A little Stoker FYI...here in Ireland where he was born and raised, there is a vampire called Abhartach who was buried in today's Northern Ireland, in an area dotted with petty kingdoms ruled by tribal warlords dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries. Abhartach was one of these chieftains.
Legends paint him 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, he arose and returned to his castle and demanded each of his subjects cut their wrists and give him their blood as a sign of loyalty. This went on for many days, their blood sustaining him 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, 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 Abhartach. The theory was that upside down, Abhartach would dig himself away from the surface and would never to walk the earth again.
Little more than 1300 years later, this Irish legend would spark the idea of a blood thirsty monster that eventually became Dracula, also feeding off the legends of Vlad the Impaler to create the iconic Dracula 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.
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...
