Mark's Notebook

Frankenstein vs Dracula

Scotland Sunday Herald

By Jenifer Johnston

Their fictional alter-egos have terrified and entertained for more than 100 years, but new evidence unearthed by a leading historian suggests that the real-life Dracula and Frankenstein crossed paths centuries ago and fought a bloody battle to the death.

In a collapsed, moss-covered crypt in St Mary’s Evangelical church in the Romanian town of Sibiu lie the earthly remains of Frank Baron von Frankenstein where he was buried following his execution by Vlad Dracula the Impaler in the early 15th century.

The discovery, by celebrated historian and Sunday Herald correspondent Gabriel Ronay, establishes an extraordinary historical connection between the real-life inspirations for two of the literary world’s most loved creations.

Count Dracula was modelled on Vlad Dracula the Impaler, an exceptionally cruel 15th century warlord, whom author Bram Stoker endowed with fictional, vampire traits to suit the British taste for the supernatural.

Frankenstein, as imagined in Mary Shelley’s novel, was named after the ancient German noble family of von Frankenstein. The von Frankensteins’ ancestral hill-top chateau, built near the Rhine, had deeply impressed Mary and Percy Shelley during their first romantic journey there in 1816.

http://www.sundayherald.com/52589

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009