The Real Story of Dracula

Fittingly enough, the history of the infamous Dracula remains as murky and obscure as the passages in a Transylvanian castle. Still there are a few undisputed claims, one being the link between the Westernized perception of the Count and an ever so slightly severe 15th century Wallachian voevode, Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler, aptly titled due to his predilection for impaling his enemies – and as it so happens, he seemed to have quite a few of them.

One would be hard pressed to argue that Bram Stoker, author of the most renowned Dracula tale, did not know of and draw from the stories surrounding Vlad’s life – but it is important to keep in mind that these are precisely that: stories. Whether the information Stoker extracted from the rich and elaborate tapestry of folklore surrounding Vlad’s existence is actually true is questionable, at best. Still, there is an element of brutality that resounds as similar between the two characters. This is not to say that there’s documented proof Vlad could be found hunched over the heaving cleavage of young women - though judging from his tendency for ruthlessness, this notion is not entirely unfathomable.

Consider one of the most gruesome and popular accounts of Vlad’s cruelty: He employed a physiological warfare tactic which involved impaling approximately 20,000 Turkish women, children and men and proudly displaying their skewered bodies over a kilometer of vacant land. Others describe Vlad flaying, roasting, cannibalizing and burying people alive. The connection between the character, Dracula and the man, Vlad becomes even less tenuous when one examines historical documents in which Vlad refers to himself as Dracula – meaning son of Dracul. This namesake can be explained by Vlad’s father, who was inducted into the Order of the Dragon and took on the nickname, Dracul as a symbol of pride.

Bear in mind that not all accounts of Vlad portray him as positively psychopathic. In many parts of Romania, he is still revered as a national hero. Many other people lump him into the same category as rulers like Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan, arguing his tyrannical behavior was more or less a standard for the times rather than a the ego-maniacal whims of a madman.

So, while the exact correlation between the contemporary Count Dracula character and the 15th century ruler, Vlad Tepes may not be totally clarion, their shared appetite for shades of sanguine combined with an alluring degree of mystery and their namesakes makes them in a sense, blood brothers.