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Historical and mythological interference
Dracula - as perceived and promoted in tourist brochures today - is the
result of legendary yet, genuine historical facts of Vlad the Impaler's
reign, as recounted by revisionist historians, interspersed and dramatically
accentuated by the Irishman Bram Stoker's 1897 fictional character, Dracula.
The truth about Wallachia's ruler, Vlad the Impaler (1456-1462, 1476) is
known from countless academic papers written by both Romanian and foreign
historiographers. Brave and fair, benevolent with decent people while
ruthless with lawbreakers, Vlad the Impaler is convinced that only strong
leadership can maintain internal order and thus allow him to mount a strong
defence against external peril. This vision is admirably encompassed in his
letter to the people of Brasov, on the 10th of September 1456. In it he
says: "When a man or lord is strong and powerful he can make peace whichever
way he wishes yet, when he is weak, someone stronger will come onto him and
submit him to his mercy."1
Thus, Vlad the Impaler resorts to an authoritarian style of leadership by
imposing honesty and hard work as virtues to be had; dishonesty (thievery)
and sloth were punished harshly by impaling - a practice which was to make
him infamous. Every single one of those who chose not to observe the laws or
the freedom of the country - regardless of whether they were Transylvanian
traders, Turkish soldiers or local landowners (boyars) - would receive this
punishment if they were found guilty of any such crimes. Such abominable
punishment can be understood in the context of the times when punishments
such as crucifixion, or being burnt at the stake were an all too common
occurrence.
A quite conclusive episode that proves his unflinching desire to strengthen
central authority in the face of rulers becoming mere tools in the hands of
various boyar interest groups is the one mentioned in the German chronicles.
Here, Vlad summons around 500 boyars to accuse them of bearing
responsibility for the disastrous state of the country. Before saying, "the
responsibility was borne by your shameful disunity" he asked them how many
reigns they had lived under. As most had lived under an average of seven,
this was to be their last one as Vlad understood that this occurrence owed a
lot to their devious intrigues so he impaled every single one of them.
Another unforgiving deed of his rather cruel reign was the revenge of his
father and brother's killing right on Easter Day when he proceeded to impale
the entire elderly population of Targoviste while sparing the younger ones
only to condemn them to hard labour to erect the Poienari citadel.
Alexandru Vlahuta best illustrates the cruelty with which he punished his
adversaries, in a book called "From our Past". In it, he recalls an episode
when one of Wallachia's royal claimants, who went by the name of Dan, is
chastised for nurturing sedition: "he (Vlad) catches young Dan and, in order
that he is cured of his yearning to rule, he lays him between torches that
were lit on the margins of a hole in the ground that was big enough to fit
him, gets priests to say prayers and wailers to wail him, and then he chops
his head of and tosses his body in the eternal resting place."2
The same author recalls the cruelty with which he punishes the people of
Brasov for disobedience and for having given his adversaries shelter: "he
overruns the Barsa County, plunders and sets fire to its villages and to the
Brasov citadel, and there, in a bay of blood pouring out of bodies that were
put to the stake and much wailing of these unfortunates that were struggling
to die, Vlad sits happy at the top of the table and enjoys himself with his
most valiant soldiers whose hand trembles each time they raise their glass
for at such a feast, in such a place, and with such a lord at the top of the
table, each drink could be their last"3.
There are many legends asserting his unequivocal dislike for half-truths and
lies. One of those recounts how a trader on his way to trading his goods
asked for his protection. Vlad had told him to leave his dray under the open
skies for he should fear no thieves. Yet, the next morning, the trader finds
his 160 gold pieces missing and he tells Vlad about this. Upon hearing this,
Vlad sends his men to find the thief, which they do and the thief is
immediately caught and quickly impaled. Vlad then summons the trader to give
him the money back and slips in an extra gold piece. The trader counts the
money and finds the extra coin and tells Vlad about this. Vlad spares his
life for his honesty, as he would have impaled him too had he not told him
the truth.
Another legend, which denotes Vlad's preoccupation for eradicating thievery,
tells the story of a golden cup left at a faraway fountain, in the middle of
a forest, which nobody dared steal even long after Vlad the Impaler had
passed away.
The end result of such drastic measures was that Vlad managed to quell the
utter chaos gripping the country and reinstated much needed order and
discipline instead. "A stranger to pity and forgiveness - says the historian
A.D.Xenopol - he puts his dreadful temper in the service of his country and,
as soon as he cleanses it from internal ills, he proceeds to redress the
downfall of the country"4.
His deeds attracted much ill feeling from his contemporaries. Thus, he was
prone to defamation and accusations of secret deals with the Ottomans
against the interests of his country - falsehoods that eventually led to his
imprisonment by King Matias Corvin. As time went on, his cruel features
became associated with those of the vampire Dracula.
The so-called Dracula myth has its origins in Vlad Basarab, the father of
the future king Vlad the Impaler - Dracula becoming member of the Order of
the Dragon, on the 8th of February 1431. Incidentally, this Order was a very
exclusive club with a select membership numbering only monarchs, or heirs to
the throne. The cape, which Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg himself bestows
on his shoulders, was tied at the front with a golden collar and a medallion
in the shape of a dragon. Upon becoming king of Wallachia, Vlad Basarab
proceeds to use the image of the dragon not only on his personal seal but
also on the coins minted during his reign. This is the reason why his
contemporaries calling him Vlad Dracul i.e. Vlad the Devil while the rest of
his family as well as his ancestors were called Draculesti i.e. Devilish.
His second born, also called Vlad, who was to rule Wallachia between 1456
and 1462 was called by the Turks, Seitanoglu i.e. the Devil's Son or,
Kaziklu i.e. the one who
impales - after the usual punishment to wrongdoers.
The nickname Dracula - which his adversaries use when referring to him -
suffers distortions, as it is associated with a sign of the link with the
Devil himself. The link Dracula-Devil comes to being used by the Saxons of
Transylvania as well, who were hostile to the great King as recounted in the
"German Stories about King Dracula." After the First Edition from 1488, this
representation of a unimaginably cruel, blood thirsty king becomes ever more
gruesome - like the scene depicted in one of the thirty odd representations
in the seventeenth century in which he is portrayed as having lunch among
many bodies of impaled boyars.
Gradually, Vlad's public image shifts from that of a ruthless ruler who was
merciless with lawbreakers to that of a vampire. This owes much to
speculations about some sort of a blood tie with Countess Elisabeth Bathory.
Since HRT was some five centuries away, one of the Countess' middle of the
sixteenth century pastimes in her Czech mansion was reputedly to bathe in
maiden's blood in order that she could preserve her youthful looks - hence,
the reason for her contemporaries believing this was but a family trait.
Seventeenth century chronicles collected by Austrian soldiers from Western
Wallachia and Transylvania recount popular beliefs about ghosts. In their
reports dating from the period between 1718 and 1739, there is mention of a
local custom of digging up bodies of people who were suspected to have been
ghosts during their lifetime and subsequently stabbing them through the
heart with a wooden stake. Their endeavours were rewarded with a burst of
thick, black blood that proved their suspicions to be well founded. Bar for
the stench, this practice is mentioned in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula. Such
military reports continue to stoke up the fires of an image of Transylvania
being a somewhat supernatural place for the Undead, living in ruined castles
that are permanently haunted by evil spirits, ghosts and vampires5.
In 1897, the famous fictional character Dracula comes to (after-) life in
London, out of the Irishman Bram Stoker's pen - a novel considered by Oscar
Wilde to be one of the best novel of all times. Yet, according to Stoker's
own admission, neither Transylvania nor Dracula have any historical value
for Romania as he had used both the place as well as the name only because
of the fame they enjoyed at the time, which was but a useful tool in
creating a semblance of credibility to a fictional story.
The relationship between Bram Stoker's fictional character and king Vlad the
Impaler is the one suggested by the author himself: "there was indeed a king
Dracula who earned his name fighting against the Ottoman's, over the great
river, right on the border with the Ottoman Empire"6. Stoker
believes Vlad was no ordinary man since "for centuries, he was spoken of as
one of the shrewdest, cunning and bravest son's of his country lying beyond
the forests, whose quick spirit and iron will still fight from beyond the
grave." This is the point at which the author introduces popular beliefs
about ghosts that continue to wander long after the body is gone: "The
Un-dead i.e. ghost, vampires etc. suffer the curse of immortality - says
Bram Stoker - they pass from age to age without ageing, making more victims
and enhancing the ills of the world-"7.
Moreover, Bram Stoker never visited Transylvania and only used some maps
given by England's libraries to conjure up his vampire-tale.
The main character, Dracula, a Szeckler count that lived in a decayed
Castle, in the Bargaului Pass, slept during the day-time in a burial vault,
and only came out at night as a vampire who possessed a supernatural yet,
malefic force that was put in the service of the Devil. He is visited here
by Jonathan Harker, secretary to an English lawyer who came to perfect with
count Dracula the purchasing of a property near London. Upon becoming a
prisoner, Jonathan Harker goes through a series of dreadful mishaps.
Managing somehow to get back to London, he convinces a group of
acquaintances to follow him to the Bargaului Pass to kill the vampire count,
which they manage to do in front of his Castle by stabbing his heart out
with a dagger.
All Dracula characters are but the authors' figment of imagination yet,
Count Dracula's deeds and his grand finale death have a basis in popular
superstitions about ghosts that were mentioned by reputed folklore gatherers
such as I. A. Candrea. The reputed scholar argues that "all day, the ghost
minds his own business like the rest of the people do yet, as night falls
and he falls asleep, his soul comes out to meet other ghosts leaving his
body lying in bed as if he was dead. The souls of these ghosts [-] kill
children to suck their blood [-]." He goes on to say that "when one of these
presumed ghosts dies it is customary that a red hot rod is pierced through
his heart to prevent its soul from ever coming out of the grave to torment
innocent people by night."
According to popular beliefs, the bat - an animal that lives in caves by day
- is also considered to be a vampire for it comes out of its day time
resting-place at night, to suck the blood of innocent people by biting them
by the neck. In the South and Central America, vampires are but a species of
large bats that feed on the blood of birds and mammals caught unawares. In
the Odyssey, Homer identifies the bat with the soul of dead people - hence
the not so far - fetched chance for this to be but another after-life
apparition.
Nowadays, the image of Dracula as the incarnation of King Vlad the Impaler
as it was penned in a xylography, in The German Stories about King Dracula
published in Nurnberg, in 1488, is the ubiquitous commercial of a vampire
that has lost any historical sense it may have had and looks like Bella
Lugosi of Nosferatu (In the film Nosferatu, such as it is called the victim
of the un-dead i.e. the ghost, who also becomes a ghost). The only purpose
this image serves is one that gives a welcome boost to the tourist industry
in the Bran area.
Dracula and the village of Bran
Thus, the Bran castle - better known as Dracula's Castle - is one of the
most valuable architectural monuments that also had precise military and
economic functions - which are extensively presented by the scholar Ioan
Prahoveanu in his work, The Bran Castle. The link made by the
vampire-seeking tourist between this castle and King Vlad the Impaler owes a
lot to the fact that the Castle of Bran was situated on the Bran Pass, which
separated Saxon of Transylvania traders from the Wallachian trade fairs
where they could sell their goods. Stories of cruel punishments applied to
smugglers abound hence the relationship with the Castle of Bran officials
may have been a little strained at times.
Yet, whether Vlad the Impaler really ruled over the Castle of Bran is a moot
point for there exists no written evidence to support this claim. Apart from
administrative documents there is really very little in terms of the
political and military events of the time. One thing is certain, though. In
the autumn of 1462, the King of Hungary, Matei Corvin's army captures Vlad
close to the Oratii Citadel, near Rucar - which is situated at about 25
kilometres from Bran - and imprisons him in the Bran Castle for almost two
months. From here he will be moved to the Visegrad Citadel.
The belief in ghosts and other evil spirits is an essential component of
popular mythology. Yet, beyond this imaginary universe populated with
vampires and ghosts, tourists will find the peace and tranquillity of the
peasant village of Bran. Here, in the bosom of the Carpathian Mountains, one
can find legends that can rival the world's greatest legends such as the
ones that Prometheus was chained in the Caucasus mountains because of his
teaching humans to use the fire on the Bran Keys Rock or, the one according
to which the Old Lady Dochia was turned to stone in the Bucegi mountains.
Many traditional customs are still alive in this area - including those with
a legal character like, for instance, the oral communication of the village
elders' decisions through the village or, sheep shearing with a twist i.e.
keeping the sheep safe from evil spirits named "iele" etc. Moreover, the
twelve-day cycle of the winter festivities that marks the burial of the old
year and the beginning of the new one revolves around three main events:
Christmas (the 25th of December), the New Year (the 1st of January) and
Epiphany (the 6th of January). Every one of these events is marked by
rituals, which follow old customs that gather together the entire community
such as, Christmas carols, plugusorul and roscovaitul (New Year carols),
traditional masked games as well as many other carols and customs that have
the meaning of purifying the spirit of this place from evil spirits.
Traditional customs relating to death and marriage are must see events.
Traditional dress and dances signify fertility and prosperity rituals that
are particular to this region. Knitting, sheep shearing customs and last,
but not least, traditional food are but some of the reasons that make
travelling to this region a truly meaningful endeavour.
The Chronology of the life of Vlad the Impaler
1431 - the birth of Vlad, Vlad the Devil's second son, and the future king
Vlad the Impaler;
1442-1448 - Young Vlad is sent hostage to the Otoman Empire;
1448 - Vlad the Impaler occupies for a short while Wallachia's throne;
1448-1456 - Vlad the Impaler as a fugitive in Moldova and Transylvania;
1456 - with help from Transylvania, Vlad the Impaler occupies Wallachia's
throne;
1457 - Vlad the Impaler aids his cousin Stephan the Great to occupy
Moldova's throne;
1459 (spring) - Vlad the Impaler forbids Transylvanian traders to stop
purchasing goods from directly from the producers while while trading with
Wallachian traders is restricted to the border trading places;
1459 (prior to the 23rd of April) - the killing of a group of hostile
boyars;
1460 (post-22nd of April) - Vlad the Impaler overruns the county of Barsa
and pillages a number of settlements as reprisals for the support offered to
his rival to the throne, Dan;
1460, the 1st of October - Vlad the Impaler comes to an agreement with the
city of Brasov that the rest of Transylvanian inhabitants contribute with
4000 soldiers in the fight against the Ottomans;
1462, the 11th of February - Vlad the Impaler seeks Matyas Corvinus' - the
Hungarian king - help in the fight against the Ottomans;
1462 (June-September) - Vlad the Impaler's wars against the Ottomans;
1462 (prior to the 26th of November) - Vlad the Impaler is arrested at the
request of Matyas Corvinus, near to the Dambovita Castle, imprisoned for
about two months in the Bran Castle and then moved to the Visegrad Castle
where he will stay for the next 12 years;
1476, the 26th of November - Vlad the Impaler becomes king of Wallachia for
the second time;
the end of 1476 - Vlad the Impaler is killed by the Ottomans with the help
of traitor boyars.
Notes
1. Nicolae Stoicescu, Vlad Tepes, Bucuresti, 1976, p.30
2. Al. Vlahu, Din trecutul nostru, Editura "Cartea Romāneasca", Bucuresti,
1933, p.77
3. Ibidem, p.76
4. A.D. Xenopol, Istoria Romānilor, vol.II, partea II, Iasi, 1889, p.293
5. Gh. Lazea Postelnicu, Tepes - Dracula - un nume, un mit, Ed.Mirador, Arad,
2002, pag.7
6. Bram Stoker, Dracula, Editura Univers, Bucuresti, 1990, p.253
7. Ibidem, p.230
8. Dicionarul Explicativ al Limbii Romāne, Ed. Academiei Romāne, Bucuresti,
1975, p.1007.
9. I.Aurel Candrea, Folclorul medical romān comparat, Polirom, 1999, p.174
10. Idem
11. Simion Florea Marian, Mitologie romāneasca, Ed. Paideia, Bucureti, 2000,
p. 44.
Selective Bibliography
1. Nicolae Stoicescu, Vlad Tepes, Bucuresti, 1976
2. Stefan Andreescu, Vlad Tepes (Dracula). Īntre legenda si adevar istoric,
Bucuresti, 1976
3. Ioan Bogdan, Vlad Tepes si naratiunile germane si rusesti asupra lui, Buc.,
1896
4. Radu Florescu - R.T.McNally, Dracula. A biography of Vlad the impaler,
1431-1476, New York, 1973
5. Emil Stoian, Vlad Tepes. Mit si realitate istorica, Editura Albatros,
Bucuresti, 1989
6. Bram Stoker, Dracula, Editura Univers, Bucuresti, 1990
7. Radu Stefan Ciobanu, Pe urmele lui Vlad Tepes, Ed. Sport-Turism,
Bucuresti, 1979
8. Aurel Candrea, Floclorul medical romān comparat, Polirom, 1999
9. Gheorghe Lazea-Postelnicu, Tepes Dracula un nume, un mit, Editura Mirador,
Arad, 2002.
Ioan Praoveanu |
