Bram Stoker's use of folklore in writing Dracula

(NOTE:  In the following post I use the terms myth, folklore, and folktale interchangeably)



Bela Lugosi as Dracula; courtesy wikimedia commons

I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem. I must ask the Count all about them.) Jonathan Harker's journal, 3 May

Last week I was distracted from The Anglo-Saxons by a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula.  I must have liked it; I put all other non-essential tasks on hold until the book was finished.

Wikipedia claims that Stoker spent 7 years studying vampire folklore before writing the novel.  While I have no information to back this up, I am inclined to agree.  The novel has the feel of a tale steeped in centuries-old legend, as opposed to a tale that feels completely made-up (I think some fantasy authors would do well to do a bit less world-building and a bit more world-borrowing).  His research, combined with his writing, produced a novel that felt factual as well as fantastic.  What follows are three examples from Stoker's Dracula mythos and how it fits into what I know of supernatural folklore.

Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and in this record of ours we have proof by inference. Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when he have his earth-home, his coffin-home, his hell-home, the place unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby, still at other time he can only change when the time come.  Mina Harker's journal, 30 September

The above quotation from Dracula caught my attention.  I had noticed something similar a few months ago while reading the Breton Lay Sir Orfeo.  In the lay, Queen Heurodis first met her fairy lover and abductor when he and his court passed by her house at noon.  This appears to be a common trait of supernatural being in myth:  supernatural creatures are most likely to be seen traveling through mortal lands at sunrise, at sunset, and at noon.  At all other times, if they are seen by mortals at all they are seen withing the bounds of their own country--for example, fairies caught dancing at midnight atop their fairy-mound.

It is said, too, that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide.  Mina Harker's journal, 30 September

Another folklore motif I noticed Stoker used was water-as-boundary.  Commonly in myth the realm of mortals and the realm of Fairie are separated by a body of water:  sometimes a river, sometimes a sea.  Sir Launfal, another Middle English Breton lay, contains an example of this.  At the end of the poem, Sir Launfal lives happily-ever-after with Tyramour, his wife and the daughter of the Fairy King, in the Fairy King's island realm Olyroun.  As a more modern example, Tolkien used this idea successfully in his writings.  Rivendell lies across the Bruinen, and Lothlorien across the Silverlode.  Stoker used water a bit differently.  Instead of the water marking the perimeter between the natural and supernatural worlds, water creates a barrier over which the vampire cannot cross except under special circumstances.  Regardless, the idea of water acting as a boundary is still there.

Beside the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in black. . . . For an instant my heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I was paralyzed.   Dr. Seward's diary, 3 October

Finally, I noticed while reading Dracula a use of the supernatural to explain sleep paralysis.  Sleep paralysis occurs when the sleeper is conscious but the body is asleep and therefore unable to move.  As a result, the sleeper is aware of external stimuli but cannot respond to it, which generally leads to a feeling of panic.  I have occasionally experienced this, and can attest to feeling terrified.  Typically, folk belief connects sleep paralysis to an evil supernatural presence.  Old English medical texts contain remedies for banishing the night-mare (maere) that sits on a person's chest, paralyzing them and giving them bad dreams (see here for an example).  Bram Stoker used this, substituting vampires for the night-mare.

Vampires in Dracula have other attributes that I will have to keep an eye out for as I read folklore.  They can shapeshift into wolves or bats and summon rats and wolves at will.  They cannot cross a threshold without an invitation, and they do not cast a shadow or have a reflection.  They are harmed by the crucifix, communion wafers, bullets sanctified by a priest, and garlic.

They do not, however, sparkle in the sunlight.