“I Am…Dracula.”

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

October 12, 2007 |

Before Bela Lugosi, before Max Schreck, even before Bram Stoker, there were vampire legends, but there was also Vlad Tepes, “the impaler”, son of Vlad II of Romania, a member of the Order of The Dragon (Dracul), who imparted to his son the name Dracula. A Fifteenth Century prince, Vlad Tepes defended his country against Turkish invaders, using famously savage methods, including . He was as legendary a hero as he was feared as a bloodthirsty menace. Without Bram Stoker he might have continued in relative obscurity, famous in Romania but generally overlooked in world history.

For information about Vlad Tepes check out In Search of Dracula by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu (as an interesting side note, Vlad had a brother named Radu). While it includes chapters on vampire legends, vampirism, and Bram Stoker and the cinematic Dracula, where the book really excels is in redefining Vlad as a historical figure, a complex, possibly psychopathic individual with a fascinating history. Born in 1431 in the old German town Schassburg, he was actually temporarily put in power in Wallachia, a Southern Romanian province, by the Turks who had imprisoned him at the age of twenty. He only lasted two months, though, before fleeing to Moldavia. Wallachia was where his ancestors were from, and he would rule there again from 1456 to 1462, then briefly in 1476. He was both a crusader on behalf of his people and a despot who tortured and murdered many of his own subjects, impaling many and varying the methods of empalement to make their deaths excruciatingly painful and slow. He was, however, never believed to be a vampire until Bram Stoker wrote his famous novel. It’s enough to make you wonder what Vlad Tepes would do to all those who have, for eternity, associated him with vampires.