Dracula or Vlad III the Impaler

[Guapo]

Ditto....if he did all those things they accuse him of, then he's hardly a hero in my eyes...

A sociopathic serial killer with extreme sadistic tendencies -

Like Countess Elizabeth Bathory Interesting to note, His brother converted to Islam and became a "Turk".

[Taciturn]

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If only the rest of the movie had been like those first 2 minutes! It would have been an absolutely incredible movie, instead of being a vapid and worthless cheese-fest. Admittedly when a movie has such an amazing opening it's kind of hard for the rest of the movie to live up to it, but still.

[Horka Ozul]

It's funny for me that I still hear many every-day romanians referring to Vlad Tepes as a true justice maker, many people still wish him to be alive to punish the corrupted people by impaling them
As a historical figure he haven't left such a big legacy as some other romanian rulers did (Mircea, Mihai, Stefan), after all he was in 3 services only for 8 years voivode of Wallachia. Some things not often mentioned by romanian historians is that at 17 fronting an Ottoman troop he attacked Wallachia, but was defeated by II. Vladislav. He also persecuted the saxons, because of their strong commercial influence in that aria.

[Óttar]

He was brutal, efficient and knew how to deal with those Turks. In this he is commendable. I'd rather the Saxons have complete economic and cultural dominion in Eastern Europe, imposing and maintaining German as the lingua franca of those areas, but my personal prejudices aside, he did everything he could to make his realm great.

[Osweo]

Not saying that brutal war tactics did not exist in the past...but this is pure sadism and torture "just for the hell of it" - literally.

You should read the old Russian text I have on him from the 16th Century. The punishment for female adultresses he came up with has unfortunately stuck in my memory.

I wish we'd know for certain the exact facts and deeds of Vlad the Impaler.... but all we have to base ourselves on, are written texts( which are, of course, filtered through one's eyes, subjectivity, imagination, and narration skills), and legends or stories, which....might have been modified(exaggerated) over the years.

But the sadistic destruction of the Boyars seems true enough, yes? It's no coincidence that my above-mentioned Russian text was written in the time of Ivan IV Grozniy (The Terrible). Old Vanya might have got his own inspiration therefrom...

he did everything he could to make his realm great.

I would hazard a guess however, that his domestic policy prepared the way for the coming centuries of Ottoman rule. His liquidation of the Boyarschina seems quite on a par with the Soviet raskulachivanie (de-Kulakisation), in so far as it denied the country its most experienced and productive personnel, with similar long term disastrous effects. Apres moi, le deluge, it seems to me. Hardly a responsible attitude for the country's future, and with no durable consequences.

As for the veneration in folk tale, perhaps this was a political class matter, appealing to eternal peasant hatred of landlords?

[Taciturn]

You should read the old Russian text I have on him from the 16th Century. The punishment for female adultresses he came up with has unfortunately stuck in my memory.

What was the punishment?

[Osweo]

What was the punishment?

I don't know you, Taciturn, and therefore have no cause to take you out of this blissful ignorance...

My books are in storage now, but I may translate the whole text some time.

[Cato]

Vlad is basically like Genghis Khan, revered in his homeland and a monster to the rest of the world.

[Taciturn]

I don't know you, Taciturn, and therefore have no cause to take you out of this blissful ignorance...

Hearing that only makes me even more curious as to what he could have done that could be, literally, so unspeakably atrocious.

Vlad is basically like Genghis Khan, revered in his homeland and a monster to the rest of the world.

Oddly enough, I don't think most non-Mongolians even regard Genghis Khan as being a monster (though he surely was--I once read that he killed off something like 20% of the Old World's population at the time). Most people seem to mainly regard him as being a great conqueror. Contrast the tone of the typical documentary about Genghis Khan with that of Vlad Tepes and you'll find that the difference in portrayals couldn't be bigger.

[Hrolf Kraki]

I get the impression that Romanians tend to be as sick of Dracula as residents of Kansas are of the Wizard of Oz as all that outsiders ever think of.

Oh how could anyone get sick of the wonderful Wizard of Oz and the yellow brick road!?


I read a book on Vlad Tepes some years back. He was quite an interesting character. Whilst the rest of eastern Europe cringed against the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks, Vlad the Impaler did what he did best and scared Mehmed the Conqueror himself all the way back to Turkey!