[ Post a Response | The Castle Monster ]
Posted by Rachel on 6/3/2003, 3:31 am Vlad was a monster, perhaps, depending on POV. But from every perspective save her own the Countess of Bathory was freakin' Evil. And closer to the Dracula of Bram Stoker's version than Vlad. Is there some reason the Bloody Countess never seems to get a mention in popular myth but Vlad does? I find her, and the fact that she kept personal accounts of every girl she killed far more scary than the vague accounts I've seen of war-mongering Slavic noble. I love your site, think it's awesome and very well done.
172.154.139.2
I noticed in your essay on revenants and life-stealers you mentioned Vlad Dracula as the direct inspiration for Dracula. While Vlad the Bad no doubt partly inspired the Eastern-European Dracula, I believe that Erzebet, Countess of Bathory was a much greater inspiration. The woman was "melacholic", nice-speak for a complete psycopath. She ritually bathed in the blood of young women she physically/sexually tortured for decades, until finally being imprisoned in her castle - the nobility coudn't be hanged - by her peers. After killing 610 over the course of her life in a quest to stay young and beautiful.
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