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Bram Stoker: The Legend Of Count Dracula

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How Dracula got His Fangs For centuries, people have told hair-chilling stories of monsters who cannot die, but live on the blood of others. From the Philippines to the highlands of Ireland, these vampire-like demon stories come from every part of the earth. One of the most memorable vampires came from Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula. But, the wicked Count Dracula of children’s nightmares came from a real life warlord. More than just a legend, this purely fictional character was based off of an ancient ruler of Transylvania: Vlad III. Transylvania, literally translated to “through the woods or beyond the woods”, contains many legends of Count Dracula from the imagination of Bram Stoker (What Is Transylvania?). Although the fictional …show more content…

In an attempt to protect his country, Dracula fought bravely with his limited resources. He used biological warfare, starvation, and fear to ward off the invading forces. Sick Wallachians would infiltrate Turkish camps, towns would be burned, and bodies were strewn everywhere. Vlad’s greatest use of fear was “the Forrest of the Impaled” which turned around the famous Sultan Mehmed II. This forest consisted of twenty thousand impaled Turkish soldiers and it earned Vlad III the nickname Tepes which means Impaler. However, Vlad Tepes’ forces eventually fell to the overwhelming Ottoman …show more content…

But this horrifying haunt kept readers looking over their shoulders with his despicably wicked ways. Unlike any other vampire of that time, Count Dracula rose to a level of infamy which has lasted for over one hundred years. Like the Wallachian Prince Vlad Dracula, Count Dracula possessed the same “heavy mustache” and terrifying aura (Dracula pg. 16). Even the historical Dracula had a taste for human blood for “as he dined beneath impaled bodies, he dipped his bread in the blood flowing down the hideous spikes, while his servants collected blood in a cup from which the prince drank with great enjoyment” (Searching for the Real Dracula pg.

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