Dracula Origin in Vlad The Impaler

Dracula

The library collection of the British museum in London is a storehouse of arcane knowledge and it was here that the concept of Dracula originated in 19th century Irish author, Bram Stoker. Stoker spent his time combing through numerous volumes concerning medicine, the occult, as well as the history and geography of Eastern Europe.

Today, the world's most famous vampire has been undead for over one hundred years.

American historian, Raymond McNally came across Stoker's sources; Stoker found a book, in which Vlad Tepes had been discussed, also known as Vlad The Impaler. Therefore he composed his major character around Tepes. The Romanian prince and Dracula became one. The shocking and frightening history of the wild prince is in that book, shows the cruelty of his nature. It illustrates how the prince impaled people and roasted them, boiling their heads, next to the heads of cattle; of sheep; how he skinned them alive and hacked them into pieces, then drank their blood.

In Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula travels to England, intent on dominating the world. Stoker looked for the optimal places in which to set his novel. He combed papers and diaries; researched accounts of Jack The Ripper who shocked the British public by brutally cutting up and murdering prostitutes, and whose identity was never known. At the turn of the century horror tales were popular, Stoker knew that if his vampire tale had a contemporary setting it would be devoured by the public.

There were popular vampire tales before Dracula. Many of them were set in Austria, and Bram Stoker originally wanted his story to be set in that region. Stoker then became influenced by Transylvanian superstitions, the Carpathian mountains, and he moved his setting to 'the land beyond the forest'. He described it as a bleak mountainous region, difficult to reach, infested with ghosts.

500 years ago Vlad Tepes, the historical Count Dracula, ruled this region. Even today the people of the area. honor his memory. Not far from his fortress lies the town of Sighiesoara. The locals may never have read Stoker's book, but they know about the original count Dracula who is revered as a great warrior. A monument was erected in Dracula's birthplace in his honour. According to the local people, he brought peace and stability to the region. The town is essentially unchanged since Dracula's time.

In Dracula's era, times were hard. The Ottomans had set out to dominate Wallachia. At the birthplace of Vlad, is a fresco of the only recognized likeness of his father, Vlad Dracul. The word 'Dracula' has two meanings, 'devil' and 'dragon'. Dracula is, 'son of Dracule'. Vlad Dracul got his name from an affiliation with 'The Order Of The Dragon', founded by the Emperor of Luxembourg.

Romania in the fifteenth century was caught between Islam and Christendom. The Ottoman armies attacked Wallachia and Transylvania. Dracul often negotiated with the Ottomans, but his son, Vlad Tepes, fought them back ferociously. Although the Sultan's army was three times the size of Vlad Dracul's, Vlad Tepes defeated it with a combination of barbarity and cunning.

Vlad showed himself a master of psychological warfare. As the sultan approached Târgovieste, the capital of Wallachia, he witnessed a sight so terrible, it caused his armies to retreat.

The Sultan said, 'what can I do to anybody who commits such atrocities? The forest of the impaled - as it became known - was the site of a gruesome war crime. Twenty thousand people, were impaled. The technique was successful; the Sultan and his army retreated for good. The sufferers consisted of Turkish war prisoners and Dracul's political challengers. From then on Vlad Tepes became 'the impaler'. It is true that Vlad Tepes was a barbaric leader, though his ruthlessness was a political instrument of power. This technique of impalement prevented his enemies from defeating him,so frightened they were by the prospect of such a horrible fate. Armies of men turned back in horror.

Count Dracula's actions need to be understood within the context of history. The penalty for crime in the middle-ages was especially severe. Life was cheap, and even small offences were penalized harshly. The high courts had such terrible methods of execution that Dracula's deeds were quite the norm, though none the less horrendous for that. In Western Europe, among the most hideous punishments for theft or murder was to be broken on the wheel. When a culprit was condemned to being broken on the wheel, he was laid on the ground, his arms and legs spread apart, while the executioner hurled a wagon wheel with such ferocity that he often died before being tied to the spokes. An iron blade was connected, and the wheeled or broken person taken outside the city. The wheel was then mounted on a post and the victim left to the dogs.

Torture was frequent back then, and an effective tool of inquisition. The longer the implicated person stayed silent, the more gruesome the torture. The execution depended on the offence. Impaling was a medieval kind of execution where the detainee was raised upon a sharpened spike, and with heavy weights affixed to his arms and legs the spike slowly penetrated the victim's body until it reached his heart and killed him. Nonetheless this was a rare practice, sawing in half, or impaling the guilty person was hardly ever used before Vlad.

Vlad did not confine his cruelty to his enemies, his subjects were also tyrannised for minor infringements such as not paying their taxes. Vlad thought nothing of impaling children. If it was political expedience or pure sadism, the fact remains that count Dracula was a hideously cruel and barbaric despot. Dracula's descendent, a great-granddaughter now into the 27th generation, believes the loss of his wife made Dracula turn bitter. When Dracula's wife, Elizabeth, received false information about his death, she killed herself by throwing herself out of the castle, and plunging into the icy river below. A forged letter from the Turks triggered this event, and thereafter Dracula hated the Ottomans with a vengeance. That section of the river is still known as 'river of the princess'. Dracula's descendant thinks her ancestor's cruelty became much more extreme upon the death of his wife. His lust for power and death increased and he was known thereafter as 'devil'.