Re: Vlad Tepes (was: Re: Religion and society)

["Brett W. McCoy" <bmccoy@CapAccess.org>]

> Istvan is right about "drakul" referring to the Order of the Dragon.  It 
> was a very small group of men devoted to defending Hungary and Eastern 
> Europe against the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks.  If I remember right, 
> there were only a very few members, and so it should be not at all 
> surprising that Vlad Tepes was known as drakula, or "son of the Dragon."

And if I remember my Romanian history correctly, it was Vlad's father who
was actually a member of the Order, and not Vlad himself (despite what
they say in Coppola's movie).

> I'm even less fluent in Magyar than Tibor (at least he has six words...), 
> but I'm inclined to view the connection of "drakul" to devil as purely 
> a folk etymology, possibly based on the connection in Christianity 
> between the mythical dragon and the Devil (tm), but more likely based on 
> the reputation of Vlad Tepes among later generations.  My training on the 
> matter is, like Tibor, based on translated works and is just as 
> non-definitive, but that's the indication that I've gotten.

Precisely.  However, if you check a Romanian dictionary, they translate it
as 'devil'.  A friend of mine (non-SCA) who is a scholar on Romanian
folklore corroborates what we're saying, that the connection with 'devil'
is more guilt by association.

> BTW, the reputation of Vlad Tepes, like King John of England, is largely 
> based on later opinion, rather than the attitudes of the time.  While he 
> certainly did have a fondness for stakes and was, shall we say, a little 
> wanton in his use of punishment, he was not without some justification 
> (at least in his own eyes).  He was a great "hero" of the defence against 
> the Turks and his massacre of the boyars was justifiable (in his view) 
> because they were traitors -- to him as their lord, and therefore to the 
> kingdom and more importantly, to the faith.  It wouldn't be totally 
> unreasonable to compare his suppression of the boyars to the suppression 
> of the Jacques during their rebellion in France in the mid-14th century 
> or the German peasants in their rebellion in the early 16th.  His methods 
> were merely more mass productive -- sort of a Henry Ford does the 
> Inquisition.

Sure.  He was also caught between the auspices of the Austro-Hungarian
empire as well as the Ottoman Empire, and his chief desire was to
establish an independent country free of both.  He never did get to see
his dream realized, unfortunately.

Istvan Dragosani                     | "Go not to the Elves for counsel,
bmccoy@capaccess.org                 |  for they will say both yes and no"
Minstrel, Mage, Sage, Wooer of Women |      -- JRR Tolkien
and General Friend of all Nature...  |