#roumania

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

La mine de sel de Slanic en Roumanie

[gallaxowelcome]

Orchestra George Vancu - Bihor (197?)

Electrecord STM-EPE 0997 (ROM)

NM/VG+ (3)

[lepetitdragonvert]

The Lily of Life

A Fairy Tale by The Crown Princess of Roumania

1913

Artist: Helen Stratton

[princesselisabethofhesse]

1897

THE GENTLEWOMAN. July 24, 1897

The operas this year have been most tastefully and carefully presented, and have given extreme pleasure to the Royalties, who are all more or less musical, none so enthusiastic, perhaps, as the Duchess of Coburg and the Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse. This very attractive young couple, with their baby daughter, Princess Elizabeth, have left us all too soon for Germany. The Grand Duchess has played a very important part during the season, and though lacking the gentillesse of the Crown Princess of Roumania, she has been greatly admired.

source: britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

image: "The Romanovs: love, power & tragedy"

[atundratoadstool]

So to make absolutely sure, Court Dracula was never intended to be actual historical figure, Prince Vlad III "The Impaler" Dracula of Wallachia but a totally fictional descendent/relative who lived sometime later instead as the novel clearly states and was Bram Stoker's intention because he didn't actually know much about Vlad beyond a few brief lines in a book, correct.

Where then did this mistaken connection arise?

People doing serious scholarship on the book generally agree that there's no concrete evidence that Stoker extensively based the Count on Vlad III, and I'm very much on board with close readings of his lineage speech that indicate he's meant to be a descendant of Vlad (A Dracula "of a later age") and not Vlad himself. I should note that there was a book recently discovered in the London Library with Stoker's notes in it (James Samuelson's Roumania Past and Present) that does mention various historical details concerning Vlad III that go beyond the few sentences and a footnote about him in William Wilkinson's Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, (the only source we previously had where Stoker specifically took Vlad-III-related notes). However, I haven't been following that discovery closely enough to know if anything was unearthed to indicate Stoker had drawn any additional inspiration from Vlad from that volume.

I believe that the connection between the fictional Count Dracula and the historical Vlad III was first floated in Harry Ludlam's biography of Stoker from 1962, which indicates that Stoker got the idea from Armin Vambéry--who we know was an acquaintance of Stoker's that he'd met via his work hobnobbing with various big names at the Lyceum theater and who is pretty explicitly name-dropped in Dracula itself. Ludlam, however, didn't cite any sources in his book, and Stoker makes no indication in any of his own writing that he discussed Vlad III with Vámbéry. While it's not impossible that Ludlam was correct here and Stoker had more information on Vlad III than is evidenced in his extant notes (Ludlam did interview Stoker's son Noel, who may have known about a connection never set down on paper), we don't have any way of confirming this.

[oliveroctavius]

Reposting this thread by historical nonfiction writer Sean Howe from Twitter, because god damn:

"People would later talk about the "Superman curse," but this newly unearthed 1951 letter from Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel— mailed with mysterious white powder—actually invokes it. Siegel sent the letter to Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz of DC Comics (then officially National Comics Publications) in December 1951. The first Superman movie, SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN (starring George Reeves) had just opened and was currently in theaters."

The letter, fully transcribed:

On the occasion of this Christmas Season, when you have turned deaf ears and cold hearts upon the man you deliberately ruined I put on you a curse: May you become subject to all of the horrible maladies that beset mankind: disease, fire, flood, gas, tragedy, self-destruction, ropes, and sharp and heavy instruments. May God crash doom down on the bones, and flesh, and blood of you and yours. I see by the current Sunday SUPERMAN strip that SUPERMAN, famous big-hearted do-gooder, is helping a young lad. How kind and humane! This touched me until I recalled that SUPERMAN's owners stole SUPERBOY from his creator while he was in the Army. Then I began to laugh—laugh at SUPERMAN's owners, who SELL Superman's goodness for money, while wiping off the blood from the knife they stuck into his creator's back. Imagine--THIEVES controlling SUPERMAN, the greatest battler for Justice in the world! HA-HA-HA!!! I have created what I call the 'Identification Game.' You reads 'em ... and let your conscience identify 'em: (1) PHILAND RING DRUNKEN RUNT (2) A HUNK OF FOUL KOSHER ROUMANIAN PASTRAMI (3) 'PHILANTHROPIC' PHONY (4) FAT RAT (5) SADISTIC SWINE You are herewith invited to grab this, as you grabbed my other creations. Like yourself, I am a Jew. I have read of your wonderful philanthropic work on behalf of the Jews and am writing to you for help as one Jew to another. You see, some Jews have given me a rough time--snatched away my creations, and slyly deprived me of an income from them. As a gladiator who fights in behalf of downtrodden Jew--whether they come from Roumania or anywhere else, I appeal to the hope that you will do something about these clever Jews. They have cut off pounds of my flesh. With their Jewish lawyers, they have deprived a fellow Jew from earning a living with his phenomenal creations. How can you battle the so-called "International Jew" legends as depicted in the Protocols of Zion when Jews like the above are permitted to stick a knife in the economic back of another Jew, facing him with the necessity of having to go on relief? Millions for these cunning grasping money-lusting jews, and poverty for the Jew they ruined! I have placed a bitter curse on these Jews, and they and theirs will suffer under the curse for all time. I spit on them and hope it won't be long before they rot in hell. - When SUPERMAN goes on television, if not earlier, the story of his birth will be unfolded. Jerry Siegel ROTTEN PROFITEERS MAKE MILLIONS WHILE SUPERMAN'S CREATOR IS POVERTY-STRUCK

"(The publishers sent the white powder out to a lab for testing; it was corn starch.)"

[darlinggeorgiedear]

Do you have any favorite royal quotes?

I could only think of two!

"Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash." -Queen Mother

"Really! This might be ROUMANIA!" -Queen Mary (the all caps emphasis of Romania makes me laugh)

Of course, context would probably help but I'm sure everyone already knows.

[zvetenze]

Bondruk Dwelling with čardaks

Mali Izvor, Serbia

The traditional dwellings in this region are typically constructed using bondruk (wattle and daub covered with plaster) with timber framing for roofs and čardak (covered porch) elements that use lattice work to form the arched openings. This dwelling has an unusual pair of čardaks that form a tower to view the landscape from two levels. The major living spaces are on the upper level. Mali Izvor is a village located on the Timok River on the eastern edge of Serbia not far from the Bulgarian border. The river flows north to join the Danube where Serbia meets Bulgaria and Roumania. (photo 1991)

[stephensmithuk]

Telegraphing your jokes

The 1896 cost of a telegram from Great Britain to the Netherlands was 2d a word, minimum charge 10d.

In order to save money and time, businesses would use codes for common phrases (Such as "Double room with bath" could be "Doubad") with commercial books available, some of which are digitised. This also allowed for protection of sensitive information from any prying eyes, especially corrupt telegraph operators or foreign governments.

The railways would be big users of these, with the Great Western Railway assigning codes to the different types of freight wagons, for example. Some BR-era terms remain in enthusiast use like "Footex" for a football special or "cape" for a train that is cancelled before it starts running.

Another option was straight up using sets of figures or groups of letters, generated via a codebook. That is how Enigma and Lorenz of Second World War fame worked... and ultimately stuff like ASCII or HEX codes.

Code and cypher could cause issues - anything sent in those was immediately sus in an era of increasing political agitation ranging from the trade union movement on the nice end to Fenians on the less nice end. The Post Office Guide makes clear that certain places would not accept coded private messages, including Roumania as it was then called.

Also, you could stick a telegram in an envelope in your standard post box, although this might be a bit slower than going to be a post office.

Unfortunately I can't think of a good telegram joke, so best to STOP right now.

[saintarmand]

in romanian vampire folklore, the vampire's heart was burned and the ashes were often mixed with water and given to sick people to drink. god i wish this had made it to mainstream vampire fiction

from The Vampire in Roumania by Agnes Murgoci (featured in The Vampire: A Casebook, edited by Alan Dundes)

[tepot]

In terms of territory, it seems likely that the notables owned a greater proportion of the British Isles than almost any other elite owned of almost any other country [during the 19th century]. At the very bottom of the scale, in European Russia, the holdings of the old territorial establishment, although they amounted to a massive 177 million acres, made up only 14 per cent of the total land area of the nation. In France, there was by the nineteenth century no such entity as a landed interest, less than 20 per cent of the country was actually owned by the old elite, and in 1885, there were fewer than 1,000 estates of 1,000 acres. In Prussia, the Junkers owned perhaps 40 per cent of the land, but a large amount of this was in very small holdings of less than 1,000 acres. Likewise, in Spain, while 52 per cent of the country was covered by estates, much of it was made up of insubstantial plots. Compared with the landowning elites of these four countries, the British aristocracy was clearly pre-eminent. Indeed, it seems possible–but not certain–that it was the landowning classes only of Austria, Hungary, and Romania that could rival the territorial dominance of the British patrician classes in their heyday.

It also seems likely that the British gentry and grandees were, collectively speaking, the wealthiest of the European territorial elites. In part, this was because they came to the most profitable terms with the Industrial Revolution. Britain was, after all, the first nation to industrialize; the patricians themselves owned so much of the land surface; and they were more advantageously placed to exploit the minerals beneath than many continental owners. [...] Only in Eastern Europe were there to be found those vast accumulations, held by families like Sheremetev and Yusupov in Russia, and Esterhazy, Schwarzenberg, and Lichenstein in Austria-Hungary, that rivaled, and occasionally surpassed in acreage, the massive empires of the Sunderlands, the Breadalbanes, and the Buccleauchs. [...]

Compared with the titled and territorial classes of Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, and Russia, the British landed elite was more wealthy, more exclusive, and more powerful. And even compared with the more robust notabilities of Prussia, Roumania, and Hungary, it was probably richer, and certainly more exclusive, and exercised its power in a significantly different way. Above all, it was the preponderance of land in the British case that most stands out. It gave them so much wealth and such territorial pre-eminence. It was virtually impossible for a non-landed person to obtain a peerage. And it was the landed elite, not a separate service elite, that was in control of public affairs. In no other country in Europe were wealth, status, and power so highly correlated or so territorially underpinned. In addition, the British landed establishment had survived the revolutions of 1789 and 1848 unscathed, while other nobilities had been abolished or outlawed or had suffered an immense blow to their pride and prestige. In European terms, the British patricians were almost certainly the most illustrious and class conscious of them all.

The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine (Yale University Press, 1990)

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“King Carol Is Acclaimed On Return to Bucharest,” Owen Sound Sun Times. June 20, 1930. Page 9. --- This photograph shows King Carol riding through the streets of Bucharest in company with his brother, Prince Nicholas, to replace his son, 9-year-old Michael, as King of Roumania.

[pensat-i-fet]

As always, choosing who to root for based on how many besties I have in the NT so...go Roumania!

[elsalouisa]

"The Imperial Russian court had put a house at our disposal, carriages, servants, military guard and every luxury characteristic of Russian lavishness. Several gentlemen had been attached to us and last, but not least, as in a real fairystory, I had a young page to hold my train, to carry my cloak, to stand behind my chair during the great banquets, galarepresentations or parades. He was a militaty cadet, would be officer next year. He was young and fak and we were exaedy the same age. He was called Cherkessow, and also as in a fairy-story, quite rightiy fell in love with the princess he was serving.

For many years Cherkessow used to write to me and I would answer or send him my latest photograph. Before going to the Russo-Japanese war he wrote me a last letter, sending me back all I had ever given him in case he should not return. He did not return ; and the other day, looking through old papers, I found the touching little packet tied with neat ribbons which was all that remained of Cherkessow, my fair young page".

Marie, Queen of Roumania "The story of my life"

[rhianna]

The Balkans: Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro, with new chapter containing their history from 1896 to 1908, by William Miller ...

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Cite thisExport citation fileMain AuthorMiller, William, 1864-1945.Language(s)English PublishedLondon, T.F. Unwin; 1908. Edition2nd ed. [4th impression] SubjectsMontenegro >  Montenegro / History. Serbia >  Serbia / History. Bulgaria >  Bulgaria / History. Romania >  Romania / History. NoteFirst edition, 1896. Physical Descriptionxix, 476 p. front., illus. (incl. ports.) maps (1 fold.) 21 cm.

Miller, W. (1908). The Balkans: Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro, with new chapter containing their history from 1896 to 1908. 2nd ed. [4th impression] London: T.F. Unwin.