Scholomance

The Scholomance ( ro, Șolomanță, italic=no , Solomonărie ) was a fabled school of black magic in Romania, especially in the region of Transylvania. It was run by the Devil, according to folkloric accounts. The school enrolled about ten students to become the ''Solomonari''. Courses taught included the speech of animals and magic spells. One of the graduates was chosen by the Devil to be the Weathermaker and tasked with riding a dragon to control the weather.

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

Folklore

An early source on the Scholomance and Dracula folklore was the article "Transylvanian Superstitions" (1885), written by Scottish expatriate Emily Gerard. It has been established for certain this article was an important source that Bram Stoker consulted for his novel, ''Dracula''. Gerard also published similar material in ''Land Beyond the Forest'' (1888), which Stoker might have also read, and other commentators stated this was Bram 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 Romanian town of Hermannstadt.

Some modern commentators have referred to the school as "L'École du Dragon" or "The School of the Dragon".

Curriculum

The school, it was believed, recruited a handful of pupils from the local population. Enrollment could be seven, ten, or thirteen pupils. Here they learned the language of all living things,Lore of Fogarasch (Făgăraș) district and beyond, 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.

The duration of their study was seven or nine years, and the final assignment for graduation required the copying of one's entire knowledge of humanity into a "Solomonar's book".

There was also the belief that the Devil instructed at the Scholomance. 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 completely faded.

Location

The Scholomance, according to Gerard, was at some unspecified location deep in the mountains, but the dragon (correctly spelled ''zmeu'', though given phonetically in German as ''ismeju'') was stabled underwater in a small mountaintop lake south of Hermannstadt in central Romania (modern Sibiu, Romania, called Nagyszeben in Hungarian). Stoker's novel locates the Scholomance near a non-existent "Lake Hermannstadt".

The , as it was called by the Romanians, was situated underground, according to Romaninan folklorist Simion Florea Marian. Students there shunned sunlight for the seven-year duration of their training.; German tr.,

Weathermaker

By some accounts, one of the ten graduating students would be chosen by the Devil to be the Weathermaker (german: Wettermacher) and to ride a dragon (''zmeu'' in Romanian) in this errand; every time the dragon glanced at the clouds, rainfall would come. But according to legend, God made sure 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.; German tr., : "''Mit diesem Zaum zäumen die Solomonari die ihnen anstatt Pferde dienenden Drachen'' (''Balauri'')" or, "With these oldenreins, 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, and an alternate Șolomanțâ is given elsewhere.

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. 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 '.

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

A mistaken idea that "Scholomance" was a neologism first reported in 1885 by Emily Gerard was at one time current in English-speaking circles. The terms "Scholomance" and "Scholomonariu" appear in the Austrian journal ''Österreichische Revue'' in 1865.

In literature

Bram Stoker, who studied Emily Gerard, Gerard's work extensively, refers to it twice in ''Dracula'', 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 to be a misinterpretation of Gerard's passage, as there is no body of water by that name. The part of the Carpathians near Hermannstadt holds Păltiniş Lake and Bâlea Lake, which host popular resorts for people of the surrounding area.

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.

The novel ''Anno Dracula'' by Kim Newman cites the same quotation from Stoker's ''Dracula'' in chapter 23.

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''.

The novel ''A Deadly Education'' by Naomi Novik is the first in a series entirely in the setting of a boarding school for young wizards inspired by and named for the legendary Scholomance.

In computer games

The warlocks in Bungie's '' Myth II: Soulblighter'' are described as having been trained at a school of magic named the Scholomance.

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'' that is also set in the ''Warcraft'' universe.

See also

*Domdaniel
*Sæmundr fróði attended the Black School according to Scandinavian folklore.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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*——— . Polirom. (reprint)
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* Stoker, Bram (1897), ''Dracula''.
* Warrington, Freda (1997), ''Dracula the Undead''.
{{Refend

Fictional magic schools
Romanian folklore
Satan
Dragons