THE SZGANY: The Vampyres' Faithful Servants
By : Derek Langhan
| It was always a matter of some bewilderment to Professor Van Helsing that so many people were prepared to assist and protect the Vampyre. After all, an entity who was helpless by day ought, one might suppose, be vulnerable to attack and destruction. Yet the Vampyre survives and in Bram Stoker's Dracula is shown to be able to move coffins and earth, indeed all manner of merchandise, right across Europe from Transylvania to England. The logistics of such a move - transport, security, documentation, acquiring property abroad - must have been daunting in the extreme. Clearly, the Vampyre was not without allies. As a Dutchman, Professor Van Helsing was probably at a disadvantage here, as he was from a just and well ordered society where even unpopular minorities were accorded citizenship and civil rights. The Vampyre's heartlands in Central and Eastern Europe hardly measured up to this, and therein lay an opportunity for the Vampyre that he exploited most skillfully. |
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The Szgany (pronounced SIGANY), also known as Roma, Romany gypsies or simply gypsies, had moved into Europe approximately 1000 years ago from the plains of North India. They are still to be found all over the European parts of the former Soviet Union and its satellites, Central and South East Europe and the Iberian Peninsular. Persecution of this people was rife from the start and continues to this day even against those who have led settled and strictly law abiding lives for generations. They were rarely accorded rights of citizenship, to settle and own property, to vote etc. In Bavaria at one stage they were officially designated a criminal community. During WW2 upwards of a quarter of a million of them went to the gas chambers. Linguistically they were always a versatile community, speaking the language of whatever country they were in as well as Roma, their own tongue, which is without a literature and inaccessible to outsiders. They also speak a form of Creole derived from Roma syntax but filled out with vocabulary and other parts of speech from the language of their current country of residence. This astute, tough, multilingual and much persecuted people are depicted in Bram Stoker's Dracula as the trusted servants of the Count.
We first come across them on page 36 of the novel when they arrive at the castle to organise the logistics of Dracula's journey to England. It is quite clear here that the others involved, e.g. the Slovakian labourers, all took their orders from the Szgany under their henchmen or chieftains. One of the survival mechanisms of the Szgany was to attach themselves to the estates of noble families or large landowners, giving absolute loyalty and effort in return for the patronage and protection afforded by such powerful entities. As the Vampyre tended to be from this class of society, the case for co-operation between the two must have been obvious. The Romanies had little reason to concern themselves over the "normals", while a generous and caring master was worth his weight in gold - even if he did have rather strange habits after dark! My own view here is that they would have had a laid back view of the Vampyre's private life, not deeming it their business to enquire or look too deeply…. and after all, nobody was perfect !
In the final pages of Bram Stoker's novel we witness the desperate efforts of the Romanies as they strove to get Dracula back to the safety of his castle. They were hotly pursued by the British party, Lord Godalming, Dr Seward, Jonathan Harker and Ivy League American Quincy Morris, with the outcome uncertain until the very end. Here I believe Stoker skimmed over the more brutal details of the last battle to seize Dracula's coffin and destroy him - we must remember he was writing for a middle class British readership with rather exalted views of the behaviour of the British abroad.
Stoker does tell us that the British party had armed themselves with Winchester rifles and, clearly, this wasn't for show purposes. The Winchester - heavy bore, long range and rapid firing - was a formidable weapon. My own view is that the action would have been sickeningly violent and bloody with the British outnumbered but heavily armed, gunning down a large number of the Romanies before moving forward, still shooting, to storm the wagon and seize the coffin. Even at this stage one of the gypsies stabbed to death Quincy Morris in a last desperate attempt to save his old master. One wonders what the outcome would have been if instead of knives and an occasional pistol the gypsies had possessed some rifles of their own! Whatever the final thoughts and emotions of Dracula as he was being decapitated and staked, he would have had no reason to reproach his Romany servants whose blood on the snow covered the earth bore graphic testimony. They had remained loyal to the end.
