Illustration by Ellana DeVies
The mysterious vampire we all know today was created and named by author Bram Stoker. Count Dracula first appears in Stoker’s novel Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker got his idea from a range of things, including Irish folklore and a Wallachian prince (modern-day Romania).
Stoker looked at folklore from his homeland, Ireland. Abhartach is an Irish legend detailing how a tyrannical dwarf chieftain was killed and reanimated as a blood-sucking creature multiple times before being buried face down, which quenched his magic.
Supposedly, this is where Stoker got the idea for Dracula’s vampire characteristics.
Stoker also read about the prince of Wallachia. Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, was a major inspiration for Count Dracula. Stoker liked the name Dracula because it translates to “evil” in Romanian. Vlad the Impaler was given the epithet of “Impaler” because he was notorious for his gruesome executions. His preferred tactic was impaling – a fitting crime for the bloodthirsty character of Count Dracula.
Dracula actually wasn’t as well-known as it is today when it was first published. The character we recognize today as a Halloween horror actually gained its popularity from a theater adaptation and the famous Broadway production with Bela Lugosi in 1927. After Universal Studios made the film Dracula, the character started to rapidly gain recognition and became the spooky icon we know today.