Bram Stoker Flashcards
When he came to Whitby and Why
Arrives in 1890, to take a break from Henry Irving, the famous Victorian actor whose personal assistant he was and who could be very demanding.
About Stoker
Irish author, theatre critic, b1847 - d1912
Where he Stayed
Stays at Mts Veazey’s guest house at 6 Royal Crescent, just off the fashionable North Terrace, the same crescent where the soon-to-be-bled girls’ hotel will be located in the story.
Observations Made From
He observed the town and Abbey from the glass windowed lounge of the Royal hotel, possibly with a large scotch and cigar in hand.
He also went out into the town to observe the working fishermen, well attired visitors and ordinary townsfolk, many of the towns characters and visitors he saw would have sparked his imagination, he inserting this or that person into his story - write what you know about and see?
Where some of Dracula’s Ideas in Whitby Came From
Stoker mused over his creation in the Royal Hotel’s lounge, venturing forth to fill in details within the town itself.
He did his research at the PublicSubscription Library at 7 Pier Road,
The unfortunate Mr Swales would probably have been based on one of the old fishermen in a gansey who frequented the quaysides and pubs of the town. The grave Stoker saw and used for Lucy and Mina’s suicide victim, (George Cannon’s on unhallowed ground) is long gone over the cliffs so please don’t harass the vicar as he may get upset!
The Whitby subscription library is where he came across William Wilkinson’s (a British consul to Romania stationed in Bucharest) ‘An Account of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia’ published in 1820, which describe the exploits of a ferocious Romanian Warlord and knight, Vlad Tepes, Vlad III, Voivode of Wallachia - aka Vlad the Impaler and Dracula (son of Dracul) in modern Romanian ‘son of the Devil).
There is a a running ‘man in black’ story in Whitby’s ghostly past who is said to run at night down Church Street towards the 199 steps, passing through startled watchers an dressed all in black with a black cape, Stoker may have heard of this and used it?
Mina Harker’s surname was the name of a maid at his lodging house whose descendant I bought my house in Grosmont from. He may also have based Mina, Lucy’and her mother’s appearance on two daughters and a mother that were staying at his hotel in Royal Crescent.
The Ship Demeter
Based on a real incident recorded in the Whitby Gazetteer of 1885, that ship (Russian) being wrecked in Whitby Harbour after an error with the sails and called the Dmitry was en route to Narva in Estonia. In Stoker’s version it is the Demeter (corn goddess) from Varna in Bulgaria - play on words for the ships name? It grounds on Collier’s Hope near Tate Hill pier.
The Great Black Dog that Dracula Turns Into
Based on the Whitby legend of the Boh-Ghost or Barguest Dog, a direct link to Whitby’s Danish Viking past and Garmr.
This phenomenon is known all over the North, possibly Norse in origin like many myths and legends in Yorkshire (Dane law), i.e., Garmr or Garm, the hound or wolf guardian of the Goddess Hel’s domain, she being the Norse ‘Goddess of Death and the Underworld’ hence Hel’s gate. She is assigned by Odin to - “administer board and lodging to those sent to her, and that is those who die of sickness or old age.” She also receives ‘the wicked’ who pass through Hel for punishment in Niflheim (Niflheim) aka (Misty Hel).
Goddess Hel- her hall is called Eljudnir, her plate is called Hunger and her knife is called Famine. Her bed is called Sick Bed and her bed’s hangings ‘Glimmering Misfortune’.
The maiden Modgud, warden of the bridge to and of Hel
Dreadful Nastrond, the shore of the corpses
In Norse mythology, Éljúðnir (sometimes Anglicized to Eljudnir) is Hel’s hall located in Niflheim
