| Countess Dolingen | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Countess Dolingen |
|
First Appearance |
Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914) |
|
Original Publisher |
George Routledge and Sons |
|
Created by |
Bram Stoker |
Origin[]
Countess Dolingen of Gratz, in Styria, is a woman who, according to her tombstone, "sought and found death" in 1801, and was subsequently revived as a vampire. Even in death, she has been described as a beautiful woman with rounded cheeks and red lips.
The story's narrator (heavily implied to be Jonathan Harker from Dracula) briefly encountered this vampire after invading her tomb while seeking shelter from a violent hailstorm in a cemetery in the vicinity of Munich, at Walpurgis-Nacht. The sight of her rising up and screaming while a lightning bolt struck the tomb terrified him to the point of fainting.
As he regained his senses, he found that a large wolf was leaning over him, and there was blood on his neck. The wolf was driven away by the timely arrival of a squad of soldiers, but it is implied that it was actually protecting Harker, tending to his wounds and trying to keep him warm. The identity of this supernatural wolf is not clear, but it's heavily implied to have been, if not Count Dracula himself, some werewolf servant sent by him to ensure Harker's protection (as Dracula still needed him at this point).
Alternatively, one could assume that the Countess and the wolf might have been one and the same, and that she didn't actually represent danger as the narrator feared. If this is the case, however, it must be assumed that the soldiers (despite being aware of what they're dealing with), aren't aware of the wolf's identity, as they invariably refer to the creature as "he" or "it" rather than "she".
Another popular theory holds that Countess Dolingen might actually be the blonde vampire sister living in the Count's castle, as Harker feels a strange sense of familiarity upon seeing her.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914)
Notes[]
- Dracula's Guest is believed to have been intended as the first chapter for Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, but was deleted prior to publication as the original publishers felt it was superfluous to the story.