Bram Stoker’s Dracula: The Romanian Roots and the Myths It Got Wrong By Alex Raven

Cover Artist: Andrew Holmes

Introduction

Count Dracula is one of the most famous characters in the world, known as the mysterious vampire from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel. But few people know that Stoker’s Dracula was inspired, at least in part, by Romania. Its legends, its landscapes, and even its history. Although Stoker never visited Romania, he was fascinated by stories about Transylvania, a place often described as dark and full of ancient myths.

Over time, people began to link Dracula with Vlad Țepeș, also known as Vlad the Impaler, a 15th-century ruler of Wallachia. Vlad was not a vampire, but a strong and feared leader who defended his country against the Ottomans. Because of his cruel punishments, his name became mixed with Stoker’s fictional monster, creating a myth that still follows Romania today.

Sadly, this connection overshadows Romania’s true folklore: rich, magical, and full of unique creatures and legends that existed long before Dracula. It’s unfortunate that so many people only think of “Dracula” when they hear “Romania,” because our folklore is already beautiful and doesn’t need to be changed or simplified by foreign stories.

Bram Stoker: The Man Behind Dracula

The camera-shy Bram Stoker in 1906.

Private Collection, The Bridgeman Art Library

Early Life and Career

Bram Stoker was born in 1847 in Dublin, Ireland. As a child, he was often ill and spent much of his time reading and listening to Irish legends told by his mother, stories that later shaped his imagination. After studying mathematics at Trinity College, he worked as a civil servant and theater critic. In 1878, he moved to London with his wife, Florence Balcombe, and became the personal manager of the famous actor Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre.

How Dracula Was Born

During his years at the Lyceum, Stoker began researching Eastern European folklore for a new gothic novel. He read travel writings such as The Land Beyond the Forest by Emily Gerard and historical accounts like An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia by William Wilkinson, both of which mentioned vampires and Vlad III “Țepeș,” the Wallachian ruler known as “Dracula.” Although Stoker never visited Romania, he combined fragments of folklore, history, and imagination to create Count Dracula, published in 1897.

What He Got Right and Wrong

Stoker accurately captured the mystery of Eastern European folklore and the atmosphere of fear surrounding the undead. However, he misunderstood much of Romanian tradition. The name “Dracula” came from Vlad Țepeș’s historical title, but the real voivode was no vampire, he was a complex ruler, not a supernatural creature. Likewise, the Romanian strigoi, restless spirits of the dead, are quite different from the elegant, immortal vampire of Stoker’s imagination.

Legacy

Dracula became a global phenomenon, but it also replaced authentic Romanian folklore in the eyes of the world. Through foreign imagination, the land of strigoi, moroi, and ancient spirits became known only for one invented vampire, a misunderstanding that still shapes how Romania is seen today.

Vlad Țepeș: The Real “Dracula”

Ambras Castle portrait of Vlad III (c. 1560), reputedly a copy of an original made during his lifetime

Vlad Țepeș, also known as Vlad III or Vlad the Impaler, was born in 1431 in Sighișoara, in what is today Romania. He was Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia, ruling several times between 1448 and 1476, during one of the most turbulent periods in Eastern European history.

His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, a chivalric order founded to defend Christianity against the Ottoman Empire. The name “Dracul” came from the Latin draco, meaning “dragon.” In the 15th century, this word had a positive and noble meaning, symbolizing courage and loyalty to the Christian faith.

However, in modern Romanian, “dracul” means “the devil.” Over time, the meaning shifted from “dragon” to “demon/devil,” which created confusion and contributed to the later association of Vlad Țepeș with the supernatural character “Dracula.”

As the son of Vlad II Dracul, Vlad was called “Dracula” literally “the son of Dracul”, or “the son of the Dragon.”

A Ruthless but Strategic Ruler

Vlad Țepeș ruled a small but strategically vital region caught between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. To protect his land and maintain independence, he ruled with extraordinary severity. His preferred method of punishment, impalement, earned him the name Țepeș, meaning “the Impaler.” Contemporary accounts describe entire forests of impaled enemies meant to intimidate both invaders and local nobles who betrayed him. Despite his cruelty, many Romanians later remembered him as a harsh but just ruler, who fought corruption and foreign domination. He imposed strict laws, punished thieves, and defended Wallachia against Ottoman incursions, becoming a symbol of resistance and national pride.

Vlad the Impaler dining near the mutilated bodies of his victims, as depicted in a German woodcut by Ambrosius Huber, 1499. ⬆️

The Racist Side of His Reign

However, Vlad Țepeș’s rule was far from heroic for everyone. Behind his reputation as a fierce defender of Wallachia and Christianity lay a social system deeply rooted in inequality and exploitation. 

One of the most striking examples of this was the treatment of the Roma population, who, at the time, lived under a brutal regime of slavery.

In 15th-century Wallachia, Roma people were considered property. They could be bought, sold, inherited, or donated to monasteries and noble families. 

They were divided into categories depending on their owners: domnești (belonging to the prince), mănăstirești (belonging to monasteries), and boierești (belonging to the boyars, or nobles). This system had existed long before Vlad’s reign, but he actively maintained and enforced it.

Historical records, including princely decrees and monastic donation documents, show that Vlad Țepeș continued to treat Roma as slaves and even granted groups of them to religious institutions as gifts of piety. For example, a surviving charter from 1459 mentions Vlad donating dozens of Roma families to the Snagov Monastery, following the customs of the time.

Furthermore, contemporary chronicles describe Vlad’s rule as one marked by extreme violence and harsh discipline. He applied draconian punishments to all those he viewed as criminals, beggars, or “useless people,” categories that often included Roma, especially those who were nomadic or without a master. According to some foreign sources, thousands of Roma and other marginalized individuals were executed, impaled, or forced into labor as part of his attempts to “cleanse” society of what he saw as disorder and moral decay.

While the exact numbers and details are hard to verify, since much of the information comes from biased or propagandistic sources, it is clear that Vlad Țepeș’s policies reflected and reinforced the systemic racism and social hierarchy of his era. The Roma people, already living in conditions of servitude, suffered disproportionately under his rule, facing both the violence of the state and the dehumanizing reality of slavery.

In this light, Vlad Țepeș’s reign reveals not only a story of political struggle and national defense, but also the racist side of medieval Wallachian society, one built on inequality, oppression, and the suffering of entire communities that had no voice in history.

How He Became “Dracula”

The link between Vlad Țepeș and the vampire legend came much later. In Western Europe, particularly in Germany, pamphlets circulated in the 15th and 16th centuries portraying Vlad as a bloodthirsty monster who delighted in torture. These exaggerated stories reached the West and survived through time, turning him into a figure of terror. When Bram Stoker encountered the name “Dracula” in his research, he borrowed it for his fictional vampire, without fully understanding its original meaning. Thus, the historical prince who fought the Ottomans became immortalized as a gothic monster feeding on human blood.

Legacy

Vlad Țepeș remains one of the most controversial figures in Romanian history, viewed by some as a national hero and by others as a symbol of cruelty. His transformation into the mythical Dracula blurred the line between fact and fiction, overshadowing the historical man behind the myth. And while his story has inspired countless books and films, it also reflects a darker truth: how easily history can be romanticized or twisted, sometimes at the cost of the real people who suffered under his rule.

The Misappropriation of Romanian Folklore and the Dracula Myth

While Vlad Țepeș has become internationally famous as “Dracula,” the popular image of vampires associated with Romania has very little to do with the richness of Romanian folklore. The truth is that our folktales, created collectively by generations of Romanians, have been colonized and transformed by foreign authors, most notably Bram Stoker, who romanticized and Gothicized elements of our culture without acknowledging its origins.

In Romanian folklore, supernatural creatures such as strigoi or restless spirits are complex, culturally significant figures. They are not vampires in the Western Gothic sense; they are reflections of our society’s fears, beliefs, and moral lessons. By turning Romania into a “vampire land” through popular media, the world increasingly associates our country with a fictional story rather than with the deep, unique, and living folklore that exists here.

This process is harmful because it erases the voices of the communities who created these stories. Folklore is not the work of a single author. it is the product of society as a whole, passed down through oral traditions. Outsiders taking these stories and reshaping them into romantic Gothic narratives takes ownership away from the people who lived and breathed these tales for centuries. It changes their meaning, simplifies them, and presents them as exotic entertainment for international audiences.

As a fan of horror and Gothic media myself, I would personally love to see films that authentically explore Romanian culture and folklore, stories rooted in real Romanian traditions, told with care, respect, and collaboration with local communities, especially in rural areas where these traditions are strongest. Filmmakers and directors have a responsibility to research thoroughly and consult with Romanians, instead of repurposing our folklore for foreign narratives that misrepresent us.

Our folklore is already rich, complex, and beautiful, it does not need to be modified to fit Western tastes. Romanticizing historical figures like Vlad Țepeș, while ignoring the violence and oppression he enacted, is equally dangerous. We must stop glorifying what we do not fully understand and take responsibility for preserving and honoring our culture with accuracy, care, and respect.