Blindsight vampire6/20/2023 ![]() ![]() As someone who has visited Castle Bran – known as Dracula’s castle – on the border of Transylvania and Wallachia, I can at least agree that there’s something shiver-inducing about myth and man alike. So we have a basis for the stake myth, but the hatred of crosses and holy water? Not so much. In fact, his father got the infamous name ‘Dracula’ by joining the Order of the Dragon (Dracul), which was created to defend Christianity in Europe. ![]() But in Romania, Vlad isn’t so much a figure of horror as an acclaimed hero who fought to liberate the Romanian people from the Ottoman Empire. Like Dracula, he was quite a gory figure, known for displaying his impaled enemies in gruesome displays of psychological warfare. ![]() Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes (after whom Dracula was modelled) was a real prince of Wallachia, a region of Romania. Dracula canonized the major vampire stereotypes: bat transfiguration, light and garlic aversion, death by a stake through the heart – the works. It’s common knowledge that vampire-mania began with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897. Where did this obsession come from, and how have vampires evolved through the ages? These nighttime blood-suckers have become the quintessential representation of ‘otherness’ – creatures that look like us, but are markedly not like us. Pop culture has become so saturated with vampires that it’s hard not to roll your eyes every time a shoddily-plotted vampire novel or half-rate vampire TV show comes along. ![]()
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