Another Dracula?

So if Vlad Tepes was, perhaps dead at a young age, is it possible that there would be another infamous figure to stoke the creativity of Bram Stoker?
 
So if Vlad Tepes was, perhaps dead at a young age, is it possible that there would be another infamous figure to stoke the creativity of Bram Stoker?

Given that Vlad didn't stoke Bram's creativity at all--Stoker just lifted the name from a book he read--it wouldn't make much difference.

Of course, butterflies etc.

A more interesting question is would Vlad's fame outside Romania have reached its present heights without Bram? My suspicion is 'no'.
 
the Hungarian duchess
So if Vlad Tepes was, perhaps dead at a young age, is it possible that there would be another infamous figure to stoke the creativity of Bram Stoker?

Maybe the Hungarian duchess or the French noblemen who had fought with Joan de Arc .
 
Last edited:
Elizabeth Bathory (the bathing in the blood of virgins countess) is (according to both of their legends) even a better fit as a vampire than Vlad the Impaler.
 
I would have to say that more of Bram Stoker's influences came from the many folklores which exist around the idea of vampires; many ancient cultures had tales of demonic entities and blood-drinking spirits.

It was just simple that Bram Stoker was able to put a name and face to a more recent person, who personified the idea of vampire. A man who would sit and eat food while watching his enemies being impaled (hence the name Vlad the Impaler)

- Hebrews would call them "lilith" which rought translate as night creatures/monsters.
- The Mesopotamians believed that a Babylonian goddess Lamashtu, would gnaw on the bones and suck the blood of women in childbirth.
- Ancient Greek mythology contains several precursors to modern vampires, though none were considered undead.
-In India, tales of vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, are found in old Sanskrit folklore. Describes as undeath creatures who were bat like in that they would hang upside down from trees around the dead
- In Aztec mythology, the Cihuateteo, were the spirits of human women who died in childbirth, who would seduce men into sexual misbehavior

More recently two cases in Serbia were documentation by Austrian physicians and officers, who confirmed the reality of vampires.
- Petar Blagojevich, a peasant died in 1725, was said to have been a vampire after nine people died within 8 days of his death, with one on their death-bed saying Blagojevich had beaten him up.
- Arnold Paole, who died in 1726 was said to have come back from the dead to initiate an epidemic of vampirism that killed at least 16 people in his native village
.
the Hungarian duchess.

The Hungarian Duchess is Elizabeth Bathory, who is said to have tortured and killed up to 650 young girls, Torturing methods included severe beatings, burning or mutilation of hands, biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other body parts, freezing or starving to death. While the the that she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth were generally recorded years after her death and are considered unreliable.
 
Konrad Schmidt is another strange and vaguely sinister figure - the flagellant leader who claimed to be the resurrected Emperor Frederick II and allegedly baptized in blood.

There's Gilles de Rais, who was already mentioned.

Impalement itself is a prominent Ottoman method. However, there are only a few Ottoman figures known to have heavily practiced it. So maybe Ali Pasha of Ioannina?
 
Vampires were present in myth and lore throughout the world and there's several types to choose from. Beyond that, there's Elizabeth Bathory,Gilles de Rais,Delphine LaLaurie and several other infamous people to choose from. Tons of brutal,bloodthirsty figures from history to choose from.
 

Art

Monthly Donor
Indeed, Bram Stoker was Irish, you know. I firmly believe that he based his version of Transylvania on Ireland.
 
Top