Powers of Darkness (Sweden)

Powers of Darkness (Swedish Mörkrets makter) is the title of two variants of Bram Stoker's Dracula that were serialized in the Swedish newspaper Dagen and the magazine Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga (1899-1900) respectively. In 2017, Rickard Berghorn's Aleph Bokförlag published the full (Swedish) text.

Publication and reception history; the relationship with the Icelandic variant Makt myrkranna

As an international discussion about Mörkrets makter only started in Spring 2017, many observations applying to the Swedish version of Dracula were initially made with regard to Makt myrkranna, the Icelandic (shortened) translation of one of the Swedish variants.

In 1986, literary specialist Richard Dalby published a translation of the foreword to Makt myrkranna (Powers of Darkness) from the 1901 book edition by Nokkrir Prentarar.[1][2] He described 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 most 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.[3]

In January 2014, the Dutch literary researcher Hans Corneel de Roos unearthed the original text of Makt myrkranna as serialized in the Reykjavik newspaper Fjallkonan, from 13 January 1900 on. Fjallkonan was published and edited by Valdimar Ásmundsson, who was mentioned as "translator" in the 1901 book edition. 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 Whitby and London, read like a sketch-like cauda, with only 9,100 words. New characters had 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 was 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. All in all, the Icelandic text showed to be less sentimental and more eritically charged than Dracula.[3]

De Roos announced these findings in February 2014 in Letter of Castle Dracula; his complete annotated translation was published on 7 February 2017.[4] The book attracted international attention, and ten days later, De Roos was 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.[5] 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.[6][7] Checking these claims against scans he obtained directly from Stockholm, De Roos established that there must have existed two different Swedish variants.[8] It soon turned out that the second serialization of Mörkrets makter, in the tabloid Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga (Evening Paper's Half-Weekly), from 16 August 1899 – 31 March 1900, as first obtained by De Roos, had been shortened to ca. 107,000 words, while dropping the diary style after Part I.[9]

Dagen, the sister paper Aftonbladet, and the Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga were owned by the same publishing company with the same editor, Harald Sohlman;[10] Dagen was a daily Stockholm newspaper while Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga was a tabloid published twice a week for rural areas.[11]

As the structure of the Icelandic version corresponded to that of the abridged Halfvecko-Upplaga variant (same chapter titles, only two parts, no epistolary format in Part II), De Roos concluded that Ásmundsson must have used the latter as his source text, replacing various cultural references with hints to Icelandic sagas, and shortening the text even further, to ca. 47,000 words.[9][12]

Berghorn claims that the extended Dagen version was no success and that as a result, the Halfvecko-Upplaga version was cut short after the Transylvan part; Editor-in-chief Harald Sohlman may have wanted the space in the newspaper set aside for other, hopefully more profitable serializations; the plans to turn the serialization into a book were shelved.[11]

Only in 1916, the Dagen variant was reprinted in the Swedish magazine Tip-Top (no. 40-52 1916, no. 1-52 1917, no. 1-4 1918).[6] After that, it was largely forgotten. During a lecture in 1997, Icelandic literary scholar Guðni Elísson discussed the possibility that Makt myrkranna had been derived from a Scandinavian source.[13] But as this idea was never published, and Swedish experts familiar with Mörkrets makter failed to bring the Swedish version of Dracula to the attention of an international audience, it was only the English translation of Makt myrkranna that triggered an interest in Mörkrets makter outside Sweden.[13]

References to London's East End

In his book contribution "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. In the Victorian era, the East End was a center of poverty, disease and crime, especially prostitution.[14] There were about 80,000 prostitutes working in the East End. Child prostitution was especially common with girls as young as ten working as prostitutes.[15] The 1885 article "Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" by W.T. Stead about child prostitution in London had an enormous impact on public opinion at the time with over a million and half unauthorised copies of the article circulating.[16] Stead's article with its account of "gentlemen" buying underage prostitutes popularised the image of the sexually predatory upper class male. 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.[17]

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.[18]

The Swedish Count Draculitz 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.[3] 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.[19]

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.[11] 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".[11]

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.[11]

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.[20] Berghorn objected that the Swedish word for "editor" is redaktör.[11] 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. In 1870, Andersson-Edenberg had been one of the co-founders of Publicistklubben, the Swedish Publicists' Association, in which also Sohlman was an active member. Both were involved in the organization of the Fourth International Press Congress in Stockholm in June 1897, and both contributed to a publication celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Association in May 1899, just one month before the serialization of Mörkrets makter started in Dagen. De Roos suspects that Andersson-Edenberg also had known Harald's father, August Sohlman, who had died during a tragic sailing accident in 1874. For a translation of the play Mellan drabbningarne by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910), the Norwegian author who won the 1903 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Andersson-Edenberg used the pseudonym “A.E.” For numerous articles in the monthly magazine Svenska Familj-Journalen, he frequently used the pseunonym "A.-E."[21] 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.[22][23] In Spring 2018, De Roos summarized his findings on Andersson-Edenberg in the online magazine Vamped.org.[24]

Who wrote Mörkrets makter?

Already in February 2014, De Roos addressed the question to what extent the Icelandic preface and narrative were actually written by Bram Stoker himself, or modified by Ásmundsson, or even completely created by the latter.[3] These questions still remain, now with regard to the Swedish publications: we do not know for sure to what extent Stoker authored and provided the Swedish versions himself, to what extent the Swedish editor changed the story, or even authored it completely, losely based on the English book.

In his analysis of December 2017, Berghorn points 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 maintains hat Mörkrets makter was based upon an abandoned early draft of Dracula. Especially, he believes 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, and sent to Sweden[11] 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.

Berghhorn further proposes that "A-e" modified Stoker's text as he or she translated it, and notes 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 notes 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 feels 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.[11] Along the same lines, he concludes 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 presents 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".[11]

As further support for his thesis, Berghorn mention several similarities between the Swedish plot and Stoker's preparatory notes for Dracula, already discussed by De Roos in 2014, and criticized by Jason Colavita.[11][3][25]

Still unaware of the "Swedish connection" at the time he wrote his book contribution, Clive Bloom argued that the way in which Makt Myrkranna echoed British fears and fascination with the "frontier" of the East End supports the "first 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.[18]

In May 2018, De Roos discovered that large parts of the preface to Mörkrets makter were almost literally copied from the memoirs of a Lutheran pastor, Bernhard Wadstörm, that 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.[26] 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 a piracy production, with its own literary qualities.[27]

As Mörkrets makter and Makt myrkranna change Lucy's surname from "Westenra" to "Western," just like in the announcements of the first American serialization of Dracula in the newspaper Chicago Inter Ocean (7 May-4 June 1899), De Roos suggests that "A-e" may have seen the American newspaper text or even may have used it as a source text for creating his/her own adaptation, instead of a copy of the British Constable edition.[12]

In a conference presentation in 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.[28]

Upcoming English translation of the Dagen serialization; Drafts of Dracula

In a post of 22 December 2019 on his Weird Webzine Facebook page, Rickard Berghorn announced that an English translation of the (longer) Dagen serialization is upcoming and has been accepted by a well-known publishing house.[29] According to information supplied by Swedish literature scholar Martin Andersson, Berghorn will address anglicisms in passages that did not appear in Stoker's Dracula, thus suggesting that an (other) English text must have been the basis of the Swedish version.

In Drafts of Dracula, Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller also refer to this planned translation. Moreover, they point to the parallels between Stoker's notes and the Nordic versions, as originally discovered by De Roos, and state: "The appearance of three events from the “Historiae Personae” on page eight of the Notes defies coincidence. However, there is no proof - such as the use of the name “Cotford” or any of seven characters who are named before they disappear from the Notes, or having Morris come to rescue with a maxim gun - that the author of the Swedish text had any contact with Bram Stoker."[30]

The debate on the origins of Mörkrets makter continues.

References
  1. Dalby, Richard (1986). A Bram Stoker Omnibus. The Lair of the White Worm. London: Foulsham.
  2. Dalby, Richard (1993). "Makt myrkranna - Powers of Darkness". Bram Stoker Society Journal, Dublin. 5: 2–3.
  3. De Roos, Hans Corneel (4 February 2014). "Makt Myrkranna – Mother of All Dracula Modifications?". Letter from Castle Dracula: 3–19.
  4. De Roos, Hans Corneel (2017). Powers of Darkness. The Lost Version of Dracula. New York: Overlook/Abrams. ISBN 978-1468313369.
  5. Email from Berghorn to De Roos, 17 February 2017.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Various emails from De Roos to Berghorn and others, 11-13 March 2017
  9. De Roos, Hans Corneel; Vladkergan (22 March 2017). "Corneel de Roos, Hans. Interview avec le (re-)découvreur de Powers of Darkness". Vampirisme.com.
  10. Emails from De Roos to Rickard Berghorn, Dacre Stoker and others, 3 March 2017.
  11. Berghorn, Rickard (November 2017). "Dracula's Way to Sweden". Weird Webzine. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  12. De Roos, Hans (26 May 2017). "Next stop: Chicago! Earliest U.S. Serialisation of Dracula Known so Far Discovered" (PDF). Vamped.org.
  13. Björnsson, Anna Margrét (6 March 2017). "Icelandic version of Dracula, Makt myrkranna, turns out to be Swedish in origin". Iceland Monitor. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  14. Walkowitz, Judith (1992). City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Univ. of Chicago Press. pp. 81–83.
  15. Walkowitz, Judith (1992). City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. pp. 82–83.
  16. Walkowitz, Judith (1992). City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. p. 11.
  17. Walkowitz, Judith (1992). City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. pp. 2–3.
  18. Bloom, Clive (2018). Dracula - An International Perspective. London: Palgrave Gothic. pp. 124–125.
  19. De Roos, Hans Corneel (2017). Powers of Darkness. The Lost Version of Dracula. New York: Overlook/Abrams. ISBN 978-1468313369.
  20. Email from De Roos to Berghorn, 3 March 2017
  21. De Roos, Hans Corneel (27 March 2017). "Corneel de Roos, Hans. Interview avec le (re-)découvreur de Powers of Darkness [addendum". Vampirisme.com.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. De Roos, Hans Corneel (26 March 2018). "Was Albert Anders Andersson-Edenberg the First Author to Modify Dracula?" (PDF). Vamped.org.
  25. 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.
  26. De Roos, Hans Corneel (26 May 2016). "Was the Preface to the Swedish Dracula Written by a Priest?". Vamped. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  27. See also 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. Written in April 2017, last updated 9 October 2018.
  28. 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.
  29. "Weird Webzine". Facebook. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  30. Eighteen-Bisang, Robert; Miller, Elizabeth (2019). Drafts of Dracula. Tellwell Talent. pp. Chapter 7. ISBN 9780228814290.

Articles and books
  • 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. Powers of Darkness-The Lost Version of Dracula. New York: Overlook Press/Abrams, 2018, ISBN 9781468313369.
  • 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.
  • De Roos, Hans Corneel. The Vampire's Vault. Website with an archive of his essays.
  • Skal, David Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, New York: Liveright, 2016, ISBN 1631490109.
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