This hero became the "father" of all the characters,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. Biography of this hero for more than 100 years inspires writers and screenwriters. And meanwhile, this character had a real prototype.
In 1897, Bram Stocker published the novel "Dracula".From the modern point of view, the work 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 character, readers also liked the main opponent of the vampire - Professor of the occult and philosophical sciences Abraham Van Helsing.
The exact nationality of this character is unknown.According to his surname he is Dutch, but the German accent is issued by a German from him. Stoker himself did not specify where his brave vampybearer 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.
For the first time, after his triumphant debut in Stoker's work, Abraham Van Helsing appeared on the pages of the comic book Marvel "Dracula's Tomb" in 1972.
In graphic novels the image of Van Helsinghas 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 where he knows so much about the bloodsuckers.
The fact is that this vampire hunterpreviously was the wife of Elizabeth, who fell victim to the company "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.
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, the popular manga Hellsing was named, on the basis of which the eponymous animated series was later removed.
With the invention of cinema, 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 muteblack 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 of 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 appearedalmost in every movie or television series, if Dracula figured 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").
According to popular belief, the prototype of the first vampyroborets was a close friend of Bram Stoker - a Hungarian scholar of Jewish origin Arminius Vamberi.
Born in a poor family, the boy himself studied several foreign languages to get the opportunity to enter the best European universities.
At the age of twenty, Wambury went toIstanbul, where he has been teaching European languages for many years. At the same time, he translates many Turkish books into Hungarian, thus gaining the fame of the best orientalist in Europe.
Armini was not even thirty when he compiled and published the Turkish-German dictionary, which was a huge success.
After thirty, Vambery traveled incognito in many countries of Central Asia. In parallel, he carried out the tasks of British intelligence.
His works on history and ethnography were later used by Stoker as a source of information when writing Dracula.
Bram Stoker himself never admitted who became the prototype of his main vampyrocer. And although most consider Armini Vamberi as such, Pole Adam Venglovsky is of a different opinion.
In his book "Bardzo polska historia wszystkiego", published in 2015, he fairly substantiated 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, not the last place is occupied by ethnographic monographs.
In the year 1722Helving published a study on vampires. Moreover, in the work of this Polish pastor, the most common ways of destroying the undead are mentioned: cutting off the head, using light and silver weapons.
Mentioning all sorts of scientists whose worksStudied by Stoker, working on his epochal novel, do not forget about the likelihood that the writer depicted himself in the guise of a genius vampire man.
In favor of this version, says the name of the character, because "Bram" - an abbreviation of Abraham. In addition, the writer's appearance is painfully similar to the appearance of Van Helsing described in the novel.
Today it is not possible to find out exactly who becamethe prototype of a character named Abraham Van Helsing. The growth of interest in this person, in recent years, is simply overwhelming. And in this regard, every year there are more and more theories about who Stoker "copied" his character from. Which of them is true - readers and viewers are unlikely to know, but this will not affect their love for this hero.
