CHAPTER 3

Writing Dracula

In March 1890, Bram Stoker began scribbling the first notes for his vampire story. That summer, he traveled to Whitby, England. The town sits on the North Sea. He wasn’t there to enjoy the beach, though. Bram continued the research for his vampire book. Some of the well-known parts of Dracula came from his time in Whitby. The town itself is featured in the book. The sites he mentions include the ruins of an old church and its nearby cemetery. He studied the gravestones there, and Swales, the name of one of Dracula’s first victims, came from one of them.

Vlad Tepes

When he first started writing, Bram called his vampire Count Wampyr. Wampyr is the German word for vampire. But then he found the now-famous name in a book in the Whitby library. He learned that a region of Romania called Wallachia had once been the home of a fifteenth-century ruler named Vlad Tepes—who was also known as Dracula. In the local language, the name meant “son of Dracul,” and dracul can mean either a devil or dragon. Soon, Stoker was making changes to his notes. He crossed out every mention of Count Wampyr and wrote in Dracula.

Who was the real Dracula? He was a prince who defended his people from attack by Turkish armies. He was also known as Vlad the Impaler, because he often speared his enemies on large wooden stakes. Stoker did not seem to know all this history, but one character in the book mentions that Count Dracula was most likely the ruler who battled the Turks.

What Bram Stoker read in Whitby, and while doing later research about Vlad Tepes, convinced him to change his vampire’s home country to Transylvania. That region of Romania is near Wallachia. Transylvania was once part of Hungary, where tales of vampires were common. And an actual blood drinker once lived there—a Hungarian countess named Elizabeth Báthory. The countess believed the blood of young women kept her youthful.

Over the next several years, Bram Stoker continued working for Henry Irving. When he had time, Bram researched and wrote his vampire book. When he finished it, he turned it over to his publisher with the title The Un-Dead. In May 1897, the book appeared in London bookstores. Before then, either Bram or his publisher had decided to change the title. The book about the count from Transylvania was now titled Dracula.

Learning about Vampires

One of Bram Stoker’s most important sources was The Land Beyond the Forest. It was written in 1888 by a Scottish writer named Emily Gerard. The title refers to the English meaning of the word Transylvania—“across the forest.” Gerard had lived in Transylvania for several years. In her book, she described in detail some of the folktales and legends of Transylvania. One of them said that the devil ran a school in the mountains where he taught humans magical spells! Another was the Transylvanians’ strong belief in vampires and the idea that someone bitten by a vampire becomes one, too. Gerard also mentioned that one Romanian word for a vampire is nosferatu.