Master Vampire Legends Creator

Bram Stoker's Dracula - the story

Unless you've been hiding out in a cold war bunker or just arrived from another planet chances are you have heard of Count Dracula and know that he is a vampire from a fictional tale written by Bram Stoker. Chances are you know another character within this vampire legend. Abraham van Helsing first apeared in this story also but not as most of you know him to be. Van helsing is another story for another time but he is the main 'good' guy fighting the evil of the "Dark Lord".

First published in 1897, the tale of Dracula has gone on to spur many other great, and many bad, novels and films and entertained many throughout the century and decades since it release. It is told in diary format from different characters, notably Jonathan Harker, his fiancee, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray and the Doctor Abraham Van Helsing.

Harker is a solicitor sent on to Transylvania to have Count Dracula sign some leagl documents for property he is buying up around London. This becomes quite an encounter as he is chased to the castle by wolves and greeted by a very strange man (who happens to be the great count himself). You get a history of the Dracula's life and how he lost his great love whilst fighting the Turks. Just by chance Jonathan Harkers fiancee Mina Murray is the spitting image of Draculas one true love and he sees a picture in the solicitors hands.

The Count heads off for England but not before leaving Harker enslaved by his "three brides" who drain just enough blood to keep the young man weak and unable to escape. But escape he does and manages to get himself to a nunery where he seeks refuge and rest. Here he writes to his dear Mina to come and join him. Anyhow the arrival of Dracula in England is met with a storm that crashes the ship he arrives on leaving only one body on board. The captians log entries tell of very strange occurances on board the ship where crew dissapear and a large dog leaps of the sip before it crashes.

Dracula, now in England, starts ot seduce Mina, who does not take kindly to hima t first but eventually succumbs. We also meet Mina's friend, Lucy Westenra, who the Count makes his tasty morsal and "bride of the night". At this point everyone starts worrying for the young Lucy and Professor Abraham Van Helsing is called in to assist. Van Helsing realises quickly that it is a vampire that has caused this effect on Lucy but keeps it to himself for now. Lucy dies soon afer a wolf attack that also caused her mother to die of shock. Van Helsing leads a group to her grave to decapitate her head and stake her body.

It is around this time that Jonathan Harker arrives back home from his recouperation in Budapest, where he and Mina married. The group coalate together to kill the evil Count Dracula. The Count learns of this and in turn bites Mina at least 3 times and feeds her his blood to ensure he has a conection to her and the ability to control her. As such Mina slips to and from a hypnotic state at Dracula's request and it is through this that the group are able to find Dracula to kill him. However before they are able to do so Dracula escapes back to his Transylvanian castle closely followed by Van Helsing's group. They manage to find the Count just before sundown and they destroy him by shearing through the throat and stabbing him in the heart with a Bowie knife. At this the great Count Dracula crumbles to dust and his spell upon Mina is lifted. Quincey Morris is killed in the final battle, however the survivors return to England.

The book closes with a note about Mina's and Jonathan's married life and the birth of their first-born son, whom they name Quincey in remembrance of their American friend.


And that is the conclusion of this great Vampire Legends, for now........

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.........