|
Used to have a long enmity with Hungary, especially over Transylvania (a bit more on this historical conflict on the [[Hungary]] page), but that's mostly boiled over by now and the two countries get along well enough. Average citizens from the two countries may still dislike/hate the residents of the other country though.
Transylvania, setting for "Dracula", is in Romania - now. It was transferred from Hungary at the end of [[World War OneI]], and has always been an ethnically mixed country (there is a serious unresolved - on an international level - debate going on about that though, regarding who was there first - science has pretty much said it was likely Romanians, not that it matters anyhow): despite some 400 years of efforts from Hungarian, and later Austro-Hungarian authorities, it's been mostly Romanian at least since the Turkish Wars; despite some 50 years of best efforts from the Commies, the Hungarian "Szeklers" are still there; they currently form an ethnic majority in the counties of Covasna and Harghita (where they form 85% of the population) and are a significant presence in Mureș and other counties, causing some hand-wringing and [[Misplaced Nationalism]] over minority rights (want to see an [[Internet Backdraft]]? Bring up the question of language rights). Traditionally, the south was inhabited by Germans who had come to the Mongol-ravaged land in the Middle Ages, but they mostly packed up and left after the war or were bought the privilege to leave - one of Ceauşescu's brilliant ideas was to sell off Germans and Jews to West Germany and Israel. There is a still a larger-than-average German minority, German in high-schools, and German names on some road signs. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a Szekler, but its inspiration, the "real" Dracula, ''was'' Romanian, although, ironically, not a Transylvanian at all: he was from Wallachia, the southern third of the country.
In other words, when someone tries to do a gritty adaptation of Dracula and has him speaking Romanian to up the realism, they're wrong. He should be speaking Hungarian. If they were making a film about Vlad Dracul, Wallachian prince and freedom fighter also known as "The Impaler", ''then'' he ought to be speaking Romanian.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Useful Notes/Europe]]
[[Category:Romania{{PAGENAME}}]]
|