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| Bram Stoker |
As Halloween approached, this is the season when many fire up their TVs to enjoy some classic horror movies. One of the most popular is Dracula!
Many believe that Ireland's Bran Stoker got his idea from the Romanian prince known as Vlad the Impaler and Vlad Dracula. He was the son of Vlad Dracul, or Vlad the Dragon. Adding the A to form the name Dracula means son of the dragon.
But this isn't where Stoker's vampire story actually began!
Here in Ireland where Bram Stoker was born and raised, there is an ancient chieftain called Abhartach who ruled a petty kingdom in today's Northern Ireland. The area was dotted with petty kingdoms ruled by tribal warlords dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries.
Legends paint Abhartach as a small, disfigured man who was jealous and suspicious by nature. He was cruel and unyielding, and some legends say he also had magic which made him all the more evil. Of course, he trusted no one, not even his wife and suspected her of having an affair. One night, he decided to catch her in the act and climbed out of a window of their castle to creep along the stonework to her bedroom, however, he ended up falling to his death.
Abhartach was buried with all of the rights of his station in a place called Slaughtaverty. However, that wasn't to be the end of this cruel overlord. He arose and returned to his castle and demanded the loyalty from his subjects...they but give him bowls of blood to sustain his life. Those who refused were slain. By drinking their blood, he became known as a *marbh bheo*, or living dead.
Eventually the people had had enough. Tired of living in more fear than when Abhartach was alive, they hired an assassin, Cathán, to kill him. Once slain, Abhartach was reburied in his grave, but again, he arose and demanded blood loyalties from his subjects.
Confused, Cathán consulted with local Druids (holymen of the time) and a plan was formed. Abhartach would be slain once more, but this time with a sword made from the wood of a sacred yew tree and driven through Abhartach's heart, then he must be buried upside down. Thorny twigs and branches and yew ash was to be scattered above the grave and around it before the topsoil was replaced. Finally, a large, heavy stone was to be placed directly on top of the burial site. The theory was that upside down, Abhartach would dig himself away from the surface and would never to walk the earth again.
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| Abhertach's Burial Place |
Little more than 1300 years later, this Irish legend would spark the idea of a blood thirsty monster in the Irish born writer, Bram Stoker. He also fed off the legends of Vlad the Impaler to create the iconic Dracul we know today.
The ground where Abhartach was buried has long been considered bad ground and all the centuries, nothing has been built around or near it. While King Abhartach's monument no longer exists, the heavy stone placed upon his final burial is still there, in place, protecting the Irish people. And a single Yew tree has grown up from the rushes scattered over the burial site before the stone had been placed.
Some have tried in recent times to remove the tree and stone, however chains broke each time on chain saws and hand saws couldn't get through the bark. When the stone was chained to drag away by machines, those chains also broke, lashing one man and nearly killing him. Witnesses say that his spilled blood was soaked into the soil immediately, as if feeding Abhartach's ancient corpse, and all efforts to remove the tree and stone were abandoned and has never been attempted again.
It should also be noted that Patrick Weston Joyce wrote the book A History of Ireland, published in 1880, and told the story of Abhartach. This was a fully 17 years before Stoker's Dracula had been published...
Are vampires real? You be the judge... bwahahahahahaha
