The Scholomance, Where the Devil teaches magic Options

I first heard of the Scholomance playing World of Warcraft, soon after I read Bram Stokers Dracula and found out that it was supposedly a real place, or at least a myth. Intrigued, I did a little research. Unfortunately I didn't come up with much information of substance, but I'll state it here in hopes that other posters will be able to provide additional information and we can have a discussion.

In Dracula the first mention of the Scholomance appears in Ch. 18 by Dr. Van Helsing, "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 by Dr. Van Helsing in Ch. 23 "was in life a most wonderful man... He dared even to attend the Scholomance..."

Apparently Stoker first read of the Scholomance in an essay entitled "Transylvanian Superstitions" by Emily Gerard (1). I have found an excerpt of this essay giving a description on wikipedia, it is as follows: As I am on the subject of thunderstorms, I may as well here mention the Scholomance, or school supposed to exist somewhere in the heart of the mountains, and where all the secrets of nature, the language of animals, and all imaginable magic spells and charms are taught by the devil in person. Only ten scholars are admitted at a time, and when the course of learning has expired and nine of them are released to return to their homes, the tenth scholar is detained by the devil as payment, and mounted upon an Ismeju (dragon) he becomes henceforward the devil's aide-de-camp, and assists him in 'making the weather,' that is, in preparing thunderbolts. A small lake, immeasurably deep, lying high up among the mountains south of Hermanstadt [sic], is supposed to be the cauldron where is brewed the thunder, and in fair weather the dragon sleeps beneath the waters (2).

No one seems to be quite sure where the Scholomance was located, save that it was deep in the mountains by a lake, which Stoker calls Lake Hermanstadt, but seeing that Stoker never visited Translyvania I'm sure he just pulled this lake out of thin air for the location of the Scholomance.

The legend does seem to exist though if you take other peoples words at face value, Elizabeth Miller (1) says, "When I was in Romania, I asked some folklorists about this legend and they said it does exist."

Another wikipedia article I came across (3) deals with the magicians of the Scholomance, called Solomonari. The Solomonari are figures in Romanian folklore, a caste of wizards. "The origin of the Solomonari myth is often linked to the ancient Dacian priests. The Solomonari were believed to have learned the powers of Sholomance (which is also their German name). The Sholomance is a wide variety of magic from controlling the weather and summoning dragons to resurrecting the dead and use of telekinetic power. There is also reference in some lore that the Solomonar had many divisions or guilds which seemed to run almost as a technocracy similar to the Knights Templar." And "The Solomonari are not supernatural creatures but rather humans who have learned special abilities. It is said that the children which will became Solomonari are born with signs or marks. Later, the legend says, these children go into forests or in caves, which are usually marked with inscriptions. There they learn the art of magic from the devil "Uniilă". It is believed that the Solomonari the power to summon a balaur (a dragon in Romanian beliefs) which they can ride. Also, they supposedly have the ability to control weather, they can bring rain and storms. In early history, the Solomonari were considered rather benevolent, but as Christianity began to supplement earlier beliefs, the Solomonari became associated with the negative Christian view of witchcraft" (3)

This is pretty much all the information I could find without searching out and buying books. Take it how you will. If there really was a magical school taught by the Devil himself I can only help but wonder if it still exists, and where. Has anyone have additional information to add, or ideas?

- Baron Von Weiss


References:
1)http://www.arcane-archive.org/religion/satanism/help-scholomance-1.php
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholomance
3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomonari
4) www.worldofwarcraft.com (IMG:style_emoticons/default/13.gif)

add another n to hermanstadt and you get: http://www.tkinter.smig.net/Romania/Hermannstadt/14.htm

pics!

it sure looks like a place the devil'd set up shop - lotsa references to the dragu this, and the driebe that

great website in general - a romanian's romania

es

This post has been edited by esoterica: Mar 18 2008, 09:25 AM

That does look like a place where the Devil would set up shop, good find. Do you know anything about the Scholomance?

I first heard of the Scholomance playing World of Warcraft, soon after I read Bram Stokers Dracula and found out that it was supposedly a real place, or at least a myth. Intrigued, I did a little research. Unfortunately I didn't come up with much information of substance, but I'll state it here in hopes that other posters will be able to provide additional information and we can have a discussion.

[..]

Speaking as someone from Romania here...

I've heard of the Solomonari, but very vaguely - only once while discussing elements of folclore in a class. It's a thing mostly from the other side of the country (Moldova region - in this case, northern Moldova/Bucovina), which we avoid. But google helps:http://www.spiritelenaturii.go.ro/folclor/solomonari.htm

Apparently, the name 'solomonari' fairly new thing (about 300-400 years), despite the idea dating back to Dacia. The Dacian priests were called 'kapnobatai', which roughly meant 'those who journey on/through air' or 'those who walk on/through smoke'; traditionally they had power over nature, most notably bringing rain and calming storms. The article continues with a legend they picked up from an old man in Bucovina, who had first heard around 1930 from a neighbour who claimed to have seen one. Translated:

There was beside a spring a balaur making rain. This guy, Vasile, took his gun to shoot it, for it held enmity towards humans. Right then, the solomar was standing in a a balcony with the land's nobleman owner. So then, this Vasile wanted to shoot it and then, then a whilwind picked up and the hill's entire grass started moving and twisting, the hill was coming alive, and then, finally, the solomonar appeared. Big, with seven doublets, shoulder bag, the book of magic in his hand, with a staff in his hand which he had killed a snake with, an enchanted axe and a rein made of birch rind. He calmed the balaur with the frau. The Solomonar was telling him: " Don't shoot it, for if you do it'll be worse, much worse. Leave him, for he's been here for long, he's old, he's the one leading the whilwinds". When the solomonar rode the balaur through the sky, it asked him whether they were in the earth or on the forest. The solomonar tricks him, and tells him that they're in the earth while they're on the forest, and thus he moved the rains and saved the villages.

Cont. of the article, also translated: Yes, this is the secret history of the folk mentality that I know about: the balaur, the symbol of chaos and disaster, calmed and defeated by the demiurge solomonar, the descendant of the dacian deity Gabeleizis, the god of the fertile storms, who reined the storm cloud beast with lightning. What the old man had said his these ancestral stories. "Was the solomar a human, or what was it? Did he live with that nobleman?" I ask and the old man hurried to reply: "Yeaaah, human he was, with mustache. Walked on <balk? dunno the word> and guarded the heavens. The land owner fed him, but he wouldn't eat sweet: he ate only eggs, cornmeal and honey beech; so do the solomonari eat. As for sleeping, he doesn't sleep in houses, no matter how cold it be, but on river banks, in caves or caverns, in hollow trees or in the earth. They live without women, say that women drain them of their power and that if they loved a woman even only once, they turn human as any other human. So this Vasile said he saw how the balaur came came before the storm, 'tween the clouds, with the solomonar on it. When the solomar grabs its neck, an ice storm starts. When he wants to head to heavens, he goes to the edge of the pond and starts reading, cause he was taught. When done of reading, he throws the axe in the middle of the water and when the balaur comes out, he throws the halter over its neck and starts like crazy through the sky, and it leads him where he wants: to the landowners who don't hold the celebrations/holidays, who don't give him charity, and beats their lands with stone..." So the old man continued; his history was very coherent, nothing extrasensorial or fantastic, everything has a crude pragmatism: the solomar is human, the balaur is a serpent or "'round 5metres long, big, with two heads and four legs, had about 2000 kilo, lived in that pond, in that mace reed, and ate fish there. This, if the nobleman wouldn't throw some bull or lamb for it... and behold, when both rose, the solomonar pulling the rein on that savage balaur, my neighbour put his gun to his eyes... but the solomonar told him, with pity, don't shoot it, cause it'll be worse then, much worse, it's old here, oooold..."


The other legend in the article is from a Nicu Stefan from Gura Raului.
zmeu:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zmeu
"There, on the foot of the hill, there at Ieda, came two solomonari and they read, they read, until the water started bubbling. And out came a zmeu. The the solomonari put reins on its head, and jumped on it. Went over villages and brought hail. Others told us of this. These guys, the solomonari, are those who learn everything, but can't do anything. They learn of priesthood, of sheppherds and forging weapons. But they ain't priests, ain't sheppherds, and can't even forge a horse shoe. Then he becomes a solomonar. They're also some sort of charmers. Now they ain't staying around woods or mountains any longer, but in the big cities, with the people who have no clue who they are. They know how to bring rain and scatter clouds, but you better protect yourself with prayers. Where you see the hail cloud, you pray* and you'll scatter it with bows. Or, you can do something more against the white of hail: buy a crown made of corn plants and put it on the icon. An' there's no hail or fire that will cross you. Get me? Or the light from Easter. The candle you go to the Resurrection Mass (?), cut it and put it in the house. And when hail comes, light it. Ui, so makes the hail, turns around and won't touch you or your lands. Make so, and if that ain't working come and call me a liar. Cause there's no solomonar who can put up against God's powers. Where there's faith, God protects from stones and fires and misfortunes. And we, here, under the mountain, the more people with fear of God we have."

*in romanian praying uses the same word as begging.

Tried to keep the tone. Anyway - from this, solomar sounds very much like a magician.

There's also this link:http://www.zamolxis.ro/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13

Interesting part we didn't hear from the previous one:
Beside kapnobatai, some say they are the succesors of St Ilie (Elias?), who appears often in folk tales, who 'struck devils and sinners with lightning'. Or, in a Bucovinean tale found in 1932 "Solomonarii have their power from the wise King Solomon, who had mastered all this world's secrets."
... plus some people claiming to have seen them. I'm too tired to translate those accounts too right now...

Anyway, hope this helps.

This post has been edited by Kirie: Apr 22 2008, 01:23 PM

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I really enjoyed reading that and I thank you for posting it. I have always had an interest in indigenous cultures before the Romans. And while I have read of the Dacians and other such cultures I have never realized that the kapnobatai were also considered Dacian Priests. If I remember correctly the only refference I have read of the kapnobatai was as a Greek name for the Scythians - nomads from the Ural steps north of Parthia (roughly Iran) and east of Dacia (I could be wrong). I have heard of the Solomonari (as Dacian priests), a term from the early renascence in Romanian folklore, but only as magical humans who possessed power over nature (could cast spells to control weather and animals) through skills that were passed on to them from a people who supposedly learned magick from king Solomon. They were also apperantly immortal, not due to being inhuman but because of the magick they used.

As far as the scholomance itself if I remember that correctly that is in refference to a book written by King Solomon that the Solomonari apperantly used and were later banished from the holy land because they had become tainted by "demons". They settled in Romania (Dacia) by a lake that was supposedly only visible to them and those who they chose to see it. The modern city Sibiu is near by. This place was alegdely where many terrible things took place - battles, masacres, drownings etc etc and had a powerful draw to evil and black magick. It was supposedly the home of Vlad Dracul and his family (Which was really Wallachia, not Transylvania). It is said that those who ventured into the woods of the Scholomance never came back and that if they did so they came back as the undead, vampires or werewolves. It is interesting to note that I don't believe there are any reffereances to the Scholomance, or the Solomonari, before the early renascence. They were both apperantly works of fiction created by story tellers.

Of course if the Scholomance were a "place invisible to all but only the Solomonari and those they chose" then obviously it would seem to be a place that doesn't even exist at all - even if it actually does. And if it were such a well known place then certainly searching the internet should have weilded some good results. But through the simple research I've done so far I cannot find an etymological source for the Scholomance. The only refferences I have commonly found are from wikipedia and Bram Stoker's Dracula (fitting huh?) Bram Stoker appearently used the name from an article he read on Romanian folklore, the refference used was: Gerard, Emily. "Transylvanian Superstitions." The Nineteenth Century, 1885, p.128-144. I do not personally have any other refferences for this subject and much of what I just said could be totally wrong too.

I think this is one of those backwater research topics that if anyone really wants to get to the bottom of they'll need to spend a lot of hours digging through a library.

I did like the translation though and I thought it was very informative.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Apr 22 2008, 09:30 PM