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Powers of Darkness

The title page from Dagen
Author	Bram Stoker, A—e (translator)
Language	Swedish
Genre	Horror, Gothic
Publisher	Harald Sohlman
Publication date	June 10, 1899 (1899-06-10)–February 7, 1900 (1900-02-07)
Publication place	Sweden
Pages	688
OCLC	971019732

Powers of Darkness (Mörkrets makter) is an anonymous 1899 Swedish version of Bram Stoker’s 1898 novel Dracula, serialised in the newspaper Dagen and credited only to Bram Stoker and the still-unidentified "A—e."

It is a variant or adaptation rather than a direct translation, with added characters, new plot elements and significant differences from the original. It served as the basis of a shorter Icelandic version under the same title the following year, which appeared as both a newspaper serial and a book.

Powers downplays the vampirism of Stoker’s novel and portrays Dracula primarily as the head of an international cult inspired by Social Darwinism, whose goal is elimination of the weakest and world domination by an elite.

It was long assumed to have been based on lost or unpublished elements of Stoker’s novel, such as preparatory notes and early drafts, but more recent research questions whether the translation is essentially a contemporary forgery, undertaken without Stoker’s knowledge or consent. In the twenty-first century, new academic research and a renewed interest in the variant has led to several new translations and editions.

Story

Like its source novel, Powers of Darkness is a Gothic horror story about an Englishman visiting a Transylvanian castle to arrange its aristocratic owner’s purchase of a new property in England.

Differences from Dracula

Here the visitor is Thomas, Tom or Tómas Harker, rather than Jonathan, and Dracula becomes Draculitz. The early part of the story is similar to Stoker’s, but where Stoker’s Dracula lives alone, in Powers he shares his castle with a deaf-mute housekeeper and a cult of ape-like followers. Harker follows the housekeeper to a secret basement "temple," where he discovers the cult practising ritual sacrifice, but Draculitz does not drink the blood of their female victims; nor does he shapeshift, as in the original novel. In both Nordic variants Harker encounters a beautiful blonde woman in the castle, rather than the three vampire sisters, or brides, of Stoker’s book, and while he is repulsed by them in Dracula, and relieved to be rescued by the Count's interruption, in Powers he is attracted to her and continues secretly to meet with her, in disobedience of his host's instructions.

Once he has arrived in England, Draculitz appears often in public, chatting pleasantly with Mina (ere called Wilma or Vilma) and Lucy (called Western rather than Westenra) in the churchyard at Whitby, visiting Lucy when she is sick, and hosting a grand party with an international guest list at Carfax in London; Stoker’s Dracula remained mostly in the shadows. In Powers, Draculitz does not attack Mina, here called Wilma or Vilma. Instead, she joins Hawkins and two new characters—the detectives Edward Tellet and Barrington Jones—and together they take their investigation to Transylvania and Castle Dracula, assisted by the Hungarian Secret Police en route. Unlike in Dracula, Van Helsing and his allies remain in England, where they kill Draculitz on Mina and her party’s return.

Other new characters include Mina’s Uncle Morton and aristocrats called Prince Koromezzo, Countess Ida Varkony and Madame Saint Amand. The character of Renfield is not found in either Nordic version. Other original characters remain intact and are even among the vampires' victims: Holmwood and Seward die after falling prey to Lucy and Countess Vàrkony, respectively.

Reviewers and scholars alike have noted the more obvious eroticism of the Swedish and Icelandic Draculas: in the Guardian, critic Colin Fleming wrote that where Stoker’s sexual metaphors "serve deeper, dark concepts," Makt Myrkranna, "could have had the subtitle Lust in a Cape"; he notes Draculitz's preoccupation with female bosoms.

Social Darwinism and the Fin de Siècle

Draculitz not only has charge of the cult that gathers in his castle, but is known to correspond with international leaders, including English politicians and aristocrats, to engineer world domination. Several times he says that 'the world belongs to the strong' and protests that members of the elite have been suppressed by the majority for too long; his movement is growing, however, and will take over the world. His views reflect Social Darwinism, 'survival of the fittest' and the ideas of philosophers such as Nietzsche, as the growing fascist movement in Europe would increasingly interpret—or misinterpret—them.

Söhrman notes the suggestion that Dagen publisher Harald Sohlman may have had sympathy with these views, as in later life he rejected socialism and became more politically conservative (Elovson, 1953); the fact that Draculitz is the story's villain goes against this, however, and not only is the Count destroyed, but his international associates share his punishment, dying by murder and suicide. Berghorn describes Powers as a satire, warning against the turn-of-the-century theories that would lay the basis for Hitler's "master race." Powers references this zeitgeist directly when Seward quotes a contemporary tabloid:

By the way, the telegram section of the newspaper announces several strange news – lunatic behavior and deadly riots, organized by anti-Semites, in both Russia and Galicia as well as southern France – plundered stores, slain people – general insecurity of life and property – and the most fabulous tall tales about "ritual murders," abducted children and other unspeakable crimes, all of which is ascribed in earnestness to the poor Jews, while influential newspapers are instigating an all-encompassing extermination war against the "Israelites." You would think this is in the midst of the Dark Ages!

Along with rising fascism, the Fin de siècle saw a growth in new, esoteric religions, such as Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Berghorn likewise sees these movements satirized in the occult pagan rituals of Draculitz's cult.

The East End, Jack the Ripper and the Thames Torso Murders

Bloom has observed the prominent role that the then-notorious East End of London plays in Powers. At the end of the nineteenth century, the area, which Bloom describes as Britain's "wild frontier," was associated with poverty, disease and crime, especially prostitution. He argues that allusions in the text suggest the Scandinavian authors or translators wanted to link Draculitz with Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper, whose murder spree took place in the Whitechapel district in 1888.

De Roos contends that the Ripper connection is based largely on Dalby's 1986 mistranslation of the Icelandic preface, in turn a shortened version of the Swedish preface. Where Dalby's version says that "the murders of Jack the Ripper ... came into the story a little later," De Roos corrects it to "the murders of Jack the Ripper ... happened a little later." In light of this revised timeline, De Roos sees a reference to the so-called Thames Torso Murders of 1887 in the following passage from Powers:

“Yes” – he said breathlessly and the fire virtually burned in his eyes, – “yes, these crimes, these terrible murders, these murdered women, these people found in sacks in the Thames, this blood, that flows, that flows and streams, while the murderer cannot be not found.”

Bloom—who, it must be noted, was commenting on the Icelandic text before the existence of its Swedish source was widely known—also observes similarities between the descriptions of Draculitz's female followers and the contemporary stereotype of the "exotic" Ashkenazi Jewish prostitutes whose dark complexions and perceived voluptuousness made them popular with East End pimps.

Makt myrkranna

The first variant of Powers of Darkness to receive international attention was Makt myrkranna. In 1986, literary specialist Richard Dalby published a translation of the foreword to Makt myrkranna (Powers of Darkness). He believed the Icelandic book edition by publisher Nokkrir Prentarar (August 1901) to be the first foreign translation of Bram Stoker's vampire novel, which had been released in London on 26 May 1897. In fact, as pointed out by Prof. Jenő Farkas in 2010, the first translation of Dracula was into Hungarian by the writer and newspaper publisher Jenő Rákosi, who serialized a translation of Dracula in the Budapest newspaper Budapesti Hírlap (79 parts, starting on 1 January 1898), later that year published in book form. Dalby characterised the Icelandic text as a strongly abridged version of the English original, only notable because a new, extended preface by Bram Stoker had been added. Without further examination, this assessment was adopted by all English-speaking Dracula experts, and "Stoker's Icelandic foreword," mentioning the crimes by Jack the Ripper, started playing a major role in academic Dracula exegesis.

In January 2014, the Dutch literary researcher Hans Corneel de Roos unearthed the original text of Makt myrkranna as originally serialized in Fjallkonan (Lady of the Mountain) from 13 January 1900 to 20 March 1901. The serialization credited Valdimar Ásmundsson as translator. De Roos discovered that the Icelandic version was no (abridged) translation of Dracula at all, but featured a modified plot. Harker's adventures in Transylvania were described in an extended Part I, in the journal format known from Dracula, while Part II, set in Hungary, Transylvania, Whitby and London, read like a sketch-like cauda, with only 9,100 words. De Roos announced these findings in February 2014 in Letter of Castle Dracula, before starting to work on a complete translation from Icelandic to English.

Mörkrets makter

Although six months older than Makt myrkranna, the Swedish Dracula adaptation remained unknown to international scholars until after Powers of Darkness by De Roos was published on 7 February 2017. The book attracted international attention, and ten days later, De Roos and Stoker were contacted by Swedish fantasy fiction specialist Rickard Berghorn, who claimed that Makt myrkranna must be based on an earlier serialization in the Swedish newspaper Dagen (The Day) under the title Mörkrets makter (equally meaning Powers of Darkness), from 10 June 1899 to 7 February 1900. In his interview with De Roos, Berghorn stated that Mörkrets makter was much longer than the ca. 160,000 words of Stoker's English Dracula, and - unlike Makt myrkranna - upheld the epistolary style known from Dracula throughout the novel. De Roos established that there must have existed two different Swedish variants. The second serialization of Mörkrets makter in the tabloid Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga (Evening Paper's Half-Weekly), from 16 August 1899 – 31 March 1900 had been shortened to ca. 107,000 words, while dropping the diary style after Part I. Dagen, the sister paper Aftonbladet, and the Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga were owned by the same publishing company with the same editor, Harald Sohlman; Dagen was a daily Stockholm newspaper while Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga was a tabloid published twice a week for rural areas.

As the structure of the Icelandic version corresponded to that of the abridged Halfvecko-Upplaga variant (same chapter titles, no epistolary format in Part II), De Roos and others concluded that Ásmundsson must have used the latter as his source text, replacing various cultural references with hints to Icelandic sagas, while shortening the text even further, to ca. 47,000 words.

Differences between Dracula and Powers of Darkness

The plots of the two Swedish variants and the Icelandic version are essentially the same, and all differ from Stoker's Dracula, especially after the section describing Harker's stay at the Count's castle. New characters have been added, such as a mute and deaf housekeeper woman, two detectives (Barrington and Tellet), a dark-eyed Countess Ida Varkony, Prince Koromezzo, the ravenous Mme. Saint-Amand, the hunchback violinist Giuseppe Leonardi, Lucy's uncle Morton and Arthur's sister Mary. Harker's host was named "Count Drakulitz," who engaged in financing and organizing an international conspiracy aiming at overthrowing Western democracy, and vented Social-Darwinist ideas; he also acted as the high priest of a clan of ape-like followers, sacrificing half-nude girls during gruesome rituals in a secret temple underneath the castle.

In the Dagen and the Halfvecko-Upplaga variants, the first section is identical, and even was printed from the same print stock. In the Dagen variant, the following sections, maintaining the diary style of Part I, are rather wordy, while the Halfvecko-Upplaga variant, switching to an omniscient narrator, contains less dialogue and details. Makt myrkranna follows the Halfvecko-Upplaga variant, but reduces the text by more than 50%. As noticed by De Roos, this causes some loss of detail. In the Italian edition of Powers of Darkness, de Roos has added extra notes to explain such details.

The main differences between Dracula on the one hand, the Swedish and Icelandic variants on the other hand are:

• In Dracula, Harker soon feels repulsed by the Count's "brides". In the Nordic variants, he is continuously attracted to her and disobeys the Count's instructions to meet her secretly at various occasions. This and other elements add to an erotic atmosphere almost absent from Dracula.
• In Dracula, the Count lives alone at his castle. In the Nordic variants, he has a deaf and mute housekeeper woman who cooks and serves Harker's meals, and he has a clan of followers.
• In Dracula, the emphasis is on the Count's vampire nature, which forces him to drink the blood of his victims. Apart from a single scene in which Harker cuts himself while shaving, the Nordic Count focuses on his elitist political goals; during the sacrificial rituals, he does not drink the blood of the murdered girl.
• In the Nordic variants, it is Mina, together with Harker's employer Hawkins and the detectives Tellet and Barrington, who conducts investigations in Transylvania and visits Castle Dracula. Mina is never attacked by Dracula, and Van Helsing's crew does not travel to Eastern Europe to eliminate the Count. Instead, the story ends while the Count is still in London.
• In the Whitby and London sections of Dracula, the Count hardly appears in public; he is an invisible threat lurking in the shadows. In the Nordic versions, the vampire has pleasant chats with Mina and Lucy at the Whitby graveyard, openly visits Lucy when she is sick, and hosts a grand party with international guests at his Carfax estate.
• In Dracula, the police never play an active role, while in the Nordic versions, they investigate the death of Lucy and her mother and two detectives join the ranks of Dracula's enemies. In the Swedish variants, the Hungarian Secret Police also play an active role.

Despite these significant differences, the Nordic versions are clearly based on Stoker's 1897 narrative and – unlike later movie adaptations – include all of its main characters. The shortened ending and the Count's public appearance as an elegant socialite seem to anticipate the adaptations made for the 1931 Dracula film with Bela Lugosi.

About Makt myrkranna, the shortest variant, De Roos wrote: "Although Dracula received positive reviews in most newspapers of the day... the original novel can be tedious and meandering... Powers of Darkness, by contrast, is written in a concise, punchy style; each scene adds to the progress of the plot". Remarkable is that Ásmundsson removed Dracula's favorable mentioning of the Viking berserkers as bloodthirsty warriors, although Makt myrkranna added various elements from the Icelandic sagas. Likewise, Ásmundsson removed the vampire's power to shape-shift into an animal, even though Dracula's shape-shifting ability came from Icelandic folklore; Stoker had been inspired by The Book of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould, who had lived in Iceland for a time.

The Swedish Count as a Social Darwinist

Already in his 2014 essay, De Roos noted that in Makt myrkranna, the Count strongly expressed elitist and Social-Darwinist opinions. While discussing his family portraits at the gallery with Harker, he explains how the strong have the right to rule over the weaker and exploit them.

In his analysis of November 2017, Berghorn elaborates on this observation, explaining that the völkisch movement had emerged as a major force in Germany by the 1890s and already some of the völkisch leaders were advocating killing the mentally and physically disabled as their very existence threatened the purity of the Herrenvolk ("master race"). Putting such Social Darwinist and racist language into the mouth of Count Dracula was a way of caricaturing the popularity of Social Darwinism with elites in both Europe and the United States in the 1890s. Before he goes insane, Dr. Seward thinks after reading a newspaper about the state of the world:

"By the way, the telegram section of the newspaper announces several strange news – lunatic behavior and deadly riots, organized by anti-Semites, in both Russia and Galicia as well as southern France – plundered stores, slain people – general insecurity of life and property – and the most fabulous tall tales about "ritual murders," abducted children and other unspeakable crimes, all of which is ascribed in earnestness to the poor Jews, while influential newspapers are instigating an all-encompassing extermination war against the "Israelites." You would think this is in the midst of the Dark Ages!...Now, once again, it seems that a so-called "Orlean" conspiracy is tracked down – while at the same time the free Republicans in France are celebrating with exaltation the exponent of slavery and despotism in the East...It is a strange time in which we live, that is sure and true.---Sometimes it seems to me as if all the insane fantasies, all the crazy ideas, the whole world of crazed and scattered notions, into which I, as a madhouse doctor, for years have been forced to enter in the care of my poor patients, now begin to take shape and form and gain practice in the course of the world's major events and tendency".

Passages such as this, Berghorn believes, reflect the widespread mood of pessimism in fin de siècle Europe as the 19th century closed and the 20th century began, as many in Europe believed that civilization was rotten to the core, and all that was left for European civilization now was the apocalypse.

Similarities with Stoker's preparatory notes for Dracula

Already in his first essay on Makt myrkranna, De Roos noted a number of parallels between the Icelandic plot and Stoker's preparatory notes for Dracula. Some of these early ideas, such as an evening party with the Count entering as the last guest, the use of a “secret room – coloured like blood,” the appearance of a silent housekeeper woman, or the active role of a police inspector, did not appear in the published version of Dracula. If Ásmundsson had not invented such ideas by himself, he only could have learned about them if Stoker had shared his early ideas for the plot with him.

In his blog entry of 15 February 2017, Jason Colavito questioned whether these similarities actually evidenced that Stoker provided an early draft as a basis for an Icelandic (read: Swedish) adaptation.

The Icelandic preface

The translation of the Icelandic preface by Joel H. Emerson, published by Richard Dalby in 1986 and again in 1993, over the years has caught the attention of several Dracula scholars, especially as it seemed to suggest a link with the Ripper murders.

“But the events are incontrovertible, and so many people know of them that they cannot be denied. This series of crimes has not yet passed from the memory -- a series of crimes which appear to have originated from the same source, and which at the same time created as much repugnance in people everywhere as the murders of Jack the Ripper, which came into the story a little later. Various people’s minds will go back to the remarkable group of foreigners who for many seasons together played a dazzling part in the life of the aristocracy here in London; and some will remember that one of them disappeared suddenly without apparent reason, leaving no trace.”

Emerson's rendering suggests that Jack the Ripper will actually play a role in the Icelandic story. And as Makt myrkranna was believed to be an abridged translation of Dracula, some readers started looking for (concealed) appearances of the Ripper in the original text of Dracula, and other links between Bram Stoker and the Whitechapel murders of 1888. De Roos's essay of February 2014 established that Emerson's translation was incorrect: the Icelandic text indicated that the Ripper Murders "happened a little later", that is, later than "his series of crimes has not yet passed from the memory." As the Count in his conversations with Harker later mentions "these murdered women, these people found in sacks in the Thames," De Roos suspect that "his series of crimes has not yet passed from the memory" refers to the unsolved Thames Torso Murders of 1887-89, that started somewhat earlier than the Whitechapel homicide spree.

In his introduction to Powers of Darkness (2017), De Roos addressed a number of other errors in the Emerson/Dalby translation.

The anonymous Swedish editor/translator

Directly under the title, both the Dagen and the Halfvecko-Upplaga variants present the story as a "novel by Bram Stoker," then explicate that it is a "Swedish adaptation by A—e." To understand how Dracula came to Sweden and what role Stoker actually played in the creation of the Swedish variants, identifying "A—e" is a crucial step. As a "first guess," De Roos in his correspondence with Berghorn suggested that "A—e" might stand for "Aftonbladets editor," that is, Harald Sohlman. Berghorn objected that the Swedish word for "editor" is redaktör. A few weeks later, De Roos followed up with an interview in Vampirisme.com, in which he proposed Anders Albert Andersson-Edenberg (1834-1913), a senior journalist and drama translator who cooperated with Harald Sohlman within the framework of Publicistklubben, the Swedish Publicists' Association; he frequently used the pseunonym "A.-E." During the course of 2017, De Roos published around two dozen similarities between Mörkrets makter and articles Andersson-Edenberg had previously published in Svenska Familj Journalen. In Spring 2018, De Roos summarized his findings on Andersson-Edenberg in the online magazine Vamped.org.

Who wrote Mörkrets makter? The "early draft" thesis

In his 2014 essay, De Roos was the first to note the parallels between Makt myrkranna and Stoker's early notes. In this 2014 essay and in his introduction to the annotated translation, he extensively discussed the chance that Ásmundsson had radically modified Dracula, possibly even without Stoker's consent. But as the Icelandic preface showed traces of a translation from another language, these essays finally supported the idea that at least the preface had been supplied by Stoker, while Ásmundsson may have had a hand in modifying and shortening the narrative. Even after the link with Mörkrets makter had become evident, De Roos writes, the Icelandic prefaces continues to contain some riddles, now regarding the role of the Swedish translator/editor: How could "A—e" have learned about the Thames Torso Murders, that were hardly mentioned in the Swedish press? Why did "A—e" single Van Helsing out as a "real person," just as Stoker had done in his interview with Jane Stoddart? Why would "A—e" have used a Hamlet quote - a stage play Stoker knew by heart?

David Skal's support for the "early draft" thesis

Echoing De Roos's discovery of parallels between Makt myrkranna and Stoker's early notes, Stoker biographer David J. Skal mentioned that Stoker's notes list the character of a police inspector. As no such police inspector is featured in Dracula, the translator could have only learned about him from using an early draft of Dracula as his source, Skal claimed. Similarly, he believed the Count's deaf and mute housekeeper to be taken from such a draft. Though Skal was speaking about the Icelandic translator Ásmundsson, the plot elements are found in all three Nordic variants, and raise the question whether "A—e," the Swedish translator, was familiar with Stoker's early ideas for the plot, or even had received an early draft from England.

The relationship with Dracula's Guest

In his analysis of December 2017, Berghorn pointed to the short story Dracula's Guest (published posthumously in 1914), claiming that Dracula's Guest originally was a chapter from Dracula, but was removed from the final draft. Although this theory is disputed, Berghorn adopted the idea that Mörkrets makter was based upon an abandoned early draft of Dracula. Especially, he believed that the mysterious blond vampire girl from Mörkrets makter/Makt myrkranna is based on the Countess Dolingen of Gratz, and on the blonde vampire bride from Dracula. He further argues that the ornate, flowery style of Dracula's Guest, written in 1892, resembles more closely the style of Mörkrets makter than that of Dracula. He concludes that Mörkrets makter was based upon a draft Stoker may have written in the early 1890s. The argument of a "flowery style," however, might well apply to the rather verbose Dagen version, but does not fit the shortened Halfvecko-Upplaga variant.

The "early draft" thesis and chronological arguments

Berghhorn further proposed that "A—e" modified Stoker's text as he or she translated it, and noted that Stoker picked the names for his main characters already between 1890–92; the same names, with minimal variations, appear in Mörkrets makter. Berghorn also noted that in the account of the black mass and human sacrifice performed by Draculitz in Mörkrets makter, the scene is described as being lit by flames similar to the flickering lights of a cinematograph, the first film projector only invented in 1895 and not used commercially until 1896. On chronological grounds, Berghorn felt that the reference to a cinematograph was added in by "A—e" rather being based upon an early draft by Stoker from the early 1890s. Along the same lines, he concluded that several topical political references in Mörkrets makter such as the anti-Semitic riots in France caused by the Dreyfus affair; the Franco-Russian alliance, which was signed in 1894; and the 1898 "Orlean" conspiracy" for a royalist coup de etat in France must have been the work of "A—e". Other elements of Mörkrets makter, according to Berghorn, must have been come from Stoker himself, such as the highly favorable references to William Ewart Gladstone, who was Stoker's political hero. As to how an early draft of Dracula might have ended up in Sweden, Berghorn presented his "very strong working hypothesis" that the writer Anne Charlotte Leffler and her mathematician brother Gösta Mittag-Leffler, both of whom were friends of the Stoker family, had "something to do with it."

To further support his theory, Berghorn copied the parallels with Stoker's early notes, as first worded by De Roos, to his own his essay of November 2017, adding a further example regarding Lucy's brooch.

Dracula's connection with the London East End

In his book chapter "Dracula and the Psychic World of the East End of London," Clive Bloom noted that the Dracula of Makt myrkranna is more closely associated with the East End of London than he is in Dracula, which he argued was meant to link the Count to Jack the Ripper, and to the East End as a "wild frontier" region of Britain. In the Victorian era, the East End was a center of poverty, disease and crime, especially prostitution. Given the preexisting popular image of the East End as a place of crime and sexual depravity, the "Jack the Ripper" murders of 1888 with five prostitutes gruesomely murdered caught the public's imagination as a symbol of "sexual danger" associated with London and above all the East End.

Bloom also noted that the popular descriptions of the exotic "Oriental" Ashkenazi Jewish prostitutes from Eastern Europe, whose "voluptuousness" and dark looks made them popular with johns on the East End, matched the descriptions of the Count's female followers in both Makt myrkranna and Dracula. Bloom further argued that the description of the eroticism of Lucy after she is turned into a vampire by Dracula in both Dracula and even more so in Makt Myrkranna closely resembled the descriptions of the eroticism of the stereotype of the exotic "Oriental" Jewish prostitute found in contemporary Victorian accounts.

Still unaware of the "Swedish connection" at the time he wrote his book contribution, Bloom argued that the way in which Makt Myrkranna echoed British fears and fascination with the "frontier" of the East End supports the "early draft" theory. In his eyes, it was unlikely that an Icelander like Ásmundsson would have been as interested in the East End as Stoker was.

Newest developments: parts of the Swedish preface plagiarized from the memoirs of a pastor

In May 2018, De Roos set out to create an English and German translation of the Swedish preface, which - unlike the Icelandic preface - continued after the Hamlet quote. He discovered that especially the last part, omitted from Makt myrkranna, was almost literally copied from the memoirs of a Lutheran pastor, Bernhard Wadström. This part of his memoirs had been released in March 1899, three months before the preface to Mörkrets makter appeared in Dagen. Furthermore, De Roos identified various elements in the main text of Mörkrets makter that seemed to be inspired by Wadström's memoirs, such as the appearance of a "White Lady" and the viewing of a fiery sky from a gallery placed on the top floor. As De Roos deems it highly improbable that Bram Stoker himself would have inserted these elements from a Swedish publication, or would have consented to such a plagiarism, he raises severe doubts whether Bram Stoker ever was aware of the Swedish serializations. Based on this discovery and the similarities with Andersson-Edenberg's articles in Svensk Familj Journalen, he now is open to the possibility that Mörkrets makter was an unauthorized production, with its own literary qualities.

In various essays since October 2018, De Roos outlined the possible links between the Hungarian, the Swedish and the US newspaper serializations, based on an analysis of growing international press cooperation in the 1890s.

Awards

In 2018, Hans Corneel de Roos received Special Recognition Award from the Lord Ruthven Awards for his translation and scholarly research for Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula.

Translations from Swedish

In June 2020, Centipede Press announced it had prepared a translation by Rickhard Berghorn, edited by S. T. Joshi and Martin Andersson, and was waiting for the right time to market it. Centipede announced that it would be available for order in late April 2022. Hans de Roos published Dracula: the Swedish Drawings (1899–1900) in 2021, containing 56 illustrations from Dagen, most of which he restored and colorized, and translations from the Swedish of paragraphs describing the drawings. A translation of the long Swedish variant appeared in February 2022, and its editor claims to have identified the illustrator of the drawings which accompanied Mörkrets makter as Emil Åberg. A translation into Portuguese has been announced from publishers Ex Machina and Sebo Clepsidra.)

References

Citations

1. ^ De Roos, Hans (2017). Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula.
2. Trimble, William (2022). Powers of Darkness.
3. ^ Template:Cite article
4. Fleming, Colin (19 April 2017). "The Icelandic Dracula: Bram Stoker's vampire takes a second bite". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
5. ^ Berghorn, Rickard (November 2017). "Dracula's Way to Sweden". Weird Webzine. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
6. ^ Bloom, Clive (2018). Dracula - An International Perspective. London: Palgrave Gothic. pp. 124–125.
7. Cite error: The named reference De Roos 2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Dalby, Richard (1986). A Bram Stoker Omnibus. The Lair of the White Worm. London: Foulsham.
9. ^ Dalby, Richard (1993). "Makt myrkranna - Powers of Darkness". Bram Stoker Society Journal, Dublin. 5: 2–3.
10. Berni, Simone (4 July 2015). "Dracula, di Bram Stoker – Il mistero dell'edizione ungherese del 1898". Cultora.
11. Crișan, Marius (2018). Dracula, an International Perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 4.
12. De Roos, Hans Corneel (30 June 2016). "Buda-Pesth Seems a Wonderful place: How a Hungarian Newspaperman Produced Dracula's Very First Translation and Serialisation". Letter from Castle Dracula: 2–11.
13. Farkas, Jenő (2010). Drakula és a vámpírok. Budapest: Palamart.
14. Berni, Simone (2016). Dracula by Bram Stoker The Mystery of The Early Editions. Morrisville: Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1326621797.
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ De Roos, Hans Corneel (4 February 2014). "Makt Myrkranna – Mother of All Dracula Modifications?". Letter from Castle Dracula: 3–19.
17. ^ De Roos, Hans Corneel (2017). Powers of Darkness. The Lost Version of Dracula. New York: Overlook/Abrams. ISBN 978-1468313369.
18. Email from Berghorn to De Roos, 17 February 2017.
19. De Roos, Hans (5 March 2017). "Sweden's Mörkrets Makter: The Source of Valdimar Ásmundsson's Makt Myrkranna? A New Surprising Discovery May Reveal the True Backgrounds of the Icelandic version of Dracula" (PDF). Children of the Night Congress Bulletin: 2–7.
20. De Roos, Hans Corneel (5 March 2017). "Mörkrets Makter: Exclusive Interview with Swedish Literary Scholar Rickard Berghorn" (PDF). Children of the Night Conference Bulletin: 8.
21. ^ De Roos, Hans Corneel; Vladkergan (22 March 2017). "Corneel de Roos, Hans. Interview avec le (re-)découvreur de Powers of Darkness". Vampirisme.com.
22. Emails from De Roos to Rickard Berghorn, Dacre Stoker and others, 3 March 2017.
23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Weird was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
24. Cite error: The named reference Brundan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
25. Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
26. ^ De Roos, Hans Corneel, updated introduction "Makt Myrkranna—non c'è due senza tre" (Makt Myrkranna—A triplet comes seldom alone) in the Italian translation of Powers of Darkness. Milan: Carbonio Editore, 2019:21-56. The annotation was equally updated. Written in April 2017, last updated 9 October 2018.
27. All differences quoted from De Roos, "Makt myrkranna: Mother Of All Dracula Modifications?" (4 Febr. 2014) and his introduction to Powers of Darkness (Febr. 2017).
28. De Roos, Hans Corneel (6 February 2017). "On Dracula's Lost Icelandic Sister Text - How a Supposed Translation Proved to Be Much More". Literary Hub.
29. First noted by De Roos in his annotation of Powers of Darkness (2017), note 308. Notes on references to Icelandic sagas added by Ásmundsson can be found throughout his detailed annotation.
30. ^ Underwood, York (31 October 2018). "The Strange Tale of Iceland's Dracula". Now Guide to Iceland. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
31. Eighteen-Bisang, Robert; Miller,Elizabeth, eds. (2008). Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula - A Facsimile Edition. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland. ISBN 9780786434107.
32. Colavita, Jason (15 February 2017). "Why the Icelandic "Dracula" Adaptation Is Probably Not Evidence for a Lost Original Version of Bram Stoker's Classic Vampire Novel". Jason Colavito Blog.
33. Email from De Roos to Berghorn, 3 March 2017
34. De Roos, Hans Corneel (27 March 2017). "Corneel de Roos, Hans. Interview avec le (re-)découvreur de Powers of Darkness [addendum". Vampirisme.com.
35. De Roos, Hans Corneel (1 April 2017). "Graaf Dracula als de Nieuwe Cagliostro – De Hoofdredactie in Gesprek met Hans Corneel de Roos". T'is Fris: 1–9.
36. De Roos, Hans Corneel (April 2017). "The Origin of the First Dracula Adaptation". Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov, Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies. 10: 131–146.
37. De Roos, Hans Corneel (26 March 2018). "Was Albert Anders Andersson-Edenberg the First Author to Modify Dracula?" (PDF). Vamped.org.
38. Stoddart, Jane (1 July 1897). "Mr. Bram Stoker. A Chat with the Author of Dracula". British Weekly.
39. Skal, David (2016). Something in the Blood. New York: Liveright/Norton. p. 338.
40. ^ Bloom, Clive (2018). Dracula - An International Perspective. London: Palgrave Gothic. pp. 124–125.
41. Walkowitz, Judith (1992). City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Univ. of Chicago Press. pp. 81–83.
42. Walkowitz, Judith (1992). City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. pp. 2–3.
43. De Roos, Hans Corneel (26 May 2016). "Was the Preface to the Swedish Dracula Written by a Priest?". Vamped. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
44. De Roos, Hans Corneel. "Early Serializations and Translations of Dracula, and the Internationalization of the Press 1890–1900. Keynote presentation at the Children of the Night International Dracula Conference, Brașov, Romania, October 2018.
45. "2018 Lord Ruthven Awards". File770.com. 19 March 2018.
46. "Powers of Darkness by Bram Stoker". Library Thing. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
47. "Powers of Darkness". Centipede Press. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
48. de Roos, Hans (2021). Dracula: the Swedish Drawings (1899–1900). Pfaffenhofen/Obo-ob: Rainbow Village/Moonlake Editions. ISBN 9783943559019.
49. Tyler Tichelaar (2022-02-09). "English Translation Published of Swedish Dracula—Is It a Lost Stoker Manuscript?". The Gothic Wanderer (blog). Retrieved 2022-02-11.
50. Stoker, Bram; A—e (2022). Powers of Darkness:the wild translation of Dracula from turn-of-the-century Sweden. W. Trimble. ISBN 9781792385452.
51. "Versão estendida de Drácula, PODERES DAS TREVAS será lançado no Brasil". Retrieved 6 February 2022.

Bibliography

• Berni, Simone Dracula by Bram Stoker The Mystery of The Early Editions, Morrisville: Lulu, 2016, ISBN 1326621793.
• Bloom, Clive "Dracula and the Psychic World of the East End of London" pages 119-139 from Dracula: An International Perspective, New York: Springer, 2017, ISBN 9783319633664.
• Crișan, Marius-Mircea "Welcome to My House: Enter Freely of your own will": Dracula in International Contexts" pages 1–21 from Dracula: An International Perspective, New York: Springer, 2017, ISBN 9783319633664.
• De Roos, Hans Corneel "Count Dracula's Address and Lifetime Identity" pages 95–118 from Dracula: An International Perspective, New York: Springer, 2017, ISBN 9783319633664.
• Skal, David Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, New York: Liveright, 2016, ISBN 1631490109.
• Stedman Jones, Gareth Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society, London: Verso, 1971, ISBN 1781680124
• Walkowitz Judith R. The City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992 ISBN 9780226081014

External links

• Mörkrets makter (in Swedish) – 1900 Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga version, at the Royal Library of Sweden.
• Makt myrkranna (in Icelandic) – via Project Runeberg.
• Powers of Darkness – website created by researcher Hans Corneel de Roos.
• Mörkrets Makter (in Swedish) 1899–1900 Dagen version from Kungliga biblioteket

• 1901 novels
• Dracula novels
• Novels first published in serial form
• Vampire novels
• Works based on British novels