Royalty. Transylvania, and Fire

To all of you who have just joined us welcome. To all who are returning, you're in for a surprise.

I recently received an email that I'll share with you, I won't mention the name, but I'll give you the email this next few posts are my response to this.

" You seem to know a lot of Transylvania. But there is no heart to this place. It is evil. Though you mention that there are people who live there, my first impression is that of history, of bloodshed and death. You mention the cities, but I don't see them. Transylvania is nothing more than a dot on the map. I think that there will always be fighting and bloodshed in this place. Even now there is in fighting between Hungarians and Romanians. People don't like one another there. I suspect this is in all of Europe but in this area especially. Transylvania has yet to give me something to believe in" ( Email sent June 10, 2009)

At first I admit I was angry with this email, and then I began to think does this man have a point? Is it a land of danger and bloodshed? Is that what people think if they know it at all? What about the royalty? What about the castles? The people?

Then I saw an answer, in both ways the email is correct and so am I. Transylvania is a place where many ethnic groups live, but it is one of the lucky ones since during much of its time it has been controlled by royalty, who by definition control the population.

I looked into the Romanian Revolution of 1989, and in many cities in Transylvania, there were clashes between Hungarians and Romanians. So it isn't all peaceful in Transylvania. Then again it really never was.

Transylvania was the path to the West for the Ottoman Empire, and the kings of Hungary would ask people come to populate the land, in essence to fight and die. I think that many don't want to speak of this in such a way but it is true.

It didn't matter who lived there the people who fought died and the people didn't fight died. So many of Transylvania's royalty are famous because of war and fighting. I suspect that Queen Maria of Romania wouldn't be as famous if World War One didn't break out.

Vlad Tepes name was famous, because of writings of Germans and Russians and Romanians, due to what he did with his victims of war.

I guess Transylvania, no matter how peaceful it looks, it a place filled with fire, pain and blood.

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