Celebrate Poe

Vlad the Impaler and Tamerlane - Bloodthirsty Monsters?

August 30, 2021 George Bartley Season 1 Episode 73
Celebrate Poe
Vlad the Impaler and Tamerlane - Bloodthirsty Monsters?
Show Notes Transcript

WARNING!  Not for weak stomachs!  You may be grossed out!

This episode is about two military characters of history who may have served as inspiration for two famous pieces of literature - Vlad the Impaler for Dracula by Bram Stoker, and the historical character of Tamerlane for Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe.

  • Why is this episode so gross?
  • Where did Stoker get the name “Dracula”
  • What was Vlad’s favorite means of torture?
  • How was Vlad the Impaler a champion of a certain kind of “law and order?”
  • Approximately how many people did Genghis Khan kill?
  • Approximately how many people did Tamerlane kill?
  • How does Poe change the historical Tamerlane?
  • What is a hippodrama?  Does it use hippos?


0:00 Introduction 
02:55 Vlad the Impaler and Count Dracula
03:59 Romania 
05:10 A few facts about Vlad
07:30 “We will release you, but not your sons"
08:55 Impalements and other forms of torture 
13: 07 Legends and opinions about Vlad the Impaler
16:32 Historical Tamerlane and Poe (Introduction)
18:44 Genghis Khan background 
20:22 Enter Timur (Tamerlane)
22:59 Destruction of Bagdad and Delhi
25:30 Edgar Allan Poe Connection
25:55 Horse-spectacles and hippodramas
28:22 Research and reproduction of script
30:53 Poe and his disregard of the historical Tamerlane
33:25 Sources
34:43 Future episodes
35:19 Outro





0:00 Introduction

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - a examination of the life, works, and times of America’s Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe. This podcast also looks at some of the many influences ON Poe’s writing, as well as some of the countless writers who have been influenced BY Poe.  This is episode Seventy 
Three - Vlad the Impaler and Tamerlane - Bloodthirsty Monsters?

And if you have any comments or questions please contact me at celebratepoe@gmail.com. - especially if you have any suggestions for areas that you would like to learn more about.

I have to admit that doing research about Elizabeth Bathory in episode seventy two and especially Vlad the Impaler from this episode took me to some really dark places.  In reading descriptions of the horrible tortures that Elizabeth and Vlad the Impaler enjoyed using, I initially wondered, “will this give some mentally disturbed person ideas.”  But I talked with some good friends about what I was doing, and they assured me that the methods that Elizabeth Bathory and Vlad the Impaler used are legitimate parts of history, and we can learn from them. In many cases, it is only human to be attracted to, while simultaneously being repelled by, descriptions of torture.  I hope that ultimately narratives of torture teach us about what it means to be human and vulnerable, as well as learn how to express empathy in a sincere and effective manner - that law and order means very little if we resort to attitudes and actions that are less than human.

So, a word or two before this episode continues.  While this episode is not rated X for sexual content or strong language, I went ahead and marked it as explicit for its description of several torture methods that might be a little bit too intense for some ears - so be forewarned.

Today I would like to talk about two military characters of history who may have served as inspiration for two famous pieces of literature - Vlad the Impaler for Dracula by Bram Stoker, and the historical character of Tamerlane for Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe.

First the literary character of Count Dracula - many readers of Stoker’s time described the book Dracula as the most blood curdling novel of the century.  While certainly influenced by the many legends and fables regarding vampires, Count Dracula was definitely Stoker’s own creation.  But many scholars believe that Count Dracula was at least partially inspired by Vlad the Impaler.

Now Vlad earned his nickname of the impaler for impaling at least 30,000 people. Some say that his body count was more than 100,000 people.

The stories regarding Vlad the Impaler or Count Dracula have been embellished over the years - and it seems that every movie version adds an additional element to the story - the true story of Vlad the Impaler is - in many ways - scarier than anything Bram Stoker could have written.

I think the easiest way to understand the story of Vlad the Impaler is to start with some geography.  The area of Wallachia is basically the southern part of what is now Romania.  Looking at a map - on top of Wallachia is Moldavia to the east.  Beside it to the west is Translyvania.   So you have Translyvania and Moldavia beside each other, and they basically border Wallachia.  All these areas - Wallachia, Translyvania, and Moldavia are now part of present day Romania, where Vlad the Impaler is viewed as a hero.  After all, it is said that he did unite the country.

By the way, the fictional Count Dracula’s stomping grounds were Translyvania - Vlad the Impaler, on the other hand, ruled over Wallachia in the mid-1400s.

05:10 A few facts about Vlad

I am going to try and give you a few facts about Vlad the III (he wasn’t called the Impaler at first) - but try not to overwhelm you with the details.  There was so much backbiting and backstabbing - political bickering and political murders - that it would be really confusing to keep track of everything.  And many of the details involving Vlad the Impaler were written centuries after the events occurred by people who had an ax to grind.  If you are interesting in learning more about the history of Vlad the Impaler, I recommend

We do know that Vlad the Impaler was born sometime between 1428 and 1431. His mother, the queen, came from a Moldavian royal family and his father was Vlad II Dracul.  The name Dracul translates to “dragon,” and Vlad II received the name after he was inducted into a Christian crusading order known as the Order of the Dragon.  The ‘a’ ending in Dracula literally means son of - like “S O N” in Johnson originally meaning son of John or O in the name O’Brien meaning son of Brien.  Originally, Bram Stocker intended on calling his masterpiece, The Undead.  But he ran across the name Dracula, and his book got a new name.   When you think of it, the name “Dracula” has a far more memorable sound.

07:30 “We will release you, but not your sons”



In 1442, the powerful Ottomans had a meeting and invited Vlad Dracul II  Apparently, this was too important a meeting to ignore.  Vlad Dracul II thought this would be a great opportunity to educate his sons in the art of diplomacy, so he brought along his sons Vlad III and Radu the Handsome with him - how would you like to be saddled with a name like Radu the Handsome?

Unfortunately, Dracul II and his two sons, were captured and held hostage by the Ottomans.  The Ottomans eventually told the father that he would be released, but he had to leave his sons behind.

So the father made the best of a very bad situation, and left his sons with his Ottoman enemies.   Fortunately for Vlad III and his brother, the princes were treated reasonably well under the circumstances, and received  lessons in sciences, philosophy, and the art of war.  They also learned a great deal about the Muslin religion, and Radu the Handsome even converted. He became far more comfortable with his the Ottomans than his brother. Vlad III, on the other hand, remained bitter, and some scholars believe that so much hatred and resentment built up in him that he later became a calculating and savage psychopath. Or maybe he was just a product of a very brutal time.

To further worsen the situation, things deterioated back home.  A coup of local warlords overthrew the father - Dracul II. In 1447, he was killed in the swamps behind his home. His oldest son was tortured, blinded, and buried alive.

Soon after his family’s death, Vlad III was freed, and he began to use the name Vlad Dracula. When he returned to Wallachia, he transformed into a violent ruler. 

08:55 Impalements and other forms forms of torture

It was at this time that he would choose a favorite form of torture for those who disagreed with him - a form of torture known as impalement.  It was at this time that he began to be known as Vlad the Impaler.

When Vlad had been prince of Wallachia for just seven months, he invited 200 local leaders to a feast on Easter Sunday.  Vlad served them plenty of food in a huge dining hall.  As befitting a celebration, there was lots of dancing and music.  But there was still a great deal of tension in the room - traditionally these leaders had been enemies of Vlad’s family, and had buried Vlad’s brother alive. 

Let me warn you - the following gets a bit gross -

When the local leaders began to leave the feast, Vlad’s guards surrounded them, and the guests were now prisoners.   They were led outside the city walls and slowly impaled - they were run through with sharp stakes.  As the killings continued, the soil around the prisoners became muddy with the dripping blood.  And of course there were constant cries of pain because most of the prisoners died a slow and agonizing death.

TORTURE SOUND

While Vlad the Impaler did not originate the process of impalement, it could be said that he developed it into a fine art. Vlad Dracula was very cruel and did not hesitate to kill people for the most trivial reasons.  Yes, one might say that his violent policies ensured law and order - I have read people write about how wonderful this was.  You see, Vlad spread fear to the point that people of Wallachia were leaving their shops open in the market without fearing them being robbed. Noone was about to steal or break the law for fear of Vlad’s harsh punishments. He would cut people into two halves, skinned them alive, roasted them on fire, and cut off their limbs, You could say that Vlad become an artist of impalement. He did not stop with the common method - greasing people’s anus before impaling them. But he also impaled individuals in their stomachs, feet, hands and necks, even in an inverted way, mouth to the anus!. He did not exclude anyone from this punishment, women, elders, even infants.

But all impalements shared in common the process of jabbing a wooden or metal pole until it came out the victim’s mouth, shoulders, or neck.

Still with me?

Sometimes the pole was rounded - and at first, that might sound like it might be a slightly more compassionate form of torture - but actually it was far worse because it prolonged the victim’s suffering.  A rounded pole could
go through the body without puncturing any internal organs, causing the torture to last much longer. It could take hours or even days for the victim to finally die — often on public display for everyone to watch.

It seemed that Vlad the Impaler never refrained from punishing and killing anyone who even slightly displeased or threatened him.  On one occasion, some Ottoman diplomats declined to remove their turbans for religious reasons, so he nailed the turbans onto their skulls.

And while impaling seemed to be Vlad’s favorite method of torture, it has been said that he enjoyed driving nails through his victims heads, as well as burning, beheading, and roasting children alive.  Then he would feed them to their mothers.

I could go on and on with more descriptions, but I think you get the idea.

Vlad’s violent reputation only continued to grow as he defended his throne and terrorized his enemies over and over again using the grisliest methods imaginable.

13:07 Legends and opinions about Vlad the Impaler

According to one legend, Vlad Dracula enjoyed dipping his bread in the blood of his victims, but the authenticity of that story has never been confirmed.  And, as terrifying as Vlad the Impaler was, there’s no definite evidence to suggest that he actually drank blood. But, a 15th-century pamphlet with the title of The Frightening and Truly Extraordinary Story of a Wicked Blood-drinking Tyrant Called Prince Dracula certainly reinforced that legend and gave the story the status of being factual.

Somewhat like the legend that Poe was constantly drunk - a story that might have a partial basis in fact, but in actuality was an extreme exaggeration.

But getting back to Vlad - while it may be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction about the Vlad Dracula at this point, there’s enough evidence to know that Vlad was a colorful, but brutal character who committed some of the most chilling atrocities of his era.

It has been said that Vlad the Impaler kept his land of Wallachia safe though law and order - law and order that was based on constant terror.

Was Vlad the Impaler a disturbed human being?  The jury is out on that one, and we will probably never know.

We do know that he may have very well been the partial inspiration for the bloodthirsty villain known as Count Dracula.

Some scholars believe that Vlad the Impaler was actually a good man and national hero - that his biggest problem was using used extreme methods to save his country - methods that were not all that intense for his time.

Others believe that he was one of the most evil men to ever live.

Let me conclude the first section of this episode with two differing opinions about Vlad the Impaler, the original Dracula -

First by James V. Hart, screenwriter of the movie Bram Stocker’s Dracula The true Dracula was a holy knight of the church … a charismatic, heroic crusader who, in the 1400’s saved his Christian homeland from invasion by Moslem Turks.

And from Leonard Wolf, author of Dracula, The Connoisseur’s Guide,
The historical Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, was a monumentally wicked man.

I know in doing research for this podcast that my opinions about Vlad the Impaler have swung from one extreme to the other - but in the end, like most controversial historical figures, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

MUSICAL TRANSITION

16:32 Historical Tamerlane and Poe (Introduction)

The first part of this episode has dealt with possible connections between one of history’s most brutal conquerors and Bram Stocker’s masterpiece.
The rest of this podcast deals with the connections between another brutal conquerer and the poem Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe.

Now next year, I intend to really take a deep dive into the background of Tamerlane - probably asking the ghost of Mr. Poe - yes he will be back - to read all the poem, and I’ll add some explanatory annotations along the way.
I know it will be next year, because Tamerlane was Poe’s first published work, and  I can see now that it will take several episodes to begin to do justice to Tamerlane. But in this episode, I want to take a brief look at the historical Tamerlane and compare it with Poe’s version of the narrative.

While the historical person of Tamerlane might not strike the immediate terror of a Vlad the Impaler - at least based on his name - he ruthlessly killed far more people in his desire to form an empire.  In contrast, Vlad the Impaler, may not have killed as many people, but really gained sadistic pleasure in torturing and killing his victims.

It has been estimated that Tamerlane killed approximately 17 million people. At the time, that was almost 6% of the world’s population!

Well, you might ask where did Poe get the idea of writing a poem about a  military conquer like Tamerlane?  Well, hopefully by now, you are coming to the realization that that will be a running theme in this podcast - where could Poe possibly have gotten the ideas for his literary works?  We certainly don’t know in all cases, but for many of his works we have a very good idea.

But first a bit of background regarding the historical Tammerlane.  And this gets pretty awesome.

18:44 Genghis Khan background

Approximately 1000 years ago, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan conducted a series of ruthless campaigns and established the Mongol Empire.  To reach his goals, it is estimated that Genghis Khan killed over 40 million people.  His empire extended to over 1.7 million square miles, and he reigned over the area for more than 3 decades - 3 times as long as Alexander the Great. After his death, the Mongol Empire became the largest contiguous empire in the world - contiguous meaning that the countries shared a common border.  But like all empires established as a result of military force, the Mongol Empire eventually fell over the centuries.

We take for granted that countries with an elected government or even a monarchy can easily last for centuries - look at Great Britain. 

But when a country is controlled though military rule or insurrection where might makes right - then the government can be very unstable because power belongs to those who can do the most damage.

Anyway, after Genghis Khan’s death, the rulers of his massive empire eventually turned on each other, warring for all kinds of reasons.  And, as you can imagine, the backstabbing and infighting became very complicated.

20:22 Enter Tamerlane

Enter Tamerlane - or Timur.  Tamerlane considered himself to be heir to Khan’s legacy.  During his life, Timur sought to reunite the former empire controlled by Genghis Khan.

Historians differ on the exact date of Timur’s birth, but most sources say that his date of birth was April 8, 1336 in an area that is known today as Uzbekistan.   The story is told that when TEEmur was a young man, he  participated in sheep-stealing. The shepherd whom he was robbing happened to be an excellent  archer, and Timur was badly wounded by two arrows. One arrow pierced his right leg and the other his right hand. He lost two fingers on his injured hand, and walked with a limp for the rest of his life.  From this point on, he was often called Tamerlane - Timur the lame.

Sorry if I am belaboring this, but when I first starting doing research into Tamerlane, I ran across Tamerlane and then Timur - thinking they were somehow two different persons.  Just when I thought I had wrapped my head around an interesting fact about Tamerlane, I would run into this character name Timur out of nowhere.  So remember Tamerlane and Timur are the same person.

Now Tamerlane  had a rather diverse cultural background. His ethnic roots were a blend of Persian, Mongol, and Turkish backgrounds. This was largely due to the fact that the Mongols in western Asia had blended with the Turkish peoples. Tamerlane was definitely a devout Muslim throughout his life, calling himself “the Sword of Islam.”

It could be said that Tamberlane was a multiethnic man, and his army was also extremely diverse - he did not discriminate.  But he did push for Islam to be the main religion of his empire and followers.  And even though he often treated various cultures and empires savagely, he like to surround himself with learned men.  Scholars taught him to speak Persian, Turkish, and Mongolian. And Tamerlane not only had a genius for warfare, but was also said to be an extremely intelligent man himself.

22:59 Destruction of Baghdad and Delhi

One of the ghastliest moments of his military conquests was the destruction of Baghdad. During the spring of 1401, the city of 20,000 was captured by Tamerlane, who commanded that each of his soldiers bring back two severed heads. The story is told that the soldiers did not want to come back empty-handed, and panicked when they ran out of enemies to behead. So they made up for the shortage by beheading prisoners that they’d already taken.  Some of the soldiers were so afraid of disobeying Tamerlane that they even beheaded their own wives

Near the end of his life, Tamerlane invaded northern India and attacked the Sultanate of Delhi.  When Tamerlane learned that his forces were going to face the Sultan’s army with its many armored elephants, Tamerlane met them with a line of camels who carried loads of wood and hay.  Then Tamerlane’s soldiers set those loads on fire.  Of course, this caused the camels to charge forward and the elephants panicked. These elephants then turned around and ran wildly in various directions, creating devastating casualties among the soldiers from Delphi.

ELEPHANT NOISES


Following his conquest of Delhi, Tamerlane and his troops ransacked, plundered, and destroyed the city.  He first ordered 100,000 captives to be executed. When the city’s inhabitants tried to rise up against their new conquerors, Tamerlane made piles of heads and body parts.  Sounds like something Vlad the Impaler might have done.  Or an epic scene from Game of Thrones?

During the years since his death, Tamerlane has become famous in not only the eastern world, but also in the western hemisphere.  The great English playwright Christopher Marlowe wrote an excellent two-part play about him called Tamburlaine the Great - a work I will go into into a future episode.  And Nicolas Rowe, an English poet laureate and one of the first editors of Shakespeare’s works, also wrote a play about the life of Tamerlane.

25:30 Edgar Allan Poe Connection

And now for the Edgar Allan Poe connection - we know that a play by the name of Timour the Tartar was staged in Richmond, Virginia when Poe was thirteen years old.  In The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849, Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson speculated that Poe might have seen that production of Timour the Tartar on July 17 or October 25 in 1822. At the very least, it is felt Poe - with his interest in the theatre - Poe was aware of Timour the Tartar. 

25:55 What is a horse-spectacle?

The play is described as a horse-spectacle, and when I saw that, the term horse-spectacle really got me interested.  Did it mean that all the roles were played by horses?  That doesn’t sound right!

Actually, it turns out that a horse spectacle was a kind of drama in the 19th century that, in addition to human actors, DID feature trained horses as part of the action - a real crowd pleaser.  The genre is also referred to as hippodrama. Perhaps the most successful horse spectacle was an 1899 version of Ben-Hur by Indiana author Lew Wallace.

By the way, check out the 1959 film of Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston.   The movie won a record at that time eleven academy awards - the most of any movie in history with the exception of The Return of the King.

Well, Ben-Hur was especially suited for as a hippodrama because of its incredible use of spectacle. The play had horses running inside elaborately constructed cradles to create the optical illusion of the book’s famous chariot race. And this would have been a really awesome live special effect - especially for the 1900s. The stage production of Ben-Hur opened at the Broadway Theatre, became a gigantic hit, and traveled the world for 21 years. By the end of its run in April 1920, the play had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office.

Imagine the live spectacle of the play recreating the novel's chariot race with live horses and real chariots running on treadmills against a rotating backdrop.  While the effects might seem primitive by today’s standards - but then again, maybe not - I am sure audiences had never seen anything like on it stage.  When the novel's author Lew Wallace saw the elaborate stage sets, he exclaimed, "My God. Did I set all of this in motion?”  He was definitely impressed.

MUSICAL TRANSITION

28:22 Research and reproduction of script


One thing that always impresses me is a good research find.  And that is the joy of research - that so much incredible information is online for free, and easily accessible.  Using Doctor Google, I found a reproduction of the script to the play that many scholars believe Poe saw - a play that gave him the idea for Tamerlane.  I have to tell you, my heart started beating faster when I saw the faded print on the cover of Timour the Tartar: A Grand Romantic Melodrama in Two Acts from 1842.  The reproduction was from a book in the Harvard College Library, and was digitized by Google.  Sure it would be nice to hold the script in your hands - it seems that rare books have a special feeling - but I doubt they would let you do that.  And getting to Harvard to do research would not be remotely possible for most of us.

To be honest, the text of the script to Timour the Tartar is not all that interesting - it may have come across better on stage, but at the beginning of the script, the author does write “having, myself great doubts of the success of these new performers, I constructed the drama in such a manner, that by substituting a combat on foot for one on horse-back, the cavalry might be omitted without injury to the plot; and I understand that the piece has been acted with the above alteration.”  The author of the play goes on to stage that the use of horses in London was well-received by the audience.

You have to consider the fact that Timor the Tartar was written in the 1820s - when horse spectacles were comparatively new in contrast to the later Ben-Hur.  In other words, there were a lot of people that wondered if horse spectacles would even work.

So from this, I am going to assume that when Timour the Tartar was staged on a larger stage in London, for example, horses were probably used, but when the play was staged in the much smaller Richmond, Virginia, the play was probably staged without horses.

30:53 Poe and his disregard of the historical Tamerlane

But getting back to Poe’s connection to Tamerlane and Other Poems - only 50 copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems were first published - and recently a copy was sold for $662,500 - the highest price that any book of American literature has brought at an auction.

It is significant that Poe largely ignores the historical exploits of Tamerlane, and portrays Tamerlane as a man who conquers the world, and ignores the one woman he really loves.  Instead of the brutality of the historical Tamerlane, Poe has a character who confesses that he has traded power for love.

Even Poe later admitted that he knew little about the historical Tamerlane, He explains his disregard of history with "and with that little, I have taken the full liberty of a poet.”  That is partially understandable, because with Tamerlane, Poe did not intend to write about history.  His theme was lost love, a central topic for his works that he comes back to over and over until the magnificence of Annabelle Lee.

Obviously, the historical Tamerlane was Muslim, but Poe changes HIS Tamerlane to a Roman Catholic warrior so that the character can confess his sins - and his regrets - to a priest.  Poe’s Tamerlane DOES speak of rejoicing in battle and victory, but regrets that he can barely remember the woman he loved during his youth.  In other words, as he grows older, he regrets how his ambition and goals became more important to him than his true love.

I could go on and on about Tamerlane - But despite the fact that Tamerlane does not exhibit the genius that Poe showed in his later stories and poems, I think it is one of the writer’s most important works.  This is  largely because it begins a theme that will run through so many of Poe;s works - the loss or death of a beautiful woman. But a deeper look at Tamerlane and Other Poems, as well as Poe’s early works, will just have to wait until well after the writer finishes school in England and starts his career.

33:25 Sources

Sources for this episode include Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula by Enid A. Goldberg and Norman Itzkowitz, In Search of Dracula: A True History of Dracula and Vampire Legends by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally, Legends of Dracula by Tom Streissguth, The Age of Tamberlane by David Nicolle and Angus McBride, The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849 by Dwight Thomas and David K.Jackson, The Vampire Book by Sally Regan, The Vampire in Legend, Fact, and Art by Basil Cooper, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and The Essential Dracula: The Definitive Annotated Edition of Bram Stoker’s Classic Novel by Leonard Wolf.

Why not visit my podcast web site at celebratepoe.buzzsprout.com - click on the episode you want to learn more about to see its show notes and a transcript.

34:43 Future episodes

This month I want to concentrate on vampires - in the future, this podcast will deal with Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, and some of the many print and film versions of Dracula. 

Then Celebrate Poe will specifically cover Poe’s years as a child in England - especially his education .  I am finding some exciting stuff  regarding the information that he learned - especially in the form of classical rhetoric - to become one of America’s greatest writers.

 35:19   Outro

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.