There are more things in heaven
and earth than are dreamt of
in your philosophy.
Dracula, published in 1897,
is one of the all time great money-making novels.
It has been sold in millions of copies throughout the world.
This greatest of all horror classics
has also been a hit play in several countries
and has inspired more commercially successful films
than any other novel.
Dracula was written by the Irish author bram stoker,
best known in his own time as the business manager
of Henry Irving, one of the most famous,
theatrical personalities of the victorian age.
Stoker is supposed to have modeled Dracula's
physical appearance on Irving.
The novel tells the story of count Dracula,
who plans to gain control of the world
by turning everyone into vampires.
He leaves his ancestral home in transylvania
and goes to england,
taking with him several boxes of earth
as his daylight hours must be spent
resting on his native soil.
Transylvania, which means the land beyond the forest
is often thought to be a mythical place,
in fact, it is an ancient province of Romania
which consists of a high plateau ringed
by the rugged carpathian mountains.
Even today, it is one of the wildest
and least known parts of Europe.
The population is of rich, national origins.
Romanian, Hungarian,
slovak, German, and szekelys.
In book, count Dracula speaks of his decent
from these székelys,
who's ancestors were probably huns.
Stoker never visited transylvania
but gained most of his knowledge at the British museum
from old maps and guidebooks.
He made free use of transylvanian history,
folklore and geography to create
an atmosphere of terror.
He wrote that, "every known superstition in the world
was gathered into the horseshoe of the carpathians,
as if it was some sort of imaginary whirlpool.”
On leaving the carpathians,
count Dracula journeys to england
and proceeds immediately to carfax,
an old castle where he intends to hide
while ravaging the countryside.
Dracula must remain in his grave during the daytime
but at night, his lust for blood
becomes unquenchable, his brain power limitless,
and his physical strength irresistible.
He quickly adds to his countless list of victims.
Eventually, Dracula is found out
and forced to flee england.
He makes for his remote castle in transylvania,
certain that no one will be able to trace him there.
Stoker located Dracula's castle near bistrita
in northern transylvania.
Although he had never visited the area,
his descriptions were remarkably accurate.
He writes, "the road was cut through pine woods
that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us,
as the evening fell, great masses of greyness
produced a weird and solemn effect.
Beyond Rose the forest up to the lofty steeps
of the carpathian's themselves.
Blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks,
green and brown where grass and rock mingle.
An endless perspective of mountains
losing themselves in the distance.
Then the mountains seem to come nearer to us on each side,
we were entering the borgo pass itself.
A sinister silence seemed to settle,
but for a strange music a far.”
According to the novel, Dracula's castle
is not mentioned in any guidebook
nor did it appear on any map.
Stoker wrote, "we looked back and saw
where the clear line of Dracula's castle cut the sky,
there was something wild and uncanny about the place.
We could hear the distance howling of wolves."
At the end of the story,
count Dracula is about to reach the safety of his castle
when he is caught by the hero Jonathan harker
and the vampire expert, Dr. Van Helsing.
Just as the sun is about to set,
Dracula's head is cut off
with a kukri knife,
and a bowing knife is plunged into his heart.
Count Dracula instantly turns to dust
and vanishes forever.
In reality, peasant life in the more remote villages
of transylvania has not changed much for centuries,
and belief in vampires and other superstitions
is still strong, though such things are now rarely spoken.
Living today, in the valley of arges
below castle Dracula, is the gypsy tinker.
Should it calls that when her father
was laid out for burial in 1932,
it was discovered that rigor mortis had not set in,
the skin was still pliable
and the cheeks bore a ruddy completion.
The villagers believed, that of course he must be a vampire.
So they plunged a wooden stake through his heart
and as an added safeguard, burned his body.
Vampire belief has existed since the dawn of civilization
throughout the world, but has been most common
in eastern Europe.
Vampires are creatures of the night
who can either be men or women.
In eastern Europe they're supposed to have two souls
and are neither alive nor dead
but undead, as one's soul never dies.
Vampires cannot rest in the grave
but will spend the night searching for victims,
people, or animals whose blood they drink.
The victims either die immediately
or gradually waste away,
and some become vampires after death.
At cockcrow or when the morning bell tolls,
vampires must return to their coffins
or risk dissolving in the sunlight.
They spend their daylight hours in the grave,
their bodies undecomposed and around their mouths
and under their fingernails are traces of blood.
The universal fear of death
and the impossible desire for eternal life
are deeply rooted in vampire belief.
As is the oriental concept of reincarnation
or eternal return.
In transylvania, vampirism was originally
a folk superstition rather than a religious idea,
it probably came from Asia by caravan route
and with a nomadic magyars around the birth of Christ,
centering in the carpathian mountains
and mixing with the rich folklore of that region.
Who can become a vampire?
Criminals, witches, those born with teeth,
those under a curse,
and young children who die unchristened.
The seventh son of a seventh son is doomed.
And one must be very cautious of a man
who does not eat garlic.
Vampires can assume a variety of animal forms,
such as large dogs, snakes, or bats
and in Romania, particularly, wolves and black cats.
They are tremendously strong,
they cast no shadow, have no reflection in mirrors,
and can make themselves invisible
by dissolving into a mist.
It is also believed that every year
on Saint Andrew's Eve,
vampires meet at places like graveyards,
to decide on their programs for the coming year.
Who is to be killed and by who.
In transylvania folklore, vampires are almost always
peasants rather than nobleman,
as literary tradition would have it.
However, countess Elizabeth barthory
born in 15670 was a famous exception.
Her family coat of arms
consisted of three wolves teeth,
and Elizabeth herself was said to have been
a living vampiress or werewolf.
In her castle in northern Hungary,
she butchered nearly 600 young girls,
bathing and showering in their blood,
which she hoped would keep her eternally young
and beautiful.
Still standing in Vienna is her house on blutgasse,
blood street, where she perpetrated
many of her horrible deeds.
Eventually, Elizabeth's monstrous crimes
were discovered and she was
walled into a cell in her castle.
Here, she died 12 years later.
Never again having seen the light of day.
This traditional Romanian dance
here performed by the national folklore ballet,
was once used to exercise evil spirits.
The solo dancer was beaten with sticks
and bitten by his fellow dancers
in an attempt to frighten away the devil.
In Romania, witchcraft, diabolism, and vampirism
are all closely associated.
For instance, the snake or dragon
is an ancient symbol for the devil.
Dracul in Romanian, which frequently appears
in Romanian paintings and literature.
The legend of Saint George and the dragon
is very reminiscent of both vlad's impalings
and the killings of vampires with stakes.
Vampires are also said to be most active
between the Eve's of Saint Andrew and Saint George,
a superstition which is closely tied
fo the Greek orthodox religion.
The Greek orthodox church has often unjustly
been credited with originating the vampire concept,
however, the Greek church has always leaned towards
mysticism and attached great importance to complicated
rituals in the worship of saints and icons,
thus creating a hotbed for all sorts of superstitions.
Vampire belief may sometimes have been used by the church
to increase its hold on the people.
In much the same way as the Jews believe in witchcraft.
For centuries, the Greek orthodox church
taught that the bodies of those excommunicated
would not decompose in the grave.
As vampires, according to popular belief,
were recognizable because their bodies
did not decompose in the grave,
excommunication meant becoming a vampire on death.
The church claimed that if a priest administered exorcism,
this was sufficient to seal the vampire in its grave.
However, history shows that most people
did not trust the power of the church over vampires.
The drinking of blood and sacrificial blood offerings
have played an important role in most great religions.
For thousands of years, man has endowed blood
with magical powers such as, that drinking the blood
of someone of great strength
increases ones own strength.
During mass, priest drinks wine,
which has become the blood of Christ
through transubstantiation
and the congregation eats the bread or flesh of Christ
fo has thus sacrificed to god anew
the gospel according to Saint John holds a passage
which could well apply to the vampire mixing its blood
with that of its victim.
"Except ye eat flesh to the son of man
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
So eat my flesh and drinkith my blood
hath eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.”
The vampire bat has many things in common
with its human counterpart.
An erect head, web-like hands for wings,
and the ability to walk upright.
A bite from its extremely sharp teeth
has an anesthetic quality and its saliva
contains an anticoagulant
which quickens the flow of blood from the wounds
it inflicts on its victims.
The attack of the vampire bat
is very like that of the folklore vampire.
It first stalks and hypnotizes its prey,
after which, it bites into a vein
and begins to lap up blood
with its long tongue.
At sundown, creatures of the night
are thought to stir and vampires rise from the grave.
People must be careful in passing low ruins,
crossroads, and churchyards.
The erotic element in vampirism is very strong,
for instance, a vampire is said to be the only night creature
capable of sex, although his children are born
without bones.
He usually chooses one particular woman,
in a specific locality to be his bride
and relentlessly pursues her
in a kind of macabre courtship.
He may attack others,
but if he is denied his chosen loved one,
he may go berserk and wreak havoc.
In former times, the report of a vampire attack
created panic, everyone took immediate precautions
to protect themselves, especially during the hours
between sundown and sunrise.
Bells were rung to sound the alarm
and were thought to frighten vampires away.
People shut themselves tightly indoors.
Many left the countryside to seek shelter in towns,
and Shepherds drove their flocks to safety,
as vampires might attack sheep as well as humans.
At night, torches were lit outside
and many candles were kept burning inside.
People sat up until cockcrow and told stories
for when stories are told,
vampires cannot approach.
In some areas, vampires were thought to be unable
to cross running water and throughout transylvania
garlic was an extremely potent weapon.
Windows and doors were anointed with this garlic
and all cows and other farm animals were supposed to
be rubbed with it to protect them as well.
The thorns of wild roses were sure to keep vampires away,
thus thorns or Poppy seeds were spread on the paths
leading from the local churchyard to the village.
When the vampire took the path,
he had to stop to pick up every one of the thorns or seeds.
This so delayed him as he could not reach the village
before sunrise, at which time he had to return to the grave.
Large black dogs with an extra set of eyes
painted on them in white, also discouraged vampires.
The church added the cross and the communion wafer
as major weapons against vampires.
As soon as a vampire began to ravage an area,
an all out effort was made to find it in its grave
and destroy it.
One common method of locating the vampire
was to chose a boy or girl, young enough to be a virgin
and seat them naked on a horse of a solid color,
which was also a virgin and it never stumbled.
The horse was lead through the cemetery
and over all the graves recognizable
from one or several holes big enough,
the vampires tomb was also supposed to be
for a servant to pass though.
The most usual way of killing a vampire
was to drive a stake though the heart or navel
during daylight hours, when the vampire lay in its grave.
The stake had to be made from a wild rosebush,
an ash, or Aspen tree.
In some areas, iron bars, preferably heated red-hot,
were used instead of wood.
The stake had to be driven though the body
and into the ground under the corpse
fo keep the vampire from rising again.
As the stake pierced it, the body twisted in agony
and fresh blood flowed, a horrible scream
also accompanied the act,
after which a look of peace settled on the vampire's face,
final release of torment and real death.
Ah!
Many other means of killing vampires were practiced.
The vampire's head was sometimes cut off
and put between the legs of the corpse,
or the body could be buried at crossroads,
or burnt and the ashes strewn in a river.
According to Romanian legend,
if a vampire is not found and rendered harmless,
it first kills all members of its immediate family
and then the other inhabitants of the village.
At last, the vampire climbs up
into the belfry of the church
and calls out the names of any survivors
who instantly die.
Or in some areas, the vampire rings the death knell
and all who hear it die on the spot.
Inevitably, the folkloric vampire of eastern Europe
began to disappear in modern times,
but in 1964, Dr. Robert mccully
of the medical university of south Carolina
published the only authentic psychological case study
of a person showing vampire traits.
The subject was bill, a young,
unmarried, white male American.
He displayed the essential vampire characteristics.
He was clearly aware of bearing eternal curse,
the ever constant desire for life and renewal,
coupled with a horrible wish to destroy human beings
in order to maintain his own existence.
Bill performed acts of vampirism on himself,
that is, he drank his own blood.
The vampire's always been a creature of nightmares,
the nocturnal spirit who embraces the sleeper
to suck his blood.
Bill frequented reported dreams of bloodletting
and felt anxiety upon awakening.
Sometimes these dreams were filled with a sense of peace
and being loved by someone,
but sometimes bill felt that he had subdued someone
who had attacked him.
He often dreamed of sucking blood
from the necks of young boys.
Bill spent most of his time wandering about alone
and constantly suffered from an unexplained cycle.
Four days of elation,
followed by twelve days of depression,
his deepest depression coincided
with the appearance of the full moon.
Bills case defies conventional psychology.
He had no knowledge of the vampire myth.
However, his earliest childhood memories
were strangely significant.
At the age of seven, he saw a dog hit by a car,
lying in a dark pool of blood in the street.
He also recalls that after a walk in the park
together with his nurse,
she placed his warm hands on her cold neck.
Extensive psychological testing showed bill to be intelligent,
but emotionally very immature.
However, nothing directly pathological was established,
except possibly, a fascination with blood
and the mystical.
Bill's interpretation of the rorschach cards
was very revealing.
The lower part of the anatomy
of some large animal,
part of a living thing,
or once part of a living thing.
The red could be blood that came from it,
ripped out of a dissected corpse.
On second look, the red seems like a fluid,
draining symmetrically.
Dr. mccully reasons that bill may not have been mentally ill
in the usual sense and offers a startling theory,
that the ancient vampire image may be one
of the primitive archetypes
suggested by Dr. Carl jung.
Concepts which supposedly govern our thoughts
hidden deep within everybody's unconscious mind.
Mccully speculates that the vampire archetype
may have mysteriously risen from the unconscious
and taken possession of bill,
of that in the same way,
all of us might have the potential
fo become vampires.
How happy this would have made count Dracula.
In criminology, the living-vampire is not uncommon.
The term refers to the sadistic sex murderer,
mostly male, bites or cuts the throats
of his victims and drinks their blood.
One famous example is Peter kiirten
the vampire of Dusseldorf
who directly inspired Fritz lang's famous film m.
Kiirten was executed in 1931
for 29 murders.
In the daytime, he was a hardworking lorry driver
and considerate husband,
but at night, he became a vampire.
He wrote to the mother of one of his victims,
five-year-old girl,
"what do you want me to do, madame?
I need blood as others need alcohol.”
John haigh, the vampire of London,
writes in his confession
that his thirst for blood was awakened
when he cut his finger as a small boy
and licked the wound.
The feeling of lust, he then experienced,
changed his whole nature.
He said, "I then realized that I belong
to the species of vampires.”
He killed nine people,
slitting their throats and drinking their blood
directly from the wounds.
Modern criminologists may well term
the 18th century prince, vlad tepes Dracula
a living vampire.
This dreaded Romanian prince,
described in contemporary pamphlets as,
"a monster of tyrannical cruelty,”
inspired bram stoker to create his character, count Dracula.
The prince was best known as, "te 0 e s, ”
which means, "impaler,"
because of his fondness for that form
of torture and execution.
However, he was also known as, "Dracula,"
which, in Romanian, can mean
either, "son of the devil,"
or, "son of the dragon.”
Stoker simply drew upon
the rich Romanian vampire tradition
in resurrecting vlad as count Dracula.
The count, as described in the novel,
closely resembles various 15th century portraits of vlad.
Stoker writes, "his face was a strong aquiline
with a thin, high-bridged nose
and peculiarly arched nostrils.
His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose,
and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion.
The mouth, so far as I could see it under
the heavy moustache was fixed and rather cruel-looking."
This painting of a martyrdom of St. Andrew
from Dracula's own time
includes him as an observer.
As St. Andrew was the patron Saint of the saxons,
vlad may have been shown
because of his reputed cruelty towards saxons.
But, in Romania, St. Andrew is also said to be
a protector of vampires.
The only existing life-sized portrait of vlad
is located at ambras castle near innsbruck, Austria.
Archduke ferdinand ii who owned the castle
during the 16th century
had a perverse hobby of documenting the villains
and deformed personalities of history.
If such persons could be found alive,
the archduke tried to settle them in the castle.
A few giants, a notorious dwarf,
and the wolf man from the canary islands
stayed on at ambras castle for some years
in order to have their portraits painted.
The wolf man had a hormal wife
but his two children inherited his hairy skin
and devilish countenance.
Ferdinand's gallery of rogues and monsters
contains many grisly studies.
Dracula's reputation as a mass murderer
ensured his place in the archduke's collection.
Vlad Dracula's birthplace in transylvania
is the old German fortified town of sighisoara,
south of bistrita.
The house in which viad was born
bears a plaque identifying his father,
vlad dracul, the devil, prince of wallachia.
Some historians consider vlad Dracula a hero,
who fought for christianity and the independence
of his country against the turks.
Others claim he was a madman who killed
and tortured wantonly for sadistic pleasure.
Dracula may not have been more cruel
than many other rulers of the 15th century,
such as Mohammed il of Turkey,
Ivan the terrible, or cesare borgia.
But, his executions were much greater in number.
In creating count Dracula,
stoker may have been struck by the similarity
between viad's impalings and the killing of vampires
by driving stakes through their bodies.
Impalement was a fairly rare form of execution
and vlad was one of the few rulers to use it.
Horses were usually employed to pull a victim onto a stake
so that it pierced the length of the body.
The pale was then put in an upright position
and the victim left to die,
which sometimes took agonizing hours,
or even days.
Dracula's best known mass impalement
took place in 1459,
on tampa hill, above brasov.
Here Dracula and his boyars
feasted for a whole month,
while thousands of saxons were methodically impaled
on neat rows of stakes around them.
This contemporary German woodcut
depicts the scene.
It is said that Dracula's chief pleasure
was to dine with his court
surrounded by dead and dying people impaled on stakes.
Once, a certain nobleman was supposed to have complained
that he could not enjoy his meal
because of the stench of rotting corpses
surrounding the table.
Dracula thereupon had the nobleman impaled
on a much higher stake than the others,
so that he would be above the stench.
Countless such tales about Dracula's bloody deeds
and macabre sense of humor
persist to this day in transylvania.
Most of them portray him as merciless,
yet possessed of a strange sense of justice
and tragic destiny, much like count Dracula.
According to legend, a Hungarian merchant
once came to viad's city.
While he slept, someone stole 160 gold ducats from him.
The merchant went to Dracula and told him of his loss.
Dracula said, "go your way
and in the morning you will find your gold."
He then commanded that a search be made for the gold
throughout the city and said that if the thief was not found
he would burn the entire town.
When the merchant arose next morning,
he found his money returned.
He counted it once, and then twice.
There was one ducat too many.
The merchant went again to Dracula and said,
"my lord, I have found the gold,
but there is one ducat more which is not mine."
Dracula then revealed that he had ordered the extra ducat
placed there and said that
if the merchant had not told him about it,
he would have impaled him with the thief.
The merchant was very grateful to Dracula
and took his cart and left the city.
Though Dracula showed a certain kindness to the merchant,
he is said to have solved the problem of poverty
in his kingdom by inviting all poor people and beggars
to a great banquet, and then,
setting fire to the hall.
Everyone inside was burned alive.
In a particular place,
there was a spring of cola, fresh water
and many came to drink.
Dracula placed a large, fine, golden cup by the spring.
All who drank from the cup returned it to its place,
and while vlad Dracula lived, no one dared steal it.
Dracula had a peasant mistress
who lived in a poor, outlying part of targoviste.
He visited her often,
but his interest was purely physical.
The woman, on the other hand, fell in love with Dracula
and grew afraid of losing him.
One night she told him that she was going to have his child.
Dracula became angry and said that this would not be.
He then cut her open from her loins to her breast and said,
"let the world see where I have been and where my fruit lay."
Bram stoker did not know that a real
castle Dracula existed.
But his description of the count's castle
at the borgo pass is uncannily apt.
The real castle Dracula is perched on top of a rock
1,000 feet above the arges river in wallachia.
It is nearly inaccessible from the valley.
The original fortress was very old,
but vlad rebuilt it when he came to power.
And, ever since, it has been known as the castle
of vlad tepes, viad the impaler.
Reconstruction of the castle was a nearly super human feat,
accomplished in typical Dracula fashion.
One of vlad's brothers, mircea,
had been killed by the boyars of tirgoviste.
It is said that Dracula retaliated
by seizing the boyars during the easter celebrations
when they were all dressed in their finest clothes.
He impaled the old people and put the younger people,
men, women, and children, to work rebuilding the castle.
They are supposed to have labored
until their clothes became rags and dropped off their backs.
Many died from over-work and fell from the cliffs.
But the caste was finished within a few months.
Dracula's reign was dominated by his confrontation
with Mohammed the conqueror of Turkey.
By 1461, vlad had achieved sufficient power
to plan an all out campaign to rid Romania of the turks.
The sultan became aware of his ambitions
and sent envoys to negotiate a truce with him.
However, they had secret instructions
fo lure vlad into a trap
where he would be seized by turkish troops.
The story goes that when the emissaries refused
fo remove their turbans in vlad's presence,
as it was against their custom,
he ordered the turbans nailed to their heads
and sent them away saying that the turks
must learn to respect the customs of a great leader.
History records only that vlad sensed treachery
and captured the entire turkish force.
He impaled them oh a forest of stakes
outside the walls of his capital, tirgoviste,
placing the envoys on two stakes higher than the rest,
in deference to their rank.
He then launched his famous campaign
along the danube river
with a force of between 10 and 20,000 men,
consisting mostly of rapid moving cavalry
and peasant conscripts,
vlad pushed all the way to the black sea.
At first, vlad met with great success.
After his capture of the fortress of giurgiu,
he wrote to king Matthias of Hungary
that 23,809 men
had been slain and impaled.
Vlad was certain with the figure,
because their heads had been carefully counted,
apart from 884 who were burned in their houses,
and whose heads, of course, could not be connected.
During the famous night of terror,
he boldly attacked the sultan's camp.
However, his bodyguard read it
and vlad was forced to retreat.
The road to tirgoviste now lay open.
But the turks were greeted by the grisly remains
of the sultan's envoys and troops
impaled by vlad the previous year
and now blackened by the sun and half eaten by birds.
The sultan was moved to tears and said,
"what can we do with a man like this?"
He ordered the retreat of his army
but a small force in command of vlad's own brother, radu,
was directed to pursue Dracula to his remote castle
high in the mountains above the arges river.
Radu laid siege to the fortress, during which,
Dracula's wife despaired and took her own life
by casting herself from a parapet
to the arges river far below.
Viad himself was forced to flee
through a secret tunnel on a horse shod backwards
to confuse pursuers.
After escaping the turks by crossing
the nearly impossible transylvanian alps,
Dracula sought the protection of king Matthias
at fagaras castle.
Instead of granting vlad sanctuary,
the king had him arrested.
Little is known about Dracula's life of exile,
but he, apparently, could not control his lust for blood.
A Russian story relates that he used to catch mice
and buy birds in the market
and then torture and impale them
on rows of small stakes.
In stoker's novel, count Dracula's mad helper,
renfield, also took a sadistic pleasure
in torturing small animals.
Viad was a handsome man
and his fabled power over women
soon led to a romance with one of king Matthias's sisters.
They were eventually married
and Dracula regained his freedom.
Viad did succeed in recapturing tirgoviste
and the citadel of Bucharest from his brother, rad...
But only two months after regaining the wallachian throne
he was killed outside of Bucharest.
He had disguised himself as a turkish soldier
in order to obtain precise information about the enemy.
His head was sent to Istanbul
as a trophy for the sultan.
Viad's headless body is said to have been found by monks
from snagov monastery in the marshes near Bucharest,
who secretly interred him in a crypt
facing the chapel alter.
In 1931, the tomb was opened,
but the casket and body were missing.
Later on, another grave was discovered
near the front door to the chapel.
It is possible that vlad's body was moved
because the monks did not want to have someone
of his sinister reputation buried close to the alter.
A Romanian peasant belief holds
that vlad Dracula will someday rise again
to save the country in a time of great trouble.
A well known Romanian poem goes,
"Dracula, where are you now that we need you?"
Eastern Europe, and particularly transylvania,
has long been known to folklore experts
and devotees of Dracula alike
as the center of vampire belief.
But the vampire in literature owes its fame almost entirely
to the works of english and Irish authors.
The most successful of these vampire tales
were written during the 19th century.
This was the age of gothic horror,
and countless stories of the terrible and the unknown
flooded the bookshops of england.
Strangely enough, the two most famous
literary and movie monsters were born at the same time,
the undead vampire count
and Dr. Frankenstein's living monster,
fashioned from dead bodies.
It happened in 1815 at the magnificent villa,
diodati, on the shores of lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Lord Byron, the leading literary figure of the century,
was spending the summer there
together with his 20-year-old physician, John polidori.
Percy bysshe shelley and his 18-year-old wife-to-be, Mary,
had rented a modest house nearby.
According to Mary's diary,
rainy evenings were spent round the fire
at the villa diodati reading ghost stories
and discussing the supernatural.
One night, Byron suggested that they all write
their own ghost stories.
He himself never finished his.
But, polidori, who also had literary ambitions,
turned Byron's story info
the first english vampire novel:
The vampyre, published in 1816.
His hero, lord ruthven, was the first in a long line
of vampire counts culminating in stoker's, count Dracula.
Polidori probably intended lord ruthven
as a parody to Byron who, he felt, had mistreated him.
Byron did had some classic vampire characteristics.
He once, for instance, lived in a half ruined Abbey.
And, in later years, wore only black,
ate almost nothing to keep slim,
and drank vinegar to make his face pale.
He also had an extraordinary power over women and young men.
Mary shelley's Frankenstein,
perhaps the first work of science fiction,
also took form one evening at the villa diodati,
during which, everybody discussed Darwin's theories
and human efforts to create life.
Afterwards, Mary went to bed in an uneasy mood
and experienced a terrible nightmare.
She awoke in fright and could not go back to sleep.
The next morning she began writing her story.
"Twas on a dreary night of November that I beheld
the accomplishment of my task.
It was already one in the morning.
The rain pattered dismally against the panes
and my candle was nearly burnt out.
Then, by the glimmer of the half extinguished light,
I saw the dull, yellow eye of the creature open.
It breathes hard and convulsive motion
agitates its limbs."
Mary shelley's diary provides some clues
as to how she conceived of Frankenstein.
During 1814, she took a trip up the rhine river.
On Sunday, September the 4th, she writes,
"we leave mainz at six o'clock and proceed in a little boat.
The banks of the rhine are very fine,
rocks and mountains crowned with lonely castles."
One such castle Mary probably visited
was the burg Frankenstein,
built atop the densely forested magnetburg mountain.
Within this castle, in 1673,
was born the famous alchemist,
who searched for the elixir of life
through diabolical experiments.
Mary no doubt heard this strange story,
as well as others, about the mysterious barons
Frankenstein.
The castle chapel has an eerie atmosphere
which would have made a strong impression
on the young Mary shelley.
Stone reliefs Mark the graves
of several long dead frankensteins
who met with violent ends.
A curse was supposed fo have destroyed three members
of the family in rapid succession.
There is also the legend of baron Georg Von Frankenstein,
who killed a dragon that was chasing his lady love,
annemarie, only to be killed himself.
Mary's diary also tells of a visit to mont blanc
and the sea of ice, so lyrically described
in her book by the creature himself.
"Monday, July the 22nd, chamounix.
As we continued, the mountains increased in height and beauty.
The summit of the highest
was hidden in clouds.
But they sometimes peeked out into the blue sky higher,
one would think, than the safety of god would permit.
Tuesday, July the 23rd, chamounix.
We continued our route on foot and came to the source
which lies like a stage, surrounded on three sides
by mountains and glaciers.
We sat on a rock which formed the fourth side,
gazing on the scene before us.
An immense glacier was on our left.
In the cathedral at sibiu, transylvania,
is buried baron franc Von Frankenstein.
Oddly enough, Dracula's only legitimate son,
mihnea the bad, was murdered in the church
and is said to be buried there as well.
By the middle of the 19th century,
interest in vampires and vampirism
had spread throughout Europe.
In england, weekly serial novels had become the rage.
One of the most popular was varney the vampire
or the feast of blood.
It was of doubtful literary value,
but the piece ended spectacularly
with the vampire baron throwing himself
into the hissing mouth of mt. Vesuvius.
But it was a woman vampire, rather than a man,
who set the stage for Dracula.
Sheridan le fanu, Irish master of the supernatural,
published carmilla in 1872.
The story made a deep impression on bram stoker,
who was then a civil servant in Dublin
and an unpaid theater critic.
10 years later, the flamboyant, red-bearded irishman
became associated with Henry Irving.
Just as polidori had modelled lord ruthvern on Byron,
stoker no doubt gave Dracula
some of Irving's impressive qualities.
Bram stoker claimed that a nightmare about a vampire
after a late supper of dressed crab inspired Dracula.
However, he had always had an intense interest
in the supernatural.
He wrote 17 books in all,
but only Dracula is really remembered today.
He did not live to see the enormous success
of his novel, but died in near poverty,
according to the death certificate,
"from exhaustion.”
Stoker's description of count Dracula
still evokes a sense of mysterious destiny.
He wrote, "count must indeed have been that
voya vod Dracula
who won his fame against the turk.
If it be so, then he was 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, transylvania.
The Draculas were a great and noble race,
though, now and again, were said to have dealings
with the evil one.
In one manuscript, this very Dracula is spoken of as,
'one peel which we all
understand too well.'"
the vampire has achieved its greatest popularity
as a movie theme.
In the early days of movies,
theda bara, immortalized the term, "vamp,"
which later became a symbol for the roaring 20s.
The vamp was a kind of vampire,
a girl who first charmed her victims
before draining them of their love or money,
rather than their blood.
However, in this scene from the hawk's trail,
made in 1919, our vamp is hired by villains
actually to do in Ace detective Sheldon Steele.
In 1921, Max schreck,
became the first film Dracula in nosferatu.
This classic silent film was directed
by the German expressionist, friedrich murnau.
It drew openly on stoker's book,
and, although murnau gave stoker the credit,
he did not seek permission.
The court ordered the negative and all prints destroyed.
But, somehow, the film survived
and was shown on a limited basis in London and America.
Legal or not, nosferatu captured a mood
which has seldom been equaled.
Like bram stoker, the famous Danish director, Carl dreyer,
was fascinated by le fanu's story, carmilla.
In 1932, he made his classic film, vampyr,
based on the story.
Briefly, a young woman is victimized by a vampire.
After many adventures, the vampire's helper,
Dr. hieronimko, is buried alive,
and the hero drives a stake
through the heart of the vampire,
an old countess.
As always, dreyer obtained fine performance
from his amateur actors.
The first mass audience Dracula film was made in 1931
and starred the Hungarian actor, bela lugosi,
who had also played the role of Dracula
innumerable times on the stage.
The film was an immediate and lasting success.
Lugosi said that 90% of his fan mail
was from women who found Dracula strangely attractive.
He himself was born in the Hungarian town of lugos
and immigrated to the United States.
In the mid-1920s, lugosi starred with Lila Lee
in the midnight girl, a silent melodrama.
His menacing role in this film is very suggestive of Dracula,
the role that was to make him famous several years later.
Although lugosi remained, for most people,
the one and only Dracula,
a number of other Dracula films were produced in the 40s.
In 1958, the Dracula tradition
was revived in horror of Dracula.
The film returned more than eight times
its production costs,
and the producers, hammer films of London,
went on to make 6 more Dracula films
over the next 16 years.
75 years have passed since bram stoker
created his sinister transylvanian count.
However, he still fascinates vast numbers of people,
and will no doubt continue to do so,
for there is yet to be another fictional character
- quite like count Dracula. - John?
John?
Just a word, ladies and gentlemen,
a word of reassurance.
When you go to bed tonight,
and the lights have all been turned out,
and you're afraid to look behind the curtain,
and you dread to see the face appearing at the window,
just remember...
There are such things.