My family and I were talking, and the subject of Vlad the Impaler came up. I explained how he got the name, detailing death by impalement on a steak. We discovered his last name was Dracula. Then my fiancé suggested that could be Stoker's inspiration behind stabbing a vampire through the heart with a wooden steak to kill it. I thought this was probably accurate. But we couldn't figure out, why garlic? I'm wondering if anyone knows of a historical connection between Vlad, Vampires, and Garlic.
We discussed the identification of the real Vlad Tepes with the fictional Count Dracula in a recent thread; while the name "Dracula" was obviously an inspiration on Bram Stoker, the fictional character is very different from the real-life Vlad the Impaler.
Driving a stake through the heart and filling the mouth with garlic are not in any way connected to Vlad Tepes' activities, but were actually genuine examples of Eastern European folk beliefs regarding vampires; Stoker had studied such legends for years before writing his novel, and combined several different legends when creating Dracula, though he could hardly cover every aspect of it! Montague Summers in The Vampire, His Kith and Kin (1928) writes:
As all other demoniacal monsters the Vampire fears and shrinks from holy things. Holy Water burns him as some biting acid; he flies from the sign of the Cross, from the Crucifix, from Relics, and above all from the Host, the Body of God. All these, and other hallowed objects render him powerless. He is conquered by the fragrance of incense. Certain trees and herbs are hateful to him, the whitethorn (or buckthorn) as we have seen, and particularly garlic. Often when the Vampire is decapitated his mouth is stuffed full with garlic; garlic is scattered in and all over the coffin by handfuls; and he can do no harm. In China and among the Malays to wet a child's forehead with garlic is a sure protection against vampires. The West Indian negroes to-day smear themselves with garlic to neutralize the evil charms of witches and obeah men. It may be noted that the Battas or Bataks of Sumatra ascribe pining and wasting away, sickness, terror and death to the absence of the soul (Tendi) from the body and the soul must be lured back to his tenement. One of the most powerful soul-compelling herbs which is used by them in their mystic rites on these occasions is garlic. At the S. John (Midsummer) Festival of fire, on the Vigil of the Major solemnity of that Saint, 23rd June, at Dragingnan, Var, the people roasted pods of garlic by the bonfires. These pods were afterwards distributed to every family, and were believed to bring good luck.
Summers was writing some 30 years after the original publication of Dracula, but was following more in the footsteps of folklorists/anthropologists of the day in collating and cataloging beliefs regarding vampires. u/itsallfolklore might be want to chime in on different aspects of vampire folklore vis-a-vis Dracula.