Karađorđe and Vlad: Similarities in the Building of their Legends?

Abstract

Karađorđe Petrović was perhaps the greatest Serbian hero and leader in the history of early Modern Serbia. As such he is highly revered and there are many Serbian epic folk songs dealing with him and his adventurous deeds. In many ways, however, his life and death bear some striking similarities to another historic figure coming from the Balkans, Vlad Drăculea III, despite the two men not having been contemporaries, in fact living in different centuries. There is for instance the image of the dragon, which can be found in legends and myths surrounding both the men. Moreover, their personal character was quite similar; maybe this was due to the same hard times and the same foe they were fighting against, the “Turks”. Yet, there is one significant difference between Karađorđe and Vlad Drăculea (despite the one that Vlad was of noble blood). Karađorđe is a revered hero, fondly remembered and celebrated in songs, stories, films and in theatre pieces. Vlad Drăculea, on the contrary, has a highly negative image, partly represented in his byname “the Impaler”. He is regarded as vicious, brutal and blood-thirsty. It is no wonder that his name and his brutality served as the inspiration for the infamous vampire “Dracula”. However, in Romania, to a certain degree Vlad is seen even today as a hero, like Karađorđe in Serbia. It is therefore not surprising that many similar traces can be found in the character of both men and in the legends and songs concerning them, due to nearly the same and mostly unaltered political circumstances over the centuries, shaped as they were by the fight against the Ottoman Turks.