Posted on Mar 11, 2010
1. Dracula was a real person.
Count Dracula is a fictional character in Bram Stocker's Dracula. Inspired by one of the best-known figures of Romanian history, VladTepes (Vlad the Impaler), but still a fictional character.
2. Vlad the Impaler is a made up character
Vlad III Price of Wallachia, probably best known for his resistance against the Ottoman Empire and for the cruel punishments he imposed on his enemies, was a voivode of Wallachia in the fifteen century. It inspired the name of the vampire in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, but it’s not a fictional character.
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Many writers have embellished the Bram Stoker novel – Dracula – by claiming that before writing he spoke to experts on Transylvanian history and culture. Stoker’s actual novel was incredibly inventive: many of the motives behind the storylines into the book were not based on his research on local legends and it seems that he was scarcely aware of the folklore, history and geography of Transylvania, whatever the extent of Stokers’ knowledge of Vlad the Impaler and vampirism. Despite the handful of books he consulted, where his story lines coincide with fact is just that – co-incidence. In fact, the reality of the region which features in Dracula and has come to be closely associated with the Count (Bistrita, Bistritz in German), is more interesting than Stokers’ fiction!
