Podcast #1
Barnes, Angela, and O’Farrell, John.“Vlad the Impaler, the original ‘Dracula.’” We Are History, 20 Jan 2020
Summary of podcast
This podcast summarizes Vlad the Impaler’s life using key facts and historical incidents from the 1400s. Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell start off by explaining why Vlad the Impaler was psychopathic from a young age due to his father abandoning him in the Ottoman Empire’s hands. Vlad’s older brother was buried alive by the Ottomans when their father abandoned them. Radu learned to speak Arabic and converted to Islam while Vlad resisted the enemy and was punished accordingly resulting in his crooked personality. Barnes and O’Farrell explain how Vlad got his nickname which involved impaling all the nobles that opposed him as nobles were the ones who appointed their ruler instead of hereditary succession. I will use this podcast’s format being an informative storytelling method with slight comedy mixed in. I can’t use the back and forth talking between two people but it was interesting to hear. I definitely will use a lot of the incidents mentioned as it gives a more in-depth look into Vlad’s personality, which can then be compared to Stoker’s Dracula.
Arguments(s) made in podcast
Barnes and O’Farrell argue that Stoker looked for a random prince in history, Vlad the Impaler, and converted his image into a vampire that drinks people’s blood, hence Dracula’s characteristics. It’s further explained that Vlad the Impaler wasn’t a real vampire but someone who enjoyed gruesome killings, one of the methods being impaling. The podcast frequently mentions Vlad the Impaler being sexist as Vlad had a strict mindset that men were above women, so women were often treated worse than men. My topic heavily relates to why and how Stoker transformed Vlad the Impaler’s image into Dracula. However, my topic doesn’t involve Vlad’s sexist mindset but instead involves his personality as a whole.
Most interesting contributions to topic
The following incidents carry a part of Vlad’s personality and therefore will be applied to my own topic. One incident involves Vlad impaling a “lazy wife” in front of the husband and rewarding him with a new wife. Another incident involves Vlad attacking the sultans. During this battle, anyone who was injured in the front was awarded for their bravery. In contrast, anyone injured in the back was immediately impaled. Vlad announced to his army that anyone injured on the back was a woman and not a man. When the sultan invaded and arrived at the capital, there were so many rotting corpses that he turned back, leaving the capital. Vlad the Impaler claimed this as a tactic and took pride in his impaling actions. Through Vlad’s psychopathic actions, I became more obsessed with him as a person. The idea that Vlad is egoistically reflected from these incidents will be used to support my own topic. Besides his narcissistic personality, I find his sexist and psychopathic personalities interesting to add to my own.
New information (what did you learn?)
I learned the different methods Vlad the Impaler killed people aside from impaling, such as boiling people alive or roasting children and feeding them to their mothers. The invention of the Gutenberg printing press spread the news of Vlad the Impaler to Western Europe. In response, the locals worshipped Vlad the Impaler as a sort of folk hero. I found interesting information through this podcast that Vlad’s younger brother, Radu, was given the nickname handsome. On the other hand, Vlad the impaler was the complete opposite of Radu and therefore looked quite cruel. In Vlad’s period, a german prince collected paintings of disgusting creatures, and one of them happened to be Vlad the Impaler. Combining the fact that Vlad was compared to Radu and his corrupt nature of impaling, gives me insight into Vlad’s impaling origins. Vlad’s origins can then be compared with Stoker’s Dracula while also including Vlad’s personality comparison.
Works Cited (follow up reading/research)
Rezachevici, Constantin (2006) “Punishment with Vlad Tepes — Punishments in Europe Common and Differentiating Traits,” Journal of Dracula Studies: Vol. 8 , Article 4.
Upon finishing the podcast, I researched and found out the specific punishments given out by Vlad the Impaler. Amongst the punishments, the methods of impaling were specifically and accurately displayed with graphic descriptions. The article also includes the reasons and types of people he punished.
Podcast #2
Rank, Scott. “Vlad the Impaler is the (Partial) Inspiration for Count Dracula.” History Unplugged, 13 Jun 2019
Summary of podcast
This podcast starts by answering questions from the audience before the podcast recording. This podcast talks heavily about Vlad Tepes’s biography and the vampiric myths surrounding the world at that period. The time periods after Vlad Tepes’s life to further explain his connection to vampires rising in literature is thoroughly looked into. I won’t adapt any of the elements in this podcast as questions can derail my study of the topic from its original course. Despite not applying any of this podcast’s elements, I still like the overall organization format used. Mainly the start of Vlad Tepes’s life to his death and the context required to understand the politics involving Vlad.
Arguments(s) made in podcast
This podcast’s main argument is that Stoker’s Dracula is directly related to Vlad the Impaler or not and the answer was yes but not entirely yes. Scott Rank tells us more about Vlad the Impaler’s context along with other vampire myths existing during and after his time. Similar to my topic of how I want to focus on the character Vlad the Impaler rather than the fictional images inspired by him. I agree with Scott and want to achieve the similarities between Stoker’s Dracula and Vlad the Impaler.
Most interesting contributions to topic
Interestingly, punishment is highly subjective and loosely used by Vlad the Impaler. The following is a list of punishments he frequently uses: skinning, hanging, decapitation, strangling, nailing, boiling, roasting, buried alive, and impaling. It is said that Vlad learned how to impale from Ottoman Turks. Arms were cut off to prevent escaping while being impaled from a few hours to days. Early Germans wrote descriptions of Vlad from Saxon merchants trying to cast Vlad in the worst possible light. Therefore, many stories regarding Vlad’s cruelty and wicked personality spread around many of which were exaggerated or entirely false. This gave me an interesting idea to incorporate some of these stories which were exaggerated along with the detailed descriptions of Vlad’s many punishments. It brings light towards a new broad topic range regarding punishments, crimes, and law in the 1400s.
New information (what did you learn?)
Something new I realized was how Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in the same century period as Stoker’s Dracula. During this period was the trend of realism and naturalism in literature. So all the myths and legends regarding Dracula and vampires came back to the surface after centuries of forgottenness. This helps me outline and organize the chronological order of vampire myths and its relation to Vlad the Impaler.
Works Cited (follow up reading/research)
Shore, Gary. 2014. Dracula Untold. United States: Universal Pictures.
This movie which is explicitly mentioned in this podcast, contains historically accurate information involving Vlad the Impaler’s representation rather than Stoker’s Dracula. In this movie, both Dracula and Vlad appear despite being in different periods causing an eerie scene and portraying the similarities between the two.
