The Original Vampire Legend

Who is Count Dracula

So as this is the first part of the Count Dracula series on Vampire Legends, we ask "who is he?". A very valid question indeed if you think about it as the great legendary and most known vampire has had many interpretations about him covered in many books and films. But to find out who he really is we need to look to Bram Stoker, the author of the book "Dracula".

Commonly known as a fictional character, Count Dracula is the star of the gothic horror novel Dracula written by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897. It is believed that the character was inspired by a Prince Vlad III also known as Vlad the Impaler who ruled over a province near Transylvania called Wallachia.

Count Dracula (his first name is never given in the novel) is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a descendant of Attila the Hun. His abode is a crumbling and decaying castle near the Borgo Pass, in the Carpathian mountains. Dracula is portrayed with the veneer of aristocratic charm which masks his unfathomable evil.

Appearance wise he is described by Jonathan Harker as having strong facial features, including a high bridged nose, domed forehead surrounded by scantily growing hair on the temples and profusely elsewhere. he had massive eyebrows that met in the middle and a cruel thick moustache, below which was a wickedly evil mouth with strangely protruding sharp white teeth. His chin was broad and strong and his cheeks firm with an unfathomable pallor.

In an excerpt from Abraham Van Helsing, we see that the comparison of modern minds placing Count Dracula to that of Prince Vlad Teppes III is easily done. He states that:

"He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turks... If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the 'land beyond the forest'."


In Dracula's youth it is written that he was a student at the academy of Scholomance where he learned about the black arts and with this he also became proficient in alchemy and magic. Upon the death of his wife, Count Dracula uses his knowledge of the black arts to return from death and become a vampire. He lives in his castle for many centuries following this with only his newly found three wives for company and titillation.

Count Dracula is fortunate to possess an abundance of mystical and unnatural powers common to the known vampire world. In addition he maintains the skills learned from his studies in the dark arts and alchemy and he has a powerful strength that Van Helsing described as equivalent of 20 men. Using his dark powers he is able to control the weather, creating a perfect cloak to hide within, and he has the power to shape shift into various creatures of his choosing. He also maintains a control over animals entailing their subservient loyalty.

The only way to destroy the Count would be to decapitate him and then stake him through the heart, although it is mentioned that a sacred bullet has the ability to destroy him. Sunlight will not kill him but only render his powers to a weakened state. Dracula can rejuvenate himself from almost any harm (bar decapitation followed by impalement of the heart) by taking quantities of fresh blood and also by doing so stops himself from aging at a rapid rate. It should be noted that he is no fan of garlic or crucifixes either but they effect him in no other way than to repulse him. He will also be unable to enter anyone’s abode until invited to do so at which point he can and will return at leisure with no further invite needed.


So that was the Who is Count Dracula and the conclusion of the first part of this series. Keep visiting to see the next instalment outlining Bram Stokers Dracula. Keep it here at Vampire Legends.........