Vampire stories have always intrigued me. I’ve often wondered what inspires writers to create their characters and story lines. How much was Bram Stoker influenced by Irish mythology and literature in his rendition of the greatest vampire of all, Dracula?

The Abhartach

One of the oldest stories involving a vampire is that of the Abhartach. There are many variations of the tale, the most interesting one comes from a book by Patrick Weston Joyce titled, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places” published in 1869.

Joyce tells of a parish in Derry called Slaughtaverty. In the parish stands a monument of the Abhartach. Which comes from the Irish word abhac, meaning dwarf.

The Abhartach was an evil chieftan who terrorized neighboring clans and tormented his own people. In Joyce’s version of the  tale, the heroic Fionn Mac Cumhail meets the Abhartach in battle and kills him. Everyone is relieved to see the Abhartach buried and the promise of a better life now that he is gone.

The next day the evil dwarf returns, more vicious than ever before, killing anyone he comes across. Fionn Mac Cumhail is sent for and once again kills the Abhartach and has him buried. The following day the dwarf leaves his grave again terrorizing the countryside.

Mac Cumhail sought the guidance of a druid priest, who instructs Fionn to kill the dwarf with a weapon made from yew wood, and bury him upside down and pile rocks upon his grave. (Now we know that when a vampire is buried upside down he will dig further into the earth when he attempts to leave his grave. A fact that is repeated in many vampire stories.)

Other versions of the story have the chieftan who slays the Abhartach as Cathain. He in turn seeks the advice of a christian saint.

The Dearg Due

The Dearg Due is another tale about a young, beautiful female vampire from the Waterford area. Dearg Due translates from the Irish as blood thirst. This story we know played a big part in Sheridan Le Fanu’s  Carmilla. It also was one of the first to mention the vampire’s fangs. “The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with pecuuliarly sharp white teeth.”  Chapter 2 of Dracula.

The Celtic Revival

The Celtic Revival or Irish Literary Revival was a movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It combined a strong sense of political nationalism and a renewed interest in Ireland’s history and mythology heritage. Le Fanu and Stoker are not considered a part of that group of writers. Both men based their stories outside of Ireland, and were able to write without taking a public stand on politics in their work.

Melmoth the Wanderer

The name of Charles Robert Maturin may not be as well known as Le Fanu or Stoker, but without his gothic novel, Melmoth the Wanderer, Carmilla and Dracula, would probably be quite different. That novel also influenced Oscar Wilde  when he wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Charles Robert Maturin was born in Dublin in 1780. The family’s biography was written about one hundred years after his death in 1824. The details of his life are not as well known as many of his contemporaries.

Many of the “known events” of Maturin’s life are contradictory, and seperating fact from fiction can be difficult. Maturin himself often changed the story of his family history.

The 1892 edition of Melmoth included a “Memoir of Charles Robert Maturin,” which cited Lady Wilde and Oscar Wilde “ for several details with regard to Maturin’s life.” “There is little reason for doubting that it (the foundling story) was anything but one of his (Maturin’s) delightful romances.”

Gabriel Maturin and the Foundling Story

Gabriel Maturin was the great-great grandfather of Charles. He was a Protestant clergyman living in France. In Charles’ version of events, his ancestor was a foundling who was taken in by a noble woman in Louis XIV’s court. He was raised as a very strict Catholic, but became a Protestant minister in a country where Catholicism was the dominant and ruling religion.

Maturin claimed Gabriel was imprisoned in the Bastille because of his religious profession. He was only released when he was weak and crippled. Despite his declining health, he led his flock to Ireland in pursuit of religious freedom.

Charles also believed that the lady was actually Gabriel’s mother and that some day his own “assigned rank and distinction” would be discovered. His legend of the family’s persecution parallels the trials of several of the characters found in Melmoth the Wanderer.

The real story of Gabriel is no less spectacular. He was born in France, became a minister, married, had children and left France for Holland in 1685. A few years later, he and five other ministers returned to France to serve those Protestants that remained there. The minsters were arrested in 1690 and sentenced to life imprisonment for their crimes.

Gabriel’s wife Rachel worked tirelessly to obtain his freedom, but to no avail. He was finally released twenty-five years later as part of the Treaty of Utreat. Four of the five ministers arrested with him had died in prison.

Gabriel’s mind was sharp but not his health. He joined his family, now in London in 1714 or 1715, until his son Peter, an English regimental chaplain, was transfered to Dublin. The family moved there in 1715 and Gabriel died there three years later.

Maturin probably never knew the actual story of how his family came to Ireland, so he created one to suit his perception of himself. Charles’ writing was a means to supplement his meager income as a minister, necessary because of his lavish tastes and lifestyle. Gothic romances were his specialty and had a few minor successes with a few before Melmoth, but the big payoff never came to fruition.

His stories and his profession did not go hand in hand, especially with the Anglican Church. Some of his superiors thought him insane. Maturin himself never saw the contradiction; he remained solid in his faith and in his devotion to his wife and family throughout his life and financial hardships. It is important to understand Maturin a little to understand Melmoth.

Melmoth the Wander

The book is a collection of stories all tied together to create a gothic novel.  The book influenced many writers, but perhaps Oscar Wilde the most. Wilde went so far as to adopt the name Sebastian Melmoth when he was released from prison and travelled around Europe.

Poe and Lovecraft were also great admirerers and Melmoth influenced their writing as well. At times it can be reminiscent of Joyce’s Ulysses, except it was written one hundred years earlier. In the earlier parts of the book, the ancestral portrait is discovered that inspired The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

The story itself involves a deal with the devil, Melmoth sells his soul to extend his life 150 years. Then is destined to wander the world searching for someone who can take his place.
Each encounter makes up a story. The book itself can be difficult to read, and unless you’re really into gothic horror I would not recommend it. There is no denying the impact it had on the Irish writers that followed in the genre, as well as it’s influence on English and American authors.