Dracula's Castle

[jduffer]

Are there any documents that have survived from Vlad to which he signed his name as DRACULA (or however he would have spelled it)?
Also, what would have become of his crown (for lack of a better word. after he died.

[Shish-kabob-Forrest]

I'll look it up later (you may need to remind me) but I have it write down somewhere exactly how it was spelled in his time by him and his people. It's a little weird. Something like Dracwerlya.
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Blessed is he who shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is his brother's keeper. And I will strike down those who attempt to destroy my brothers and you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

[jduffer]

In the woodcuts of Vlad dining among his impaled victims he is refered to as DRACOLE WADYA. Would this be the spelling?

[Shish-kabob-Forrest]

That sounds about right, though I still need to check. That woodcut came from Saxon propaganda around his time, so if the spelling was part of the original woodcut, then that's probably it. The breaking of the words adds up too.

"Dracul" is Latin symbolic for "Draco" (dragon in Latin slang, there is no official Latin word for "dragon"). In other words, it's "Dragon" as used in symbolic terms. Sort of like if you had a football team today and called it "the Dragons"

Putting an "A" or "ya" at the end of someone's name in Romanian and Hungarian (differs between the two languages and how it gets used) means "Jr." so in reality, "Dracula" is functionally two different words: "Draconian Jr."

From what I understand, Romanian is the closest nationalized language in the world to Latin, but it has a great deal of French and Saxon influence which evolved the language over time, so Romanian, more then many other languages, has plenty of reason to have been quite different in such recent history as the medieval period then it is today. That spelling demonstrates what appears to be very strong Saxon influence, which was undoubtedly far stronger in Vladislav's day then it is today. Remember who Vladislav IIIs LOCAL arch enemies were.

Dracole makes much better sense as the way they might have spelled it in Vladislav's time since Latin was a more broadly spoken language at the time (as common as English is today, if not more) while Romanian wasn't near as well developed as an independent language back then as it is today and Dracole follows a more pure Latin style. In fact, it may be a compounding of: "draco" ("dragon") and "lego" (appointee) which would theoretically be slang wording comprised entirely of Latin, which makes sense given the nature of the Order of the Dragon.

Furthermore, I looked up "Wadya" and "wad" separately (since ya is "Jr" in Hungarian) in Latin, German, French and Romanian and did not find a match, which means that it's more then likely an unspoken word today. The closest modern thing I can even dream up would be mixing Russian "va" (you) and Hungarian "ya" (Jr.) but that really makes no real sense as you'd probably be more likely to see something like that in the present day Balkan tongue then ancient, and even in the modern tongue, it's gibberish at best. In other words, it's almost definitely unspoken language today which means that's probably how it was spelled in Vladislav's time. Again, I need to double check this to be sure.

BTW.

In both Saxon and modern Romanian tongue, that spelling is pronounced:

"dro-cOl-e vo-dyo" with a rolled "r"
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Blessed is he who shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is his brother's keeper. And I will strike down those who attempt to destroy my brothers and you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

[jduffer]

As to the crown I asked about, I meant the one he is wearing in the painting. Thanks

[Shish-kabob-Forrest]

If you are talking about the life size portrait, that is not a crown he was wearing. It was a noble (boyar) hat. I am not sure if it was a "one of a kind" but it followed pretty standard make up of the time. Vladislav was a political prisoner (guest who is not free to leave) at the time and had been stripped of his title. Wearing a crown at that time would have been a big nono. The only crown anywhere close to him was the Hungarian crown and it was being worn by King Matthias (Janos Hunyadi's son. Try to picture Vladislav III having the nerve to be wearing King Matthias' crown, and what might have happened if he were caught wearing it.

King Matthias DID keep Vladislav close to him during that time as his "monster in the attic" as a reminder to the Ottomans what he can unleash on them at any time (and eventually did.

As for the Wallach crown, it was actually a pretty classic looking crown, similar to what you might expect to see on a king in an old Disney movie or children's fairy tale book. I would be surprised if his crown is missing. Things like that usually don't get lost.

My guess is that it was transferred to Basarab Layota (the man who had him killed and replaced him as Voivode) when he died but I really don't know for sure.
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Blessed is he who shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is his brother's keeper. And I will strike down those who attempt to destroy my brothers and you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

[susanspy]

Hello all,

Susan here, i am a fan of this place & like this place as it is clean & people here post quiet often so makes me come back to see what all are saying.

Cheers!!!!
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[Vlad]

[michaelmast]

Hi, i'm agree with you guys, i think that dracula is one of the highest person in the world not only for who or what he did, i think that he is because the history make real. i like his story and his live...
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