Visual Storytelling in “Nosferatu” (2024): Count Orlok Iconography and the Demonized Occultist

Robert Eggers’ Count Orlok isn’t a random demon vampire; he was once a man. Robert Eggers doesn’t want us to know the full backstory on his Orlok, but he wrote a novella on it and gave it to Bill Skarsgård; which influenced his entire performance, the story behind the prologue between Orlok and Ellen, and even the meaning of the ending. We know he’s a 16th century Transylvanian nobleman, from the 1580s-1590s (“lord” and “lordship”), he’s not Vlad the Impaler (he’s from the 15th century), he was a voivode, a sorcerer (Şolomanari) and he was married, and had a family.

This Orlok has probably known many reincarnations throughout the centuries because Robert Eggers reveals in one interview that his "Orlok is an ancient noble, predating even the foundations of the Romanian Empire." "Romanian" as in "Roman empire", because he's talking about Dacian civilization in this context. This is the concept of "reincarnation" as being true immortality (of the soul), and not vampirism.

Orlok (last) human life was during the Renaissance era (16th century), which saw the birth of several characters who defied the strict orthodox views of the established religious authority of the Christian church throughout Europe (Dr. John Dee, Nostradamus, Agrippa, etc.), accused of heresy, blasphemy and dealings with the Devil. Many were imprisoned and others executed because of their occult work and religious beliefs. We have no idea whatsoever how Orlok died (if natural causes like illness, or something else like execution or murder).

Bill Skarsgård cited "occultist warlords" and the Bulgarian epic “Time of Violence” as one of Eggers’ many inspirations for Orlok backstory. And, indeed, he lived during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans, but he wasn’t the prince. His castle is in Transylvania, which was a state under Ottoman supervision. Transylvania nobility led many rebellions against the Ottomans invaders (hence the legend of “Vlad the Impaler”, who’s considered a Romanian national hero).

Count Orlok costume design

In Bram Stoker’s novel, Count Dracula is very proud of his boyar heritage when he speaks to Jonathan. In 2024 adaptation, we also see Orlok demanding Thomas Hutter (Jonathan cinematic counterpart) to address him as “lord”: “Your Lord. I will be addressed as the honour of my blood demands it.” A Romanian boyar is a “lord”, a feudal nobleman with a castle, administrative responsibilities (political) and/or military power. A “boyar” title could be hereditary (which seems to be Orlok’s case), or earned.

Count Orlok Iconography

Orlok signet ring: with his own sigil. The gemstone appears to be rumanite, also known as “Romanian amber” (which comes in various shades of black, red and/or brown).

On Orlok's sarcophagus and on the cyrillic contract Orlok makes Thomas sign (a divorce contract which annuls Ellen and Thomas' marriage and transfers her to Orlok, which is why he pays Thomas a sack of gold for Ellen's dowery), we have Orlok’s coat of arms, where we see the attention to detail Robert Eggers places in crafting his world building. “Coats of arms” is heraldic design, and were used by nobility. 

Each “coat of arms” is unique to the individual (nobleman) and speaks of achievements, heritage, etc. “Coats of Arms” are traditionally composed by a shield, supporters, a crest and a motto, but might not have all of these elements. Orlok coat of arms doesn’t have a motto.

• The crest is a crown. Which it’s probably connected with his noble lineage, and his role as sovereign of a county (count);
• As supporters (holding the shield) we have two Dacian dragons (Draco) with their tails intertwined. Here, it’s a mix of dragon and wolf, a balaur (sky demon or “heavenly dragon” from Romanian folklore), and it’s connected to Zalmoxis. This dragon with a wolf head, was the Dacian battle flag. Orlok’s sarcophagus also has many Dacian wolfs.
• The figures on the top, inside the shield, are a Dacian dragon with a sun or star; and a wolf with a crescent moon. Usually this star and crescent moon motif represent the Székelys, an ancient Hungarian sub-group (said to descend from the Huns), and with seats of power within Transylvania, on the hills of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains. Castle Orlok is located beyond the Árnyék Pass (also known as Umbră Pass) in the Carpathians, but this is a fictional place. Both “Árnyék” and “Umbră” mean “shadow”, in Hungarian and Romanian.
• At the center, the shield is a Barry of eight fesse (horizontal stripes) or three bars, on the left (symbolic or military rank and recognition) and one tower on the right (symbolic or strength, protection, resilience of a stronghold, guarding its inhabitants from adversity and external threats);
• One Seven Rays (bottom, right), a star standing alone, probably a reference to his personal sigil (heptagram)?
• Three sabers which seem to be Hungarian szabla (bottom; left). These swords were symbols of nobility and aristocracy (szlachta) The węgiersko-polska saber was popularized among the aristocracy during the reign of the Transylvanian-Hungarian King of Poland Stephen Bathóry in the late 16th century. Swords in heraldry are usually used as a symbol for military honor.

Orlok being of Székelys lineage is also aligned with the “Dracula” novel, where Count Dracula shares the same ethnicity: “We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. . . . What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila [the Hun] whose blood is in these veins?” 

The Székelys are said to be only true Transylvanians, because they guarded the land's borders long before the Magyar invasion and Hungarian rule. Their allegiance was only to the sacred soil of Transylvania, no matter who holds temporary political dominion over them, which also makes sense as to why Orlok/Dracula needs to rest on their soil during daytime. 

Orlok sigil: an heptagram surrounded by a Draco ouroboros (death; rebirth; reincarnation); the letters are cyrillic for “Zalmoxis”; the center is the alchemist symbol for blood; the symbols appear to be Vinča; with archeological findings in Romania with these symbols being over 8,000 and 6,500 years old, and consider by many as the oldest form of human writing, but their meaning is still unknown. They are here either to show Orlok comes from an ancient bloodline; or he has known reincarnations throughout the ages? This quote from Robert Eggers, in one interview, seems to point to that, because Orlok is a 16th century corpse:

"Orlok is an ancient noble, predating even the foundations of the Romanian Empire,” Eggers stated, in explaining his choice of this forgotten language. “He needed a voice that felt as timeless and forgotten as his own existence. Dacian was perfect — it’s a spectral presence, much like Orlok himself."

Heptagrams are connected to the seven elements of Alchemy but aren’t represented like this. Heptagrams are also connected to divine feminine goddesses, like Babalon and Isis.

The genetics of historical Vlad III, “The Impaler”, “Dracula” can be traced much farther back than the Szekelys and the Huns: he was descendent from the Dacian warriors. And this seems to be the same case with Eggers’ Orlok. Aside from his sigil and coat of arms, the audience knows there’s a connection between Orlok and the Dacian civilization, because he speaks an adaptation of Dacian in the film (a language which was already extinct in the 16th century). 

The Dacians were a Indo-European people from Ancient times (6th century) which inhabited modern-day Romania (as well as parts of the surrounding countries) and were eventually conquered by the Romans. Their cult was a deity called Zalmoxis, God of life and death, who granted eternal life and knowledge to the worthy, ensuring their place in the afterlife. Sacrifical rites and shamanism were practiced in his honor. Zalmoxis was considered a prophet, represented as a handsome man, a priest who controls the forces of nature, with power over wild animals.

Zalmoxis is kind of a mysterious figure, he’s a man who became a God to his people, and in some legends he was a king, in others a slave of the Greeks who freed himself, while in others he’s the high priest of the actual God of the Dacian people. He’s often compared to Jesus Christ because he, too, was resurrected after being three years underground. According to Herodotus, Zalmoxis learned the secrets of immortality when he traveled to Egypt.

Ancient greek historian Herodotus wrote about several Dacian legends and rituals; as the priests of Zalmoxis who kept the secret of incantations that could make human beings immortal, and the ritual practice of wrapping a young man who wished to become a warrior in the skin of a wolf (some men were said to be able to change themselves each year for several days into the form of a wolf). There are some theories among historians that hallucinogenic mushrooms were used in the wolf-pelt ceremony, allowing the men to experience a complete psychological transformation into wolves.

Once psychologically transformed into a wolf and thereby initiated into the Brotherhood of the Wolf, the Dacian warrior would enter fearlessly and ferociously into battle under the banner of the Draco, the wolf-dragon. This appeared to be Orlok’s case because he has the Draco on his coat of arms, which he would wear in battle.

Draco: the Dacian battle flag; Brad (Romania)

Solomonari

Orlok is a Solomonar (or Șolomonari) from Romanian folklore; he's confirmed as such by two characters (the Orthodox Nuns and Professor Von Franz). He studied magic at the Solomonărie (“Scholomance”, in the Germanic version), in the Carpathian Mountains, in Transylvania. At this school, he learned magic (spells), the secrets of nature and the language of all living things; as well as ride flying dragons and control the weather. There's an association between King Solomon, Alchemy and the Solomonari, which explains why Orlok has a alchemist symbol on his sigil. It's safe to say he was a alchemist, too.

Orlok performing Solomonari magic: "weathermaker" and "Dacian cloud traveler"

As his final assignment to become a Solomonar, Orlok had to copy his entire knowledge of humanity into a “Solomonar’s book”, a book of wisdom, which would become the source of his power (Romanian folklore). Which is what we see in “Nosferatu” with the Solomonari codex of secrets Professor Von Franz finds in Herr Knock’s office. A "codex" is a book of laws or a set of rules, and an ancient manuscript in book form, written in Latin, and illuminated, which deals with themes like Bibical Scripture, early literature, or ancient mythological or historical annals. Which is exactly what we see in "Nosferatu":

This codex is written in Latin, as it should be.

The Dacian spoken in “Nosferatu” isn’t historical accurate Dacian, because it’s been a dead language who hasn’t exist in spoken form for over a millennium and a half. This version is a reconstructed language, fictional but well-researched, by Romanian poet and screenwriter Florin Lăzărescu, who consulted with linguistics specialized in extinct Balkan languages to try and reconstruct Dacian as best as it was possible. Many traces of Dacian are preserved in Greek and Roman texts, and Dacia became a part of the Roman Empire. Some words spoken by Count Orlok do sound like Latin, and, this book proves that Latin was, indeed, used to reconstruct Dacian:

This word that’s marked, it’s Latin: “voluerunt”. Which is the root for “volontario” (Italian); “volontaire” (French), “voluntario” (Spanish); “voluntário” (Portuguese); and “voluntariat” (Romanian), in short, every Latin-based European language. “Voluntary”, or “willing” as it’s used in the film.

In the “Dracula” novel, Van Helsing says Dracula attended the school Scholomance. In Romanian folklore: "learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due”; which is what the Old Abbess tells Thomas: “A black enchanter he was in life. Şolomonari. The Devil preserved his soul that his corpse may walk again in blaspheme.” In "Nosferatu", it's also Professor Von Franz (Van Helsing cinematic counterpart) which tells the Victorian characters that Orlok is a Solomonar/studied at the Solomonărie: "Our Nosferatu is of an especial malignancy. He is an arch-enchanter, Şolomonari, Satan’s own learnèd disciple."

However, Robert Eggers is adapting the academic thesis which links Zalmoxis worship and the folkloric Solomonari. Romanian social scientist Traian Herseni was the first to proposed the "Dacian cloud travelers" and "Solomonari weathermakers" are connected, and this myth has its roots in Dacian religion. Nowadays, this theory is openly embraced by xenoarchaeologist Jason Colavito; who proposes the Romanian folkloric "Devil's School" is, in fact, Zalmoxis' underground chamber where he taught the secrets of life and death, and immortality, to his followers. They were perceived as benevolent forces until Christianity defamed them as “devil worshippers”. This association between Paganism and the Devil wasn’t exclusive to Romania, it happened throughout Europe when European kings and leaders converted to Christianity and forced their populations to forsake their old Pagan beliefs.

The Devil’s School of Scholomance is, then, a distortion of Dacian Pagan beliefs; where Zalmoxis had a underground chamber, a great hall, where he taught the secrets of immortality, and of life and death to his followers. In “Nosferatu”, it’s the Orthodox nuns who first make the association between Orlok, the Şolomonari, and the Devil; and then the alchemist Von Franz does the same. But none of these characters have first-hand knowledge of what the Şolomonari truly are, and Von Franz admits he never encountered a Nosferatu before. And, indeed, there’s no “satanic” symbols on Orlok’s sigil and coat of arms. He’s Pagan, a follower of Zalmoxis.

This is connected to the theme of "historical truth" in this story, and “lost ancient knowledge” and “truth”. Orlok, like his 16th century human colleagues (John Dee, Nostradamus, Agrippa, etc,) is also demonized by Christianity as a “devil worshipper” because of his occult work. The Orthodox Nuns tell Thomas that Orlok’s “evil cannot enter this house of God”, which has nothing to do with God not letting him in, but the Nuns themselves not giving him entrance into the convent (because Orlok, like your regular vampire, needs to be invited in). And the narrative will drive this point home when Orlok has his sarcophagus at the chapel of Grünewald Manor, beneath a rose window, because no religion has the monopoly on God, as the creative and ruling force of the universe.