Ba in baile beag iascaireachta Whitby i Yorkshire Shasana gur gheallaigh solas cuid lárnach an scéal Dracula ar Bram Stoker.
Dhá bhlain ó shin, chaith mé saoire i Whitby ar chósta Yorkshire, seod de bhaile beag iascaireachta a bhfuil cáil ar dá thionscal seodóireachta an chlocha dubhróin dubh, jet, agus a bhí cáiliúil mar ceann scríbe turasóireachta le linn ré na Victeoraigh.
One of the most dramatic sights there, however, standing on the headland above the small harbour town, is the stark ruin of Whitby Abbey. We saw a creative and site-sensational telling of Dracula by the Time Will Tell company in and around the Abbey. (And, yes, we bought Dracula goblets in the museum shop.)
Tharla gur chaith Bram Stoker mí in Whitby in 1890, chun sos a chaitheamh i ndiaidh turas amharclannaíochta dian in Albain mar bhainisteoir an aisteora, Henry Irving.
Faoin am seo bhí sé ag obair cheana féin ar úrscéal fé carachtar darb teideal Count Wampyr, lonnaithe in Styria na hOstaire.
It was here Stoker found inspiring sources that gave greater depth to the story. It was here he read about the wreck of the Dmitry - this becomes the Demeter of the novel - on the Whitby Tate Hill Sands in 1885.
He climbed the 199 steps (a perfectly spooky number, I mean who would care about 157, or 64 steps?) of Tate Hill, up which Dracula's shape-shifted black dog escapes to St Mary's Church and it's ancient graveyard on the East Cliff. This ancient graveyard contained headstones over empty graves to seamen whose bodies had never been recovered. Empty graves, eh? Now where have we heard of that before?
Uaidh seo in airde fós chomh fada le fothrach ollmhóir Whitby Abbey, áit a mhair taibhse bhan bháin a bhí le feiceál i bhfuinneoga na mainistreach istoíche. Is léir gur las sé solas na samhlaíochta Bram.
D'aimsigh Stoker dialann le consal na Breataine sa Rómháin ón mbliain 1820 i Leabharlann Whitby , a dhein cur síos ar dúichigh Wallachia agus Moldovia agus ar Phrionsa ar leith ón 15ú haois - Vlad Tepes.
D'fhág Whitby a rian ar Stoker agus ar an úrscéal féin ar deireadh, ní gan ionadh. Cé gur fhoilsigh sé Dracula mar dhráma ar dtús, scríobh sé i bhfoirm úrscéala bunaithe ar litreacha, iontrálacha dialanna agus loga báid.
The black of the mourning stone, jet, the religious heritage of Whitby, tales of North Sea storm wrecks and a diary about Romanian principalities and of a prince from the 15th century by the name of Vlad Tepes aka the bloodthirsty Vlad the Impaler; many of the foundations upon which Stoker built his towering story that still scares and thrills us today.
