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Alexandru's Reviews > Dracula
Dracula (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, #46)
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Matei Cazacu's 'Dracula' is probably the best academic history book available in English on Vlad III the Impaler (also known as Dracula). That is at least until Corpus Draculianum is translated into English, which will hopefully happen in the next few years.
The first part of the book goes through the history of Vlad the Impaler's reign and then the life of his successors. The second part analyses the various sources that we have available about the Vlad's life and the veridicity of these sources.
This is because Vlad was the probably one of the first victims of media slander. His greatest enemies, the Saxons of Transilvania likely used the newly invented printing press to publish and spread stories about the Voivode's violence. These stories involved things such as flesh eating, drinking blood, sadism and so on and were spread throughout the German speaking world. While Vlad the Impaler was well known for impaling his enemies, this was not very unusual at the time as several of his contemporaries did the same thing. There is little actual evidence outside of the German tales about his savagery and cruelty, for example Chalkokondyles does not mention anything about this despite covering the Ottoman campaign of 1462 in detail.
The main sources that we have about his life are:
- Geschite Dracole Waide (Anonymus, 1463)
- Von ainem wutrich der hies Trakle waida von der Walachei (Michael Beheim, 1463)
- Laonikos Chalkokondyles (c 1474)
- Skazanie o Drakule voevode (Fyodor Kuritsyn, 1486)
- Die Geschicht Dracole Waide (Anonymus, 1488)
The last part of the book also deals with the history of the modern myth of Dracula and explains Stoker's inspiration for his novel. Even though I don't really agree with including modern myths and inventions in an academic book about a medieval subject there were some very interesting facts here.
It seems that Stoker took great inspiration from Marie Nizet's Captain Vampire. This was a book written in 1879 (19 years before Dracula was published) by a Belgian writer who was very interested in Romania's fight for independence against Russia and the Ottoman Turks. The novel takes place during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 in Romania and Bulgaria and features Count Liatoukine, a Russian vampire that seduces women and drains their blood. Nizet likely took inspiration from Romanian folklore and the myth of the Sburator, an incubus that makes love to women at night. She was acquainted with Ion Heliade Radulescu, a Romanian writer that wrote a modern version of the Sburator myth in 1843.
This book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the medieval history of Eastern Europe and the life of the real Dracula.
The first part of the book goes through the history of Vlad the Impaler's reign and then the life of his successors. The second part analyses the various sources that we have available about the Vlad's life and the veridicity of these sources.
This is because Vlad was the probably one of the first victims of media slander. His greatest enemies, the Saxons of Transilvania likely used the newly invented printing press to publish and spread stories about the Voivode's violence. These stories involved things such as flesh eating, drinking blood, sadism and so on and were spread throughout the German speaking world. While Vlad the Impaler was well known for impaling his enemies, this was not very unusual at the time as several of his contemporaries did the same thing. There is little actual evidence outside of the German tales about his savagery and cruelty, for example Chalkokondyles does not mention anything about this despite covering the Ottoman campaign of 1462 in detail.
The main sources that we have about his life are:
- Geschite Dracole Waide (Anonymus, 1463)
- Von ainem wutrich der hies Trakle waida von der Walachei (Michael Beheim, 1463)
- Laonikos Chalkokondyles (c 1474)
- Skazanie o Drakule voevode (Fyodor Kuritsyn, 1486)
- Die Geschicht Dracole Waide (Anonymus, 1488)
The last part of the book also deals with the history of the modern myth of Dracula and explains Stoker's inspiration for his novel. Even though I don't really agree with including modern myths and inventions in an academic book about a medieval subject there were some very interesting facts here.
It seems that Stoker took great inspiration from Marie Nizet's Captain Vampire. This was a book written in 1879 (19 years before Dracula was published) by a Belgian writer who was very interested in Romania's fight for independence against Russia and the Ottoman Turks. The novel takes place during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 in Romania and Bulgaria and features Count Liatoukine, a Russian vampire that seduces women and drains their blood. Nizet likely took inspiration from Romanian folklore and the myth of the Sburator, an incubus that makes love to women at night. She was acquainted with Ion Heliade Radulescu, a Romanian writer that wrote a modern version of the Sburator myth in 1843.
This book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the medieval history of Eastern Europe and the life of the real Dracula.
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