Peter’s Top 3 2007/2008

It’s been a year since I started this blog, which means that I will once again rejoice in my own vanity and publish a ‘Best Of’ list. All the Blogs from Sepetember 2007 until August 2008 will be taken into account and I will once again give my personal favourites (even though I say it myself). Hope you’ll enjoy.

Peter

The Blood Countess

Like Lord Edgeware, who was killed by his wife, the American actress Jane Wilkinson, I too enjoy the macabre, although in very small doses, spread over a longer periods of time. I suppose a little grimness at one point in time never killed anyone, so I just go with it.

Now, I could really say anything that would shock you, like, say, that I enjoy others’ pain, or that I want go dancing on people’s graves, but I won’t say that. That is for another entry, maybe in time, I will publish a list of possible dance-graves, but that is not wahy I sat down to write tonight.

I wanted to express my fascination with The Blood Countess, The Female Dracula, or as she is affectionately knwown, Betty Bathory. I can’t say that her story is particularly enjoyable, but here it is nonetheless…

In the monsterously dark Middle Ages (more like the latter half of 16th century), Betty was born to a wealthy family, that owned about a third of Hungary. At the age of fifteen, she had a marriage arranged with another noble (a man, obviosly), who gave her a town of Caxhtice as her engagement (or was it wedding?) gift. I will spare you the dreary details of their domestic life, except that Betty stayed at home and bore children, while her husband was always off, fighting the Turks. Some things never change, do they?

Betty’s husband died when she was still relatively young, but she was still full of life, which she often replenished (life, that is), by torturing her female servants and maids to death. I could spare you the juicy details, but this time, I won’t. Betty starved them, locked them up, beat them, cut them, pour cold water over them, and, as the legend suggest, she even drained them of blood, but not to drink it. (They make wine near Cachtice, red wine actually. Oh the irony!). Nevertheless, with litres of blood from young virgins, Betty decided to use it. What better use than to bathe in it. Apperently, it made her all young and sexy.

She didn’t get away with it completely, she was walled up in her castle where she eventually died, even though the king wanted her to burn on the stake.

So, there arte several conclusion to draw from this legend.

1. Bathing in blood makes you look young and hot. The blood must be from virgins, though.

2. If Betty were alive today, she couldn’t continue her bathing, because

a. The police is more efficient, and her nobility status versus the peasantry wouldn’t be an advantege anymore

b. She probably couln’t find enough virgins, even at elementary schools.

3. 100 years after Dracula, drinking blood was already so yesterday.

So what was this entry about? Nothing! What’s your point.

Peter