Dracula: Hero or Villain? Radu R. Florescu

racula is the real name of a Left: Portrait of Dracula Wallachian ruler, also known to at Castle Ambras, near DRomanian chroniclers as Vlad lnnsbruck, Austria. The the Impaler. Dracula is a derivative of artist is unknown, but his father's name, Dracul, which in this appears to be a Romanian means the devil. According to copy painted during the those more charitably inclined, the second half of the 16th father was so known because he had century from an earlier been invested by the Holy Roman original that was proba­ Emperor with the Order of the Dragon, bly painted during dedicated to fighting "the Infidel:' Dracula's imprison­ Dracula was, therefore, either the son of ment at Buda or evil or the son of good, villain or hero. Visegnid after 1462. Dracula ruled the Romanian princi­ pality of Wallachia on three separate occasions: in 1448, from 1456 to 1462, Right: The Chindia and, briefly, shortly before his assassina­ watchtower at Tirgo­ tion in 1476. These dates correspond to vi~te; a 19th-century one of the most crucial periods in the reconstruction. Apart country's history. Constantinople had from its role as an fallen in 1453, most of the lands south of observation post, it Wallachia had been converted into enabled Dracula to Turkish pashaliks, and the last hero of watch impalements in the Balkan crusades, John Hunyadi, had the courtyard below. died in the plague of Belgrade in 1456. Images courtesy The Danube was thus the frontier of Radu R. Florescu Christendom at a time when Moham­ med the Conqueror was planning fur­ chronicle which mentions Dracula, dat­ Genoese, English, and French chroniclers ther Turkish inroads. ing from almost a century after his of the 15th century. It is also in this guise Little is really known about Dracula in death, labels him Vlad the Impaler and that he is known in what might be the West beyond the best -selling Gothic confines his notoriety to the building of described as the first Russian novel, novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897, the famous castle and the monastery of entitled Story about Prince Dracula, which inspired innumerable Hollywood Snagov where presumably he lies buried, appearing in over 11 versions from the productions. The novel, partially set in though his body has never been found. 15th to the 18th centuries. German 15th­ Transylvania, contains three brief refer­ Romanian historians have shied away century stories also refer to the original ences to actual historical events and from using the name Dracula, unlike name: Voievod Dracula. With the inven­ mentions the towns of Cluj, Bistrita, and most contemporary sources both in tion of printing, these narratives became the Borgo Pass - but the bloodsucking Eastern and Western Europe. It was as best sellers by the standards of the peri­ vampire is a clear distortion of the his­ Dracula that he was known to the od, four centuries before Stoker wrote torical personage. The first Romanian Byzantine, Turkish, Venetian, Hungarian, his famous book. To these we may add a 54 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL 1999 the fact that Dracula and the Impaler aspects as a positive role model for were one and the same personage. rulers), the Germans because he mass a­ Hero or villain? The balance in 20th­ cred them, the Turks because he fought century "vampire" parlance, with Bela them - each group had an obvious Lugosi in mind (Lugosi, incidentally, reason for defaming him. was born in Lugoj, in Banat), accents the When historians quarrel, it is some­ villainous aspects. Even the 15th- and times healthy to invoke the rough and 16th-century Russian and German sto­ ready sense of justice of the people, par­ ries about the man make a point of ticularly when, in the absence of docu­ emphasizing Dracula's horrors, and the ments, we have no other recourse. More Romanian chroniclers have not labeled impartial than the chroniclers, the peas­ him the Impaler in vain. We are indeed ants had a definite feeling for this far removed from the hero. Yet the inter­ prince, and in their oral tradition they pretation of history is often a matter of rationalized Dracula's crimes, aware of the times, and moral standards are rela­ the great dangers their country was fac­ tive. Mass killings and torture of oppo­ ing both from the West and more partic­ nents were not Dracula's exclusive pre­ ularly from the East. rogatives. Impalement was an Asiatic All contemporary sources looked upon method of torture widely practiced by Dracula as the only Christian crusader the Turks. Moreover, before we study a to answer the call of Pope Pius II, who historical character, we must take into dared single-handedly to challenge the account the historian's parti pris. power of the Turkish sultan Mohammed Let us recall that the more intimate the Conqueror, he being intent upon details of Dracula's life were recorded by weakening the remaining free Balkan adversaries. The German pamphlets states. Facing overwhelming forces were written by emigre Catholic monks (40,000 against an army oflOO,OOO), and Saxon merchants from Transyl­ Dracula had to stage a strategic retreat, vanian townships that aroused Dracula's rely~ng on a scorched -earth policy and anger because they refused to pay tolls. harrying tactics under cover of the vast Dracula attacked them, and a few forest of the Wallachian plain. Although escaped to the West. To dramatize their the capital city of Tirgovi~te had to be plight, they often exaggerated their mis­ abandoned, Dracula left thousands of fortunes and besmirched Dracula's rep­ impaled cadavers, picket-fence fashion, utation. The author of the Russian nar­ north of the city. This terror had its ratives, a representative of the Grand impact on the sultan, who cried out: Duke of Moscow at Buda, had a different "What can we do against a man who reason for vilifying Dracula's character: commits such deeds!" rich compendium of Romanian folkloric terror was a useful tool in establishing Much ink has been spent on the idle material collected in the region of future despots of Russia. Ivan the controversy centering on the problem of Dracula's castle. Terrible modeled some of his tortures who won the war. By November 1462, Why should these tales have historical on Dracula's (for instance, nailing the Dracula was compelled to abandon his validity? The answer lies in a very simple hats on the heads of impolite ambas­ throne in favor of his brother Radu the fact: although they vary in some details sadors). In the eyes of Orthodoxy, Handsome, a Turkish protege. The Turks and ethical interpretation, there is a Dracula was anti -Christ, because, fol­ were war-weary, short of food, plague­ remarkable coincidence between the lowing his remarriage to a relative of ridden, threatened with Hungarian German, Russian, and Romanian King Mathias Corvin us of Hungary, he intervention from Transylvania (which Dracula stories. While Germans and repudiated his traditional faith and con­ Dracula had solicited), and, persuaded Russians use the name Dracula, the verted to Catholicism. Thus the by the scale of Dracula's impalements, Romanian oral tradition labels the Russians hated Dracula on religious withdrew the bulk of their forces during prince Vlad the Impaler, substantiating grounds (or stressed his villainous the month of Ramadan in 1462. On the SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL 1999 55 Suggested Reading Florescu, Radu, and Raymond T. McNally. 1989. Dracula, Prince ofMany Faces: His Life and His Times. Boston: Little Brown. ___. 1973. Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the lmpaler. New York: Hawthorn Books. Giurescu, Constantin C.1969. The Life and Deeds of Vlad the lmpaler: Draculea. New York: Romanian Library. McNally, Raymond T., and Radu Florescu. 1994. In Search of Dracula. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. "Impale Forest," Roth, Phyllis A. 1982. Bram Stoker. engraving from a Boston: Twayne. German pamphlet Stoicescu, Nicolae. 1978. Vlad the published in Impaler. Translated by Cristina Strassburg in 1500. Kriorian. Bucharest: Romanian Academy. other hand, with most boyars rallying to in favor of Dracula "the hero:' Radu and his own army melting away, It was upon reading the book of an Radu R. Florescu is professor emeritus of his­ Dracula was forced to retreat to his cas­ obscure 19th-century English consul­ tory and director of the East European tle in the Carpathians and thence threw historian which he found in the Whitby Research Center at Boston College and hon­ himself on the tender mercies of King Library in England that Bram Stoker orary consul of Romania. He holds degrees Mathias. The latter, instead of sending decided to change the title of his Gothic from Oxford and Indiana Universities and help, imprisoned Dracula in a tower of novel from The Vampire Count to has published widely on Romanian history his Visegrad palace on the Danube, Dracula. Then the name of an obscure and Dracula. where Dracula was t~chnically under Romanian prince gained world recogni­ "house arrest" for some 12 years. He tion by way of the silver screen. It is now died in December 1476, killed by a boyar up to the Romanians to use this unique opponent or a Turk who decapitated and extraordinary accident of history to him and sent his head to Constantinople their advantage in an intelligent fashion. for all to see that the dreaded impaler was no more. His tragic end should not obscure the fact that his determined resistance helped preserve the integrity of the Wallachian state. This single ser­ vice to the nation helps tilt the balance 56 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL 1999