From emiller@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Thu Apr 4 13:48:34 1996 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id NAA00208 for ; Thu, 4 Apr 1996 13:48:34 -0800 Received: from piva.ucs.mun.ca (piva.ucs.mun.ca [134.153.2.63]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id NAA11516 for ; Thu, 4 Apr 1996 13:48:32 -0800 Received: from plato.ucs.mun.ca (emiller@plato.ucs.mun.ca [134.153.2.151]) by piva.ucs.mun.ca (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id SAA07340 for ; Thu, 4 Apr 1996 18:19:46 -0330 (NST) Received: (emiller@localhost) by plato.ucs.mun.ca (8.6.12/8.6.9) id SAA23954; Thu, 4 Apr 1996 18:19:45 -0330 Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 18:19:45 -0330 (NST) From: Elizabeth Miller X-Sender: emiller@plato.ucs.mun.ca To: tyagi@HouseofKaos.Abyss.com Subject: Re: HELP: Scholomance In-Reply-To: <199604042131.NAA29234@jobe.shell.portal.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO Re the Scholomance. Yes, it is mentioned in Stoker's _Dracula_. First reference is in Chapter 18 when Van Helsing is giving his lecture on Voivode Dracula: he states that the Draculas had dealings with the Evil One "They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due". It is mentioned again, also by Van Helsing in Chapter 23 when he says that Dracula "was in life a most wonderful man... He dared even to attend the Scholomance..." Stoker read about the Scholomance in an article entitled "Transylvanian Superstitions" by Emily Gerard. He took his points about it almost verbatim from her. When I was in Romania, I asked some folklorists about this legend and they said it does exist. The legend states it was a school run by the devil who would teach his students how to control the animals and the weather. At the end of the session, one scholar was held back as payment for all 10 who were admitted. Hermanstadt is the Romanian city of Sibiu in Transylvania (which I have visited). Hope this helps. Elizabeth Miller Professor of English Baroness of the House of Dracula emiller@plato.ucs.mun.ca http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/ ["Dracula's home page"] -------------------------------------------------------------------- I "Razbunarea mea de abia incepe! Va dainui prin veacuri si I timpul e de partea mea." l l _Dracula_ (Romanian translation, 1992) l --------------------------------------------------------------------