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Vlad Tepes, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler, lived and ruled
during the fifteenth-century. Vlad who was a military hero protected
Romainia from the Ottoman Empire and later became a Wallachian ruler.
Vlad earned the title 'the Impaler' with due right. He was not
considered a Vampire at the time but as a hero and ruler. Bram
Stoker's Dracula, whom Vlad was the role model for, was
portrayed as much diffrent from the Vlad of history. Vlad tortured
his subjects for mear pleasure rather than for the maintaince of
undead life. He would impale his subjects in public viewing outside
of town, often eating dinner while watching the torture. "There were
verious forms of impalement depending on age, rank, or sex..."(1) The
victoms were imapaled in any possable way the body could be. "...from
above-feet upwards; and impalement from below-head upwards; or through
the heart or navel."(2) The impaled subjects were arranged in geometric
shapes more often than not in a circle. The torture went on for hours
and sometimes days, the torture did not end with the impalement, but
the victoms probably stayed there during or were put upon after.
"There were nails in peoples heads, maiming of limbs, binding,
strangulation, burning, the cutting of noses and ears, and of sexual
organs in the case of women, scalping and skinning, exposure to the
elements or to the wild animals, and boiling alive."(3) Vlad's
affiliation with stakes portrays him as less a Vampire and more of a
Vampire Hunter. He did not just stake and torture captured armies or
foriegn invaders but also his own domestic subjects.
The Vlad Tepes portrayed through Stoker's Dracula had everyting
but the truth. The staking in Dracula lacked the horrific,
sadistic, gore of history and took on a more erotic and appealing view.
The novel had very little historical backing and in fact Stoker
himself knew very little about Vlad. The name 'Dracula' or 'Dracul'
is Wallachian for Devil, "...the Wallachians are accustomed to give
it as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous by
courage, cruel actions or cunning."(4) Vlad was that. A sadistic
military hero and ruler.
1-3:Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
University of Chicago Press (1995) Pg.134
4:Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
University of Chicago Press (1995) Pg.135
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