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I'm doing research on the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes. I have some information on him, but there are some inconsistencies. For example, when the opened his tomb in 1931, it was reported to hold nothing but the skeleton of a horse, but other reports say that there was a decapitated bodie.

Can any of you tell me some information?

Have you tried reading the various articles on the site?

There are also lists of books and links in the database.

try doing a search on him and then see how much of the information meshes

Look for the article by Ray Porter...I might have his last name wrong. I had permission to post his history on Vlad. As far as I have ever read they don't know where his body was buried. Ray is a college professor I believe. He is with a University in the south...in the US and you find his history all over the net...it is very detailed.

You can check the site's info also online for Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler and a few others Maybe even cross referenceing for that section of Romania aka Transylvania

Good Luck

R

Vlad III Tepes was not the 'real' Dracula - depending on which theory you listen to it was either a bad word used by his subjects to describe him and strike fear into his enemies - Dracu (devil, the evil one) or a membership of a cult that his father belonged to - Drăculea (dragon)

He was the inspiration of Bram Stoker's fictional character 'Dracula' who was never real.

The opening of Vlad's grave in the Snagov Monastery (1931) by Dinu Rosetti found the tomb to be empty. He kept digging down and came across a pre-Christian alter and beneath that some animal bones but nothing directly connected with Vlad's grave

There was a legend that said that Vlad had been buried in an unmarked grave [to protect it from grave robbers] close to the monastery entrance. Rosetti explored the entrance and found an unmarked grave containing the intact richly-clothed body of a nobleman.

Unfortunately the same legend also said that Vlad's head had been sent to Constantinople just after his death - and the body found still had its head.

Constantin Gurescu (a famous historian) dismissed the find as not being Vlad's body and Rosetti's find was rubbished.

Officially, the body of Vlad still remains undiscovered

Hope that helps

from books:
In Search of Dracula, Radu Florescu &
Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, Kurt Treptow

the legend is that he still walks among us but there is a good book called "the historian" by elizabeth kostova

Does "the historian" book say that there is a legend that Vlad still walks amongst us ? That is something new.

Remember that Vlad has never been attributed with any vampire or supernatural activity. He was 'just' a warlord and prince of Wallachia, who had a thing about impaling his victims - around the same time this British monarchy were using the rack, iron maiden and equally bad things.

no not so much that he does but that his body was never found anywhere that it was said to be buried

If you haven't picked up the book already "Search for Dracula" by McNally and Florescu which someone has already quoted from up a few posts, do so. It is still one of the best sources on the topic.

Or check into http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/
She is one of the leading Professors on the topic of Dracula both fiction and none.

I read somewhere when they opend tepes tomb there was no body there which leads me to believe this wasnt the real grave of tepes they did this so grave robbers wouldnt rob the actual tomb.

Vlad Tepes has gotten a bad rap over the years.

He was a ruthless warrior, but he lived in ruthless times. He was almost single handeldly responsible for preventing the Turks from invading Europe through the "backdoor". His tactics of impaling the capured Turks and leaving them on display served to demoralize the next wave of attackers.

Europe at that time SUCKED if you were not of Royalty / Aristiocracy. Every nobleman was cruel and used the peasents for their own profit.

Vlad Tepes was no worse than the average, and did a great service to Europe by fighting back the Turks.

The fact that Bram Stoker chose him to base his "Dracula" character on is the only connection he has with vampirism.

Well, they did say he drank blood and was bloodthirsty.

They shouldn't spend so much time talking about how cruel he was~ everyone else was doing as much and worse! They were just mad he wasn't doing it to benefit them! ~ I think Vlad is Awesome. A true Warlord.

I wish I knew what happened to his body. I thought the corpse in purple they found was headless? I wish I knew. That's part of the legend also I'm sure. I think they couldn't really believe in such a warrior really having been killed.

THanks for all of your help.
You all raised good points.
I'm also glad you all know what you are talking about.
I've had some people on this site tell me a lot of things that turned out to be nothing but little stories they like to tell to sound smart.

I never heard of the horse or the skeleton before, i have always heard that they did not find anything in his tomb and i also heard that they could not find his tomb, i know this does not help much i just thought i would tell you what i heard, and i hope you find what you are looking for...

This is interesting I would like to know more on this as well.

i have had the autobiography and from what it states that the coffin was empty as if nothing had ever been in there at all...but i am sure that there are other writers of his autobiography that would state differently.

I have read the Historian and it is a great book and tells alot of Vlad Tepes life . And that many of the locals still believe he still walks there .

heres some useful information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_Dracula

A simple Google search will turn up a wealth of info on Vlad Tempes. Most of it useless tho.

http://members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05.htm

another interesting site filled with a lot of information

try a Google search

I remember doing some research myself on this subject for a book that I am writing, I can't seem to find where I put this information at but I do know that while Vlad was in jail he married Corvinus's sister.

i was just stopping threw to see what information you had recieved im sure this is a great project comming

The only people who would know what was in the coffin when they opened it would be the people who were their and know one knows if they are liars or not so really no one will ever know what was in that coffin other than what the people who opened the coffin said was in their...

it seems to be many teoryes on where he is putted. (if put it so) Someone i think know the truth.

Get to a good quality library - there is much that may not be available on the net

You can check the site info. Also check vampire timelines and do a google search. That is why I did. You can also find info in books at the library. You have to look for it though. There are lots of ways to get info on him though.

Here are a few links from a Google search. It really turned up a lot but I'll only post a few. You can google him yourself for more if you want.

http://www.vladtheimpaler.com/

http://www.castleofspirits.com/vlad.html

http://www.pitt.edu/~slavic/courses/vampires/images/vlad/vlad.html

Well, Vlad tepes can be found at almost any search engine. try that :-P

Ummm, I forget the site name, but the is a wonderful plethora of information on him on this one website.
If I remember it, I'll send it to you.

Artemka (and KCRC) have a very good info!
Very well done!
But there are some little things in Artemka`s info that is not very accurate:

1.Draculea does not mean (or meant) dragon , but the son of Dragon(just like Johnson meant the son of John)
2.The source that stated that Tepes was beheaded is a chronicle, not a legend!And there was not just a single source but a few of them actually very different about that.
3.The name of Giurescu is misspelled: it`s C. Giurescu instead of Gurescu and he was one of the greatest romanian hystorians.

Actually I know three sources who tell different stories:
1.A contemporary letter of Stefan the Great, king of Moldavia and cousin of Vlad > from direct witnesses (the guard of Tepes was formed by moldavian warriors)
2.Some news presented by the High Priest Eufrosin
3.Mihail Bocignoli`s works based on oral tradition about the death of Vlad

what makes you think he was buried...he may have been burned....thats why you cant find the body.....plus I wouldnt rely on bibliographical sources....the reader might mis understand and it would be a waste of time...

Nobody knows what happened with the body.
It is unlikely that it was burned, though.The orthodox christians (and the catholics too) bury their dead, don`t burn it.
We don`t have yet archeological sources, so we must take in consideration the only sources we have.

There is one aspect that is passed by though.
It appears that he married the sister of Matei Corvin the King of Hungary and he baptized in the catholic rite for that.
So after his death he could not be buried inside an othodox church.
One more argument against his so called burial inside (or just in front of ) Snagov Abbey.

One more amend at the Artemka`s thread:

The Order Of the Dragon
- in which Vlad Dracul (the father of Vlad Tepes Dracula) was a member since 1431 (Nurenberg) -
is a chivalric order, not a cult!

Dear Stabb,
I am afraid that the only article from VR database centered on the historic figure of Vlad Tepes is not very accurate.
I have posted there a comment about that.
I am sorry but I can not find the author here on VR anymore to convince him to make some changes in his article.

well vlad the impaler also goes by the nickname drake or formaly nown as drakula

another word for satan he was a hero in his time but his methods were extremly cruel

thisis highly interesting as i didnt know to much about Vlad and this has been very informative