Bram Stoker's Dracula drew its look from the actor Henry Irving, not a medieval prince

arts, ideas & societyWikipedia1897 · London, England, UK

Bram Stoker's Dracula drew its look from the actor Henry Irving, not a medieval prince

the gist

Bram Stoker, born in Dublin in 1847, spent much of his career as business manager of London's Lyceum Theatre, working for the actor Henry Irving. Dracula was his seventh published book, and in his lifetime he was known more for theatre than for fiction. Stoker took some folklore from vampire legends, such as the aversion to garlic and killing by staking, and invented others. His vampires must be invited inside, have no reflection in mirrors, and are weakened but not killed by sunlight; the sun-killing vampire came from the unauthorised 1922 film Nosferatu. Scholars widely agree that Irving inspired the Count's tall, lean look and aquiline nose. The link to the medieval ruler Vlad the Impaler is popular but weak, and there is no solid evidence that Elizabeth Báthory inspired the novel.

how it works

Stoker borrowed from folklore and rearranged it. Mirrors were thought to show the soul, so a creature with no reflection signalled that it lacked one. Rules such as needing an invitation made the vampire an uninvited threat inside a respectable home.

so what

Stoker's rules built much of the modern vampire, which later films and stories have copied. The novel shows how one book can fix a myth in the public imagination, mixing folklore with invention.

fun fact

John William Polidori's 1819 story The Vampyre had already introduced an aristocratic vampire with powers of seduction, decades before Dracula.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗