HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Everyone knows the classic vampire tropes: they come out at night and want to suck your blood, etc. But you might not know the real life folklore that influence these stories.

A group of Northern Kentucky University students now do after a trip to Transylvania.

After spending some time in Romania, NKU English Professor Kelly Moffett wanted to share that experience with her students. So she came up with the idea for “Creative writing in Transylvania,” a class that culminated with a trip to Romania. Students traveled through Transylvania, where vampire folklore is steeped in the culture.

“Their main job was to go to Romania, and soak everything in,” Moffett said. “And they wrote some of the best writing I’ve seen in ages.”

Upon learning about the class, Lily Hotkewicz couldn’t sign up fast enough.

“I’ve always loved folklore and especially vampires. When I told friends and family that I was going to be going on this trip, they were like, yeah that makes sense for you,” she said. “You’re in this country that has such a rich history, and you feel the weight of that and all the stories they tell for every second that you’re there.”

Students went to the Dracula castle, studied the rituals, history and folklore of vampires and how the two are intimately intertwined. Folklore specialist Sara Moore Wagner came to help Moffett after immersing herself in vampire folklore for a year.

“It turned from this sort of peasant monster who represents the plague or disease, who kind of prays on families, prays on the villages, into this grand sexy, rich vampire that we have now,” Wagner said.

While the popular Bram Stoker Dracula story is highly influential and would have people think Dracula and Vlad the Impaler are one in the same, Wagner came to learn that’s not the case, and that Vlad has plenty of his own lore in Romania.

“He’s a very heroic figure to the Romanians. And he is and isn’t Dracula. It’s very strange that those things kind of evolve,” she said. “Bram Stoker himself had never actually been to Romania.”

Vlad was also vicious in his own right, as Ezra Knapp, an English major who signed up for the class, learned.

“The field of stakes. And it’s talking about how all of his enemies, he would impale on these stakes, and then not only would leave them out there as a display of power, but would have a dinner table in the middle of this field, where he would invite adversaries or people who wanted to try to ally with him,” Knapp said.

Knapp, who wants to be a writer, said the experience was so influential, they’re applying for a scholarship to go back to Romania to teach. Knapp learned the most from just talking to Romanian students.

“What’s their country like? What’s the political climate? What their interests? What do they like to do? It was good to just get to know someone,” Knapp said. “My writing changed when I was in the Romania trip for the better, and it now reflects that.”

From haunted forests to ancient architecture, it was an experience not many people at their age get to have. 

“Supposedly sometimes people go there and they never return, but luckily all of our students came back,” Moffett joked.

And for this particular fan of vampire lore, it only enhanced her appreciation.

“Getting to live and using that as inspiration is so much more impactful than just being told write this about this,” Hotkewicz said.

Moffett said she just returned from another trip to Romania. Her hope is to return with another group of students.