When it comes to ghosts, ghouls, and the many Halloween traditions we celebrate in the USA, we only have to look to Scotland to find many of their origins. Creepy costumes, Trick or Treating , jack-o-lanterns, and bobbing for apples all have roots in Scotland – as does one of the most frightening of characters often associated with Halloween – the vampire king, Count Dracula.
Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve – the night before the Christian festival of All Hallows or All Saints Day - can trace its beginnings to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Held on November 1st, this marked the end of summer and the harvest and the onset of winter. It was believed to be a time when the boundary between this world and the otherworld thinned and spirits could move easily back and forth. Many of the traditional celebrations involved fire and pagan beliefs – like the lighting of bonfires meant to ward off evil spirits – the beginning possibly of the carving of jack-o-lanterns – though in Scotland turnips (or neeps) were used. Carving pumpkins is a distinctly American tradition.
So too is trick or treating. In Scotland the term is “guising” – dressed in a ghoulish costume (perhaps to disguise the living from the evil spirits traipsing about) people went door to door seeking food and treats. But when guising you are expected to first perform a song, recite a verse, act out a short skit – in Scotland it takes more to be rewarded than just shouting “trick or treat!”
Also at Samhain the souls of dead relatives were thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality and warmth from the coming winter. Often a place would be set at the table or by the fireside for these “undead.” And when it comes to the undead, there is no more a classic tale than that of Dracula.
Bram Stoker’s gothic horror story, Dracula, was published in 1897 and is today a classic, having spawned an entire genre of vampire literature, film and theatre. The book has never gone out of print but has gained far more favor in modern times than in Victorian England where it was first published. Dracula was one of several novels and other writings penned by Stoker during a series of summer holidays spent in the quiet fishing village of Port Errol (now known as Cruden Bay), in far northeast Scotland. While it was known that Stoker had visited the village, no one had ever looked very deeply into Stokers association with Cruden Bay until recently.
Bram Stoker began writing Dracula in 1895 while on holiday in Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was originally published in 1987 and never gone out of print.
Mike Shepherd is a writer and his home is Cruden Bay. Aware of Stoker’s history with the village he decided to dig a bit deeper and what he found, including a published recipe from Stoker’s wife Florence for a “Dracula Salad,” is being hailed as some of the most significant research into Stoker’s time in the village. Shepherd has published the results of his research in a book entitled, “When Brave Men Shudder, the Scottish Origins of Dracula” with a foreword by Dacre Stoker, the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker.
Our conversation includes how Stoker came to be in Cruden Bay, the connection between nearby Slains Castle and Castle Dracula, and previously untold family memories of Stoker’s time in Cruden Bay.
Shepherd says there is no doubt he “octagonal room” described in Dracula was patterned after the one in Slains Castle even though there is no hard evidence that Stoker was ever at/in the castle. Photo ©Pierre Lesage https://www.flickr.com/photos/tahitipix/1464154618/
KEY POINTS:
•05:30 How Stoker came to find (Port Erroll) Cruden Bay
•17:30 The connection of Slains Castle to Castle Dracula
•23:30 How Stoker’s mood changed when he was writing Dracula
•27:00 Previously unknown family memories of Stoker’s time in Cruden Bay (including the “Dracula Salad”
•38:30 Why has Stoker’s Dracula found a much greater following in modern times?
•43:00 What sights associated Stoker could a visitor to Cruden Bay see today?
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
• When Brave Men Shudder (Shepherd’s book/Amazon link)
• Slains Castle (Visit Aberdeenshire)
• 1897 Review of Dracula (Manchester Guardian)