Vampires and Werewolves

When Bram Stoker immortalized the name Dracula in
his famous novel, Dracula, he must not have realized
all that would come of it. When we think of the
word ' Vampire,' our very first vision is of an elegant
gentlemen vampire, dressed in a cape, leaning over a
sleeping virgin. That image of Dracula is a bit
distorted, since the character in the novel did not
dress or behave in such a way. Bram's Dracula was
much more frightening, but where did he come from?
He did not pull such a character completely out of
his imagination. He had a model from which to
pattern after. His name was Vlad Dracula.

Vlad Dracula was born in 1431 in Transylvania as one
of the sons of Vlad Dracul (Dracul means 'dragon,' so
he was known as Vlad the Dragon). He was a
member of the Order of the Dragon.

In the early years of his life, Vlad Dracula (the 'a'
means 'son of,' so Dracula was known as 'Son of the
Dragon') spent a lot of time in his father's court. It
is rumored that he enjoyed the many executions
that took place.

It took many years, for Vlad Dracula to gain the
thrown of Wallachia. He only ruled for 6 years, but
victims of his cruelty number about 40,000. Vlad
was a sadistic ruler, and criminals were punished so
severely that crime was practically nonexistent.
Vlad's favorite for of punishment was death by
impalement. This earned him the nickname Vlad
Tepes, or "Vlad the Impaler." There were also
stories of Dracula possibly tasting the blood of his
victims. (1)

Vlad Dracula was not a vampire, but what a
character! It was him, and possibly Elizabeth Bathory
(2), that Bram Stoker based his famous aristocratic
vampire on. Other works containing these gentle but
fierce predators of the night have followed. One of
these being The Vampire Chronicles (3) by Anne Rice.

But Dracula started it all, and brought the legends
and myths of creatures of the night to the world's
attention.

Notes:

1: I had actually never heard of this before until I read it in
"Vampires: The Occult Truth, (c) 1996 Konstantinos.
Published by Llewellyn Publications. In his book,
Konstantinos says that Vlad may have dipped his bread in the
blood of a man being executed, since he often dined in the
execution hall.

2: The Crime Library (http://www.crimelibrary.com)
suggests in their story on Elizabeth Bathory: The Blood
Countess, that she may very well have been another person
that Stoker patterned Dracula after. Bathory was said to
have bathed in the blood of her victims to make her skin look
younger, and was known to be cruel to servants.

3: The Vampire Chronicles tells the story of many
vampires, but the main character is Lestat de Lioncourt.
Other vampires are, Louis du Pointe du Lac, Claudia (who
dies in Interview with the Vampire), Armand, Marius,
Pandora, Akasha (who dies in The Queen of the Damned),
Enkil (Who dies in The Queen of the Damned), Mekere,
Maharet, David Talbot, Merrick Mayfair, Mael, Khayman, and
a few others. Books are:

Interview with the Vampire (also a movie), The Vampire
Lestat, The Queen of the Damned (also a movie), The Tale of
the Body Thief, Memnock the Devil, Pandora,The Vampire
Armand, Vittorio the Vampire, Merrick, Blood and Gold,
Blackwood Farm, and Blood Canticle.

Before this quick definition, I want to say that I
have tried to present this article without prejudice
to persons who consider themselves to be
werewolves, and while researching this, I decided
to skip sources or references that I considered to
be insensitive.

By traditional definition, a human who has the
ability to change or has changed into a wolf either
temporarily or permanently is considered to be a
werewolf. Meaning part 'wolf' and part 'man.'

There are two types of werewolf cases.

Lycanthropy and true werewolves. In
Lycanthropy, the human being cannot physically
transform into a wolf, but does take on certain
'wolf' characteristics such as increased aggression,
insomnia and restlessness, especially during a full
moon.

True werewolves can make a full transformation
from human to wolf and back again, whether at
will, or forcibly during a full moon. In wolf form,
wounds heal more quickly. They may also be
immune to certain diseases. Together these may
give the human longer life.

With both cases, the wolves (or humans) may
travel in packs, and some communicate through
mind reading. The head wolf is called the Alpha,
and the others in the pack are called Beta. The
Alpha wolf is regarded with great respect by others
in the pack.

In Medieval myths, werewolves were created by
either a.) being born a werewolf b.) being bitten by
a werewolf c.) being damned or d.) being cursed
by a witch or sorcerer. In these myths, the
werewolf preyed on humans (usually children),
were immortal, and were damned beasts which
upon death could not enter into heaven.

Werewolf myths are found all over the world.

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