OlderSenior_Silverback🦍

Dracula is much more popular at Halloween than he is in March. And there is no surprise there. He is one of the primary evil beings living in pop culture. The history of vampires goes back perhaps thousands of years to ancient superstitions, but what is the origin of Dracula as we know him today? In general, people believe the history of Dracula is an open and shut case, beginning and ending with Vlad Tepes the Impaler. However, there may be more to the story than meets the eye. It seems Bram Stoker also used other vampires and Irish legends as a basis for Dracula. Most scholars believe that Bram Stoker based his evil count Dracula on a real-life 15th-century prince in Wallachia, Romania. Vlad Dracula (Vlad Son of the Dragon) or Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), as his story has come down through history, was a terrible man and a savage ruler. His brutality against enemy troops consisted of having them sit awkwardly on stakes with sharp points, and as their leg muscles gave out, the point of the stake would impale them through the length of their body. Thus, he was nicknamed Vlad Tepes, which means Vlad the Impaler. However, impaling was not his only method of torture and murder. Vlad was as creative as he possibly could be. People also knew him to boil his victims or cut off their limbs and other body parts. Additionally, Vlad mutilated organs, skinned and scalped people, or simply had animals eat them. It is not clear where he initially got the idea for this kind of torture. But the reports say that he even used these methods on innocent women and children. Saxon records indicate that Vlad Tepes killed between 40,000-100,000 people. It is uncertain if he really drank the blood of his victims or if fanciful people created the tale later. Bram Stoker took note of Vlad’s name, Dracula, and used it for his character. Vlad acquired the name Dracula because of his father’s name, Vlad II Dracul. It was Sigismund, King of Hungary and the future Holy Roman Emperor, who initiated Vlad II into his society of “knights.” The name of the society was The Order of the Dragon, and their purpose was to fight the Ottoman Empire during the Crusades. Hence, Vlad II took the name Dracul, which means the dragon or dragonist. As noted, Dracula means son of the dragon. Sometime after his death, Vlad took on the nickname Vlad the Impaler. Evidently, that was what he was most famous for. Vlad Dracula engaged in various wars and battles of the time, and enemy troops sometimes imprisoned him. During one of his imprisonments, a bishop described him: “He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and terrible appearance, a strong and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, a thin reddish face in which very long eyelashes framed large wide-open green eyes; the bushy black eyebrows made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven, but for a mustache.” This is certainly not the image we have of Dracula today. Interestingly, not all scholars point to Vlad as only basis for Dracula. Some believe that Irish-native Bram Stoker used Irish folklore to base his original vampire. Irish mythology and history point to a shadowy figure known as Abhartach. He was a 5th Century king who apparently was also a dwarf. The following is an excerpt of the tale from 1875: This dwarf was a magician, and a dreadful tyrant, and after having perpetrated great cruelties on the people he was at last vanquished and slain by a neighboring chieftain…He was buried in a standing posture, but the very next day he appeared in his old haunts, more cruel and vigorous than ever. And the chief slew him a second time and buried him as before, but again he escaped from the grave, and spread terror through the whole country. The chief then consulted a druid, and according to his directions, he slew the dwarf a third time, and buried him in same place, with his head downwards; which subdued his magical power, so that he never again appeared on earth.” #archaeohistories