Vlad Dracula is known everywhere for being the first frightening vampire.But what is a "vampire" ? What made him such a scary villain? And what other stories exist about Vlad's cruelty?

 

 

 

Everybody has their own image of a vampire in their mind. According to what the old folk say , they are tall , particularly strong creatures , all dressed in black and possess sharp fangs that they use to suck their victims blood. It is also said that they belong to an old aristocratic family. They possess an unusual seductive power over women as well as the power to transform themselves into bats and wolves , and to control the weather. They consume human blood and are always hungry , but can survive for months between feedings. It is also believed that they never get old because the blood that they consume keeps them young. They don't have a reflection when they look into mirrors and do not cast shadows either.
In spite of this powers, they have weaknesses as well. It is believed that they are repelled by garlic and will disintegrate if they come into contact with daylight. They are also afraid of religious symbols and crucifixes.Vampires can only sleep in a tomb near their birthplace.They can be killed by a wooden stake driven through their heart.
The legend also says that their presence in the house can be noticed by a mist , but they can not enter a home unless invited.

 

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Vlad , as a ruler ,was famous for his particularly slow and painful method of punishing criminals .
He used to impale his victims on stakes. Vlad's men took care that the stake was not too sharp so that the victim wouldn't die rapidly. The decaying bodies were left up on the stakes for months so that everybody could see them and think before making the same mistake. Usually he tortured boyars (noblemen) with this method ( it's possible that they were punished as a revenge for being disloyal; boyars caused the death of his father and brother , and later they betrayed him as well ). In 1459 ,   30,000 merchants and boyars of Brasov were impaled at the same time. People say that he sometimes even derived a perverted pleasure from what he did.

" He hated evil in his country so much , that if somebody did something wrong , a robbery or a lie or unfairness , none of these people stayed alive. Regardless of being a boyar , or a priest or monk or peasant , even if somebody had a great wealth he couldn't redeem himself from death."

-Povestire despre Dracula Voievod ( sec. al XV-lea ) in Cronicele slavo-române din secolele XV-XVI, Bucuresti , 1959
-Story about Dracula Voivode ( XVth century ) in the slavo-romanian chronicles XV-XVI century , Bucharest , 1959