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For The Season That’s In It…
As Halloween approaches, 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.
