FOREWORD The Dracula's myth has deep prehistorical roots, surely being inspired by the cannibal tipology. The cannibals used to drink their enemies' blood because they thought this was the way to get their qualities. Later, when the Christianism was oficialized, people's memory still preserved the ancient believes about the living corpses who drank the blood of human beings. This legend became a myth during the last century, as a consequence of Brian Stoker's book, and later of the movies inspired by it. But unfortunately the story was exacerbated into a blood bath. This sadistic cruelty it's similar to that of Attila's, Ivan the Terrible's, Ludovic the XIth's and of course we can find it at the Shakespearian characters. But it can be found not only in legends or literature but also in historical reality, during the time of Vlad Tepes. In the majority of causes, we can say that he had good political reasons for doing what he did ( in our days we can say he invoked statal reasons). When he was very young, prince Vlad (not "Tepes" yet) was just a devoted Christian fighter who wanted with all his heart to stop the Turkish invasion. The terrible Turkish conquest of Constantinople (1453) had a great influence on this mind, especially because Europe seemed to be totally indifferent to this event, although Europeans considered themselves to be good Christians. It must be also underlined that during that time he was, together with his brother "Radu cel Frumos", prisoner of the Turkish Sultan. Brought to desperation by the pressures the Turkish Empire made upon his country, which was facing almost alone the threat, Vlad becomes "Tepes" (the Staker), the posterity remembering him as Dracula. This transformation needed for its accomplishment a combination between Vlad's sadism and the demands of a crucial European historical moment ; the Ottoman destructive wave was stopped by the walls of Vien, but before this happened it had to be decimated by the forest of stakes"planted" in Wallachia by Vlad Tepes. The myth of Dracula was born after the death of Vlad Tepes and it has more than one source: the Romanian folk's memory, the fantastic Russian legends and, mostly, the legends carried away by the Germans who lived in Transylvania. This was the way in which the myth of Dracula resisted in time, while the historical image of Vlad Tepes was not so strong. The ghost of Dracula made Vlad a vampire, annihilating the real personality of the prince. At the end of the XIXth century, Brian Stoker, an Irish full of fantasy, wrote a book called "Dracula". This was the motivation for the beginning of some scientific researches meant to rehabilitate the real personality of Lad Tepes, not only in Romania, but also in a world which believed in a myth strongly modified by imagination. Our century represents Dracula's final coming back. The book that Brian Stoker published in 1897 had an enormous success and inspired the realization of many very known movies, starting with the Murnam's version and ending with a modern Nosferatu, tragically played by Klaus Kinsky. Denis Buican wrote a book which follows the evolution of Dracula from the reality to the myth, and takes over this extraordinary symbol which is represented by the only Wallachian prince assimilated by the universal mythology and history. His eternal "coming back" was going to have a great influence on our world, anticipating the massacres made by Stalin, Hitler, ...Mao, Amin Dada , Bokassa, Ceausescu, Saddam Hussein and others. We dear to say that all these dictators were by far much more evil than Dracula, whose stakes seem to be almost nothing comparing to their atrocities, considering the fact thatVlad Tepes was forced to use these methods by the time he lived in, what he did being actually some spectacular massacres meant to scare his enemies and to defend his country. Sic transit gloria mundi .... CONTENT
English version by: Nora Parvu
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