Dark Academia & The Scholomance
/Where did the Dark Academia aesthetic come from with it’s Gothic architecture and dark libraries? What if we told you there is a school, straight from Transylvanian folklore, that might have spawned the whole idea? And that Dracula himself went there??
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of child endangerment, and imperialism.
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Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
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About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
[theme]
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia. You know, Amanda, lately it seems like everyone is really into Dark Academia as a trope and as an aesthetic, you know?
AMANDA: Thank you for saying this. It began, I think, with Donna Tartt's The Secret History, that spooky bitch, and I think it has really proliferated as we have come to reckon with the darkness that pervades our everyday lives, and I would argue, grieve institutions.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: Which we don't really have much of here in the US anymore.
JULIA: Yeah. So for folks who don't really know what I'm talking about with Dark Academia, this was an aesthetic that was popularized on Tumblr back in, like, 2015, I would say.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: But I feel like whenever fall and winter rolls around, it starts popping up again, either on, like, TikTok or also on Tumblr. And to kind of give you an idea of what we're talking about, it's that sort of, like, dark, vaguely goth, but not quite aesthetic. It sort of harkens back to literal Gothic architecture that you'd find at, like, Oxbridge or at the Ivy League schools, right? Think dark libraries, dark wood furniture, candlelight, sort of nostalgic but also maximalist.
AMANDA: Very baroque.
JULIA: Yes. And it feels like, as Amanda pointed out, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Babel by RF Kuang is a good example as well, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. You get what I'm trying to give you right visually here?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. And typically, you are either sleeping with a professor, scared of a professor, or about to kill one of your classmates.
JULIA: Yes, exactly. And a lot of these Dark Academia works of fiction, especially in the modern day, they tend to also have, like, a little bit of, like, a magic school twist, right? I'm sure you at home, if you're listening to this, can think of a book or two that fall under the category that I mean.
AMANDA: Exactly. And in The Secret History, they are studying Dionysus and that is one of the things— there's a bit of a mythic groupthink-y, sort of, like, magic of crowds twist to it.
JULIA: Uh-hmm. Yeah. Listen, the Secret History is great. If you—
AMANDA: It slaps, yeah.
JULIA: —haven't read it, go read it. It's wild.
AMANDA: It's good.
JULIA: It's truly wild.
AMANDA: It's good.
JULIA: What if I told you, though, Amanda, that there is a progenitor to this aesthetic, to— actually, a lot of these examples of fiction that use Dark Academia and the magic school as their lens?
AMANDA: Really? It didn't start with Wesleyan? Tell me more!
JULIA: No. What if I told you, Amanda, that it came out of, like a lot of spooky gothic horror things? Transylvania.
AMANDA: No way. I genuinely would never have guessed that.
JULIA: So today, we're going to be talking about the Scholomance, which is a school which according to Transylvanian and Romanian folklore is run by the devil and teaches the black arts to its students.
AMANDA: Sign me up, let's go.
JULIA: Also even better, school is underground, it's by a lake, and it's deep in the mountains. You are going to love this.
AMANDA: Let's effing go.
JULIA: So most of what we know about this school, at least in English, comes from a Scottish woman who lived in Transylvania and had written about the folklore and the superstitions back in the late 19th century. Her name was Emily de Laszowska Gerard, and she wrote several articles and books about the region, including Transylvanian Superstitions: The 19th Century in 1885, and The Land Beyond the Forests: Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania.
AMANDA: Hell yeah. Glad we get some fancies in there under the wire.
JULIA: Of course. And if you are listening to this episode and you are someone who may be studied the history of literature during this period, Gerard's name might be somewhat familiar to you. And that's because these collections of Transylvanian folklore that she wrote had a direct influence on Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.
AMANDA: Hit the bell, Julia, take a shot.
JULIA: Ding, ding, ding.
AMANDA: Take a hit. Bram Stoker's come up on an episode of Spirits.
JULIA: And he's going to come up multiple times in this episode, I'm excited. So it literally introduced Bram Stoker to the term Nosferatu as a reference to undead creatures.
AMANDA: Oh, shit. I hope this woman knew the cultural impact of her work. Obviously, she couldn't know the entire future, but I hope she had a sense of like, "People love this shit."
JULIA: Yes. Okay. So here's the quote, "More decidedly evil is the Nosferatu, or vampire, in which every Romanian peasant believes as firmly as he does in heaven or hell. There are two sorts of vampires, living and dead. The living vampire is generally the illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons, but even a flawless pedigree will not ensure anyone against the intrusion of a vampire into their family vault, since every person killed by a Nosferatu becomes likewise a vampire after death. And will continue to suck the blood of other innocent persons till the spirit has been exorcised by opening the grave of the suspected person and either driving a stake through the corpse or else firing a pistol shot into the coffin. To walk smoking round the grave on each anniversary of the death is also supposed to be effective in confining the vampire. In very obstinate cases of vampirism, it is recommended to cut off the head and replace it in the coffin with a mouth filled with garlic, or to extract the heart and burn it, strewing its ashes over the grave." Amanda, you have some thoughts there?
AMANDA: I did not expect the crossover event of beheading a vampire and garlic with— okay, you're gonna behead the vampire. That's just step one. Your work is not done. Don't go to bed. You're gonna take the head, somehow pry open the mouth. Typically, we are not buried mouths agape, and then stuff it full with— I'm gonna say at least seven, eight, nine heads of garlic. Like—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —to get enough clothes to fill a mouth?
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: That's a lot of garlic.
JULIA: That is. That is.
AMANDA: And we weren't having these, like, selectively bred gigantic heads of garlic, okay, Julia? We're talking like garlic the size of a couple of thumbs. Like—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —that's a lot of garlic.
JULIA: That is a lot of garlic.
AMANDA: Good God. Then you replace it, then you replace the coffin, then you rebury it?
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: I prefer walking around the grave smoking, thinking about my life.
JULIA: Well, to be fair, the cutting off of the head and stuffing the mouth with garlic only for very obstinate cases.
AMANDA: I'm— I guess I hope I catch an easy one.
JULIA: She continues, "That such remedies are often resorted to, even now is a well-attested fact and there are probably few Romanian villages where such have not taken place within memory of the inhabitants. There is likewise no Romanian village which does not count among its inhabitants some old woman," usually a midwife, "versed in the precautions to be taken in order to counteract vampires and who makes of the science a flourishing trade."
AMANDA: Man, I love Western European tourists. They'll just go anywhere and be like, "It is known."
JULIA: "It is known."
AMANDA: Or, like, " [7:38] village doesn't have this." And it's like, "Uh, I think you've been to like two places in Lithuania, in Romania, maybe."
JULIA: "I went to three Romanian villages and now I know everything about Romania."
AMANDA: I mean, I don't know. Get your grift on, girls, but that's a lot.
JULIA: But— okay. Besides that very cool fact, Amanda, she also in that same article writes about the Scholomance. Now, according to her, the school is located in the mountains south of Hermannstadt which is now known as Sibiu. She notes that this area is known for its frequent thunderstorms, which locals would blame on the magic that was being practiced by the students at the school.
AMANDA: Ah.
JULIA: Now, according to Gerard, The devil teaches, quote, "All the secrets of nature, the language of animals, and all imaginable magic spells and charms." Now, Amanda, you're picturing kind of the students who are learning this, right?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: What are you kind of picturing in your brain here of, like, what the student body looks like?
AMANDA: I think I'm picturing, like, men and women in sort of, like, black or gray attire, sort of, like, not quite Victorian period but, you know, high necks, maybe clean, some petticoats, lots of layers. I'm imagining overcoats, because it's probably chilly underground. Taking notes at, like, you know, desks made of big boulders or something.
JULIA: How many people are you picturing in your brain?
AMANDA: Oh, I guess like a classroom of, I don't know, 20 or 30 people and then many classrooms along a hallway, you know?
JULIA: So you're picturing a sort of thriving student body.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JULIA: Don't. Don't do that. It is said to be extremely exclusive.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: It is only 10 students at a time. Though, depending on who you ask, sometimes it's 13, sometimes it's seven. One of those cool magic numbers, right?
AMANDA: Wow. Real low student-teacher ratio here.
JULIA: Exactly. And we always talk about small classrooms are good for students. It's a positive thing, right?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: What's not a positive thing is the fact that when the studying is done and it's time to graduate, the devil ends up keeping one of the students' payment.
AMANDA: Oh. So it's free except you or one of your classmates will stay behind to serve the devil?
JULIA: Exactly. I'm glad you're— your mind went to serve the devil and not dead, so that's good.
AMANDA: I mean, you spent so much time investing in this person.
JULIA: Exactly.
AMANDA: —surely, you don't want to throw away their expertise.
JULIA: Yes, no, in fact they become the devil's aide-de-camp and also get to become a dragon rider.
AMANDA: Okay, I'm not hearing many downsides to a debt-free education in the Black Arts.
JULIA: This is what I'm saying, I'm like, "Now, I know magic and also I get to be a dragon rider? That is way better than student loans."
AMANDA: Absolutely no notes.
JULIA: So what's also interesting is there has been a more modern mythology that has sort of developed around the Scholomance, and that says that the final exams supposedly involve writing everything a student knows into a book. So, like, every single thing that they learned there, they have to then copy into the book, and if they don't, they don't graduate.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Also, the students, again, live underground but are not allowed to see the sun during their studies.
AMANDA: Not one?
JULIA: Not one. And then also the recruitment process, which is a secret. It's very mysterious. No one knows how the students are recruited to the school, but it does privilege local children rather than those from abroad.
AMANDA: Okay, Julia. This is good. It's like when Wegmans opened in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and said, "We're going to hire most of our workforce from this zip code—"
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: "—because we're opening in their town and they need jobs."
JULIA: There you go. In my mind, I'm like, "It's like a SUNY school, you know?"
AMANDA: Exactly. Exactly. You live in Oswego, you get to go to Oswego, you know?
JULIA: That's great. Now, Amanda, what's interesting is— and we roasted her a little bit before that, but Gerard wasn't the only one writing about the folklore from this region around this same time period. In fact, she most likely got a good amount of her stories from a man named Wilhelm Schmidt, who is a Transylvanian historian who is teaching in Hermannstadt around that time, and published an article titled, "The Year and Its Days in the Opinion and Customs of the Romanians of Transylvania," in 1865.
AMANDA: I see this book at a garage sale, it's not leaving my hands. I snatch it up, I hold it close to my breast and I say, "Nobody else can have this."
JULIA: How much do you want for this? This is mine now.
AMANDA: Will you take my soul?
JULIA: Are you the devil? Would you like to teach me the black arts and then give me a dragon? Would that be cool with you?
AMANDA: I'm just saying, if that's on offer, let's talk about it.
JULIA: Also, shortly after Gerard published her Transylvanian superstitions article, it was followed by another Scottish folklorist in 1897 named R.C. Maclagan. So he published an article titled Ghost Lights of the West Highlands, which tells an extended version of the tale that Gerard relayed. And here's the quote, "Here, in Romania, we find that the Drak is the devil in person who instructs certain persons to be magicians and medicine men in a college underneath the ground. Of these, one in eight receives instruction during 14 years, and on his return to Earth, he has the following power. By means of certain magical formulae, he compels a dragon to ascend from the depths of a lock. He then throws a golden bridle with which he has been provided over his head and rides aloft among the clouds, which he causes to freeze and thereby produces hail. People who are by report Solomonaris," we'll talk about that in a second.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: "As these are styled, are then avoided by the Romanian country people, and if at all possible, liberally fed in order that they may not destroy the crops with hail storms."
AMANDA: Got it.
JULIA: "When the Solomonari poured out the hail over the locality desired, that is, where some person lived that offended him, he returns, covered in a thick cloud to the earth, back to the lock, where he removes the bridle from the head of the dragon and drives him back into the waters."
AMANDA: I am hearing no downsides. You get to study below the surface of the earth. Probably you're gonna get some vitamin D deficiency, but I bet you're not gonna get skin cancer. And you get to wreak vengeance in an awesome way, as in awe-inspiring and also very cool against someone who wronged you 14 years ago.
JULIA: 14 years ago!
AMANDA: Nothing like low and slow baked revenge.
JULIA: Nothing like it, Amanda, nothing like it. That's also— that's doctor levels of education length.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: That's a long time.
AMANDA: We have a doctorate, we have a post-doctorate, we have all—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —kinds of on-the-job training. This is a lot.
JULIA: I am assuming that this is like past your— like you're not starting when you're five, but I could be wrong.
AMANDA: No, they said college—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And also just want to point out, people have been freaking out about what, like, new fancy evil things students have been learning at higher education for many hundreds of years.
JULIA: So long. So many years.
AMANDA: So long.
JULIA: Centuries, centuries. Now, these three writings from Gerard, Schmidt, and Maclagan are the first time we see Scholomance written out in regards to Romanian and Transylvanian folklore. That's not to say that it wasn't part of an oral tradition before that. In fact, most scholars believe that is a sort of, like, misinterpretation of the word Scholomanaroi, [15:05] which is tied to a story about a magical dragon school in the center of the earth.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: I'm just saying that, you know, if you're looking for inspiration for a new YA book or a new Romantic book, this is a good option for you.
AMANDA: That's a great option. All we need is a mention in the author's note. That's all.
JULIA: Magical dragon school in the center of the earth. There you go. On a silver platter, I'm handing it to you.
AMANDA: I would read it.
JULIA: But, Amanda, you'll notice that in the quote from Maclagan, I mentioned the Solomonari, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Now, this was the name that was used for the students of the Scholomance.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Now, part of the reason they are called that is because in certain versions of the tale, the devil is not the one that is teaching the students, but rather, a reincarnated version of King Solomon.
AMANDA: Oh. Oh. I didn't see that coming.
JULIA: Now, a quick aside just to talk about Solomon, because I think people have somewhat of an idea of who he is and what his whole thing is, but maybe don't necessarily know all of it. Especially if you were raised in Christianity or Judaism, you're probably familiar with the name, but he was the fourth king of Israel and Judah. Whether that is historically accurate or just according to the Torah and the Bible is something hotly debated by religious scholars. Most agree that it's possible that he historically existed, but that the details of his life and rule were definitely at least partially fictional.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Now, usually, you will see his name in reference to, like, the Wisdom of Solomon, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Which is a wisdom that was given to him by God because he prayed and God was like, "What do you want?" And Solomon was like, "I want to be wise, to lead my people better." And God said, "Pretty cool. I'll give you wisdom and also fucking magic, dude." So if you have ever heard of that situation where, like, two women are claiming to be the mother of a child, he's the one that ordered the child to be cut in half in order to reveal the true mother because she withdrew her bid rather than see the child be killed.
AMANDA: Crafty, wise.
JULIA: So good.
AMANDA: So good.
JULIA: Crafty, little devil. Now, part of this wisdom that he received and the powers that he received along with the wisdom is that he can control animals. He has control over the weather, and also has control over spirits like angels, demons, and other spirits, as well as being able to practice a certain level of magic and mysticism, right?
AMANDA: Nothing but respect for people who name their kids Solomon because it's like, "That's a good legacy. I agree."
JULIA: Yeah. I mean, besides the part— there's also a part later where he married a bunch of women and a lot of those women weren't Jewish and then they like, you know, drove him towards worshipping other gods that are not God, and so he got punished for that. But—
AMANDA: It's the first commandment, it's the first one. You can't—
JULIA: That's the first one.
AMANDA: You can't break that one.
JULIA: Bro, it's like the first one, though.
AMANDA: First one, right at the top so you can't miss it. You might get tired by number four and number five, you might forget about adultery for a minute, but like—
JULIA: But ,like, number one.
AMANDA: —"I am God, your God," like that's number one.
JULIA: Uh-hmm. So in some stories, this magical power that he has comes from the Seal of Solomon, which is a legendary signet ring that gave Solomon the power to speak with animals and also to command all of those spirits.
AMANDA: Nick Cage got that in National Treasure, didn't he?
JULIA: God, I don't even know. That wouldn't surprise me. I'll say that much. All right. So, famously, there is the story of Solomon and Asmodeus. Now, Asmodeus, as you can probably guess, if you know anything about demonology or anything, a demon.
AMANDA: One of the big boys.
JULIA: One day, Solomon summoned the demon Asmodeus to ask him, what could make demons powerful over men? And Asmodeus is like, "I'll show you. You just have to free me and give me your seal and then I'll demonstrate to you how that would work."
AMANDA: Uh-uh.
JULIA: Solomon goes, "Sure." The wisdom's not coming through too much here. When he frees Asmodeus and hands over the ring, Asmodeus throws the ring into the sea where it is swallowed by a fish. And then Asmodeus fully, like, shoves Solomon into his mouth and then spits him across the land over 400 miles.
AMANDA: I didn't know Vore was biblical. That's crazy.
JULIA: Vore be biblical.
AMANDA: AI can never replace me! Ask a large language model if they could predict that, bitches.
JULIA: It couldn't, it couldn't possibly.
AMANDA: Yeah. I'm original.
JULIA: So he ends up in Amman where he— basically like, you know, "This man's a king," but no one knows that. And it's not like he has any proof that he's a king and also he has no money, right? And so he ends up working in the kitchens of another king's court, right? And while he's there, he ends up meeting the king's daughter who falls in love with him. But thinking that Solomon is a commoner, the king says, "You can't marry my daughter. In fact—"
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: "—get the fuck out of here. And my daughter can get the fuck out of here, too."
AMANDA: Yikes.
JULIA: And so they get kicked out of the city and they have to wander through the desert until they come across a coastal city. Now, while they're there, they get some food because it was bad out there in the desert. They need some food, and they get some fish. And then as they're eating the fish, they discover the fish is the fish that swallowed the signet ring.
AMANDA: Okay, that's a long-lived fish.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: Dang. So Solomon now has his magic powers back, he returns back to his kingdom, and he's able to expel Asmodeus back to hell.
AMANDA: Wild.
JULIA: So wild, right?
AMANDA: Wild.
JULIA: So all that to say is this is the guy who is potentially teaching magic to these kids, but also is like the magical legacy of the students of the Scholomance. Now, the Solomonari, which are again, those students of the Scholomance named for King Solomon, also are able to do a lot of the abilities that Solomon had. They can do that magical manipulation over the natural and the supernatural that he himself exerts. But the magic that the folklore tends to focus on, the Romanian, the Transylvanian folklore, is more than anything about the ability to manipulate the weather, which is not— like I mentioned it, but not something that is focused on in a lot of the Solomon stories. So we have these writings from someone named James Van Tesselaar, who is a psychiatrist who grew up in Romania. And in these writings, he kind of recalls what he heard about the Solomonari from when he was younger. Now, really, he said that the focus on this weather and weather magic had to do with the fact that farmers really relied on the weather in that region.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: And he recalled many men claiming to be graduates from the Scholomance that would attempt to sell their magical services in order to make money. Here's how he describes it, quote, "Next to drought, the Romanian fears and dreads hail. One hail storm in the middle of a hot summer afternoon beating down upon the ripened fields may destroy the hopes and labors of a season, and with them the food for the following winter is gone as well. When the Romanian appears practically worried about it, along comes the Solomonari. These are men traveling about and claiming to have the knowledge how to drive away hail from any locality by means of their secret incantations. While some of the peasants are beginning to entertain some doubts concerning the ability of the Solomonari to make good on their claim, they prefer to be on the safe side, and the Solomonar, as a rule, has no difficulty to collect his modest fee. It would be unwise, argues the Romanian, to draw the ire of a Solomonar upon oneself over the matter of a little money. The Solomonari also claim for themselves the ability to drive away rats from the barn by means of their wonderful incantations. If any animals are sick while they are around, the Solomonari will undertake to cure them. Generally, they are willing to make themselves useful in any capacity in which their miraculous powers can be used."
AMANDA: I mean, helpful, man. Like if my entire well-being and my family's health is dependent on it not hailing while the stuff is ripening in my fields, I'd give it a go.
JULIA: But I also just love this idea of, like, all of these potential con artists—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —sort of wandering around the Romanian countryside being like, "I'll keep the hail away for you. You got rats in the barn? I'll get rid of those, too. I got a spell. I got a spell."
AMANDA: Hard to follow up on. Hard to, you know, to be like, "Hey, they came back," and be like, "Well, you know, it's only lasts for so long."
JULIA: Yeah. ": only asked you for a couple of copper pieces, you know?"
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: Now, Amanda, I want to tell you a little bit more about some of the modern mythology around the Scholomance, as well as some other stories that either take inspiration from it or might have been inspiration for it itself. But first, how about we grab our refill?
AMANDA: Let's do it.
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AMANDA: Hey, everybody, it's Amanda. And welcome to the refill where I want to extend a special thank you to our newest patrons, PizzaGoddess. I wanna know about your cosmology, PizzaGoddess. Sarah C., and Terri W. As well as our supporting producer-level patrons whose support, thanks to their name, sustains us, makes this a thing that we can do. Thank you, Uhleeseeuh, Hannah, Scott, Anne, Matthew, Rikoelike, Lily, and Wil. And our legend-level patrons. We love you, guys. We love seeing your names every week, and I hope you love hearing your names every week. Thank you, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Michael, Morgan H., Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, and Bea Me Up Scotty. If you would like to join them, get access to ad-free episodes of the show, an extra bonus urban legends episode every month. The last one was, let me say, conversation starting, and we got a bunch of emails about it, which I think is really cool. We try to make things special for the patrons. You can join us at patreon.com/spirits podcast. Now, folks, some people out there in the world might be bummed that Halloween is over, but we know here at Spirits that it can be spooky season all the time. So this week, whether or not you can support us financially on Patreon, all good. But I would love if you could text one friend who is also kind of bummed that spooky season is behind us and be like, "Hey, if you listen to Spirits, it's never got to stop, baby."
Send them Spirits, send them one of our reels on Instagram or TikTok, send them an episode that you think they would enjoy. Got a lot of feedback about The Girl with the Green Ribbon, so that might be a good one to start with. That is a huge way to help us grow our show. We're almost 10 years old, y'all. And as we make plans for our 10th anniversary, for our 500th episode, and all of the other milestones coming up for us, we want to spread the love and spookiness to more folks than ever. So thank you if you have done so. Thank you if you are going to do so. We really appreciate you. Tons of stuff going on over at Multitude as always. And this week, I have to recommend This Guy Sucked. A history podcast for haters by haters. This is the show I described to people and they're like, "Holy shit, how can I subscribe right now?" And let me tell you guys, it's worth it. Dr. Claire Aubin and a new expert each week pull back the scholarly curtain on some of the world's biggest bummers. But it's also really fun to listen to. It's amazing how they do it. From Charlemagne to Carl Schmitt, every episode gives listeners all the ammo you need to win dinner table arguments, or in my case, probably dive bar arguments, over why history's main characters were actually kind of the worst. You have got to listen to This Guy Sucked. New episodes every Thursday wherever you listen to podcasts. We are sponsored this week by Soon To Be Mythical. Folks, pay attention, you're gonna love this one, okay? This is a conservation-driven apparel and accessories brand, featuring endangered animals and also some cryptids. Now, the endangered animals are perhaps soon to be mythical, right? We're trying to prevent them from becoming mythical by conserving the environment and conserving the species. And so when this brand reached out to us to sponsor the show, Julia and I said, "Holy crap, I don't think we've ever seen a brand that is more in line with Spirits." You can get a T-shirt with a beautiful logo that says, "Mermaids Against Microplastics." You can get a T-shirt with a yeti on it, holding up a sign against climate change. You can even get a beautiful, very soft jersey T-shirt with Mothman on it. It says, "Mothman: Endangered," and then, "Only appears before disasters." I just— I can't believe this is a thing. I'm so happy it's a thing, up to 25% of proceeds from the shirts that they sell and the accessories and things will be donated to non-profit organizations that assist with the conservation of endangered species and they print stuff on demand, which I love. There's not like, you know, hundreds of T-shirts and sweatshirts lying around in the warehouse. They make them as you order them. And they hope, actually, that the business is ultimately irrelevant because they help the animals become so common and thriving that wearing a T-shirt that says, "Soon To Be Mythical" makes no sense. So help them postpone the myth, okay? Visit postponethemyth.com and use the code SPIRITS10 to get 10% off your order. That's postponethemyth.com, code SPIRITS10 for 10% off. I love the stuff, I love my T-shirt. It is so smooth. It is so soft. postponethemyth.com, SPIRITS10, 10% off.
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JULIA: We are back. And, Amanda, for this story, I wanted to do a dark cocktail since we're talking a lot about dark magic and everything, Dark Academia.
AMANDA: You gotta.
JULIA: But so many cocktails that are like, "Ooh, black magic," tend to involve either black food dye.
AMANDA: Eh.
JULIA: —or activated charcoal, which is not good if you are on meds. Don't—
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: —drink or take anything with activated charcoal if you are on meds. It'll just fully make them not work.
AMANDA: Uh-oh.
JULIA: So what I was thinking about was something that could give me this dark color without being gross or, like, impacting the flavor in a negative way. So I found a cocktail with a plum reduction as part of the recipe and I thought I would put my own spin on it. So this is my Dark Academia magic cocktail. It has plum reduction, Cointreau, Anejo tequila and pomegranate cherry juice. So it's dark, it's sort of tart and luxurious and rich. It's sort of like a grown-up's version of a flavored margarita and I think I could trick the devil with it if given the chance.
AMANDA: I could drink this all day long, Julia.
JULIA: Hell yeah. It's like— you know, a margarita is such a summer drink in my mind. This feels like a sort of wintertime November, I'm going to have this by a fireplace kind of cocktail.
AMANDA: So good. I could pair it with like an umeboshi, you know—
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: —like bun or something. Just—
JULIA: Ooh, yeah.
AMANDA: —the flavors are so good.
JULIA: Ooh, a little, like, umeboshi reduction would also be really good—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —in this situation, like a little bit of that fermentation.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
JULIA: I do have umeboshi in my fridge. I should try that.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So the stories of the Scholomance, dark and mysterious, have inspired several other stories. As I mentioned in the first half of the episode, the work of Emily Gerard inspired Bram Stoker to write his novel Dracula in 1897. But what I didn't tell you, Amanda, is that Dracula actually makes direct reference to the Scholomance.
AMANDA: Really?
JULIA: Yes, in fact, Count Dracula was said to have been schooled at the Scholomance as an apprentice to the devil.
AMANDA: I see.
JULIA: The first mention is in chapter 18, quote, "The Draculas were," says Arminius, "a great and noble race, though now and again were Scions who were held by their Kovels to have to deal with the evil one. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermannstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due."
AMANDA: Let's go.
JULIA: He then references it again in chapter 23, quote, "He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there is no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay."
AMANDA: I mean, that's like— that's canonical. That is fully in there. He's a graduate.
JULIA: Fully canonical, which I think is so cool.
AMANDA: And I guess he didn't get taken down to serve the devil, he got to graduate.
JULIA: Now, a quick interesting aside. Both of these references to the Scholomance come from the character of Van Helsing, relaying the history of Dracula, and were said to be information that his friend, as he mentioned before, Arminius told him. And Arminius, in the context of the story, is a professor at a university in Budapest.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Now, the fun fact about this is most scholars believe that this character of Arminius was inspired by a real man named Ármin Vámbéry, who was an acquaintance of Bram Stoker while he was visiting London.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Now, Armin, also sometimes known as Arminius, was a Turkologist, so a study of Turkish culture and a traveler.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: He also worked as a diplomat for the Ottoman Empire, and he served as a professor of, quote, "oriental languages" at the University of Budapest.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: So Stoker essentially credited Vámbéry as a consultant for the novel of Dracula, having learned a good amount of Balkan folklore from him during his time together. I just think he's a really interesting dude. If you have some time to go into the rabbit hole about his life, worth looking into. Really kind of fascinating.
AMANDA: Hell yeah. If I were a gentleman in that time period, I feel like being a diplomat and scholar of, like, neighboring regions, obviously, you know, problematic in its worldview, but probably very fucking fun.
JULIA: Pretty cool just to get to, like, travel. Like, he's listed as a traveler in his Wikipedia. Like that's just something—
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: —he did, was just kind of travel that whole area and learn the folklore and the stories from it. And that's my dream, personally. If I could get sponsored by the Ottoman Empire to do that, I would have been doing it.
AMANDA: Yeah. Until I overthrow empire, can like go touring and understanding empire and then, you know, demolish from within.
JULIA: There we go. Perfect. If you have to live with the system, might as well benefit from the system, right?
AMANDA: That's a debate. That's a good question.
JULIA: Interesting. I also feel like I would be remiss if I did not mention an author who we've mentioned on the podcast before, who is Naomi Novik.
AMANDA: Hey. Yes, that's right.
JULIA: So she has a Dark Academia series that is literally called Scholomance.
AMANDA: Awesome.
JULIA: As she put it in an interview, quote, "There's an old folk legend of the Scholomance, a hidden school of dark magic where wizards spent years studying in the dark without teachers. And when they left, the last graduate's soul was taken in payment for their education. I read about this legend back when I was about 10 years old and it stuck in my head ever since." And then she continues, "The legend of the Scholomance paints a truly horrible place. The idea that you would spend years locked up in the dark with answers to your lessons appearing in letters of flame with no teachers, no contact with the outside world. It's a horrible idea. Who would do that?"
AMANDA: And Julia, do you know where Naomi's from?
JULIA: She's from Poland, I think, right? Or—
AMANDA: Roslyn, New York.
JULIA: Ros— oh, she's— right.
AMANDA: Her family are Polish Catholic and Lithuanian Jewish and—
JULIA: That's quite a combo.
AMANDA: Delicious combination resulting in this book series that I'm totally going to request from my library.
JULIA: Yeah, the first book is called A Deadly Education, and if this episode interests you at all, worth checking out. I haven't got a chance to read them yet, but it's a trilogy and all three books are out, so you can just kind of go marathon right through them.
AMANDA: spiritspodcast.com/books, baby.
JULIA: But this also brings up an interesting idea of, like, a school of magic, but in particular, dark magic, right? Where does this trope come from? Because the Scholomance is not the only school of its kind. There are a few others that I want to talk about. And the first comes from Icelandic legend and is known as the Dark School.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Now, it first appears in a story about a hero named Sæmundr the Learned. So cool.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Sæmundr the Learned, who actually was a real guy who lived in the 10th century and was a priest and a scholar, but had a lot of apocryphal stories about him and his life.
AMANDA: I so respect Icelandic history and lore, because it's like, "No, this guy was real. Also, he could talk to dragons or whatever." Like it's very— the history is so old.
JULIA: Yes. So canonically, historically, he left Iceland to study abroad, and historically, it is thought that he probably traveled to France and Germany for the majority of his studies. And it is believed that he wrote a history of the Norwegian kings, but it has since been lost. But there is a lot of folklore around him, normally involving him and the devil.
AMANDA: Hey.
JULIA: In the story that is relevant to us, he was said to have sailed abroad not just to study the liberal arts, Amanda, but also to study the dark arts.
AMANDA: Hey.
JULIA: So he arrived at the dark school only to discover that the school had no schoolmaster present. Above the entrance of the school, the school's motto read, quote, "You may come in; Your soul is lost."
AMANDA: Oh. They're— I mean, they're telling you upfront, that's something."
JULIA: There we go. So every time the students requested information regarding the arts, books about the subject would either just randomly appear the next morning for them or otherwise the information would be written upon the walls when they awoke.
AMANDA: That's— okay. This does change my willingness to go down into these schools, because not seeing any other people except your classmates, like no teacher to talk to, that's kind of a bummer.
JULIA: Yes. So the mysterious person providing notes or context or books is implied to be the devil himself.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: And so it was said that there was a law, essentially, that forbade anyone to study at the school for more than three years. And that when students left in a given year, they all had to leave at the same time.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Because the devil would keep the last one remaining, and so they would— essentially, all the students would draw lots to determine who would be the last to leave and therefore, couldn't technically leave, right?
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: So in the story, apparently, on more than one occasion, Sæmundr drew the short straw and so he had to remain longer than the law permitted. I think he ends up, like, staying there for, like, 14 years or something like that.
AMANDA: Oh, my God.
JULIA: So one day, a local bishop, his name was Bishop John, came across Sæmundr, and heard that he had been trapped in the dark school, right? And so he offered the man advice on how to escape, and in exchange for Sæmundr being able to escape the school, he had to return back to Iceland and had to live his life as a good Christian.
AMANDA: Crazy.
JULIA: Classic bishop stuff.
AMANDA: Classic Bishop stuff. Also like the wildest origin story of, like, some nice man you meet down the pub. Where you're like, "What did you do for work?" And then he's like, "Well, let me tell you about my 14 years underground learning from the devil."
JULIA: So, Sæmundr agrees and Bishop John assists him in escaping, but as they attempt to leave the grounds, the devil reaches up and grabs the bishop's cloak.
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: Now, the bishop managed to escape, but it allowed the devil to trap Sæmundr there and offer him a deal, essentially. So if Sæmundr could hide for three days, the devil would allow him to leave the school and return back to Iceland.
AMANDA: Julia, it's the devil's hide and go seek.
JULIA: Essentially, yes. So he takes this deal and using the magics that he learned from being there too long—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —essentially, is able to hide from the devil for three days, leave, and return back to Iceland.
AMANDA: This is the world's highest stakes practicum.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right. There is another version of the tale where Sæmundr was able to leave the school along with the other students because, like, essentially, they would all swarm to leave and then whoever either drew the short straw or was last to leave, so like you're half a step behind the rest of your classmates, you're going to get got.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So what he did was he sewed a leg of mutton to his cloak and as they all rushed to leave, the devil attempts to reach up and grab his cloak, but he grabs the leg of mutton instead and then Sæmundr was able to slip away.
AMANDA: That is crafty as hell. I was assuming they went buddy system and, like, almost like a three-legged race where, like, you put— you know, you all share a coat or something.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: And then you walk out at the exact same time.
JULIA: That's smart, I guess. They must have had an odd number of students.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Otherwise, they would have done that, I feel like, but who can say?
AMANDA: Tough. I mean, I guess by a millisecond, you know, somebody is going to be last.
JULIA: Right. So the problem is we don't have a lot more information about the school or, like, how the devil started it, for example. But I do think it's interesting that the Scholomance and the dark school do share these kind of, like, interesting similarities, right?
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
JULIA: Like, there is a kind of cross pollination happening here.
AMANDA: Very cool.
JULIA: Another secret magical school is located in Spain, according to legend, Amanda, is specifically in the Cave of Salamanca.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Now, this is a legit place that you can visit, unlike the underground school of the Scholomance or the unknown location of the dark school, right?
AMANDA: Damn it.
JULIA: It is in fact the former crypt of the Church of San Cibrian, which in turn used to be attached to Salamanca's oldest fortress, which was then demolished in the 14th century. But, like, in this crypt, apparently, this is where the devil would disguise himself and would teach seven chosen pupils his dark magics every night. Now, interestingly about this story is the devil would disguise himself as a sacristan, which is essentially the person who is in charge of taking care of the sacred items within a church.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Yes. So I think this is interesting because I feel like it does give the students an out because they could claim that they didn't know it was the devil.
AMANDA: Yeah, I thought it was the guy who keeps the, you know, the chalice okay
JULIA: Yeah. I thought it was the guy that makes sure our relic is all good.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: You know? I don't know. So I just think that's kind of funny.
AMANDA: I love that. Also, what a heretical costume. Like, devil's got a great sense of humor, man.
JULIA: Yeah. I love when the devil disguises himself as, like, a priest or something. You're like—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —"Ah, you got him."
AMANDA: Got me.
JULIA: That's the person you least expect.
AMANDA: You got me.
JULIA: But, apparently, very similar to the Scholomance, after finishing the lessons, he would keep one of the students to act as his servant. And there is a legend that says that the Marquis of Villen, V-I-L-L-E-N, was once a student in the Cave of Salamanca and was the one that was chosen by the devil—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —to be the servant, but he managed to escape all except for his shadow, which the devil stole away, which marked the marquee as unholy for the rest of his days.
AMANDA: Wow. Julia, can I request a shadow mythology roundup at some point?
JULIA: Ooh. Yes, we might have to narrow it down a little bit—
AMANDA: Okay, okay.
JULIA: —because there's a lot of shadow stuff out there.
AMANDA: Like the stealing, losing, or separation of the shadow from the self, I feel like that is a trope I love.
JULIA: Hmm. Yeah, that's very Peter Pan. That's kind of a classic Peter Pan one.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: I'll look into it. That sounds really good.
AMANDA: Yeah. Thanks.
JULIA: Okay. So the story of the Cave of Salamanca inspired a bunch of plays and stories, including a satirical play from famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: So worth checking out, worth looking into if you are interested in the story at all. And then one last one that I think is worth mentioning, though I don't have a ton of information on it, is the Domdaniel, which is first mentioned in the continued Arabian Night Stories that were written by Dom Chavez and Cazote. And this was originally published in 1793. So it's not like an ancient story by any means, but it is not like a modern, like, YA that you can pick up at your local shop, necessarily.
AMANDA: Was this a bunch of Spaniards being like, "No, no, no, I got more stories than a thousand and one."?
JULIA: Essentially. I think because of Spain's of, like, Islamic history, I wouldn't be surprised if that was kind of a combination of the two cultures mixing.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: But I do think it's interesting. So in this tale, the Domdaniel is a cavernous hall at the bottom of the ocean off of the coast of Tunis.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Now, it was a meeting place of magicians and spirits and gnomes, and was said to be ruled by a king named Zatannai, [44:28] who employed a magician named Mograbi. Now, Mograbi was the one who taught the students their magic there.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Now, what's interesting is this place has been mentioned in a few other stories. So for example, Robert Southey most notably used it as a setting for his multi-volume poem, Thalaba the Destroyer.
JULIA: Which came out fairly close to when the Arabian Nights stories were published. H.P. Lovecraft uses it in one of his stories in sort of a passing mention. And it is mentioned in the fantasy series Septimus Heap, which I hadn't really thought about in a while, but I bet there are a good amount of Septimus Heap fans that are in our audience listening to this.
AMANDA: That name just, like, yoinked my brain back 20 years and I—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —highly appreciate it.
JULIA: You know what, Amanda? I thought the same thing when I read it and I was like, "Oh, yeah. That was a person. That was a person that existed."
AMANDA: Yeah, right?
JULIA: "That was a book series."
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: And then finally, T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone has Merlin briefly mentioned it as the location that the witch Madam Mim studied at.
AMANDA: No way, cool.
JULIA: Yeah. So I think that's pretty neat, honestly. And I kind of want to just end here opining a little bit about the appeal of the Dark Academia and the magic school trope. I think that is something that I do genuinely feel I'm drawn to in a lot of ways.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And I think that if I had been, for example, selected to go to the Scholomance, I'm one of the non-locals that gets to go to the Scholomance, I think it'd be pretty interesting. I think it'd be kind of cool.
AMANDA: I think so too. And for me, as a kid, I happened to like school a lot and mostly because I happened to be good at school. And so it wasn't for me a site of, like, torturous failure to learn in the ways—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —that the school was prescribing me to learn, which, you know, up until recently has had absolutely no flexibility or empathy for people with alternate learning styles.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: I can really imagine why the idea of a school that doesn't just teach you things that you don't understand their utility in ways that don't work for you, but marvelous, wonderful, forbidden things. Like, that is such a relatable fantasy and something that I completely understand the millennia old almost universal appeal.
JULIA: I also think that it's really funny too, because if we're going to kind of continue off of that and we recall the, like, Romanian countryside, all of these people claiming to be people who studied at the Scholomance, right? And this idea of like, yeah, you know, even education, the job economy is going to be tough, even if you know weather magic when you get out of school.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: You're like, "Oh, yeah, I guess."
AMANDA: "Oh, yeah. You're right."
JULIA: "Oh, the education system's really failing us out there. Maybe I didn't have to almost get taken by— maybe it would have been better if I was the aide-de-camp to the devil and I got to be a dragon rider. That would have, perhaps, been a little bit better."
AMANDA: Julia, say what you will about the devil, he provides job security.
JULIA: That is true. That is true.
AMANDA: Serve for life.
JULIA: Well, Amanda, that is all I have, and listeners, thanks so much for joining us. And remember the next time that you go to bed with a question and wake up to the answer written on the walls in fire, stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
JULIA: Later, satyrs.
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