Abraham Van Helsing: the history of the prototype

This hero became the "father" of all the characters who are hunting for the undead. Solomon Kane, the Winchesters, John Constantine and other popular heroes, are the "descendants" of a book character named Abraham Van Helsing. The biography of this hero for more than 100 years inspires writers and screenwriters. And meanwhile, this character had a real prototype.

Who is Abraham Van Helsing?

In 1897, Bram Stoker published the novel Dracula. From the modern point of view, the product contained a lot of inaccuracies and plot "holes", but at that time it was a unique work, which has no analogues.

In addition to Count Vlad Dracula, who instantly became a cult figure, readers also liked the main opponent of the vampire - Abraham Van Helsing, professor of occult and philosophical sciences.

The exact nationality of this character is unknown. According to the surname, he is Dutch, but the German accent gives him a Germanic. Stoker himself did not specify where his brave vampyroborecord came from.

Also does not indicate the exact age of the character, but it is clear from the description that Abraham is a dark-haired man aged 50-60 years. The growth and features of this hero's physique are not described in detail.

At the beginning of the novel Abraham is in Amsterdam (this suggests that he is Dutch), but later arrives in England at the request of Seward. It is his knowledge in medicine, ethnography and the occult sciences that help the heroes understand with what enemy they will have to fight.

Van Helsing is a comic book hero

For the first time, after his triumphal debut in Stoker's work Abraham Van Helsing appeared on the pages of the comic book Marvel "Dracula's Tomb" in 1972.

In the graphic novels the image of Van Helsing has undergone a change. From the educated free-thinking philosopher of the late nineteenth century. He turned into a voracious obsessive professor of anthropology and a vampire hunter. Also this character was invented a tragic biography, explaining how he knows so much about the bloodsuckers.

The fact is that this hunter for vampires had previously been the wife of Elizabeth, who became a victim of the society "Children of Judah", serving Dracula. Trying to avenge the death of his wife, Abraham first encounters vampires and only miraculously avoids death. Later, he studies his opponent and begins hunting.

Van Helsing in novels of other authors

Since the 70's. Interest in this hero is growing. So, in 1975 Fred Saberhagen published the novel The Dracula Tape, in which, besides Dracula, his legendary opponent also appeared.

In subsequent years, Abraham Van Helsing became the hero of such works as Dracula the Un-dead, Quincey Morris, Dracula's Diary, Fangland, etc.

In Japan, in honor of this hero, called the popular manga Hellsing, on the basis of which later they removed the eponymous animated series.

Abraham Van Helsing: movies with this hero

With the invention of the film, Stoker's film adaptation was among the first. Together with the immortal vampire, his main enemy appeared on the screens.

The debut of this hero on the screen can be considered a mute black and white film "Nosferatu. Symphony of horror ». Since the creators of the picture at that time could not buy the rights to the screen version from the heirs of Bram Stoker, they simply changed the names of the characters and made minor adjustments to the plot. Thus, Van Helsing first appeared on the screen under the name of Professor Bulwer.

In subsequent years, Abraham Van Helsing appeared in almost every film or television series, if Dracula appeared in it. This character was played by the best actors of the world: Peter Cushing (Dracula), Lawrence Olivier (Dracula), Anthony Hopkins (Bram Stoker's Dracula), Peter Fonda (Nadia), Christopher Plummer (Dracula 2000) , David Warner ("Thunderous horrors"), Rutger Hauer ("Dracula 3D"), David Suchet ("Dracula") and Hugh Jackman ("Van Helsing").

Armine Wambury - prototype of Van Helsing

According to the popular belief, the prototype of the first vampyroborets was a close friend of Bram Stoker - a Hungarian scientist of Jewish origin Arminius Vamberi. This amazing man for his time was not only a famous linguist, but also a traveler, as well as a British spy.

Born in a poor family, the boy himself studied several foreign languages in order to get an opportunity to enter the best European universities.

At the age of twenty, Wambury travels to Istanbul, where he has been teaching European languages for many years. At the same time, he translates many Turkish books into Hungarian, thus winning the fame of the best orientalist in Europe.

Arminius was not even thirty when he compiled and published a Turkish-German dictionary, which was very successful.

After thirty Wambury incognito traveled in many countries of Central Asia. At the same time, he carried out assignments of British Intelligence.

His works on history and ethnography were later used by Stoker as a source of information when writing Dracula.

Jerzy Helving is another prototype of Van Helsing

Bram Stoker himself never admitted who became the prototype of his main vampyrocer. And although most consider Armini Vamberi as such, Pole Adam Venglovsky has a different opinion.

In his book "Bardzo polska historia wszystkiego", published in 2015, he fairly substantiates the theory that the prototype of Van Helsing was the Polish scientist Jerzy Helving.

This Pole lived in the XVII-XVIII centuries. And became famous not only as a wonderful priest, but also as a scientist-botanist. Among his numerous works on botany, astronomy, literature and arithmetic, ethnographic monographs are not the last place.

In 1722, Helving published a study on vampires. Moreover, the work of this Polish pastor mentions the most common ways of destroying the undead: cutting off the head, using light and silver weapons.

Another version of the prototype of Van Helsing

While mentioning all sorts of scientists whose works Stoker studied while working on his epoch-making novel, we should not forget about the likelihood that in the image of a genius vampyroboret writer wrote himself.

In favor of this version, says the character's name, because "Bram" is an abbreviation for Abraham. In addition, the appearance of the writer is painfully similar to the image of Van Helsing described in the novel.

Today, it will not be possible to find out who exactly became the prototype of a character named Abraham Van Helsing. The growth of interest in this person, in recent years, is simply staggering. And in connection with this, there are more and more theories every year about whom Stocker wrote off his character. Which of them is true - readers and spectators are unlikely to learn, however this will not affect their love for this hero.