DRACULA
Created by Author Bram Stoker in 1897
Based of real life "Vlad the Impaler"
World Wide Folklore or Legend
This is he name of the character in the classical horror story DRACULA 1897 by the Irish author Abraham (Bram) Stoker (1847-1912). The Count DRACULA of the novel is described as a clean-shaven old man with a high forehead over hi aquiline nose. His eyebrows were so thick that they seemed to meet; his eyes appeared to be as one in a fever; and he wore a gray mustache over his ruddy mouth, from which sharp, pointed teeth protruded and his stinking breath exhaled. His ears were curiously pointed at the hair line, while the hands with which he gripped his visitors were white with hairs in the center of the palm, and the long finger were extended by pointed, claw-like nails. He was dressed entirely in black, which made his pallid skin appear almost blue. DRACULA was a VAMPIRE and a Transylvania count who lived in his castle high in the mountains, from which he made sorties every night with his wolf pack and other VAMPIRES to terrorize the local population. In the novel, DRACULA visits the British Isles, because he must remain to his vault each night (Sharing with the TROLLS of Norse Mythology his demise should sunlight fall on him), he had to take some Transylvania earth with him.
The character of DRACULA was well researched by Bram Stoker and was derived from such as the memoirs of W. Wilkenson, to sometimes British consul in Bucharest, which Stoker read in Whitby in North Yorkshire, a town featured in the novel. The character's name was founded on Voidvode DRACULA (c. 1448), who was a fearless Wallachian general. The Wallachian name DRACULA means "DEVIL" as was said to be an epithet for one recognized as brave or very cruel. These memoirs also give a reference to the actual person on whom the character of DRACULA was based, Vlad the Impaler, an evil and sadistic ruler who was said variously to be either a cannibal or VAMPIRE.
Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth