Abhartach full

"Abhartach was a great tyrant and his people wanted rid of him," says Curran. "They were so terrified of his powers; they were frightened to kill him themselves. They persuaded another king from nearby, called Cathán, to come and kill him, which he did, and buried him standing up, as befitted an Irish chieftain.<br />
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"Within a day, however, Abhartach was back and demanded a bowl of blood from the wrists of his people in order to sustain his vile corpse. Cathán slew and buried him again, but the next day he was back demanding the same bowl of blood."<br />
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After a brainstorming session with the local druids, Cathán killed Abhartach with a sword made out of yew wood, buried him upside down and covered his grave with a large stone to prevent him from rising. It did the trick.<br />
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The tale of Abhartach was included - and taken as fact - in Geoffrey Keating's history of Ireland, written between 1629 and 1631. It was recounted by Patrick Weston Joyce in his History of Ireland, published in 1880, 17 years before Stoker's Dracula. "We do know that Stoker read this and enthused about it," says Curran, whose theory is published in the current issue of the magazine History Ireland. Stoker never did visit Romania, it appears.