Vladimir the Impaler

Vladimir the Impaler Let’s chat about the modern day vampire. You know the one with ridiculous sparkling skin and a taste for human blood? Well, if you really would like to learn more about this “Creature of the Night”, you’d probably have to go way back in time. Not back to dinosaur age, no, but back to around the year of 1897. This may not be the time that this man was born, but when a different man brought his legend to life. This was the date that Bram Stoker published his hit novel— “Dracula” Back then, the sales for the book had skyrocketed, and then began the start of the Vampire era. This was not the very beginning, however. Let’s go farther back, into the year of 1431. This was the year of Vladimir’s birth. The night was a night of frigid winds that bit the skin, and flushed the face. As a young child, Vlad had been around gore far more than any child should be. Sure, children of this time period play video games that include some forms of violence, but you do not se children running around with guns after playing such games, right? Well, Vlad’s childhood was spent as a captive of the Turkish men that had been associated with his father, Vlad Dracula II, for several years. This was a consequence of Dracula’s actions, and the young Vlad with his brother Radu had been depending on his father’s behavior for their fate. During their time in the Turkish clutches, Vlad and Radu had been greatly respected, if not pampered. Even if their life in “prison” was alright, the boys were careful of their actions sometimes. Rumors say that along with Vlad and Radu were two other boys, princes of another country, who had been sending secret messages to their father. Their punishment was hot irons to both of their eyes. After returning to his home in Wallachia, Vlad had grown considerably. He had heard word later that his father had been brutally murdered in war, and that his brother was buried alive. This may have been the stem of his violence in the later years of his life, though none can be truly sure in the matter. Later in life, when Vlad was ruler of Wallachia, his violence had grown, and soon he was a man of murder. His most famous method of death or torture was what had inspired his name today; impalement. Impalement was Vlad's favorite but by no means his only method of torture. The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince reads like an inventory of hell's tools: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals and boiling alive. In such cases, many have reported that he had impaled several vertically, or through the chest and abdomen. Most reports, however, told of the horrors of how the impaled were placed around his castle by the thousands, rotting for not days, but months at a time. Some have said that Vladimir got a weird pleasure out of torturing his victims, and sometimes killed for no apparent reason at all. This once kept enemies away from invading Vlad’s castle, and the carcasses on the poles ranged in the thousands, making a forest of flesh and blood. Vlad was truly a force to reckon with. Once settled down with his bloody reputation, Vlad was captured. After charming a prince that held him captive, he married the prince’s sister. When he tried to reclaim his throne in Wallachia, he was captured and beheaded. This was a very gruesome fate of a very gruesome soul. So now, as we think about today’s vampire, we find that they are more innocent than the original monster that Bram Stoker had thought of when he had thought of Dracula. No, he had no special powers, or fangs to bite into the neck of humans or animals, but we still fear him. He was the man who birthed a legend by causing such fear. .

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