Elizabeth Báthory in popular culture

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A portrait of the Bloody Lady of Čachtice.
A portrait of the Bloody Lady of Čachtice.

The influence of Elizabeth Báthory in popular culture has been notable from the 18th century to the present day. The real Elizabeth Báthory (August 7?, 1560 – August 21, 1614) was a Hungarian countess, considered to be the most infamous serial killer in Slovak and Hungarian history. Since her death, various myths and legends surrounding her story have preserved her as a prominent figure in folklore, literature, music, film, games and toys.

The real Elizabeth Báthory, along with four alleged collaborators, was accused of torturing and killing numerous girls and young women. In 1611, she was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle, where she remained until her death three years later.

The Báthory case inspired many stories, featuring the Countess bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain her youth. This inspired nicknames like the "Blood Countess", or the "Bloody Lady of Čachtice".

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[edit] Elizabeth Báthory in folklore and literature

The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories and fairy tales. Eighteenth and 19th century writers liberally added or omitted elements of the narrative. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth. Frequently, the cruel countess would discover the secret of blood bathing when she slapped a female servant in rage, splashing parts of her own skin with blood. Upon removal of the blood, that portion of skin would seem younger and more beautiful than before.

This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi’s Tragica historia,[1] the first written account of the Báthory case.

When quoting him in his 1742 history book, Matthias Bel[2] was sceptical about this particular detail,[3] he nevertheless helped the legend to spread. Subsequent writers of history and fiction alike often identified vanity as the sole motivation for Báthory's crimes.

Modern historians Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally have concluded that the theory Báthory murdered on account of her vanity sprung up from contemporary prejudices about gender roles. Women were not believed to be capable of violence for its own sake.

At the beginning of the 19th century, this certainty was questioned, and sadistic pleasure was considered a plausible motive for Báthory's crimes.[4] In 1817, the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time,[5] demonstrating that the bloodbaths were legend rather than fact.

The legend nonetheless persisted in the popular imagination. Some versions of the story were told with the purpose of denouncing female vanity, while other versions aimed to entertain or thrill their audience. Some versions of the story incorporated more elaborate torture chamber fantasies, such as the use of an iron maiden, which were not based on the evidence from Báthory's trial. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose name inspired the term masochism, was inspired by the Báthory legend to write his 1874 novella Ewige Jugend ("eternal youth")[6]

[edit] Elizabeth Báthory and the vampire myth

The emergence of the bloodbath myth coincided with the vampire scares that haunted Europe in the early 18th century, reaching even into educated and scientific circles. The strong connection between the bloodbath myth and vampire myth was not made until the 1970s. The first connections were made to promote works of fiction by linking them to the already commercially successful Dracula story. Thus a 1970 movie based on Báthory and the bloodbath myth was titled Countess Dracula.

Some Báthory biographers, McNally in particular, have tried to establish the bloodbath myth and the historical Elizabeth Báthory as a source of influence for Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, pointing to similarities in settings and motifs and the fact that Stoker might have read about her. This theory is strongly dispututed by author Elizabeth Miller.[7]

Meanwhile Báthory has become an influence for modern vampire literature or movies and their subgenres.[8]

[edit] Fiction

  • Báthory is a major character in the alternative history/fantasy novel This Rough Magic by Eric Flint, Dave Freer and Mercedes Lackey.
  • The Blood Countess is a novel by Andrei Codrescu.
  • The Bloody Countess by Alejandra Pizarnik was a short gothic work of fiction (1968, reprinted in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, ed. Chris Baldick)
  • In the science fiction short story Rumfuddle by Jack Vance, a baby who would have grown up to be Elizabeth Báthory is taken to a different time and place in history.
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer book Tales of the Slayer vol. 1, she is the villain in the story "Die Blutgrafin".
  • The 2006 novel The Blood Confession by Alisa M. Libby

[edit] Film

There have been several films about Elizabeth Báthory:

[edit] Games

Allusions to Elizabeth Báthory or the bloodbath myth are found:

  • In the VCR/DVD boardgame Atmosfear: a playable character portrayed as a vampiress
  • In the video game Castlevania: Bloodlines: a character named Elizabeth Bartley
  • In the video game Vampire Hunter D, the main antagonist addresses herself as Elizabeth Bartley Carmilla
  • In the PC game Diablo II: the Black Tower quest centers around The Countess, a character with a nearly identical backstory to the Elizabeth Báthory myth.
  • In the online role-playing game Ragnarok Online: a monster known as Bathory
  • In the online role-playing game EverQuest II: a quest called The Blood Countess Rises
  • In the VHS Board Game, Nightmare: a character named Elizabeth Bathory, the Vampire.
  • In the video game Bloodrayne: A boss character--Dr. Bathory Mengele, a sadistic doctor/researcher working for the SS--claims her as an ancestor.

[edit] Toys

Báthory is featured in McFarlane Toys 6 Faces of Madness series, a collection of action figures, including Rasputin and Vlad the Impaler. Báthory is depicted bathing in blood while the heads of some of her victims are impaled in a candelabrum.

[edit] Music

Songs about Elizabeth Báthory include:

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ in Ungaria suis cum regibus compendia data, Typis Academicis Soc. Jesu per Fridericum Gall. Anno MCCCXXIX. Mense Sepembri Die 8. p 188-193, quoted by Farin
  2. ^ Notitia Hungariae novae historico geographica, divisa in partes quator, […] Tomus quartus. Vienna Austriae, Impensis Paulli Straubii Bibliopolae. Typis Iohannis Petri van Ghelen, Typographie Regii, Anno MDCCXLII, p. 468-475. Quoted by Farin, p 21-27.
  3. ^ …ut spectatorem primi facinoris, cognitoremque cogitationum feminae fuisse, credi posset. … [so colorful that] one might think he had watched the first crimes and known the woman’s thoughts.
  4. ^ [Alois Freyherr von Mednyansky]Freyherr von M-y: Elisabeth Báthory in Hesperus, Prague, October 1812, vol. 2, No. 59, p. 470-472, quoted by Farin, p. 61-65
  5. ^ Hesperus, Prague, June 1817, Vol. 1, No. 31, p. 241-248 and July 1817, Vol. 2, No. 34, p. 270-272
  6. ^ Ewige Jugend. 1611. in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch: Ewige Jugend und andere Geschichten, Berlin: R. Jacobsthal 1886, pp 5-43.
  7. ^ Miller, Elizabeth: Dracula - Sense and Nonsense. Desert Island Books 2006. ISBN 190532815X
  8. ^ Bonnie Zimmerman: "Daughters of Darkness - Lesbian vampires", Jump Cut, no. 24-25, March 1981, pp. 23-24, available as online essay

[edit] External links

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