Vampire Legends-Dracula part II-the Transformation, the Dark Gift
Filed Under (Legends and Movies ) by Lex Luthor on Saturday, April 3, 2010
Posted at : 6:01 PM
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Now let us turn to the fascinating and legendary aspect of history: the legends tell us that Vlad III was not an ordinary mortal, but in fact he belonged to one of the most famous and legendary creatures of the night: the vampires. Everyone knows that the vampires are legendary beings, attested in the mythologies of all the earth; nocturnal and immortal creatures who feed on human blood. And Draculea is undoubtedly the most famous and celebrated of all his "race": there are numerous books, movies, comics and even games (RPGs, card games, video games, etc.) about him. The works about Dracula are so many that it would be really impossible to list and quote them all. His fame has reached truly a global and widespread renown.
In one of the many movies about Dracula, "Blade III", he himself, awakened from his sleep by some vampires, is surprised and annoyed in seeing how much his figure is known and also marketed in the modern world.
But despite the numerous films and books about Dracula, very few are those who tell us how Vlad III, a prince who was a fierce opponent of the Ottomans, became a vampire, or rather the King of Vampires.
The movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula" by Coppola, undoubtly the best among all the movies about Draculea, is one of the few titles that tells how the prince was transformed in the legendary creature of the night. In the movie, after the suicide of his beloved wife Elizabetha, a death provoked by the deception of the Ottomans, Vlad III, facing the condemnation of the byzantine priests for the act of his beloved Queen, denounces god and desecrates his altar: thus he is cursed and sentenced to become a vampire, a damned soul, a son of the darkness.
In the movie he says: "I renounce god! I shall rise from my own death .... to avenge her with the Powers of Darkness! The blood is the life .... and it shall be mine!"
But this explanation was in reality invented for the Coppola's movie, and in fact this event is not found anywhere in the various Dracula's legends.
Instead, more reliable informations concerning the origin of the transformation of Vlad III into a vampire can be found in the text of B. Stoker, albeit fleetingly, vaguely and superficially.
There it is told of Arminius of the Budapesth University, a friend and collegue of Van Helsing, a man who spent his life in the study of Draculya and his family. And it was from Arminius that Van Helsing has learned much about Draculea:
"I have studied, over and over again since they came into my hands, all the papers relating to this monster, and the more I have studied, the greater seems the necessity to utterly stamp him out. All through there are signs of his advance. Not only of his power, but of his knowledge of it. As I learned from the researches of my friend Arminius of Buda-Pesth, he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Which latter was the highest development of the science knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse. He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay".
But the most important reference on the mutation of Vlad III into a vampire, and hence on the origin of his powers, is present in the eighteenth chapter of the book by B. Stoker, where it is reported:"The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. In the records are such words as `stregoica' witch, `ordog' and `pokol' Satan and Hell, and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as `vampyr,'which we all understand too well".
Very little is known of the origins of the "Scholomance's legend": in the text of B. Stoker, only in those two passages there is reference to this secret and occult school. Probably Bram Stoker read about it in the works by Emily Gerard on the Transylvania and its legends: a book called "Land Beyond the Forest" (1888), and an article entitled "Transylvanian Superstitions".
In her works, E. Gerard wrote that the Scholomance was a school where the students learnt the secrets of nature, the languages of the animals, and all the magical spells, as taught by the Devil, the Master of the school:"As I am on the subject of thunderstorms, I may as well here mention the Scholomance, or school supposed to exist somewhere in the heart of the mountains, and where all the secrets of nature, the language of animals, and all imaginable magic spells and charms are taught by the Devil in person."
As regards the place where this occult school was located, the various legends speak of many different places,therefore the sources do not agree on its location.
In his work, B. Stoker testifies that the Scholomance was located amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, in Transylvania.
The same place was also mentioned by E. Gerard, the possible source of B. Stoker on this subject: she refers to the fact that the Scholomance was a mythical school situated in the Carpathian Mountains and that overlooked the town of Hermanstadt, that is the Romanian city of Sibiu in Transylvania.The ancient stories tell that upon the acquisition of the devilish insight, nine students would leaved the school as "solomonari", and one would have been retained by the Devil as payment. The scholar C. Leatherdale linking the vague reports of B. Stoker with those of E. Gerard and other legends, says that Draculya has been undoubtedly the tenth student.
B. Stoker says simply that at the Scholomance "the Devil claims the tenth scholar as his due".
Instead, in her works, E. Gerard tells:
"Only ten scholars are admitted at a time, and when the course of learning has expired and nine of them are released to return to their homes, the tenth scholar is detained by the devil as payment, and mounted upon a Dragon he becomes henceforward the Devil's aide-de-camp, and assists him in 'making the weather,' that is, in preparing thunderbolts".According to other legends, the tenth scholar would became the Dragon that would have guarded the school until the time in which the next class would have been convened.
Hence, from an accurate reading of the texts, it is possible to know how Vlad III became a supernatural being. He was not the victim of a curse, nor he was bitten by another vampire: he obtained his vampire status as a result of his studies about the secrets of nature and magic in a school. An occult school, that is described to lay nestled "amongst the mountains over Lake Hermannstadt", a school run by the Devil himself, and known as "Scholomance".
For to have more informations:
http://alexanderluthor.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/vampire-legends-dracula-part-ii-the-transformation/
In search of Dracula: A true history of Dracula and vampire legends
Thesaurus Dracularum, a monograph of the genus Dracula.
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