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The last 100 years brought into the lime light of the contemporary literature and show industry an old element of the traditional European folklore and legends: the vampires. Thought to be un-dead damned persons, cursed creatures of the night, blood thirsty killers passing to innocent people their terrible burden, the vampires haunt the imagination of the public who is eager to be frightened by horrific images. Bram Stoker, an Irish novelist, is among the first notable western authors to have used the myth of vampires in a successful literary work. His famous novel Dracula, published in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company, was at the time of its publication a moderate success. After 1922 when it was released a film adaptation, the popularity of Dracula and the vampires increased considerably. Nosferatu, directed by the German director F. W. Murnau brought into the show biz the image of the un-dead man who haunted the imagination of people seeing one of the first horror movie ever made.

Myth and Legend versus Reality

How much of the legend of the vampires is true and where did it originate? Basically it is thought that a vampire is a person who does not die, an un-dead whose dead body goes out of the tomb at night and sucks blood from the living. There is no scientific evidence that there are such creatures as vampires or the un-dead. And yet some scientists believe that the folklore could be based on medical fact. Some of the traits commonly attributed to these creatures – long fangs, pale skin, sensitivity to light – may describe illnesses which were very frequent in the Middle Ages: porphyria (hereditary transmitted blood disease) or rabies. The peasants’ imagination in the 14th and 15th centuries may also have been sparked by unusual symptoms or phenomena which they could not explain and were attributed to evil spirits or supernatural forces.

Legends and myths related to vampires appear in many cultures around the world and these beliefs are supported by the idea that blood is the most powerful substance. The ancient people of China, Egypt, Greece or Rome believed in vampires. Israel itself has its own idea about them. Lilith – mentioned in the Talmud – was transformed into a monster roaming at night. In Peru people thought there was a blood sucking monster which got, at night, young people’s life. This belief in the existence of vampires was particularly strong in Transylvania where pagan traditions got mixed with Christian Orthodox religious practices. It is said that the soul does not leave the dead body for the afterlife until the 40th day after burial.

One can protect against vampires using various methods. Among the best known are the garlic, the silver bullet and the thorns of wild roses. Garlic seems to be extremely efficient against vampires. Garlic hangs from doors and windows of houses to keep vampires out. Poppy seeds are tossed around cemeteries because the vampires are compulsive counters. It is thought that when such a creature awakes he or she will spend the night counting and will be forced to return to the tomb before dawn. Of course these ‘sure’ methods of killing a vampire have been tested in many films and people in the countryside in certain regions still practice them just to follow the tradition.

Dracula

The name ‘Dracula’ itself is very significant especially for the speakers of Romanian. ‘Drac’ in Romanian is the equivalent for the English word ‘evil’ or ‘satan’. In old Romanian the ending ‘-ulea’ meant ‘the son of’ so Dracula can be translated as ‘the son of the devil’.

In 1972 Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally published In Search of Dracula. The two authors suggested that there was a connection between the Transylvanian-born Vlad III or Vlad the Impaler (in Romanian Ţepeş – tse-pesh) and Stoker’s fictional character. Vlad the Impaler ruled Wallachia (medieval Romanian principality, part of modern Romania) between 1456 – 1462 and he is said to have killed between 20,000 to 50,000 civilians by using his favourite method of impaling on sharp wooden poles.

Nicholas of Modrussa, the Papal envoy in Budapest, wrote Pope Pius II that Vlad Dracula massacred 40,000 people of all ages and nationalities in 1464. Vlad the Imapler was the son of Vlad II, surnamed Dracul (the devil). Vlad II was admitted to a secret order of knights called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg to protect the Christendom against the Turks. The people believed the dragon to represent the devil and its evil forces - Vlad II used the emblem of the order on his coat of arms – and because of the similarities between the word ‘drac’ and ‘dragon’ and due to his cruelty they called him Dracul (Vlad the Devil).

As a ruler of Wallachia he was a merciless voievode (the title of the rulers of the medieval Romanian principalities). And still his behaviour does not seem too cruel if we consider the historic context – a time when beheading or killing people was a common practice, a time of constant war at the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire and the Christian Europe.

His son, Vlad III the Impaler was indeed a cruel ruler but the main source of his fame are the records kept by the Saxon merchants settled in Transylvania, especially in Sighişoara, Braşov and Sibiu, who had frequent clashes with him for economical and political reasons. The ‘campaign’ worked and the once called ‘Defender of the Faith’ remained in history as the blood thirsty voievode of Wallachia.

Stoker, more than 400 years later, sets the action of his novel in an old Transylvanian castle but it seems that he had no real idea about the political realities in that part of the world in the 15th or the 19th century. The furthest he went eastwards to gather information was the library at the British Museum. His fictional work is based only on books and historic records and even on personal opinions and suppositions. Vlad the Impaler was not a monster, at least according to the standards of his time. All over Europe rulers of the kingdoms or principalities killed their rivals just to secure their throne. Nowadays it is just a matter of interpreting his deeds according to our modern standards.

Dracula in modern Romania

Some historical places that are more or less connected to Vlad the Impaler are publicized under Dracula theme to foreign markets. In Sighişoara, where it is held each summer a medieval festival in July, the main theme is Dracula and the house where Vlad was born is paid great attention by the tourists visiting the old citadel.

The Bran Castle – which has recently been given back to its lawful owner Dominic Habsburg – and which has been branded as the Dracula Castle - had only an irrelevant connection with the real Vlad the Impaler. Situated in a pass between Wallachia and Transylvania, in the Transylvanian Alps (the Carpathians), it held a special place on medieval commercial routes. Vlad stayed there only for a day or two and he left no traceable marks on the architecture of the fortress and it is for sure that Dracula had not sucked any innocent girl’s blood there.

Beware

Real or not you’d better be afraid and protect yourself against vampires because they can be anywhere. They traveled by ship in the 19^th century but now they are traveling faster by plane or by car. So go to the first market and buy some garlic, just in case.