Home | Books By Year | Books from 1901
Powers of Darkness
Buy Powers of Darkness now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Powers of Darkness' ('Mrkrets makter') is an anonymous 1899 Swedish version of Bram Stokers 1897 novel 'Dracula', serialised in the newspaper 'Dagen' and credited only to Bram Stoker and the still-unidentified "Ae."
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 Stokers 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It was long assumed to have been based on lost or unpublished elements of Stokers novel, such as preparatory notes and early drafts, but more recent research questions whether the translation is essentially a contemporary forgery, undertaken without Stokers 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 owners purchase of a new property in England.
Differences between 'Dracula' and 'Powers of Darkness'
Here the visitor is Thomas, Tom or Tmas Harker, rather than Jonathan, and Dracula becomes Draculitz. The early part of the story is similar to Stokers, but where Stokers 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 Stokers 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; Stokers 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 charactersthe detectives Edward Tellet and Barrington Jonesand 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 partys return.
Other new characters include Minas 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 Vrkony, 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 Stokers 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 Sicle'
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 interpretor misinterpretthem.
Shrman 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 sicle' 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 [of 'Powers of Darkness'] 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.
Bloomwho, it must be noted, was commenting on the Icelandic text before the existence of its Swedish source was widely knownalso 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.
Publication History
Mrkrets makter (Sweden)
'Mrkrets makter' was first published as a serial in the Stockholm newspaper 'Dagen', from 10 June 1899 to 7 February 1900. A second serialisation followed between 6 August 1899 and 31 March 1900 in the twice-weekly 'Aftonbladets Halfvecko-Upplaga', a rural tabloid edition of 'Dagen's national sister-paper 'Aftonbladet'. While the 'Dagen' variant was almost twice as long as Stokers novel300,000 words compared to 160,000this second variant had a shortened ending and came to just 107,000 words. The longer 'Dagen' version was republished in the popular magazine 'Tip-Top' between 1916 and 1918.
Makt myrkranna (Iceland)
The Icelandic serial, 'Makt myrkranna', appeared in the Reykjavik newspaper 'Fjallkonan' from January 1900 to March 1901. Later in 1901 it was published as a book under Stoker's name, with the translation credited to Valdimar smundsson and publication simply to "Nokkrir Prentarar," which means "various publishers." It shortened the 'Aftonbladet' variant drastically to 47,000 words and added references to Icelandic sagas. Where 'Mrkrets' had retained the epistolary format of Stoker's novel throughout, 'Makt' dispenses with it after the Transylvanian section.
Only one, very negative contemporary review of 'Makt myrkranna' is known, in which Benedikt Bjrnsson described it as " worthless rubbish and sometimes even worse than worthless, completely devoid of poetry and beauty and far removed from any psychological truth."From "Nokkur or um bkmentir vorar," in 'Skrnir', 1 December 1906: 344 and 346. Translated from the Icelandic by Hans Corneel de Roos. Quoted from De Roos, Hans Corneel. Introduction to 'Powers of Darkness'. New York: Overlook, 2017: 21.
Nevertheless 'Makt' took on such cultural importance in its native country that in the twentieth century, 'Makt myrkranna' became the standard Icelandic way to refer to the Dracula myth in film and literature, and the book was popular enough to warrant republication in 1950 by Hogni. Nobel literary laureate Halldr Laxness later praised it as "one of the best Icelandic novels imported from abroad."
Rediscovery, Reprints and Translations
The Icelandic 'Makt myrkranna' came to worldwide attention in 1986, when American scholar Richard Dalby published an English translation of the preface, supposed at that time to have been written by Bram Stoker himself. He also supposed the entire text, in its published book form of 1901, to be a simple abridgement of 'Dracula' and the first foreign translation of Stokers text. All these assumptions turned out to be questionable or completely wrong: the first foreign translation was in Hungarian in 1898; the preface was almost certainly not Stoker, and part of it was likely plagiarised from another source; and it was a shortened, modified and translated version of a Swedish text that was itself a variant, with additions alongside portions translated from Stoker.
This last fact was unknown until Hans Corneel de Roos had published his English translation of 'Makt myrkranna' under the title 'Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula' in 2017. His work on both the research and translation earned him a Lord Ruthven Special Award. Swedish publisher Rickard Berghorn contacted De Roos immediately after publication to inform him of the existence of 'Mrkrets makter', whose similarities and earlier date confirmed it was the source of the Icelandic text. The same year he republished the original Swedish text, as first seen in 'Dagen', with a foreword by John E. Browning.Bram Stoker and Ae: Mrkrets makter ISBN 9789187619106 https://libris.kb.se/bib/21614985
In 2022, William Trimble edited a new English translation, produced by proofreading the OCR-read Swedish manuscript, then running it through two automated translation programs, before having the results refined by a human Swedish translator and two English editors. It was published alongside essays by Roos and other 'Dracula' scholars, with the cover brating a direct translation of the original title page: "Powers of Darkness, by Bram Stoker, Swedish adaptation by Ae."
Shortly afterwards in the same year, native Swedish speaker Rickard Berghorn published his own translation as 'Powers of Darkness: The Unique Version of Dracula'. It was published with a new introductory essay by the translator and, for the hardback edition only, a foreword by Professor Clive Bloom. Both the Trimble and Berghorns editions reproduced original illustrations by Emil berg, which De Roos also published in a separate volume, 'Dracula: The Swedish Drawings (1899-1900)'. A newly illustrated edition of the Berghorn translation, limited to 500 copies and with a foreword by Dacre Stoker, will be published by Centipede Press as 'Powers of Darkness: The First Dracula' later in 2022.
Authorship and Sources
Before 2017, scholars commonly assumed that 'Powers of Darkness' was based primarily on Stoker's own work, being either translated directly from 'Dracula' or based on his preparatory notes and early drafts. Once it became clear that the Swedish 'Mrkrets makter' predated and served as the source of the Icelandic 'Makt myrkranna,' scholarly consensus gradually came to cast doubt on Stoker's involvement (De Roos 2021).
Identity of Ae
The 1899 newspaper serial identifies the story as an "adaptation" (Swedish 'bearbetning'), rather than a translation, 'per se', by someone called "Ae."
Early suggestions that the initials are connected to Valdimar smundsson, credited with 'Makt myrkranna', must now be rejected, as later research has proved that the Swedish variant predated the Icelandic.
Berghorn quickly dismissed De Roos's suggestion that it stood for "'Aftonbladets' editor," as the Swedish for "editor" would be 'redaktr'. More recently, De Roos has proposed the initials stand for Albert Andersson-Edenberg (1834-1913), a senior journalist and associate of 'Dagen' editor Sohlman who wrote under pseudonyms including "A.-E.," "A.E." and "A.E-g." and had occasionally translated from English. He bolsters his argument by identifying peculiar phrases used in both 'Powers' and in Andersson-Edenberg's published works, such as true Valkyries from the Bavarian highlands." Berghorn has dismissed many of De Roos's examples of similarities as coincidence and misunderstandings. Berghorn 2022: Introduction to 'Powers of Darkness' (Timaios Press 2022) https://timaiospress.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/powers_of_darkness_introduction_timaiospress2022.pdf
Berghorn argues that Ae must be one or several Swedish Theosophists in the tradition of Helena Blavatsky, since many of the additional scenes are clearly inspired by Theosophy. The signature Ae was used in spiritualist and Theosophical writings at the time, but cannot be found anywhere else in Swedish publications. He makes the supposition that the Swedish translator, socialist, Theosophist, 'Dagen' co-worker, and philosopher Axel Frithiof kerberg, and his good friend and collaborator, the translator Victor Pfeiff, were behind the signature.Berghorn 2022: Introduction to Powers of Darkness (Timaios Press 2022) https://timaiospress.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/powers_of_darkness_introduction_timaiospress2022.pdf
Stoker's Involvement
Researchers have proposed various ways Stoker himself could have been involved in the creation of 'Powers'. Early on in the study of 'Makt myrkranna', De Roos, unaware of the text's earlier Swedish source, identified several similarities between it and Bram Stokers notes, such as a secret roomcoloured like blood and the characters of the silent housekeeper and a police inspector. De Roos suggests several ways Icelandic translator Valdimar ssmundsson may have been introduced to the 'Dracula' author, including through mutual literary friends such as Mark Twain, Hall Caine and Frederic WH Myers, but he otherwise finds no evidence of correspondence between ssmundsson and Stoker. Either way, the rediscovery of the Swedish original proves that the new ideas in 'Powers' did not originate with ssmundsson, so no connection is necessary.
In 2016, Stoker biographer Skal lent his support to the theory that 'Powers' was based on a lost early draft of 'Dracula,' again pointing to similarities with Stoker's notes. The following year Berghorn pointed out parallels with Stoker's posthumously published 'Dracula's Guest', arguing that this was an early 'Dracula' draft and, in turn, a source of 'Powers'; the "flowery style" and the character of Countess Dolingen of Gratz are named, among other similarities. Berghorn qualifies his claims, however, pointing to references in 'Powers' to current events (antisemitic riots in France, the so-called Orlean conspiracy) and technology (the cinematograph) that would have to post-date any proposed early draft by Stoker, and therefore must have originated with the Nordic authors.
The allusions in 'Powers' to Jack the Ripper and the Thames Torso Murders, both in the preface and in the story itself, have also been offered as evidence of Stoker's involvement. How would a Scandinavian author or translator have known of the latter incidents? De Roos counters this theory: While not widely reported in Sweden, the Thames murders did receive some attention in the Scandinavian press, and a journalist such as Andersson-Edenberg would have had access to British newspapers. Stockholm's newsrooms, such as those of 'Dagen', received the London Times and Telegraph daily by telegraph, for example.
Forgery
In his 2016 biography of Bram Stoker, Skal describes 'Powers of Darkness' as "unauthorized fan fiction." In their 2020 article "Dracula or Draculitz?" Brundan 'et al' take this notion further, arguing that the nineteenth-century public's insatiable appetite for vampire literature meant that the practices of writers and publishers were themselves a kind of vampirism, appropriating earlier literature the way Dracula appropriated human bodies. The Victorian vampire genre, therefore, is uniquely characterised by fraud, forgery and plagiarism. Citing earlier 'Dracula' scholars such as Pope, Radick and Wycke, they demonstrate that Stoker himself borrowed considerably from earlier vampire stories, including Karl von Wachsmanns 'Der Fremde' ('The Stranger'). Even the story within the story includes fabrication and deception, and contains several hints at the unreliability of supposedly authentic documentary evidence: Dracula destroys the primary evidence by burning documents, for example, so many of the very texts held up as proof of the tale within the story are necessarily copies.
Insofar as they claim to be translations, the two Nordic versions of 'Powers of Darkness' are forgeries. Not only do they falsely attribute authorship to Stoker and contain fraudulent prefaces, but they also borrow liberally from other writing, including Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' and Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Masque of the Red Death' and 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar'.
Preface and Plagiarism from Bernhard Wadstrm's Memoirs
In 1986, Richard Dalby was the first to draw attention to the preface outside the Scandinavian countries, translating the Icelandic version into English for the first time (Dalby 1986). It is attributed directly to Bram Stoker and presents the story as a reliable report of real events, but with names changed to protect identities. The Icelandic version ends with the quote from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet': "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." The Swedish preface contains several more lines, however, which De Roos discovered were taken almost word-for-word from the memoirs of a Lutheran pastor, Bernhard Wadstrm, published in Sweden three months before 'Mrkrets makter'.
Other elements of 'Powers' contain traces of Wadstrm's influence, including the appearance of the "White Lady" and the fiery sky being viewed from a top-floor gallery. De Roos deems this as further evidence that Stoker was not involved in or even aware of the Swedish text, as it's unlikely he would have borrowed ideas from a Swedish publication.
References
Citations
Bibliography
*Berghorn, Rickard (editor). 'Mrkrets makter'. Stockholm: Aleph Bokfrlag, 2017
*________________ (& translator). 'Powers of Darkness: The Unique Version of Dracula'. Stockholm: Timaios Press, 2022
*Berni, Simone 'Dracula by Bram Stoker The Mystery of The Early Editions', Morrisville: Lulu, 2016, .
*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, .
*Brundan, Katy, Melanie Jones & Benjamin Mier-Cruz. Dracula or Draculitz? Translational Forgery and Bram Stokers Lost Version of Dracula, 'Victorian Review', Volume 45, No. 2, 2019
*Crian, Marius-Mircea "Welcome to My House: Enter Freely of your own will": Dracula in International Contexts" pages 121 from 'Dracula: An International Perspective', New York: Springer, 2017, .
*Dalby, Richard (editor). 'A Bram Stoker Omnibus Edition: Dracula and The Lair of the White Worm'. London: W Foulsham & Co, Ltd, 1986
*De Roos, Hans Corneel "Count Dracula's Address and Lifetime Identity" pages 95118 from 'Dracula: An International Perspective', New York: Springer, 2017, .
*________________ Mrkrets Makters Mini-Mysteries, 'Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braov', Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies, Volume 14(63), No. 1, 2021
*________________ (editor, translator). Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co, Ltd, 2017
*Skal, David 'Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula', New York: Liveright, 2016, .
*Shrman, Ingmar. Scandinavian Transformations of Dracula, 'Nordic Journal of English Studies', Volume 18, No. 5, 2020
*Trimble, William (editor). 'Powers of Darkness'. W. Trimble, 2022
Buy Powers of Darkness now from Amazon
<-- Return to books from 1901