Dracula - Myth and reality

Vlad Tepes was the Romanian character that is the most faimous in Europe and not only. He was the main character in the literary production from the second period of the XVth century in the Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Unfortunately this fame is a negative one and it shows the great leader as the symbol of the evil. How did such a complex personality end up to be such known when he was still alive?

The origins of his image are being pointed out by the nickname he was given “Tepes”, as he is known in the Romanian history. The nickname appears first in the Turkish chronicles of the XVth century and XVIth century. He is named as kaziklu bey (the prince that impales). Vlad was given this nickname because of the cruel method he had chosen to execute the war prisoners, the convicts and the adversaries.Vlad Tepes was a descendent from the Dragon Order, kwnown as The Draculestilor Order.

In german language the Dragon Order is called Drachenorden and in latin is called Societatis draconistrarum. It was a like any other knightly orders of the time, having as a rolemodel the “Order of St.George” built in 1318. Like his father, Vlad Tepes was a member of the Dragon Order. A proof of this is the signature he used to sign on official documents of the time: Dracula. Along the centuries this signature gained unexpected meanings.

The name Dracula was rapidly spread in all Europe of that time. In the Turkish language it was known under the name of Kazîclî; the Pec Bishop called it Dracole; Dan a knight who wanted the Romanian throne called him Dracul; in the Serbian annals before 1462 appears as Dracula; in the german story until 1462 appeared as Dracal or Dracao; the bishop Nicolae de Madrussa called him Dracul; the Venice Senat - Dragulia sau Draculia; the Hungarian king Matei Corvin –Dragula; bishop Erlau- Dragula sau Dragule. On purpose or not, the name of Vlad Tepes together with his behaviour brought him a great fame. His special skills and qualities along with his actions brought him a special place in the Romanian tradition not as a bad character but as a Robin Hood character. He was unmercifull with the rich people that broke the law and a good friend to the poor people.

For the Romanian land peasants he was the national hero that served their cause. He became famous because of the so called german stories that tried to denigrate the great leader. He is presented here as an antichrist, a criminal, a cannibal (an engraved stone shows him in the middle of the a spike forest waiting for his subjects to serve him human organs). This campaign was coordonated by the hungarian king Sigismund de Luxemburg, who had to justify the desertion of the crusade against the Ottoman Empire, as he was given important help from the Roman Pope.

As Vlad Tepes had organized himself a campaign against the Ottoman Empire, well seen by the Pope, Sigismund’s action was received very well. He paid for some false writings against the Wallachian leader.This falses include: The manuscript from Viena, incorporated in the Chronichle of Thomas Ebendorfer, the comments of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the next to be Pope under the name of Pius the II (1458-1464), the verses of Michael Beheim. From all the documents, the verses of Michael Beheim from 1462 – 1463 :“Von ainem wutrich der hies Trakle waida von der Walachei” (About a tiran under the name of Dracula from the Romanian land) seem to be the most complex with 1070 verses. It is a synthesis of the German stories about Vlad Tepes, having a very powerful and eloquent ending. 950 of the verses describe the cruelties of him and in the other verses the horrible betrayal that led rightfully to his arrest.

Being at the wrong time in the wrong moment Vlad Tepes was transformed from a great political and military personality of his time into a criminal of the history.The concept of “vampire” has the meaning taken from prehistoric times when the man being a hunter discovered that when an animal is killed and his blood draines from his veins, his life ends.The blood became in the mind of the hunter the source of life.

That is why some tribal members used to drink the blood of the animals killed, in order to reclame their vitality. This practice was extended until the midlle ages, where the predjudices of the Christian church turned this ritual practice from the life to the dead, and so the vampires appeared.As one of the most frequent fenomenon of the world history, the vampires had left their “fingerprint” on history since antiquity. From the egiptian culture, from the greek culture (the first wife of Zeus, Lilith, was considered to be a vampire), and from the jewish culture until the far East to the Japanese (where are the vampire animals), the vampires have fascinated and intrigued the human society.