Re: Vampire

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tolgs001" <george.st@...> wrote:

>> [...] There are also other kinds of non-dead guys

Self-correction: "non-dead" -> "undead".

>> (merely kinds of ghosts) from which the most vampire-like word
>> could be "strigoi" (still Slavic).
>
> Indeed. But are you sure of the blood-sucking component?
> I've heard/read of various kind of figures, ghosts
> such as <strigoi>, <$tima> etc., but according to popular
> beliefs among their characteristics/features there's quite
> nothing of the kind in "count Dracula" and "Nosferatu."

I'm sure that popular beliefs do make sometimes a confusion,
using "strigoi" instead of "vârcolac"; the essential point is
that a "strigoi" is undead and can harm living people. The
confusion is not justified, but one cannot prevent people
making it...

>> It depends in what. The name "Dracula" is ultimately a deformation
>> of "Drãculea" (`devilish`) which was Vlad(islav) Basarab II's
>> nickname in Romanian.
>
> I'm not sure that Dr&culea was used during his time
> or, say, 100-200 years later. I'd rather suppose that
> this nickname is a modern one (given by recent people,
> scholars or not: 100-200 years ago).

Great land owners nicknamed him like this since when he became
nervous for some reason they feared for their lives. :)
Yes, it's an old nickname, present in Romanian folk tales about
him (where depicted not as a vampire but as a righteous prince,
merciless with the bad guys - note for non-Romanians).

> [...] What seems more plausible is the fact that this Vlad
> Junior and Vlad Senior, i.e. his father, were knights of the
> Dragon, and this would be the explanation no. 1 for their
> nicknames.

I'm not pretty sure that the Junior was still in the fellowship:
Sigismund de Luxembourg was slightly dead when Vlad II reached a
decent age for knighthood. If Vlad I's nickname "Dracul" is
undoubtedly linked with him being knight of the Dragon, for the
Junior, I would rather pick your last suggestion:

> [...] Hence, Dr&culea is then a diminutive: the father Dracul,
> the son Draculea (the little devil).

... that is, the reason to choose a devil-like nickname was that
the father already had it "in the family"; of course, it was fully
justified by his behavior.

>> There was more. German survivors of some punishment expedition
>> of Vlad in Brasov (Kronstadt) spread away the idea that Vlad was
>> so cruel because he used to suck victims' blood (during that
>> ages, this kind of ideas were successful enough...).
>
> But the pamphlets counted. And the horror stories therein
> rather referred to boiling cooking and impaling of Vlad's
> victims. And, while his victims suffered such treatment
> (even mothers with their children), he allegedly had
> his lunch in front of them; but that didn't mean that he
> ate from what his underlings cooked. :^)

It looks like this story was actually true (with respect to a
bunch of Turks lead by Hamza-Pasha who were invited for lunch
as higher-place observers after having unsuccessfully tried to
capture Vlad by treason). The mother&child part couldn't be true,
since the Turks were not properly intending having lunch with
their families in company of a beloved friend.
It seems also that Mahomet II El Fatih was somehow impressed by
the forest of ex-compatriots near Targoviste, one year later, in
a punishment expedition having reached the capital city. Rumors
about Vlad's cruelty, notorious also in Otoman Empire, got thus
a new support.

Regards,
Marius Iacomi