Name: 【TED-Ed】How did Dracula become the world's most famous vampire? - Stanley Stepanic
Uploaded: 2017-05-24T12:35:15.000Z
Duration: 5 min 6 s
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How did Dracula become the world's most famous vampire?

More than 100 years after his creator was laid to rest,

Dracula lives on as the most famous vampire in history.

neither the first fictional vampire nor the most popular of his time,

may have remained buried in obscurity if not for a twist of fate.

Dracula's first appearance was in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name.

But that was far from the beginning of vampire myths.

Blood-sucking monsters had already been part of folklore for at least 800 years.

It was Slavic folklore that gave us the word vampire,

The term's first known written mention comes from the 11th century.

Vampire lore in the region predated Christianity's arrival

and persisted despite the church's efforts to eliminate pagan beliefs.

Stories of vampires originated from misinterpretations of diseases,

In the case of the latter, gasses swelling the body and blood oozing from the mouth

could make a corpse look like it had recently been alive and feeding.

Vampires were described as bloated with overgrown teeth and nails.

This gave rise to many rituals intended to prevent the dead from rising,

such as burying bodies with garlic or poppyseeds,

Vampire lore remained a local phenomenon until the 18th century

when Serbia was caught in the struggle between two great powers,

Austrian soldiers and government officials observed and documented

and their reports  became widely publicized.

The resulting vampire hysteria got so out of hand that in 1755,

the Austrian Empress was forced  to dispatch her personal physician.

He investigated and put an end to the rumors

by publishing a thorough,  scientific refutation.

The panic subsided, but the vampire had already taken root

spawning works like "The Vampyre" in 1819,

and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" in 1872.

This book would greatly influence a young Irish drama critic named Bram Stoker.

was famously bedridden with an unknown illness until the age of seven.

During that time,  his mother told him folktales

including her experiences during an outbreak of cholera in 1832.

There, she described victims buried alive in mass graves.

Later in his life, Stoker went on to write fantasy, romance, adventure stories,

Although the book's main villain and namesake

is thought to be based on the historical figure of Vlad III Dracula,

the association is mostly just that they share a name.

Other elements and characters  were inspired directly and indirectly

The novel, upon release, was only a moderate success in its day,

nor was it even  Stoker's most well-known work,

mentioned only briefly in a 1912 obituary.

But a critical copyright battle would completely change Dracula's fate,

and catapult the character into literary renown.

In 1922, a German studio adapted the novel into the now classic silent film "Nosferatu"

Despite changes in character names and minor plot points,

the parallels were obvious, and the studio was sued into bankruptcy.

Stoker's widow decided to establish copyright

by approving a production  by family-friend Hamilton Deane.

Although Deane's adaptation made drastic cuts to the story,

thanks largely to Bela Lugosi's  performance on Broadway.

Lugosi would go on to star in the 1931 film version by Universal,

lending the character  many of his signature characteristics.

And since then, Dracula has risen again in countless adaptations,

finding eternal life far beyond the humble pages of his birth.