Dracula myth, reality and fiction
In 1897 Bram Stoker published Dracula, one of the most horror novels known throughout the world. Irish writer encouraged his work the famous myth of the vampire, a demon with sharp teeth and grotesque features: living dead feeding on the blood of the living and that turns its victims into his equal. However, beyond the horrific fiction, Stoker based his creation in the history of Vlad III of Wallachia, fifteenth century Romanian prince who is credited with the murder of hundreds of thousands of people by the method of impalement. But what's real and what is fiction?
Vlad III was born around 1430 in Sighisoara, Transylvania. Dracula's nickname inherited from his father, Vlad Dracul named part of the Order of the Dragon, a religious order that was in charge of fighting the enemies of Western Christianity, which was granted by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. However, Vlad III would soon begin to be known by another nickname, Vlad Tepes (Impaler in Romanian).
impalement is a form of torture that is through a person or animal with a stick. According to history books have, Vlad III thus punished anyone who broke their laws. Not content to execute this sentence, leaving his victims impaled on for months, for all contemplate what happened when his orders were not obeyed. Dedication and recreation with carrying out this imposing torture he received the nickname that has passed into history.
The most common way was to put the enemy on the sharp point of a stake, impale the stomach or heart, lift it and let it die. It was a relatively quick death for those convicted more fortunate. Others were less fortunate, and were impaled through the rectum, in a slow and painful, in an agony he could reach up to three days.
To perform this type of impalement were used two horses pulling each leg of the victim, while he introduced a stake through the anus. Normally, the stake was smeared in oil and was not too keen to prolong the suffering. To the same end, usually only introduced a little stick, so that the convicted was impaled by their own weight.
Vlad was a brave and ruthless prince who ruled their territories on a rail, and spent his life in revenge for the atrocities they suffered during their existence, including the murder of his father or induced suicide of his wife . This is an aspect of the life of Vlad Tepes Bram Stoker knew that reflect in his work with skill, making the character of Dracula into a being ruthless, vindictive and bloodthirsty.
reached
The real Dracula the throne of Wallachia in 1448. This region was between two of the most powerful nations in history, the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe, engaged in a religious war over territorial. The murder of his father and brother at the hands of the regent of Hungary, John Hunyadi, he rose to the throne with only seventeen. However, his reign lasted only two months, after which they had to flee into exile. The noble boyars as king appointed a Danesti, rival clan backed by the Hungarians, with the intention to maintain their economic privileges. That's how Sighisoara Vlad Tepes departed with a promise to return and kill him.
Truth Bran Castle on
Among other differences between fiction and reality, the novelist Bram Stoker Dracula ranked Bran Castle, situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia. However, there is really no evidence that Vlad Tepes came to tread the castle. There are inconsistencies in the history books that force to doubt if the tyrant Wallachian prince came to live in Bran.
However, although there are no documents that treasure, there are theories that suggest that Dracula lived in the castle for six years or so, between 1950 and 1956, it launched an offensive to regain the throne. The Bran fortress was the most Secure the border of Transylvania and the ideal setting to prepare their assault on power.
Either way, the legend has generated a huge tourist attraction for the castle, which has become one of the most visited places in Eastern Europe, a place must for fans of the famous vampire.
Ascent to the throne of Wallachia
After seven years of exile, Prince Vlad III, allied with the Turks, gathered enough support to return to Wallachia to claim his reign. It was in the spring of 1456 when he regained his throne after murdering the king Danesti imposed by the Hungarians, Vladislav II. The death of John Hunyadi, the victim of an epidemic fever, he paved the way.
Vlad Tepes was a very intelligent person and knew who was to ally himself at all times to achieve their purposes. Throughout his life he was a friend and an enemy of Hungarians and Turks, as interested him the support of one or the other. Is remembered today in Romania as one of the most important leaders who fought the Turkish invasions, and as the man who liberated the country from Hungarian domination.
Once on the throne, was quick to move the capital to Tergoviste where boyars continued to dominate politics. The idea that they could band together to get rid of him lighting an idea for defense. In addition to his defensive instincts, his dislike of the aristocracy was also personal, and have led to the murder of his father. Thus, he built a palace complex surrounded by walls, and a tower, with the intention of being protected and to carry out his revenge. Chindia Tower, now a symbol of Tergoviste, witnessed one of the largest massacres carried out by Vlad III.
On Easter Sunday 1457, the boyars invited to the opening of his new palace. After inviting them to lunch at the Great Hall, treating them with honor, he sent impaled, wives and servants included. According to historical documents, did spike to 500 of them. Executing the innocent along with guilty, and left his victims exposed to the palace gates. This story is definitely inspired Bram Stoker to create a vampire Vlad III, as the legend says that while dining among its victims, dipped the bread in their blood.
This legend, never proved, was one of the most influenced by Irish writer, undoubtedly based her novel on historical fact, combined with thousands of years of tradition and superstition vampire of the ancient world. Stoker found a major source of vampire superstition in Western Europe, collected in a book titled Emily Gerard The land beyond the forest (translation of Transylvania).
The horror stories that originated in Europe in the late nineteenth century served to try to explain what he apparently had no explanation. The vision was about illness and death was shrouded in superstition and ignorance of the time, and said that the dead returned from their graves to be the living, or to feed them. The bodies "suspects" were beheaded or burned by the mob, and even pinned to the ground with a stake to remain in the grave. The stake had to be of oak, such as crucifixes, which became sacred objects demons, as the vampire, helpless beings. In this tradition was based superstitious populace Stoker to present the stake as the perfect weapon against Dracula.
Another famous antidotes to combat the vampire is garlic. It is hard to find in the history of Vlad III no reference to it, so it probably had to devise Bram Stoker this choice based on some other aspect. According to some sites of terror, the use of garlic is due to a scientific question, in particular its ability to reduce levels of hemoglobin in the blood. This decrease would lead to an increase in the severity of the attacks of porphyria, a genetic disease that causes in patients intolerant to the sun and extreme pallor. A type of disease at the time of Stoker had no treatment, which resulted in a set of legends that the author used in his novel.
The forest of impaled
On Easter Sunday of 1457 was not the end of the boyars. Vlad III took the lives of many, but reserved a greater punishment for those who felt they deserved more suffering. In Poenari subjected to forced labor survivors, forcing them to participate in the construction of what is considered real Dracula's Castle, on a cliff in the mountains of Fagaras. The libros de historia dicen que trabajaban en condiciones inhumanas, descalzos, desnudos y con el sustento justo para poder seguir siendo torturados. El castillo estaba situado en una posición estratégica, desde la que Drácula podía tratar con los sajones de Transilvania, y desde donde dominaba con facilidad la capital y los reinos de Valaquia. Hoy en día, el Castillo de Poenari, en ruinas, se considera uno de los lugares más terroríficos del planeta.
Controlar a los sajones transilvanos se convirtió en una obsesión para Vlad Tepes, que desconfiaba continuamente de posibles conspiraciones en su contra. Con el fin de mantenerlos a raya, preparó un ataque contra la ciudad de Brasov, tomándola por sorpresa, night, and looting the surrounding area. All died impaled captured, thousands, and the image is repeated on Easter Sunday. Both stories are among the first to link the Wallachian prince with vampirism, but this scene there is also a graphic document. This is an illustration, an image created by the Saxons, entitled The forest of impaled, where Vlad Tepes was appreciated at a table eating among its victims.
writer Jesus Pardo, in his book Conversations with Transylvania , pick a few words of the late Romanian historian Nicolae Stoicescu, asserting that "the bad reputation of Vlad Tepes is due to his enemies Hungarians and Germans, whose hatred spread all sorts of falsehoods about him, distorting the image of the prince and the reasons for their actions. "
With Brasov subject, Vlad III focused on the Ottoman Empire. He had refused to pay a tax for freedom of Wallachia, and the Turks did not hesitate to attack Tergoviste. The invasion, led by Sultan Mehmet II, began in the spring of 1462, and forced the army of Vlad Tepes to retreat northward. The Vlachs obliterated everything in their path, to leave no recourse to the Ottomans, burned crops, killed livestock, poisoned wells and burned the cities. In addition, left at the entrance of a new show Tergoviste impaled rotten. The Turks made their way to the capital in ruins, and found impaled field. The Sultan and his army marched Poenari Castle Dracula, where he eventually won the battle. However, before the fort was taken, Vlad managed to escape.
There are several theories about flight. Some suggest that went through the dungeons of his palace. And others who deceived the Turks turning over his horse's hoofs, and making them believe in the footsteps entering the castle instead of going out. Although ingenious, this second theory is not credible, despite of great intelligence who treasured the Wallachian prince.
Vlad went to the Hungarians to lend him aid, but King Matthias Corvinus, falling into a trap of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, imprisoned for alleged treason and non-existent. During the twelve years he spent in prison between 1463 and 1475, fell back into Wallachia pro-Turkish hands. The major European powers knew that Prince Dracula was best placed to deal with the Muslim threat and began to pressure the King Corvino to put it in freedom. The Hungarian king agreed after Vlad III pact with an oath of allegiance and renunciation of the Orthodox faith, converting to Catholicism.
After his release, he returned to Wallachia to regain his throne. But his reign ended last before starting. Concerning his death there are also various theories, difficult to demonstrate, some suggest that died in combat, fighting for the coveted throne of kingdoms Vlachs. And others point to the nobles was murdered by Saxons, who did not accept the end of their privileges.
In any case, rather than death of Vlad, interested in the birth of the legend of Dracula. The story goes that Mehmet II asked for his head as proof of his death, beheaded and his remains were moved to a monastery near Snagov. Supposedly, his last will was to be buried there in a crypt in front of the altar. Thus, when a priest stepped to give Mass, absolve him of any of their sins. However, subsequent excavations have shown that your body does not lie there. His whereabouts are shrouded in mystery that has fueled the legend of Dracula as a vampire.
Boosting vampire film and literature
With his novel about Dracula, Bram Stoker was the driving force behind the vampire myth, which has generated a host of new literary works and films. Since the film adaptations of the story of Dracula himself or the adventures of Dr. Van Helsing, to creating characters like Buffy, Blade, or the Twilight saga.
Irish writer added to the true story of Dracula, Vlad Tepes, aspects of their lives, from the Victorian era in which he lived. During his first seven years of existence, Stoker lived bedridden and listening to horror stories told by his mother. These stories affected his imagination, along with the long hours he spent playing in the cemetery next to suicide his home.
The work Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu, was so impressed that led him to initiate an investigation about vampires, a job that lasted seven years. This work, with a slight lesbian erotic and tells the story of a teenage vampire. Until the publication of Dracula, the Irish writer usually had written romances, a contribution which is also known to include your horror novel. As in Carmilla Le Fanu, Stoker used metaphors like the bite in the neck to treat sexual content, since the time not allowed to talk openly about sexuality. The bite as a means of conversion to vampirism tapped erotic novel.
Similarly, the hundreds of myths and legends about vampires of all time influenced his writing. The vampire myth has appeared in various forms in almost all cultures. Sekhmet among the Egyptians, the Greeks Lamia, Camazotz among the Maya, the Hindu Preta ... Any of these could be interpreted as the origin of what we mean by a vampire, but is widespread the idea of \u200b\u200bLilith, first wife of Adam, as the mother of all demons. Lilith represents the carnal lust and sin that Stoker was able to reflect in his work.
During the Middle Ages when he began to associate the vampire myth with human beings, and Bram Stoker took features of the history of Vlad Tepes mainly, inspired by that of Erzsébet Báthory, Hungarian countess who bathed in blood his servants to stay young. Hence the image contemporary vampires as immortal beings, supernatural beauty and attractiveness of eternal youth.
never know for sure how much was actually the cruelty of Dracula, beyond the fiction created by Bram Stoker. Irish writer never saw the success of his work. Published around the world, the novel has been translated into over 50 languages \u200b\u200band has become a reference of the horror genre. Stoker's Dracula was a vampire all. However, thanks to the twists of history, Vlad III has survived in Romania as a national hero, not as a tyrant and sadist who enjoyed impaling seeing innocent blood run.
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