Ch 7 – Dracula Horror Stories of the Fifteenth Century
* Contemporary German pamphlets contain a more intimate portrait of Dracula
o These were popular among medieval Germans, and created bad press for Dracula
o A realization of the Saxons’ desire for vengeance (due to Dracula’s restrictions against Saxon merchants in his territories)
* Most stories are tales of horror with some sort of moral for the reader
* German Catholic monks from Transylvania were responsible for starting the legends
* St. Gall narrative
o Dracula is portrayed as “one of the worst tyrants of history, far worse than the most depraved emperors of Rome such as Caligula and Nero”
o Written by Brother Jacob of the Benedictine order
o Describes the circumstances of his first encounter with Dracula- first Dracula horror story born at the end of 1462
* Some stories from Benedictine monks of the Melk abbey inserted into their annals
* Michel Beheim, court poet of the emperor Frederick III
o Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman Called Dracula of Wallachia
----> Represents the most extensive contemporary account of Dracula’s life story
* Progressive popularization of the Dracula story due to the invention of the printing press and the production of cheap rag paper
o 1463 – first Dracula news sheet printed in either Vienna or Wiener Neustadt
o Horror genre was very popular
o Several pamphlets included woodcuts depicting Dracula (the most famous woodcuts show Dracula dining happily among a forest of his impaled victims)
----> Showed many methods of impalement, not discriminating between age, sex, nationality, or religion
* A common model inspired all fifteenth-century Dracula narratives
o Much similarity among Dracula narratives written in different languages
o Possibly stems from oral ballads and traditions that contain anecdotes similar to those mentioned elsewhere
o No one single source—identical stories about Dracula appeared in the reports of official chroniclers, diplomats, and travelers; in folklore of neighboring states; and in a great number of languages
* Measure of credibility is added with mentioning of precise locations, figures, and dates
* Sources may be verified by primary documentation in Brasov and Sibiu archives
* Dracula’s motives for his horrible deeds, according to the German horror stories:
o Revenge
o Inter-family feuds
o Protection of Transylvanian commerce
o Establishment of personal authority
o Affirmation of national sovereignty
* Anecdotes, which cannot be connected to any specific place or date, occur in three variants: German, Slavonic, and Romanian- for this reason they may be considered authentic
o Coincide in terms of moral and political philosophy, specific methods of punishment, Dracula’s characteristics, events, and policies
o Keep with contemporary references to Dracula’s attempt to set a strict code of ethics in his land
o Shows Dracula’s employment of morbid measures
* Dracula’s criminality
o Look at the standards of the time—the Renaissance was marked by extraordinary inhumanity
o Cruel traits not unique in his family
o Dracula did spend more years in prison than he did on the throne- enforced the experience that “life was insecure—and cheap”
Ch 8 – The Historical Dracula, 1462-1476: Imprisonment and Death
* Dracula had escaped from his castle and went to seek support from ally Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus
* They met in the Romanian Sceii district and maintained a pretense of negations during a five-week period
* Matthias gave Dracula soldiers to embark on a campaign to liberate Wallachia from Turkish control under Dracula’s brother Radu
* Under orders of Matthias Dracula was captured, and brought back to Brasov- this arrest became a concern for all those powers that had a stake in the anti-Ottoman struggle
* Letters written from a place called Rothel were forged to blacken Dracula’s reputation and make him appear a traitor to the Christian cause
* Matthias dropped the campaign and alliance with Dracula, who was condemned as an “enemy of humanity”
* Without trial he was imprisoned for 12 years (1462-1474)
o This period is little documented
o Likely to have been imprisoned at Visegrad, the summer palace of Matthias, but documentation is unavailable
o Dracula was more of a hostage than a political prisoner to Matthias
o Remarriage while under arrest into the Hungarian royal family to Ilona Szilagy, Matthias’ cousin
o Dracula’s abandonment of Orthodoxy and conversion to Roman Catholicism
---->Only after this conversion did Matthias name him as the official candidate to the Wallachian throne
o Remarriage and conversion is hard to date
* Dracula was given the rank of Captain in a Catholic crusading army after his release
* 1475 – Formal compact signed by Matthias, Dracula, and Stephen of Moldavia, cornerstone of the renewed anti-Ottoman crusade sponsored by the new pope Sixtus IV
* Assassinated by either Basarab, a boyar, or a Turkish soldier in the heat of battle in November 1476
Ch 9 – Snagov: The Mystery of the Empty Grave
* Tradition places Dracula’s grave in the Snagov island monastery
o Snagov was once a little town, likely converted from a poorly defended monastery into an island fortress
o Also used as a place of punishment
o The monastery itself suffered much
----> Burned and partially destroyed by the Turks in 1462 after Radu’s inauguration
o Contained one of Romania’s first printing presses
----> Antim Ivireanu – monk who printed Romanian and Arabic versions of the Testaments
o Converted into a state prison in mid-nineteenth century
* 1931 – genealogist George Florescu and archaeologist Dinu Rosetti were assigned to dig around the monastery and elsewhere
o Stone beneath the altar, where Dracula was traditionally buried
----> When stone was removed, no casket or skeleton was found
o Entrance on the northern side contained an unmarked stone of the same size
----> Contained a casket, a skeleton covered in garments similar to those of Dracula worn in a portrait, and a cloisonné crown
o All grave’s contents disappeared from the History Museum of Bucharest
o The tomb near the altar is most likely the original and Greek monks may have reinterred Dracula’s remains near the entrance of the church. All inscriptions and Dracula’s portrait were removed from the original gravestone
* Unreasonable to expect that his tomb would have survived intact- this contributes to the undead aspect of the Dracula legend
*Thanks Caitlin Campbell*
* Contemporary German pamphlets contain a more intimate portrait of Dracula
o These were popular among medieval Germans, and created bad press for Dracula
o A realization of the Saxons’ desire for vengeance (due to Dracula’s restrictions against Saxon merchants in his territories)
* Most stories are tales of horror with some sort of moral for the reader
* German Catholic monks from Transylvania were responsible for starting the legends
* St. Gall narrative
o Dracula is portrayed as “one of the worst tyrants of history, far worse than the most depraved emperors of Rome such as Caligula and Nero”
o Written by Brother Jacob of the Benedictine order
o Describes the circumstances of his first encounter with Dracula- first Dracula horror story born at the end of 1462
* Some stories from Benedictine monks of the Melk abbey inserted into their annals
* Michel Beheim, court poet of the emperor Frederick III
o Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman Called Dracula of Wallachia
----> Represents the most extensive contemporary account of Dracula’s life story
* Progressive popularization of the Dracula story due to the invention of the printing press and the production of cheap rag paper
o 1463 – first Dracula news sheet printed in either Vienna or Wiener Neustadt
o Horror genre was very popular
o Several pamphlets included woodcuts depicting Dracula (the most famous woodcuts show Dracula dining happily among a forest of his impaled victims)
----> Showed many methods of impalement, not discriminating between age, sex, nationality, or religion
* A common model inspired all fifteenth-century Dracula narratives
o Much similarity among Dracula narratives written in different languages
o Possibly stems from oral ballads and traditions that contain anecdotes similar to those mentioned elsewhere
o No one single source—identical stories about Dracula appeared in the reports of official chroniclers, diplomats, and travelers; in folklore of neighboring states; and in a great number of languages
* Measure of credibility is added with mentioning of precise locations, figures, and dates
* Sources may be verified by primary documentation in Brasov and Sibiu archives
* Dracula’s motives for his horrible deeds, according to the German horror stories:
o Revenge
o Inter-family feuds
o Protection of Transylvanian commerce
o Establishment of personal authority
o Affirmation of national sovereignty
* Anecdotes, which cannot be connected to any specific place or date, occur in three variants: German, Slavonic, and Romanian- for this reason they may be considered authentic
o Coincide in terms of moral and political philosophy, specific methods of punishment, Dracula’s characteristics, events, and policies
o Keep with contemporary references to Dracula’s attempt to set a strict code of ethics in his land
o Shows Dracula’s employment of morbid measures
* Dracula’s criminality
o Look at the standards of the time—the Renaissance was marked by extraordinary inhumanity
o Cruel traits not unique in his family
o Dracula did spend more years in prison than he did on the throne- enforced the experience that “life was insecure—and cheap”
Ch 8 – The Historical Dracula, 1462-1476: Imprisonment and Death
* Dracula had escaped from his castle and went to seek support from ally Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus
* They met in the Romanian Sceii district and maintained a pretense of negations during a five-week period
* Matthias gave Dracula soldiers to embark on a campaign to liberate Wallachia from Turkish control under Dracula’s brother Radu
* Under orders of Matthias Dracula was captured, and brought back to Brasov- this arrest became a concern for all those powers that had a stake in the anti-Ottoman struggle
* Letters written from a place called Rothel were forged to blacken Dracula’s reputation and make him appear a traitor to the Christian cause
* Matthias dropped the campaign and alliance with Dracula, who was condemned as an “enemy of humanity”
* Without trial he was imprisoned for 12 years (1462-1474)
o This period is little documented
o Likely to have been imprisoned at Visegrad, the summer palace of Matthias, but documentation is unavailable
o Dracula was more of a hostage than a political prisoner to Matthias
o Remarriage while under arrest into the Hungarian royal family to Ilona Szilagy, Matthias’ cousin
o Dracula’s abandonment of Orthodoxy and conversion to Roman Catholicism
---->Only after this conversion did Matthias name him as the official candidate to the Wallachian throne
o Remarriage and conversion is hard to date
* Dracula was given the rank of Captain in a Catholic crusading army after his release
* 1475 – Formal compact signed by Matthias, Dracula, and Stephen of Moldavia, cornerstone of the renewed anti-Ottoman crusade sponsored by the new pope Sixtus IV
* Assassinated by either Basarab, a boyar, or a Turkish soldier in the heat of battle in November 1476
Ch 9 – Snagov: The Mystery of the Empty Grave
* Tradition places Dracula’s grave in the Snagov island monastery
o Snagov was once a little town, likely converted from a poorly defended monastery into an island fortress
o Also used as a place of punishment
o The monastery itself suffered much
----> Burned and partially destroyed by the Turks in 1462 after Radu’s inauguration
o Contained one of Romania’s first printing presses
----> Antim Ivireanu – monk who printed Romanian and Arabic versions of the Testaments
o Converted into a state prison in mid-nineteenth century
* 1931 – genealogist George Florescu and archaeologist Dinu Rosetti were assigned to dig around the monastery and elsewhere
o Stone beneath the altar, where Dracula was traditionally buried
----> When stone was removed, no casket or skeleton was found
o Entrance on the northern side contained an unmarked stone of the same size
----> Contained a casket, a skeleton covered in garments similar to those of Dracula worn in a portrait, and a cloisonné crown
o All grave’s contents disappeared from the History Museum of Bucharest
o The tomb near the altar is most likely the original and Greek monks may have reinterred Dracula’s remains near the entrance of the church. All inscriptions and Dracula’s portrait were removed from the original gravestone
* Unreasonable to expect that his tomb would have survived intact- this contributes to the undead aspect of the Dracula legend
*Thanks Caitlin Campbell*
