WHITBY ABBEY: BRAM STOKER'S INSPIRATION FOR DRACULA!

 

Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire, England. Whitby Abbey built in 657 AD is the inspiration behind Dracula's Castle written by Bram Stoker.. 

Whitby is the scene for a good section of the novel with the arrival of Count Dracula to England's shores aboard the Russian ship, the Demeter which runs aground on the shores of Tate Hill beach in the town's harbor during a fierce storm.

The most prominent landmark in Whitby is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes. As Stoker writes, "It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits.... Between it and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones".

Dracula's Homepage:

When Stoker visited the local library and borrowed a book entitled An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (1820) by William Wilkinson. 

He took several notes from it (now part of his papers housed at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia.) Though the information was sketchy, one item attracted Stoker's attention...a footnote that "Dracula in the Wallachian language means Devil." 

Stoker decided to change the name of his vampire Count from "Wampyr" to "Dracula".

THIS VIDEO IS REALLY GOOD

KIMMER'S TOP 3 FAVORITE DRACULAS

It's the season we love once more! We love the chill, the colors, the darker days, the spooky shadows, the children anxious to wear their costumes and go door to door for treats, we love it all. HALLOWEEN!

We watch our favorite Halloween movies, we decorate our yards and homes, we buy tons of candy, (eat tons of candy), yes we love this season.  In honor of our favorite time of year we would like to show you our top 3 favorite Dracula's!

1. Of course is BELA LUGOSI visit Bela's Official Website it is so fabulous. His life was complicated by type casting and addiction. The Tim Burton's movie Ed Wood aptly depicts his later life.

2. Of course the Terrifying Christopher Lee! A very accomplished actor, he avoided typecasting unlike poor Bela. See his Official Website

3. Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula... A very dapper Dracula dontcha think? He was so scary.. much more than Bela. See the Movie Trailer Here

DRACULA'S CASTLE BRAN IN TRANSYLVANIA!

Castle Bran or Dracula's Castle

Country: Romania

Built: 1212

 DN73, Bran 507025, 
Romania
Phone:+40 268 237 700

Haunting: In the heart of old Transylvania, deep in the Carpathian wilderness, is a castle named for a ruler from the 15th century – Vlad III Dracul. After Vlad's father was assassinated and his brother was buried alive, he set out to become more ruthless than anyone in fiction could believably create. He makes pint-sized tyrants like Joffrey Baratheon look like equitable play dates.

It all began at an Easter feast when Vlad asked his nobles how many princes they had survived, insinuating that they conspired against past rulers. The story goes that he arrested all of them. He impaled the older ones and their families and made the younger nobles into slaves for a wave of ambitious improvements to the castle.

All told, Vlad impaled tens of thousands of people, earning the nickname Vlad the Impaler, and the tales get so ridiculous that it is difficult to sift the myths from the truth. In fact, Vlad never actually lived in Castle Bran, though the castle has come to be associated with the "Son of the Dragon."

Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, is a Transylvanian Count with a castle located high above a valley perched on a rock with a flowing river below in the Principality of Transylvania.

This character is often confused with Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), sometimes known as Vlad Dracul, who was a Walachian Prince with a castle, now in ruins, located in the Principality of Wallachia. Because Bran Castle is the only castle in all of Transylvania that actually fits Bram Stoker’s description of Dracula’s Castle, it is known throughout the world as Dracula’s Castle. Chapter 2, May 5 of “Dracula” describes the Count’s castle as “. . . on the very edge of a terrific precipice . . . with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm [with] silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.”

The True Story of Dracula

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