Scholomance

The Scholomance[a] (Romanian: Șolomanță [ʃoloˈmantsə], Solomonărie [solomonəˈri.e])

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.[2][3] It has been established for
certain this article was an important source that Bram Stoker consulted for his novel
Dracula.[b][6][4] Gerard also published similar material in Land Beyond the Forest (1888), which
Stoker might have also read,[2] and other commentators stated this was Stoker's direct source for
Scholomance in his novel.[7]

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.[8][9][10]

Some modern commentators have referred to the school as "L'École du Dragon"[11] or "The School
of the Dragon".[12]

Curriculum
The school, it was believed, recruited a handful of pupils from the local population.[13] Enrollment
could be seven, ten, or thirteen pupils.[11] Here they learned the language of all living
things,[14][15][18] the secrets of nature, and magic.[15] Some sources add specifically the pupils were
instructed on how to cast magic spells, ride flying dragons, and control the rain.[11]

The duration of their study was seven[15][11] or nine years,[6] and the final assignment for
graduation required the copying of one's entire knowledge of humanity into a "Solomonar's
book".[6]

There was also the belief that the Devil instructed at the Scholomance.[c] 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.[1]

Location
The Scholomance, according to Gerard, was at some unspecified location deep in the mountains,
but the dragon (correctly spelled zmeu,[20] though given phonetically in German as ismeju[21]) was
stabled underwater in a small mountaintop lake south of Hermannstadt in central Romania
(modern Sibiu, Romania, called Nagyszeben in Hungarian).[16] Stoker's novel locates the
Scholomance near a non-existent "Lake Hermannstadt".[22]

The Solomonărie, as it was called by the Romanians, was situated underground, according to
Romanian folklorist Simion Florea Marian. Students there shunned sunlight for the seven-year
duration of their training.[15][d]

Weathermaker
By some accounts, one of the ten graduating students would be chosen by the Devil to be the
Weathermaker (German: Wettermacher[19]) and to ride a dragon (zmeu in Romanian)[20] in this
errand;[14][17][24] every time the dragon glanced at the clouds, rainfall would come.[19] 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.[19] The Solomonari's dragon-mount was, however, a balaur
according to folklorist Marian's account.[25]

Origins
Scholomance is a Germanization,[26] Solomonărie was the Romanian form according to the
popular beliefs collected by Marian,[27][15] and an alternate Șolomanțâ is given elsewhere.[28][29]

These forms suggest a tie to King Solomon,[28] and it has been pointed out that one account in
folklore describes the Solomonari as disciples of the weather-controlling ways of Solomon.[30]
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 Cueva de
Salamanca.[32][33]

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.[26]

A mistaken idea that "Scholomance" was a neologism first reported in 1885 by Emily Gerard was at
one time current in English-speaking circles.[e][6] The terms "Scholomance" and "Scholomonariu"
appear in the Austrian journal Österreichische Revue in 1865.[35][f]

In fiction
Bram Stoker, who studied Gerard's work extensively,[26] 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 primarily set in a boarding
school for young wizards inspired by and named for the legendary Scholomance.[37]

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.[38]

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

Notes
a. In German, the pronunciation is equivalent to "Scholomantze".[1]
b. 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".[4][5]
c. Schmidt only acknowledges this was a firmly held belief in Hermannstadt.[19] But Gaster
presents it as something generally held.[1]
d. Marian depicts these students as evil folk, a sort of strigoi (vampire).[23]
e. For instance, Elizabeth Miller writes that Gerard must have been the first to publish the word
Scholomance.[6] Occult writer Rosemary Guiley stated it was "possible that Gerard garbled
another term she heard, as she probably did with the word Nosferatu".[34]
 f. Also, "Scholomonáriu", a Germanization of Solomonari is found glossed in a German book
published 1781.[36]

References

Citations
1. Gaster (1884), p. 284.
2. Miller (2005), p. 183.
3. Gerard 1885, pp. 130–150.
4. Miller (2005), p. 276.
5. Crişan, -Marius-Mircea (2016), Wynne, Catherine (ed.), "4 Bram Stoker and Gothic
Transylvania" (https://books.google.com/books?id=NCjuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66), Bram Stoker
and the Gothic: Formations to Transformations, Springer Publishing, pp. 66–67, ISBN 9-781-
1374-6504-7
6. Ramsland, Katherine (2002), The Science of Vampires (https://books.google.com/books?id=e8
P80OfiXJgC&pg=PT33), Penguin, p. 33, ISBN 9-781-1012-0423-8
7. Stoker, Bram (1979). McNally, Raymond T.; Florescu, Radu R (eds.). The Essential Dracula: A
Completely Illustrated & Annotated Edition of Bram Stoker's Classic Novel (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=hT8qAQAAIAAJ). Mayflower Books. p. 194. ISBN 9-780-8317-2993-6.
8. F. Hillbrand-Grill: "Schmidt, Wilhelm (1817-1901), Historiker (http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl
_10/299.pdf)". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 10,
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5, p. 299 f. (Direct links to
"p. 299 (http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl_10/299.pdf)", "p. 300 (http://www.biographien.ac.at/
oebl_10/300.pdf)") (xml (http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_S/Schmid_Wilhelm_1817_190
1.xml))
9. Schmidt 1865, p. 219-220.
10. Schmidt 1866, pp. 16–19.
11. Martin, Laplantine & Introvigne (1994), p. 143.
12. Guiley, Rosemary (2004), "Scholomance" (https://books.google.com/books?id=5soL2qxSBDgC
&pg=PA254), The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters, Infobase
Publishing, p. 254, ISBN 9781438130019
13. Majuru, Adrian (2006), "Khazar Jews. Romanian History And Ethnography" (http://icr.ro/pagini/k
hazar-jews-romanian-history-and-ethnography), Plural Magazine, 27: 234
14. Lore of Fogarasch (Făgăraș) district and beyond, Schmidt (1866), p. 16
15. Marian (1878), pp. 54–56; German tr., Gaster (1884), pp. 285–286
16. Gerard (1885), p. 136.
17. Leland, Charles Godfrey (1891), Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling (https://books.google.com/
books?id=CpR0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA128), pp. 128–129.
18. or just "language of animals".[16][17]
19. Lore of Hermannstadt, Schmidt (1866), p. 16
20. Florescu, Radu R; McNally, Raymond T. (2009). Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and
His Times (https://books.google.com/books?id=Zot08bJa3FAC&pg=PT217). Little, Brown.
ISBN 9780316092265. "Ismeju [the correct Romanian spelling is Zmeu, another word for
dragon" ISBN 9-780-3160-9226-5
21. Schmidt (1865), p. 219 only gives "Drachen", Schmidt (1866), p. 16 adds to it:
"Drachen―Ismeju".
22. Florescu & McNally (2009), p. 217.
23. Marian (1878), pp. 54–56; German tr., Gaster (1884), p. 285: "Die Solomonari sind bösartige
Leute, eine Art »Strigoi« (Vampyre)".
24. Gerard 1885, p. 130-150.
25. Marian (1878), pp. 54–56; German tr., 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".
26. Miller, Elizabeth, quoted in Ramsland (2002), p. 33
27. Marian (1878), pp. 54–56.
28. Șăineanu, Lazăr (1895). Basmele Române (https://books.google.com/books?id=nA2gAAAAMA
AJ&pg=PA871). Bucuresci: Lito-tip. C. Göbl. p. 871.
29. Oișteanu (2004), p. 221.
30. Müller, Friedrich von (1857). Siebenbürgische Sagen (https://books.google.com/books?id=lrcA
AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA177) (in German). Kronstadt: J. Gött. pp. 177–178., cited by Gaster (1884),
p. 283
31. 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.]"
32. Moses Gaster's observation was the first (Gaster (1884), p. 283), according to Oișteanu.[31]
33. Charles Godfrey Leland (1891) also pointed this out.[17]
34. Guiley, Rosemary (2004), "Scholomance" (https://books.google.com/books?id=5soL2qxSBDgC
&pg=PA254), The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters, Infobase
Publishing, p. 254, ISBN 9781438130019;
35. Schmidt 1865, p. 219.
36. Sulzer, Franz Joseph (1781). Geschichte des transalpinischen Daciens (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=jr1fAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA265) (in German). Vol. 2. Vienna: Rudolph Gräffer. p. 265.
37. "Author Interview - Naomi Novik, author of A Deadly Education" (https://bookpage.com/intervie
ws/25662-naomi-novik-science-fiction-fantasy). BookPage.com. 10 October 2020. Retrieved
2021-06-30.
38. Shea, Cam (2020-07-28). "Hearthstone: Scholomance Academy Exclusive Legendary Card
Reveal" (https://www.ign.com/articles/hearthstone-scholomance-academy-exclusive-legendary
-card-reveal). IGN. Retrieved 2022-08-26.

Bibliography
Gaster, Moses (1884), "Scholomonar, d. i. er Grabancijaš dijak nach der Voksüberlieferung er
Rumänen" (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015069551789;view=1up;seq=9),
Archiv für slavische Philologie (in German), VII: 281–290
Gerard, Emily (1885). "Transylvanian Superstitions" (https://books.google.com/books?id=hUJD
AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA130). The Nineteenth Century. 18 (101): 130–150.
Marian, Simion Florea (30 November 1878). "Mitologia daco-română" (http://documente.bcuclu
j.ro/web/bibdigit/periodice/albinacarpatilor/1878-1879/BCUCLUJ_FP_279029_1878_1879_003
_004.pdf) (PDF). Albina Carpaților (in Romanian). III (3): 54–56.
Martin, Jean-Baptiste; Laplantine, François [in French]; Introvigne, Massimo (1994), Le Défi
magique II: Satanisme, sorcellerie (https://books.google.com/books?id=s1v1WzDYeZoC&pg=P
A142) (in French), Presses Universitaires Lyon, pp. 142–147, ISBN 9-782-7297-0496-4
Miller, Elizabeth (2005), Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Volume (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=Wc4UAQAAIAAJ), Dictionary of literary biography 304, Thomson Gale, p. 183,
ISBN 9-780-7876-6841-9
Oișteanu, Andrei (2004). Ordine și Haos. Mit și magie în cultura tradițională românească (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=HjJrDAAAQBAJ&q=ktistai) (in Romanian). Polirom.
 ISBN 9789734637140.
——— (2016) Ordine și Haos (https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8qAQAAIAAJ&pg=PT23
5). Polirom. (reprint)
——— (2008). Il diluvio, il drago e il labirinto: studi di magia e mitologia europea comparata (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=2kXXAAAAMAAJ&q=ktistai) (in Italian). Fiorini.
ISBN 9788887082708.
Schmidt, Wilhelm (1865). "Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und Brauch der Romänen
Siebenbürgens" (https://books.google.com/books?id=beuzAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA219).
Österreichische Revue (in German). 3 (1): 219–220.
——— (1866). Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und Brauch der Romänen Siebenbürgens
(https://books.google.com/books?id=YiYPAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16) (revised ed.). Hermannstadt:
A. Schmiedicke. pp. 16–17.
Stoker, Bram (1897), Dracula.
Warrington, Freda (1997), Dracula the Undead.

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