(Original headline: The true story of Frankenstein and Dracula’s bloody fight to the death )
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.
Ronay, author of The Dracula Myth, is widely regarded as a leading authority on the origins of the vampire legend. He made his astonishing breakthrough after following new lines of investigation suggested to him following the publication of his book.
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.
Ronay’s research has now discovered that the bloody family history of the von Frankenstein clan directly links the spooky castle on the Rhine with Vlad Dracula’s Bran Castle in Transylvania.
“In the wake of Hungary’s devastation by the Mongol hordes in 1241, its kings invited German colonists from the Rhineland to repopulate their empty Transylvanian province,” said Ronay. “The wagon trail included several kinsmen of the von Frankenstein clan. Their descendants helped complete Bran Castle in 1378 as a reincarnation of the von Frankenstein’s Rhine-side castle.”
In the 1430s von Frankenstein, a Teutonic Knight, was the lord of Bran manor and the chief adversary of Vlad Dracula. “Shamefully, their repeated wars did not stem from religious zeal but from filthy lucre,” explained Ronay. “Vlad Dracula extorted taxes from the rich Saxon merchants of Transylvania. Ultimately Vlad Dracula defeated the Saxon army and put von Frankenstein to a lingering death on a sharp wooden stake.”
Compelling proof of the fight between the real-life Vlad Dracula and a von Frankenstein can be found not far from Bran Castle in St Mary’s Evangelical churchyard in Sibiu where von Frankenstein was buried. Ronay visited the graveyard last year after Frankenstein and Dracula fans told him of the connection between the two families.
The historical Frankenstein/ Dracula connection does not end there. Nearby in the grave yard lies Vlad Dracula’s own murdered son.
Private collector Teodor Gaita-Melnic, who has spent 50 years researching the life of Vlad Dracula, has amassed an elaborate collection of documents and memorabilia including ancient manuscripts, maps and coins relating to the warlord.
One of his documents, Gaita-Melnic insists, establishes the von Frankensteins’ role in the building of Bran Castle; another records the impaling of von Frankenstein by Vlad Dracula.
Ronay said: “I know this discovery will cause a lot of upset amongst some of the millions of people who are dedicated followers of the myths of Dracula and Frankenstein.
“It really is a case of life imitating art: the fictional characters that everyone knows met in real life and had an interaction that led to one of their deaths. It is the case of two fictional monsters having an alter ego in life almost.”
Dr Stuart Airlie, an expert in mediaeval European history at Glasgow University, said had not heard of the von Frankenstein family but he confirmed that there was a historical pattern of nobles travelling east to find new opportunities.
“The movement [to Transylvania] is possible. Mediaeval Europe was a very international society. It was much less controlled by borders and boundaries than our own society,” he said. “Members of the aristocracy would move across eastern Europe with ease, looking for new land.”
Speaking to the Sunday Herald last night as he prepared to leave his home for a fancy dress party, he added: “As a Hallowe’en myth, it is a nice idea.”
Edinburgh writer George Rosie, researched the origins of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tale for his novel Death’s Enemy: The Pilgrimage Of Victor Frankenstein. He said that von Frankenstein was a well-known aristocratic name, hailing from the land of “Frankonia”, located in modern-day southern Germany.
But Rosie said that he had not read anything about the Rhineland von Frankensteins whom Ronay claims inspired Shelley’s book and moved east, eventually living in Bran Castle.
He did however point out there was definitely a connection between the fictional ghouls of Dracula and Frankenstein – the stories these spooky characters featured in were both made up during a wet weekend in Geneva.
“Mary Shelley made up her Frankenstein tale during a holiday in just outside Geneva.
“She and Percy Shelley were staying with Lord Byron in Villa Diodati. They were in a small town and it battered with rain, so they set the task of making each other’s blood curl.
“She came up with Frankenstein and another man Polidori, Byron’s doctor who had trained in Edinburgh, came up with Dracula. It was later made famous by Bram Stoker.
“The stories were only for entertainment.”
Gabriel Ronay’s book The Dracula Myth is published by WH Allen; George Rosie’s Death’s Enemy: The Pilgrimage Of Victor Frankenstein is published by Vintage
