Dracula- The Legend

Last weekend, we visited one of my favorite boutiques that every year for Halloween, puts together a themed boutique where you can shop Halloween decor. Last year the theme was all things pirate, this year their theme was “Cabinet of Curiosities” and it did not disappoint! Interestingly enough, I’m also reading a book (not on purpose) that is about witches, and gypsies, and it happened to mention Dracula and the town of Translyvania. Honestly, I thought the whole thing was fake and made up for the movies, but the mention of it peaked my curiosity- so I did some research and here we are!

Here are a few fun facts about how “Dracula” came to be.

+ The legendary vampire was created by author Bram Stoker in 1897, for his novel titled Dracula.

+ Stoker named his infamous character after a real person who happened to have a taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or — as he is better known — Vlad the Impaler.

+ The nickname, Vlad the Impaler was given to him after he allegedly invited people over to his residence for a banquet and to prove his power, had them stabbed to death and hung their body from spikes.

+ By most accounts, Vlad III was born in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of modern-day Romania.

+ Bran Castle, which is a modern-day tourist attraction in Transylvania that is referred to as “Dracula’s castle”, was never actually the residence of Vlad III and only given that title for tourism purposes.

+ In 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary, inducted Prince Vlad into a knightly order – the Order of the Dragon. This is what gave him a new surname: Dracul for dragon, later inspiring Bram Stoker to coin the term Dracula.

I’m a sucker for history and had some fun reading about the real life Dracula! Hope you’re all out there getting in the Halloween spirit!

One comment

Bex says:

October 20, 2021 at 10:10 am

One of my favorite teachers in high school was from Romania and she loved to reference Dracula in her teachings even though she was a math teacher. 🙂

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