Ancient History

One of the biggest things associated with Halloween and all things scary is, of course, vampires. For most of us, we think of a pasty faced guy with a cape and pointy teeth. This is thanks to all the movies that have come out of Hollywood. In truth, vampires were anything but glamourous. What a lot of people don’t realize is that vampire legends go back as far as most known history.

The man who was used as the basis for Bram Stoker’s Dracula was an actual person by the name of Vlad Dracula, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was a Romanian prince born in the early 1400’s. He was the son of Vlad Dracul, or Dragon. Therefore, Dracula actually means “Son of the Dragon”.

Vlad got his bloody reputation from his enemies. One story about Vlad, said that he invited all the sick and poor of his realm to a great banquet, promising to rid them of their problems. His remedy for their problems was to have them all boarded up in the castle and then had it set on fire, killing everyone inside.

Another story said that he would enjoy his meals amidst the rotting corpses of his impaled prisoners. It was said that he would dip his bread in the blood of his enemies, hence the legend of the man who drank the blood of others. Vlad died in 1476 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks who beheaded the prince and displayed it on a spike in Constantinople.