In Search of Dracula (Vem var Dracula?)

There are more things in heaven

and earth than are dreamt of

in your philosophy.

Dracula, published in 1897,

is one of the all time great money-making novels.

It has been sold in millions of copies throughout the world.

This greatest of all horror classics

has also been a hit play in several countries

and has inspired more commercially successful films

than any other novel.

Dracula was written by the Irish author bram stoker,

best known in his own time as the business manager

of Henry Irving, one of the most famous,

theatrical personalities of the victorian age.

Stoker is supposed to have modeled Dracula's

physical appearance on Irving.

The novel tells the story of count Dracula,

who plans to gain control of the world

by turning everyone into vampires.

He leaves his ancestral home in transylvania

and goes to england,

taking with him several boxes of earth

as his daylight hours must be spent

resting on his native soil.

Transylvania, which means the land beyond the forest

is often thought to be a mythical place,

in fact, it is an ancient province of Romania

which consists of a high plateau ringed

by the rugged carpathian mountains.

Even today, it is one of the wildest

and least known parts of Europe.

The population is of rich, national origins.

Romanian, Hungarian,

slovak, German, and szekelys.

In book, count Dracula speaks of his decent

from these székelys,

who's ancestors were probably huns.

Stoker never visited transylvania

but gained most of his knowledge at the British museum

from old maps and guidebooks.

He made free use of transylvanian history,

folklore and geography to create

an atmosphere of terror.

He wrote that, "every known superstition in the world

was gathered into the horseshoe of the carpathians,

as if it was some sort of imaginary whirlpool.”

On leaving the carpathians,

count Dracula journeys to england

and proceeds immediately to carfax,

an old castle where he intends to hide

while ravaging the countryside.

Dracula must remain in his grave during the daytime

but at night, his lust for blood

becomes unquenchable, his brain power limitless,

and his physical strength irresistible.

He quickly adds to his countless list of victims.

Eventually, Dracula is found out

and forced to flee england.

He makes for his remote castle in transylvania,

certain that no one will be able to trace him there.

Stoker located Dracula's castle near bistrita

in northern transylvania.

Although he had never visited the area,

his descriptions were remarkably accurate.

He writes, "the road was cut through pine woods

that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us,

as the evening fell, great masses of greyness

produced a weird and solemn effect.

Beyond Rose the forest up to the lofty steeps

of the carpathian's themselves.

Blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks,

green and brown where grass and rock mingle.

An endless perspective of mountains

losing themselves in the distance.

Then the mountains seem to come nearer to us on each side,

we were entering the borgo pass itself.

A sinister silence seemed to settle,

but for a strange music a far.”

According to the novel, Dracula's castle

is not mentioned in any guidebook

nor did it appear on any map.

Stoker wrote, "we looked back and saw

where the clear line of Dracula's castle cut the sky,

there was something wild and uncanny about the place.

We could hear the distance howling of wolves."

At the end of the story,

count Dracula is about to reach the safety of his castle

when he is caught by the hero Jonathan harker

and the vampire expert, Dr. Van Helsing.

Just as the sun is about to set,

Dracula's head is cut off

with a kukri knife,

and a bowing knife is plunged into his heart.

Count Dracula instantly turns to dust

and vanishes forever.

In reality, peasant life in the more remote villages

of transylvania has not changed much for centuries,

and belief in vampires and other superstitions

is still strong, though such things are now rarely spoken.

Living today, in the valley of arges

below castle Dracula, is the gypsy tinker.

Should it calls that when her father

was laid out for burial in 1932,

it was discovered that rigor mortis had not set in,

the skin was still pliable

and the cheeks bore a ruddy completion.

The villagers believed, that of course he must be a vampire.

So they plunged a wooden stake through his heart

and as an added safeguard, burned his body.

Vampire belief has existed since the dawn of civilization

throughout the world, but has been most common

in eastern Europe.

Vampires are creatures of the night

who can either be men or women.

In eastern Europe they're supposed to have two souls

and are neither alive nor dead

but undead, as one's soul never dies.

Vampires cannot rest in the grave

but will spend the night searching for victims,

people, or animals whose blood they drink.

The victims either die immediately

or gradually waste away,

and some become vampires after death.

At cockcrow or when the morning bell tolls,

vampires must return to their coffins

or risk dissolving in the sunlight.

They spend their daylight hours in the grave,

their bodies undecomposed and around their mouths

and under their fingernails are traces of blood.

The universal fear of death

and the impossible desire for eternal life

are deeply rooted in vampire belief.

As is the oriental concept of reincarnation

or eternal return.

In transylvania, vampirism was originally

a folk superstition rather than a religious idea,

it probably came from Asia by caravan route

and with a nomadic magyars around the birth of Christ,

centering in the carpathian mountains

and mixing with the rich folklore of that region.

Who can become a vampire?

Criminals, witches, those born with teeth,

those under a curse,

and young children who die unchristened.

The seventh son of a seventh son is doomed.

And one must be very cautious of a man

who does not eat garlic.

Vampires can assume a variety of animal forms,

such as large dogs, snakes, or bats

and in Romania, particularly, wolves and black cats.

They are tremendously strong,

they cast no shadow, have no reflection in mirrors,

and can make themselves invisible

by dissolving into a mist.

It is also believed that every year

on Saint Andrew's Eve,

vampires meet at places like graveyards,

to decide on their programs for the coming year.

Who is to be killed and by who.

In transylvania folklore, vampires are almost always

peasants rather than nobleman,

as literary tradition would have it.

However, countess Elizabeth barthory

born in 15670 was a famous exception.

Her family coat of arms

consisted of three wolves teeth,

and Elizabeth herself was said to have been

a living vampiress or werewolf.

In her castle in northern Hungary,

she butchered nearly 600 young girls,

bathing and showering in their blood,

which she hoped would keep her eternally young

and beautiful.

Still standing in Vienna is her house on blutgasse,

blood street, where she perpetrated

many of her horrible deeds.

Eventually, Elizabeth's monstrous crimes

were discovered and she was

walled into a cell in her castle.

Here, she died 12 years later.

Never again having seen the light of day.

This traditional Romanian dance

here performed by the national folklore ballet,

was once used to exercise evil spirits.

The solo dancer was beaten with sticks

and bitten by his fellow dancers

in an attempt to frighten away the devil.

In Romania, witchcraft, diabolism, and vampirism

are all closely associated.

For instance, the snake or dragon

is an ancient symbol for the devil.

Dracul in Romanian, which frequently appears

in Romanian paintings and literature.

The legend of Saint George and the dragon

is very reminiscent of both vlad's impalings

and the killings of vampires with stakes.

Vampires are also said to be most active

between the Eve's of Saint Andrew and Saint George,

a superstition which is closely tied

fo the Greek orthodox religion.