Scholomance

The Scholomance{{refn|group="lower-alpha"|In German, the pronunciation is equivalent to "Scholomantze".{{sfnp|Gaster|1884|p=284}}}} ({{langx|ro|Șolomanță|italic=no}} {{IPAc-ro|ș|o|l|o|'|m|a|n|ț|ă}}, Solomonărie {{IPAc-ro|s|o|l|o|m|o|n|ă|'|r|i|.|e}}) was a fabled school of black magic in Romania, especially in the region of Transylvania. Folkloric accounts state that the Devil himself ran it. The school enrolled about ten students to become the Solomonari. Courses taught included the speech of animals and magic spells. The Devil chose one of the graduates to be the Weathermaker and tasked with riding a dragon to control the weather.

The school was underground, and the students remained unexposed to sunlight for the seven years of their study. According to some accounts, the dragon (zmeu or balaur) was kept submerged in a mountaintop lake south of Sibiu.

Folklore

An early source on the Scholomance and Dracula folklore was the article "Transylvanian Superstitions" (1885), written by Scottish expatriate Emily Gerard.{{sfnp|Miller|2005|p=183}}{{sfn|Gerard|1885|pp=130–150}} It has been established for certain this article was an important source that Bram Stoker consulted for his novel Dracula.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|In an interview with Jane Stoddard, Stoker is quoted as saying ".. I learned a good deal from E. Gerard's 'Essays on Roumanian Superstitions' [sic.] which first appeared in The Nineteenth Century, and were afterwards published in a couple of volumes".{{sfnp|Miller|2005|p=276}}}}{{sfnp|Miller|2005|p=276}} Gerard also published similar material in Land Beyond the Forest (1888), which Stoker might have also read,{{sfnp|Miller|2005|p=183}} and other commentators stated this was Stoker's direct source for Scholomance in his novel.

Twenty years earlier, a description of the Scholomance and its pupils (the Scholomonariu) was given in an article written by Wilhelm Schmidt (1817–1901), a German schoolteacher at the Hungarian Saxon town of Hermannstadt.{{ÖBL|10|299|300|Schmidt, Wilhelm (1817-1901), Historiker|F. Hillbrand-Grill}} ({{plain link|url=http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_S/Schmid_Wilhelm_1817_1901.xml|name=xml}}){{sfn|Schmidt|1865|p=219-220}}{{sfn|Schmidt|1866|pp=16–19}}

Some modern commentators have referred to the school as "L'École du Dragon"{{sfnp|Martin|Laplantine|Introvigne|1994|p=143}} or "The School of the Dragon".{{citation|last=Guiley |first=Rosemary |author-link=Rosemary Guiley |title=Scholomance |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5soL2qxSBDgC&pg=PA254 |page=254|isbn=9781438130019 }}

=Curriculum=

The school, it was believed, recruited a handful of pupils from the local population.{{citation|last=Majuru |first=Adrian |title=Khazar Jews. Romanian History And Ethnography |journal=Plural Magazine |volume=27 |year=2006 |url=http://icr.ro/pagini/khazar-jews-romanian-history-and-ethnography |pages=234}} Enrollment could be 7, 10, or 13 pupils.{{sfnp|Martin|Laplantine|Introvigne|1994|p=143}} Here they learned the language of all living things,Lore of Fogarasch (Făgăraș) district and beyond, {{harvp|Schmidt|1866|p=16}}{{Refn|or just "language of animals".{{sfnp|Gerard|1885|p=136}}}} the secrets of nature, and magic. Some sources add specifically the pupils were instructed on how to cast magic spells, ride flying dragons, and control the rain.{{sfnp|Martin|Laplantine|Introvigne|1994|p=143}}

The duration of their study was seven{{sfnp|Martin|Laplantine|Introvigne|1994|p=143}} or nine years, and the final assignment for graduation required the copying of one's entire knowledge of humanity into a "Solomonar's book".{{citation|last1=Ramsland |first1=Katherine |title=The Science of Vampires |publisher=Penguin |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e8P80OfiXJgC&pg=PT33 |page=33 |isbn=9-781-1012-0423-8}}

There was also the belief that the Devil instructed at the Scholomance.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Schmidt only acknowledges this was a firmly held belief in Hermannstadt.Lore of Hermannstadt, {{harvp|Schmidt|1866|p=16}} But Gaster presents it as something generally held.{{sfnp|Gaster|1884|p=284}}}} Moses Gaster remarked that this association with the Devil indicates that the memory of the school's origins as having to do with King Solomon had faded entirely.{{sfnp|Gaster|1884|p=284}}

=Location=

The Scholomance, according to Gerard, was at some unspecified location deep in the mountains, but the dragon (spelled in Romanian as zmeu, though given as ismeju{{harvp|Schmidt|1865|p=219}} only gives "Drachen", {{harvp|Schmidt|1866|p=16}} adds to it: "Drachen―Ismeju".) was stabled underwater in a small mountaintop lake south of Hermannstadt in eastern Kingdom of Hungary (modern Sibiu, Romania, called Nagyszeben in Hungarian).{{sfnp|Gerard|1885|p=136}} Stoker's novel locates the Scholomance near a non-existent "Lake Hermannstadt".{{sfnp|Florescu|McNally|2009|p=217}}

The {{lang|ro|Solomonărie|italic=yes}}, as the Romanians called it, was situated underground, according to Romanian folklorist Simion Florea Marian. Students there shunned sunlight for the seven-year duration of their training.{{harvp|Marian|1878|pp=54–56}}; German tr., {{harvp|Gaster|1884|pp=285–286}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Marian depicts these students as evil folk, a sort of strigoi (vampire).{{harvp|Marian|1878|pp=54–56}}; German tr., {{harvp|Gaster|1884|p=285}}: "Die Solomonari sind bösartige Leute, eine Art »Strigoi« (Vampyre)".}}

=Weathermaker=

By some accounts, one of the 10 graduating students would be chosen by the Devil to be the Weathermaker ({{langx|de|Wettermacher}}) and to ride a dragon (zmeu in Romanian) in this errand;{{sfn|Gerard|1885|p=130-150}} every time the dragon glanced at the clouds, rainfall would come. But according to legend, Goensuredre the dragon would not weary, because if it plummeted, it would devour a great part of the earth. The Solomonari's dragon-mount was, however, a balaur according to folklorist Marian's account.{{harvp|Marian|1878|pp=54–56}}; German tr., {{harvp|Gaster|1884|p=285}}: "Mit diesem Zaum zäumen die Solomonari die ihnen anstatt Pferde dienenden Drachen (Balauri)" or, "With these [golden] reins, the Solomonari rein their dragons (balauri) that they use instead of horses".

=Origins=

Scholomance is a Germanization, Solomonărie was the Romanian form according to the popular beliefs collected by Marian,{{sfnp|Marian|1878|pp=54–56}} and an alternate Șolomanțâ is given elsewhere.{{sfnp|Oișteanu|2004|p=221}}

These forms suggest a tie to King Solomon, and it has been pointed out that one account in folklore describes the Solomonari as disciples of the weather-controlling ways of Solomon.{{cite book|last1=Müller|first1=Friedrich von|title=Siebenbürgische Sagen|date=1857|publisher=J. Gött|location=Kronstadt|pages=177–178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lrcAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA177 |language=de}}, cited by {{harvp|Gaster|1884|p=283}} Additionally, some assimilation might have occurred with Salamanca, Spain, the famed city of learning, with medieval stories of a sorcery taught by the devil located in the {{illm|Cueva de Salamanca|es}}.{{Refn|Moses Gaster's observation was the first ({{harvp|Gaster|1884|p=283}}), according to Oișteanu.{{harvp|Oișteanu|2004|p=221}}: "În 1884, Moses Gaster a acordat apelativului în discuţie o etimologie combinată: „Şolomonar este rezultatul dintre şolomanţă [de la Salamanca – n. A.O.] + solomonie [de la Solomon – n. A.O.]"}}{{Refn|Charles Godfrey Leland (1891) also pointed this out.Leland, Charles Godfrey (1891), {{plain link|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpR0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA128|name=Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling}}, pp. 128–129.}}

==History of the Germanized form==

Scholomance has been suspected of not being a genuine Romanian term, but rather a misnomer, created through the corrupted Germanization of "Solomonari", the term for the students and not the school. Such a view was given by Elizabeth Miller, a scholar specializing in Dracula studies.Miller, Elizabeth, quoted in {{harvp|Ramsland|2002|p=33}}

A mistaken idea that "Scholomance" was a neologism first reported in 1885 by Emily Gerard was at one time current in English-speaking circles.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|For instance, Elizabeth Miller writes that Gerard must have been the first to publish the word Scholomance. Occult writer Rosemary Guiley stated it was "possible that Gerard garbled another term she heard, as she probably did with the word Nosferatu".{{citation|last=Guiley |first=Rosemary |author-link=Rosemary Guiley |title=Scholomance |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5soL2qxSBDgC&pg=PA254 |page=254|isbn=9781438130019 }};}} The terms "Scholomance" and "Scholomonariu" appear in the Austrian journal Österreichische Revue in 1865.{{sfn|Schmidt|1865|p=219}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Also, "Scholomonáriu", a Germanization of Solomonari is found glossed in a German book published 1781.{{cite book|last1=Sulzer|first1=Franz Joseph|title=Geschichte des transalpinischen Daciens |volume=2 |date=1781|publisher=Rudolph Gräffer|location=Vienna|page=265|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jr1fAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA265 |language=de}}}}

In fiction

Bram Stoker, who studied Gerard's work extensively, refers to it twice in Dracula (1897), once in chapter 18:

The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due.

And in chapter 23:

He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay.

Stoker's reference to "Lake Hermanstadt" appears{{vague|date=June 2020}}{{dubious|date=June 2020}} to be a misinterpretation of Gerard's passage, as there is no body of water by that name.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} The part of the Carpathians near Hermannstadt holds Păltiniş Lake and Bâlea Lake, which host popular resorts for people of the surrounding area.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In the fantasy novel Lord of Middle Air by Michael Scott Rohan, the character of wizard Michael Scot reveals that he dared to train at the Scholomance on two occasions, as there was so much knowledge it could not all be learnt in one night.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The novel Anno Dracula by Kim Newman cites the same quotation from Stoker's Dracula in chapter 23.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The young adult fiction novel Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare uses the Scholomance as a Shadowhunter training academy to train elite Shadowhunters in her spinoff to The Mortal Instruments, The Dark Artifices.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The novel A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is the first in a series primarily set in a boarding school for young wizards inspired by and named for the legendary Scholomance.{{Cite web|title=Author Interview - Naomi Novik, author of A Deadly Education|url=https://bookpage.com/interviews/25662-naomi-novik-science-fiction-fantasy|access-date=2021-06-30|website=BookPage.com|date=10 October 2020 |language=en}}

The warlocks in Bungie's Myth II: Soulblighter are described as having been trained at a school of magic named the Scholomance.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

In Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the Scholomance is a ruined castle held by undead forces whose cellars and crypts are now used to train necromancers and create undead monsters. Like its legendary namesake, the Scholomance in World of Warcraft is in the middle of a lake. The school is also featured in the Scholomance Academy expansion pack of 2020, for the related game Hearthstone and in the Warcraft universe.{{Cite web |last=Shea |first=Cam |date=2020-07-28 |title=Hearthstone: Scholomance Academy Exclusive Legendary Card Reveal |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/hearthstone-scholomance-academy-exclusive-legendary-card-reveal |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=IGN |language=en}}

In the online novel Pale Lights, Scholomance is a malevolently sentient palace originally built by Lucifer, converted by the Watch into an elite paramilitary training school.

Notes

References

= Citations =

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{citation|last=Crişan|first=-Marius-Mircea |author-link= |title=4 Bram Stoker and Gothic Transylvania |editor-last=Wynne |editor-first=Catherine |editor-link=|work=Bram Stoker and the Gothic: Formations to Transformations |publisher=Springer Publishing |year=2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCjuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 |pages=66–67 |isbn=9-781-1374-6504-7}}

{{cite book|last=Șăineanu |first=Lazăr |title=Basmele Române |place=Bucuresci |publisher=Lito-tip. C. Göbl |year=1895 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nA2gAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA871 |page=871}}

{{cite book|last1=Florescu |first1=Radu R |author-link=Radu Florescu |last2=McNally |first2=Raymond T. |title=Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times |publisher=Little, Brown |year=2009 |isbn=9780316092265 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zot08bJa3FAC&pg=PT217

|quote=Ismeju [the correct Romanian spelling is Zmeu, another word for dragon}} {{isbn|9-780-3160-9226-5}}

{{cite book|last=Stoker |first=Bram |author-link=Bram Stoker |editor-last=McNally |editor-first=Raymond T. |editor-link=Raymond T. McNally |editor-last2=Florescu|editor-first2=Radu R |editor-link2=Radu Florescu |title=The Essential Dracula: A Completely Illustrated & Annotated Edition of Bram Stoker's Classic Novel |publisher=Mayflower Books |year=1979 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8qAQAAIAAJ |page=194 |isbn=9-780-8317-2993-6}}

}}

= Bibliography =

{{citation|last=Gaster |first=Moses |author-link=Moses Gaster |title=Scholomonar, d. i. er Grabancijaš dijak nach der Voksüberlieferung er Rumänen |journal=Archiv für slavische Philologie |volume=VII |year=1884 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015069551789;view=1up;seq=9 |pages=281–290|language=de}}
{{cite journal|last=Gerard|first=Emily |author-link=Emily Gerard|title=Transylvanian Superstitions |journal=The Nineteenth Century |volume=18 |number=101 |year=1885 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hUJDAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA130 |pages=130–150}}
{{cite journal|last=Marian |first=Simion Florea |author-link=Simion Florea Marian |title=Mitologia daco-română |journal=Albina Carpaților |volume=III |number=3 |date=30 November 1878 |url=http://documente.bcucluj.ro/web/bibdigit/periodice/albinacarpatilor/1878-1879/BCUCLUJ_FP_279029_1878_1879_003_004.pdf |pages=54–56|language=ro}}
{{citation|last1=Martin |first1=Jean-Baptiste |last2=Laplantine |first2=François |author-link2=:fr:François Laplantine |last3=Introvigne|first3=Massimo |author-link3=Massimo Introvigne |title=Le Défi magique II: Satanisme, sorcellerie |publisher=Presses Universitaires Lyon |year=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1v1WzDYeZoC&pg=PA142 |pages=142–147 |isbn=9-782-7297-0496-4|language=fr}}
{{citation|last=Miller |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Miller (academic) |title=Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Volume |publisher=Thomson Gale |year=2005 |series=Dictionary of literary biography 304 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wc4UAQAAIAAJ |page=183 |isbn=9-780-7876-6841-9}}
{{cite book|last=Oișteanu |first=Andrei |author-link=Andrei Oișteanu |title=Ordine și Haos. Mit și magie în cultura tradițională românească |publisher=Polirom |year=2004|isbn=9789734637140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjJrDAAAQBAJ&q=ktistai |language=ro}}
——— {{plain link|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8qAQAAIAAJ&pg=PT235 |name=(2016) Ordine și Haos}}. Polirom. (reprint)
{{cite book|last=Oișteanu |first=Andrei |title=Il diluvio, il drago e il labirinto: studi di magia e mitologia europea comparata |publisher=Fiorini|year=2008|isbn=9788887082708 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kXXAAAAMAAJ&q=ktistai |language=it |author-mask=3}}
{{cite journal|last=Schmidt |first=Wilhelm |title=Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und Brauch der Romänen Siebenbürgens |journal=Österreichische Revue |volume=3 |number=1 |year=1865 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=beuzAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA219 |pages=219–220 |language=de}}
{{cite book|last=Schmidt |first=Wilhelm |title=Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und Brauch der Romänen Siebenbürgens |place=Hermannstadt |publisher=A. Schmiedicke |year=1866 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiYPAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16 |edition=revised |pages=16–17|author-mask=3}}
Stoker, Bram (1897), Dracula.
Warrington, Freda (1997), Dracula the Undead.