It was n’t until he came across document during his research at the British Museum that novelistBram Stokerfound the piece who would serve as the perfect foot for his classic gothic horror reference , Count Dracula [ source : Kent State University].Vlad Tepes(pronounced te'-pish ) , a fifteenth - centuryprincefrom the dark , forested muckle of Eastern Europe was his inspiration .

­Accounts of Vlad Tepes ' cruelty have been garble throughout history , and Stoker ’s adaption seemed to help pull these distortions . The prince was confer with the family name " Tepes " ( " Impaler " ) based on his fondness for impaling victims . It was his father from whom he proudly took the name " Dracula " ( " Son of the Dragon " ) . Tepes was novampire , although one historical explanation contingent how he drank a victim’sblood[source : West Grey Times ] . And Tepes certainly was n’t immortal ( it ’s unclear how he conk ) , as Stoker ’s numeration is .

But Stoker was n’t just instigate by the prince ’s name . Tepes ' reign was a cruel and fucking one .

When investigating sensational history , it ’s easy to find grossly exaggerated tales that confuse the fact . In the rare case of Vlad Tepes , little magnification is involve . Tens of thousands of mass weretortured , maimed or died by his hand or command [ source : University of Louisiana ] . This is n’t in contravention – it ’s score of Tepes ' motives where distortion run to emerge .

As the prince ofWallachia , a area in Romania , and a defender of Christianity against the Muslim Turks , Tepes made many powerful enemy . His enemies spread propaganda about the swayer , which unwittingly assured Tepes ' place in history . Tepes ' deeds and atrocity made such an impression , in fact , that an unflattering heroic poem about him was publish on the Gutenberg printing press just eight years after the same transportable type was used to publish the first Bible [ source : Mundorf and Mundorf ] . Had his detractor not campaign against him , generate publications that survive today , Tepes ' legacy may have been lost .

So who was thisman ? Was Tepes as bloodthirsty in literal life sentence as his fabricated counterpart is in picture and Book ? The short solution is yes – even more so . Read about the material Dracula on the next pageboy .

Vlad the Impaler

Bram Stoker ’s fabrication of Vlad Tepes spur scholarly inquiry into the realman . Research has attempt to show the motives for his murderousness . Tepes desire a unified Romania – free from the outside influence of Germany , Hungary and the Turks .

Vlad ’s sire , Vlad Dracul , rule Wallachia from 1436 to 1442 , was unseated by his countryman and regain the throne from 1443 to 1446 . Vlad Tepes serve in the same placement from 1456 to 1462 [ source : Tacitus ] . When he was inducted into the edict of the Dragon , a closemouthed organization of Christianknights , he require the name " Dracula . " The name would be interchange by the nickname " Tepes " from those who feared and hate him .

Vlad Dracula ’s social ideologies were at odds . He wanted to be remembered as a nonsuch – he murdered a Catholic monk who denied that Tepes would becanonized(sainted ) [ source : Carroll ] . Yet his deportment was hardly saintly . Having come to view destitution as a scourge on his knowledge base , Tepes invited his poverty - stricken subjects to dine with him . At the end of the dinner , he had the dining room locked , and his guard setfireto it , vote out those inside [ source : Marinari ] .

His strange opposition suffer adequate ( if not worse ) circumstances than his subjects . For four years , Tepes and his younger brother were imprisoned by Turks after their sire sent them as protection to the sultan Mehmet . Tepes ' father had become apuppet leaderof Wallachia for the Turks , and his Logos were immure to guarantee their father ’s continued allegiance [ origin : Fasulo ] . Tepes was meant to become a future tool drawing card like his father . But rather than keep allegiance to the Turks , he resolved to fight them .

When he became prince in 1456 , Tepes strike strides toward Rumanian independence . He developedbiological warfare , send out topic disguised as Turks , stricken with infective disease , to live among the ground forces in their pack [ beginning : Marinari ] . For those Turks who survived , when they intrude on the upper-case letter of Wallachia , Tirgoviste , they establish a forest ( about one - one-half mile by two statute mile in dimension ) made only of corpses of captured prisoners impale on spikes . The invaders left promptly [ generator : Carroll ] .

Impalement , the method acting of capital punishment that give Tepes his name , is an extraordinarily terrible way to die . Tepes ensure maximum botheration when he impaled his dupe by rounding the ends of spikes and oiling them to reduce tear . Spikes were bring out into the dupe ’s anus and push in until the other final stage emerged from the dupe ’s mouth . The impaled victim was then hoist vertically , and leave to writhe in agony , sometimes for days [ source : Fasulo ] .

The agedvampirein Stoker ’s new requiredbloodto stay put alive ; Tepes shed profligate by the bucketful to promote his womb-to-tomb destination . Conservative estimate put his dupe tally at 40,000 [ source : University of Louisiana ] . It ’s also significant to take down that feeding and destruction were so intertwined in Tepes ' life . He often dined with guest before killing them , and he was reputed to have take meal outdoors , among impaled bushed and give way [ reservoir : Martin ]

Why is rake such a significant symbol of vitality and great power in fiction , allegory and world ? discover out about the symbolism of parentage on the next Thomas Nelson Page .

Blood: Symbol of Life

Most Christians would n’t guess vampirism from the level of the Last Supper . Christ offers the goblet containingwineto signify hisbloodto his disciples and directs them to booze it . But there is a parallel between theEucharistandvampirelegends : Both intimate that the consumption of blood is an routine of obtaining vitality .

Christ told his disciples he ’d slough his blood for their forgiveness . By drinking it , they were strike part in his ageless divinity . likewise , through ingest the blood of others , vampires of lore may live eternally here onEarth .

According to some sources , blood is also esteem for its mythic ability to wield beauty . When Bram Stoker ’s fictional Dracula fed on pedigree , his appearance revert to a handsome , young reading of himself . The sixteenth - centuryHungarian countess Elizabeth Bathoryis said to have used the blood of her murdered victim to promote her peel ’s wellness . Some Renaissance - era women believed applying the bloodline of doves to their skin could maintain beauty [ source : McNally ] . And even today , some woman apply rouge or squeeze their cheeks to create the coming into court of a healthy flush .

Anthropophagy(cannibalism ) is another exercise of the symbolic ( and real ) vitality derived from eating the flesh or drinking the line of others . Through cannibalism , emblematical elan vital generally derive from two sources : kin and the vanquished . Endocannibalismrefers to deplete the frame of a member of one ’s chemical group . In some cultures , rust the soma of a comparative helot as a room of carry on the line of ancestors [ source : Goldman].Exocannibalismis eating the flesh of one outside the feeder ’s group , like a conquered foe . Tepes dedicate exocannibalism in one score when he ingested the blood of captured Turks , although there ’s no evidence he trust he gain any tangible power from the human activity . Rather , he ate rakehell - plunge gelt from a bowl as a signaling of what the future entertain in store for the Turks [ source : West Grey Times ] .

instance of nonritual cannibalism also grow vitality . Perhaps the most famous font of cannibalism took place in 1972 , when an airplane transmit the Uruguayan national soccer squad crashed in the Andes Mountains . Several members were allow for live and recur to cannibalise their dead teammates to survive for more than two months [ source : Walton ] .

It appears our ascendent took some prison term to developmores– ethnic restrictions – against cannibalism . Evidence of anthropophagy as recent as around A.D. 1100 has been uncovered atAnasazisettlements in the Southwestern United States [ source : Melmer ] . And genetical investigator have found a cistron variant open among humans throughout the world that suggests we descended from cannibals [ author : BBC ] .

Vampire legend , then , may be allegories for real - life colossus – perhaps like Vlad Tepes – that have refused to honor the consecrated tabu against consuming the animation of other humans

For more data on vampires and other related topics , visit the next page .

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