question, are our emails private and hidden on here so no one can find out who I am?

There are things I have wanted to talk about and figure out for years and think this is the best place to do, I think you can help me and I can give you some info too, sooooo just wondering how confidential it is on here??

(edited to add)

Also, I checked a few profiles in this thread, and one happens to be the exact birthday of the person I would be tryin g to protect from this information, so if someone else in this thread knows from personal experience also, wayyyy more that they should, I will bow out from the thread and cancel this account..... but if it is you, please inbox me..

You are the reason I have shut up for all of these years, and the exact date and year of you bday is too much of a coincidence.....

You know who you are, PLEASE hide and change your bday,,,,,, sucks I cant finally talk about this, but this is the LAST place I thought you would ever show up...

reply to post by Agarta

Great read OP. Just one thing to add that may give a slightly different perspective on Bram Stoker's Dracula. I was on a guided tour of Dublin a short while ago and on the tour we passed the house Bram was born in. The guide then told us a bit about his life before saying that his novel Dracula was originally set in Ireland and the vampire was English. The guide said the story was to be a metaphor of England invading Ireland and sucking the life (sucking the blood) from the Irish people. The guide said that the publicists', concerned with the controversy this would cause, insisted it was changed and so became a vampire from Transylvania coming to England instead.

I did search the net but couldn't find anything to back this version up! Perhaps someone else has heard this?

reply to post by hidingthistime


What the hell?

Originally posted by AlexIR
reply to post by hidingthistime

 

What the hell?

Long story short, I have a lot of family secrets that I wouldn't want someone else in the family to find out, I thought I could unBURDEN myself finally, and it turns out too much of a coincidence that one of the people posting in this thread had the birthday of the person I wouldn't want to be hurt by this because they do remember a few horrible things but I am not sure how much, it would send them on a downward spiral that I have been trying to climb out of for years, so I sit silent for the rest of them, so hopefully they have blacked it all out and have a normal life, instead of a life of hell hiding all of their secrets like me.

It's my impression that Stoker actually didn't model his vampire on Dracula at all. It was just a happy accident that he came across Vlad in the Whitby library and used the name or rather the Son of the dragon bit.
As all writers do, it's then possible that he included some of the juicy bits of Vlad the impaler's known history to flesh out his book, but only after the fact and not as a forethought.

reply to post by Agarta


Good theory.

The image of Vlad sitting beside the staked victims reminds me of similar images of witch burning in England.

I'm sure there was just as much fear of the occult in ancient Romania as there was in England, or Spain and Rome via the inquisition, which was more likely a lust for torture and murder of innocents for political or financial gain that could be blamed on the occult.

Perhaps this was the Balkan version and Vlad saw himself as a Witchfinder General / Chief Inquisitor !?