What is the origin of Dracula?

Answer 1

The story of Dracula was partly based on European folklore and partly based on unrelated historical events. The author of 'Dracula', Bram Stoker, spent several years researching European folklore and stories of vampires (Dracula was not the first Vampire book) and became interested in the word dracul. This word, from the Megleno-Romanian language, means 'devil' but also used to mean 'dragon'.

The fictional (made-up) character of Dracula was based just in name on a man that lived in what is now Romania in Eastern Europe between 1431 and 1476. His name was Vlad Dracula.

Vlad's father held the title of Dracul (no 'a' at the end) because he was a member of a secret fraternal order of knights called The Order of the Dragon. So as Vlad was his son, he received the name Dracula (Son of the Order of the Dragon).

Vlad Dracula is most famously known as 'Vlad the Impaler'. He was called this because this was his preferred method of executing people (by leaving them to die slowly impaled on steaks).

Historians argue that Bram Stoker in fact knew little of the historic Vlad III except for his nickname. In his book Stoker includes no details about Vlad III's reign and does not mention his use of impalement.

Bram Stoker was originally going to call his vampire "Count Wampyr" but changed it to "Count Dracula" basically because he liked the word/name Dracula. The original Vlad Dracula was not a Count, nor was he a vampire. In writing Dracula, Stoker may also have drawn on Gaelic fairy stories about blood-drinking women.

The mannerisms of Dracula are thought to have come from a man called Henry Irving, a stage actor in the Victorian era at a theater where Stoker worked. Stoker apparently modeled Dracula's dramatic sweeping gestures and gentlemanly mannerisms on those he had observed in Irving.

Early belief in vampires has thought to have come from people at the time not fully understanding the process of a body decomposing after death and so trying to rationalize this by creating the figure of the vampire to explain it.