One of my favorite Halloween monsters would have to be the ever so famous Dracula. This character has been in a countless number of movies but is he really just a mystical creature? Little do people know.. he onced lived, not as a blood sucking creature of course, but as a feared, gruesome man.
Vlad the Impaler -Tepes was born in the town of Sighisoara in Transylvaniain 1431 and later ruled the area of Southern Romania known as Wallachia. His father was Vlad Dracul who was a knight in the Order of the Dragon which was a union of central and Eastern European rulers who were a tad worried about the rising Ottoman empire.
The Order of the Dragon's coat of arms was a dragon (the Ottomans) and a cross (Christianity). Vlad Dracul bore this coat of arms on everything, flags, coins, and his seal. It attracted the nickname of "Dracul" meaning Devil in Romanian.
The second son was soon born to Vlad Dracul - that being Vlad II - therefore the name developed an "a" representing the son of Dracul - "DRACULA", the son of the Devil.
The word "tepes" in Romanian means "impaler" and Vlad was so named because of his cruel and gruesome habit of impaling humans and leaving them to rot in the sun as a means of punishing his enemies. This is where the myth that Dracula kills innocent humans comes and leaving people to rot in the sun is similar to the legend that vampires die in sunlight. He was a cruel and terrible ruler. He killed citizens of the town who has done something that wasn't by the "rules".The victim was stuck on a sharp stake usually the width of a big burly man's arm .Vlad was said to especially enjoyed mass executions, where several victims were impaled at once, and their stakes hoisted upright. As they hung suspended above the ground, the weight of their bodies would slowly drag them downwards, causing the sharpened end of the stake to pierce their internal organs causing a slow painful death. In order to better enjoy these mass spectacles, Vlad routinely ordered a banquet table set up in front of his victims, and would enjoy a supper even though the pitiful sights and sounds of the dying were right in front of him . It is estimated that Vlad killed some 20,000 men, women and children - the amount of people he killed varies from anywhere between 20,000 to 500,000. He showed no mercy and often tortured his enemies before killing them.
At the same time that Vlad became notorious for his sadism, he was also respected by his subjects because of his fierce campaigns against the Turks. He was respected as a warrior and a stern ruler who tolerated no crime against his people, and during his reign erected several monasteries. He was a hero that was both worshiped and feared by his people
The Order of the Dragon's coat of arms was a dragon (the Ottomans) and a cross (Christianity). Vlad Dracul bore this coat of arms on everything, flags, coins, and his seal. It attracted the nickname of "Dracul" meaning Devil in Romanian.
The second son was soon born to Vlad Dracul - that being Vlad II - therefore the name developed an "a" representing the son of Dracul - "DRACULA", the son of the Devil.
The word "tepes" in Romanian means "impaler" and Vlad was so named because of his cruel and gruesome habit of impaling humans and leaving them to rot in the sun as a means of punishing his enemies. This is where the myth that Dracula kills innocent humans comes and leaving people to rot in the sun is similar to the legend that vampires die in sunlight. He was a cruel and terrible ruler. He killed citizens of the town who has done something that wasn't by the "rules".The victim was stuck on a sharp stake usually the width of a big burly man's arm .Vlad was said to especially enjoyed mass executions, where several victims were impaled at once, and their stakes hoisted upright. As they hung suspended above the ground, the weight of their bodies would slowly drag them downwards, causing the sharpened end of the stake to pierce their internal organs causing a slow painful death. In order to better enjoy these mass spectacles, Vlad routinely ordered a banquet table set up in front of his victims, and would enjoy a supper even though the pitiful sights and sounds of the dying were right in front of him . It is estimated that Vlad killed some 20,000 men, women and children - the amount of people he killed varies from anywhere between 20,000 to 500,000. He showed no mercy and often tortured his enemies before killing them.
At the same time that Vlad became notorious for his sadism, he was also respected by his subjects because of his fierce campaigns against the Turks. He was respected as a warrior and a stern ruler who tolerated no crime against his people, and during his reign erected several monasteries. He was a hero that was both worshiped and feared by his people
But maybe there was a bit more to Vlad's murderous bloodthirsty habits than we first thought.
In 1985 an Idaho physician Dr. Thomas McDevitt suggested that he may have suffered from a bizarre allergic reaction to blood. He said that in some allergic reactions to a given substance, sufferers also developed an addiction to that same substance, and if deprived of it they could react in a highly bizarre and deranged manner. Could Vlad of just been throwing a tantrum every time he craved blood? Portraits of Dracula show him with dark circles beneath his eyes, puffy cheeks and a sallow pallid complexion - classic characteristics of some types of allergy victim.
He was killed at battle in 1476 but his body was never found. This is why he became the mystical creature he is known to be today. The novel by Bram Stoker depicted him as a bloodthirsty vampire but who knows... maybe he's still out there waiting for his next victim.
No comments:
Post a Comment