1 McNally and Florescu, Dracula, Prince of Many Faces (1989), p 233, and In Search of Dracula (revised edition, 1994), p. 85.

2 The Westminster Review vol 81, 1864, pg 117.

3 Magnússon, The Saga Library. Vol. VI, 1905, p. ix.

1 In Iceland, the second part of a name is not a family name but a patronymic. Therefore, Icelanders would expect to be referred to by their given name, in this case Valdimar.

2 The Icelandic letter “þorn” (“Þ” or “þ”) can be transliterated as “Th” or “th”; the letter “eð” (“Д or “ð”) as “D” or “d.”

3 Norðanfara appeared 1862-1885. Ísafold was founded in 1876, as the voice of the Icelandic Independence Movement, headed by Jón Sigurðsson (1811-1879), publisher of Ný félagsrit (since 1841) and President of the Icelandic Literary Society. Björn Jónsson was its president from 1884-1894.

4 Founded in 1877 as a primary school, it became a lower secondary school in 1882, when Valdimar worked there.

5 The poet Bjarni Thorarensen first used the word around 1810, in his work Eldgamla Ísafold. The character quickly became popular in poetry and in 1866 was depicted for the first time by Johann Baptist Zwecke, as a frontispiece for the last volume of Icelandic Legends (London: Long-mans, Green, and Co., 1866).

6 For the political programme of Fjallkonan, see its issue of 12 January 1899, pp. 1f.

7 See Lifið í Reykjavik—Næpan og Helgi sæm in Alþýðublaðið of 11 August 1969, p. 8.

8 Letter to Walt Whitman dated Dublin, 18 February 1872, in the Walt Whitman Archive.

9 Terry, 1909, p. 182.

10 See especially Belford, 1996, and Murray, 2004.

11 From Reykjavík of 26 April 1902, p. 2.

12 An expression used in the obituary on the front page of Fjallkonan of 25 April 1902, probably authored by Bríet.

13 First appearing in 1891. For a history of the Icelandic printing press and the publication of Icelandic sagas, see Ólafsson, 2002. See also Haugen, 1992, p. 343. The effect of the introduction of the printing press by Gutenberg, making the copying of manuscripts by hand superfluous, was delayed in Iceland. The Icelandic Catholic Church and later the Lutheran State Church, controlled by the Danish King, used to have the monopoly of printing, until in 1773, the first independent press was founded on Hrappsey. In 1795, it was bought by the Educational Society led by Magnús Stephensen (1762-1833), who thus had a monopoly on printing secular books. Kristjánsson obviously saw a gap in the market and had some of his saga books printed with an initial print run of 4,000 copies. See Magnússon, 2010, pp. 157ff., Karlsson, 2000, p. 172, and Jakobsson & Halfdanarson, 2016, p. 215.

14 See Valdimar’s advertisement for his expert services in Fjallkonan of 28 March 1888, p. 39.

15 See Valdimar’s advertisements in Fjallkonan of 10 and 23 November 1900, both on p. 4.

16 In 1900, Iceland’s currency was the new Danish Crown, introduced in 1875. The value of 2,480 new Danish Crowns was equivalent to that of one kg of fine gold. A million crowns would thus be worth the price of 403 kg fine gold, today approximately 13 million Euros or 14 Million USD. One Crown would thus be equivalent to 1.30 Euro or 1.40 USD (Status: 23 January 2016). As the prices of gold, Euros and Dollars are fluctuating every day, you may want to check the most recent equivalent on www.goldprice.org.

17 See Fjallkonan of 13 November 1895, front page.

18 Sæmundsson, 2004, p. 142.

19 See letter of Clemens of 4 March 1894 to Henry H. Rogers, in Twain/Leary, 1969, p. 40.

20 Skal, 2004, p. 33f. In 1896, the purchasing power of £600 was equivalent to the purchasing power of £62,000 today (status per January 2016).

21 Stoker, 1906, Vol. II, Chapter LXXII, p. 322.

22 Twain’s own publishing company Charles L. Webster & Co. failed the same year.

23 For decades, the publication of Dracula was surrounded by the myth that the novel had only received a “mixed response” from the critics. As John Edgar Browning recently found out, however, the majority of the 230 reviews and responses he was able to locate turned out to be outright positive.

24 Email correspondence with David Skal of 29 December 2013.

25 From Nokkur orð um bókmentir vorar, in Skírnir, 1 December 1906, p. 344 and p. 346. In 1934, the same Benedikt Björnsson was the translator for Slunginn þjófur, og aðrar sögur (A Cunning Thief and Other Stories), by Edgar Allan Poe. In fact, none of the five stories was written by Poe; all were taken from the 1865 novel Mrs. Carew by the British author Amelia B. Edwards. See Eysteinsson, 2014, p. 105f. So much for Björnsson’s enrichment of Icelandic literature.

26 The Danish government obstructed free trade with the UK, Iceland’s nearest trade partner; independence from Denmark would boost the import/export traffic with the UK.

27 See announcement on the front page of Fjallkonan of 13 January 1900.

28 I only know of about 20 surviving copies worldwide, of which four copies are in private hands; two of them in mine.

29 From Í túninu heima, part I, Reykjavík: Helgafell, 1975, p. 208. In an excerpt from Og arin liða (1984), published in Lesbók Morgunblaðsins of 7 January 1984, pp. 4-7, Halldór called Makt Myrkranna “one of the best Icelandic novels imported from abroad.”

30 In Pabbi, mamma og börn (an article about family life and raising children) in Alþýðublaðið of 8 December 1974, p. 4, an unnamed father reported that he once spent a whole weekend reading Dracula to his children, “not Makt Myrkranna but Dracula, complete and unabridged.” In her article Blóðþyrstir Berserkir in Lesbók Morgunblaðsins of 21 April 2001, pp. 10f., Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir acknowledged that Makt Myrkranna was rather a modification than a translation of Stoker’s novel.

31 See Haining, 1987, and Leatherdale, 1998 b.

32 Leatherdale, 1998 a, p. 389, fn. 99, asks if Mina’s night dress, after she was forced to drink Dracula’s blood, was ripped or pulled up, but even this vague possibility is immediately redressed by Van Helsing, drawing a coverlet over her body.

33 More than Dracula, Makt Myrkranna employs the concept of a split personality or “subliminal self,” as observed by hypnotists and psychic researchers of that time, or as described in Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886): the Count only threatens Harker when he is “not himself.”

34 The way Professor Van Helsing kills the three vampire ladies at Castle Dracula could be understood as an allusion to the Ripper’s methods, but in England, no one was informed about Van Helsing’s measures in Transylvania and therefore, they cannot have caused “repugnance” in the London public.

35 Spicer, n.d. (minor spelling errors corrected). See also Gordon, 2002, p. 35: “The old sacking was made of a common, coarse canvas.” Rainham is a suburb in the East of London, 22 km east of Charing Cross.

36 In the novel itself, the Count’s story hinting at Napoleon’s jealousy also suggests Stoker’s personal contribution: Irving loved to talk about Napoleon and from 1894 till 1898, Stoker was intensely involved in preparing the production of Madame Sâns-Gene; he was also familiar with the novelized version by Lepelletier, expressly discussing the love affairs of Joséphine de Beauharnais with the handsome lieutenant Hippolyte Charles.

37 “Saint Amand”: Holy Love; “Rubiano”: Ruby; “Morton”: Death. “Koromezzo” is probably derived from the Hungarian town Körösmez (French: “Koromez”) in the Carpathian Mountains, 125 km north of Bistritz, with a population of approx. 9,000 around 1900 (Purfleet: approx. 7,000; Bistritz and Whitby: approx. 12,000; Exeter approx. 35,000). See also footnote on Prince Koromezzo in Part II, Chapter 14, The Evening Party.

38 Coleman, 1904, Vol. I, p. 326.

39 For the Taaffe family and the double wedding, see Debrett, 1840, p. 712 and p. 813; Burke, 1832, Vol. II, pp. 516-518; Burke, 1869, pp. 1089f. Antonia was a daughter of Antal Amadé de Várkony and thus the first cousin of Thaddaeus, the only son of Antal’s brother Ferenc and the last male descendant of the Amadé Varkony line. Lodge, 1832, p. 387, mentions 1790 as Antonia’s birth year. In musical history, Thaddaeus is known for sponsoring the young Franz Liszt (later befriended by Henry Irving) and Heinrich Marschner, composer of the opera Der Vampyr (1828).

40 Mary Singleton often met with artists around James Abbott Whistler; Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker also belonged to this group.

41 Collected essays, published as a book in 1878.

42 See The Standard of 25 January 1894, p. 5, reporting on the wedding.

43 Intriguingly, in December 1892 Professor Max Müller’s son Wilhelm Max Müller also left for Constantinople as an attaché—see Müller, 1902, Vol. II, p. 289. In summer 1893, before the Curries arrived there, the Müllers visited Constantinople to see their son. They were received by the Sultan; Mrs. Müller later published her Letters from Constantinople with Longmans, Green & Co., London/New York, 1897. See also the article The Turk’s Town in The New York Times of 10 April 1897.

44 At the end of Makt Myrkranna, for example, Seward turns mad and dies. But the preface mentions him as a friend of the author, in present tense. The hint in the preface about the Thames Torso Murders almost runs empty, as the novel barely fleshes it out. The preface states that the remarkable foreigners played a dazzling role in London “for many seasons on end” (also incorrectly translated in Dalby’s text), but this cannot apply to the Count himself, who arrived in London in August and was terminated by the end of October/start of November of the same year.

45 We know that Stoker lived at Leonard Terrace at that time. But Stoker was a master at camouflaging real addresses and replacing them by fake denominations; this applies to every single key address in Dracula. The use of a long dash already indicates that the novelist’s private address should not be disclosed under this preface; the use of “Street” may have been part of this cover-up. Moreover, Stoker may have written this preface at his office at the Lyceum Theatre, located at 21 Wellington Street. An even simpler explanation would be that the Icelandic language does not know the use of “Terrace” to signify a street; it merely uses “stræti” or “stígur” for streets in a town, “gata” for other streets lined with houses, and “vegur” or “braut” for paths or roads without houses. The Icelandic equivalents for “terrace” refer to the banks of a river or stream (“árhjalli” or “malarhjalli”), or to an elevated garden terrace (“verönd,” cf. German “Veranda”). For an Icelandic translator, it thus would be logical to translate “––––– Terrace” as “–––––stræti,” what in the retranslation to English results in “––––– Street.”

46 Denmark ratified the Berne Convention in June 1903, but Iceland was not included in this treaty—see Le droit d’auteur, Paris, of 15 July 1903, p. 73. Iceland as an independent state ratified the Convention in 1947. Already on 8 May 1893, Denmark signed a bilateral copyright treaty with the US, but it is unclear if this treaty included Iceland.

47 The third Icelandic edition was published by Bókafélagið, Reykjavík. The text was based on the 1950 edition by Hogni, which shows small deviations from the original text. Ásgeir Jónsson wrote an afterword—the first (Icelandic) text clearly stating the differences between Makt Myrkranna and Dracula. In this afterword, however, Ásgeir expressly left it to other researchers to find more about the nature of Stoker’s and Valdimar’s cooperation. The purpose of my research was to fill this gap.

48 Email from Ásgeir Jónsson of 1 February 2014.

49 In January 2016, I discussed this issue again with leading translation experts from the University of Iceland, the University of Reykjavík and the Arní Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. With various linguistic arguments, the participants in this debate convincingly supported Ásgeir Jónsson’s opinion.

50 Allen, 1997, p. 296 mentions a banquet hosted by the Governor on 1 September. The Advertiser (Adelaide) of 9 October 1903, p. 4, wrote: “Mr. Hall Caine was present on August 26 at the Parliamentary dinner at the close of the session of the Iceland Alþing as a guest of the Governor of that island.” This is probably more accurate: Ísafold of 26 August 1903, p. 223, reported that the 1903 Alþing “was closed today at 5 p.m., after passing the budget.” See also The Pittsburg Press of 3 October 1903.

51 In 1884: Edward Mills And George Benton: A Tale (1880). In 1885: The Man Who Fought Cats, published by John C. Hotten in Practical Jokes with Artemus Ward (1872). In 1886: How Hyde Lost His Ranch, from Chapter 34 of Roughing It (1872).

52 Blucher’s Disastrous Dinner, from Chapter 5 of The Innocents Abroad, in Fjallkonan of 20 September 1893.

53 Miljónarseðillinn started in Fjallkonan of 17 February 1894 and ran until 8 May of that year (pages 27-75).

54 The 1891 Census shows that by that year, the Stokers had already moved from Cheyne Walk to 17 St. Leonard’s Terrace. In 1897, they moved to Nr. 18 (see chronology in Browning, 2012, pp. 318f.). Twain lived at 23 Tedworth Square.

55 Twain/Fishkin, 2006, p. 229, various footnotes. Like Makt Myrkranna, Is He Dead is a “forgotten work,” which only recently received fresh attention through Shelley Fishkin’s efforts to republish and stage the play.

56 Twain was a good friend of Professor Willard Fiske of Cornell University, who visited Iceland in 1879 and remained in contact with its leading intellectuals and newspaper publishers, Thorsteinsson, Jónsson and Ásmundsson included.

57 Palladino even managed to let two examiners, who were supposed to hold her hands for control, hold hands together, so that her own hands were free.

58 1886, with Edmund Guerny and Frank Podmore.

59 Stoker and Irving knew Dufferin already since July 1892 at the latest, when Irving was made Doctor of Literature honoris causa at Trinity College, Dublin, and Dufferin formally proposed a toast to Irving during the subsequent banquet. See Stoker, 1907, p. 394.

60 Stoker, 1907, pp. 395f. In the 1906 two-volume edition: Vol, II, p. 248.

61 Still other links can be found if we start mapping the personal networks connecting London with Reykjavík. I plan to publish these results in a separate paper.

62 The idea of Count Dracula personally leading such group rituals only showed up in the Dracula films of the 1960s and 70s, e.g. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) with Christopher Lee. The Count as the leader of a larger group of vampires can be found (as a parody) in The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967, Roman Polanski) and in Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989, Anthony Hickox).

1 Fjallkonan was the name of the newspaper owned and edited by Valdimar Ásmundsson. The Icelandic version of Dracula appeared here as a serialization from 13 January 1900 until 20 March 1901.

2 As discussed in the Introduction to this book, Stoker’s preface is the only part of Makt Myrkranna that has been translated before. The first translation was commissioned and published by Richard Dalby in A Bram Stoker Omnibus (1986), and reproduced in Bram Stoker Journal #5 (1993). It gave rise to manifold speculations about a possible link between Dracula, the Ripper Murders, and the life of Bram Stoker. A second translation by Sylvia Sigurdson was commissioned by Dracula expert and book collector Robert Eighteen-Bisang in Canada in 2004. It was published in Storey, 2012. Because most Dracula experts are familiar with the Dalby translation, the following notes will highlight the most important differences between his translation and mine.

3 Fjallkonan and the 1901 book edition use “sögufolkid,” literally “the storypeople” or “the people of the story.” The 1950 and 2011 editions replace “sögufolkid” with “sögunnar,” lit.: “storytellers.”

4 “For obvious reasons”: an elegant formula to skip the vital weakness of the truth claim staked out in this preface. If the dangers described in this novel were real, it would—for obvious reasons—be much wiser if the survivors would step forward to take the lead in a public campaign, aiming to completely eradicate such threats. For a further analysis, see my article Dracula’s Truth Claim and its Consequences in the Journal of Dracula Studies, October 2014, pp. 53-80.

5 Dalby’s translation omits the Icelandic word “stranga,” which in this context can mean “solemn,” “strict,” “grave,” or “serious.” Cf. German and Dutch “streng.”

6 The italics, emphasizing the authenticity of the novel’s events, appear in the Fjallkonan serialization only, not in the 1901 book edition and later republications.

7 Dalby gives “in years to come.” The Icelandic expression “þegar minnst varir” means “without any warning,” “when we least expect it,” “suddenly” or “unexpectedly.”

8 A first hint at an altered plot, because in Dracula neither Scotland Yard nor the secret service perceives an interrelated pattern of crime.

9 Again: “sögufolkid.”

10 Dalby proposes “at the same time,” but in the Icelandic expression “á sínum tíma,” “sínum” (“their”) points back to the mentioned crimes, which took place before the Ripper murders. See also next footnote.

11 Dalby’s translation states “… which came into the story a little later,” suggesting that the Ripper murders will be featured—a little later—in this very novel. The Icelandic expression “ad koma til sögunnar,” however, means “to occur,” “to take place,” or “to come into existence.” Stoker’s preface simply states that the Ripper murders took place after this incomprehensible series of crimes discussed in Makt Myrkranna, that is, the Thames Torso Murders. Bram Stoker was much more likely to be familiar with these Thames murders than Valdimar. Even if Valdimar knew that they were rumored to stem from the same root as the Ripper murders, it is highly improbable that he would insert a reference that his Icelandic readers would not be able to understand; the preface thus appears to be written by Stoker himself. See Introduction.

12 Dalby’s translation gives “group of foreigners,” although “group” is not mentioned in the Icelandic text.

13 In Dalby’s text, the Icelandic “saman” is translated as “together,” but “saman” relates to the seasons (“on end,” “in a row”), not to the foreigners.

14 Icelandic: “annar þeirra,” lit.: “the other one of them.” Ásgeir Jónsson points out that this refers to the other of a pair (i.e. two), not to one of a group, and he suspects that a line articulating what this pair is may have been dropped from the preface.

15 Icelandic: “… án þess að nokkur merki hans sæist framar,” lit.: “so that no signs of him was ever seen again.” The 1950 and 2011 editions change “sæist” to “sæjust” (“were seen”). The final meaning stays the same.

16 Icelandic: “Allt það fólk, sem sagt er, …” Dalby’s translation omits the relative clause.

17 The end of this novel mentions Dr. Seward’s death; the preface—supposed to be written after the pictured events—does not match the plot in this point. See my Introduction essay.

18 Dalby’s translation “… will also be too famous” could be understood to mean that this scientist is not famous yet, but will be so in future. The Icelandic auxiliary verb “munu” can express a probability in the future, in the present or even in the past. I have opted for the present here, because the word “likewise” places the famous scientist next to the Harkers and Dr. Seward, that is, in the category of people who are—presently—“widely known and well respected.”

19 In his 1897 interview with Jane Stoddard, Stoker had already stated that the character of Professor Van Helsing was based on a real person (Stoddard, 1897, p. 185)—again an indication that this Icelandic preface was authored by Stoker himself, not Valdimar. Various role models have been proposed over the years: Dr. Gerard van Swieten (1700-1772), personal physician of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria; the Flemish physician and al-chemist Johan Baptista van Helmont (1580-1644); Prof. Arminius Vámbéry from Budapest; Prof. Max Müller from Oxford; Prof. Moriz Benedikt from Vienna; and John Freeman Knott, a physician married to the sister of Florence Balcombe, Stoker’s wife. Knott was a friend of Bram’s brother Thornley, a highly renowned brain surgeon and a possible role model himself.

20 The interjection “which I prefer not to mention” is confusing and may lead readers to believe that this scientist is “famous for his real name”—just like Paris is famous for its Eiffel Tower. In fact, the text states that this scientist is so famous that his real name cannot remain hidden from the public.

21 Icelandic: “af reynslu,” lit.: “from experience.” This again indicates that the real Van Helsing is a friend, a personal acquaintance or at least a contemporary of Bram Stoker, like the Harkers and Dr. Seward, and thus excludes the long-deceased Van Swieten and Van Helmont—the only candidates who actually speak Dutch. In 2012, the biography of the Dutch filmmaker Tonny van Renterghem drew my attention to his grandfather, the psychiatrist Dr. Albert W. van Renterghem, whom his grandson claimed to have been the true role model for Stoker’s protagonist. Together with the physician and writer Dr. Frederik van Eeden, Dr. van Renterghem had opened a clinic for hypnotic treatment in Amsterdam in 1887, which soon became internationally famous. I indeed discovered a whole network of interconnections, which makes it highly probable that Stoker was familiar with Van Renterghem’s work and reputation. See my article in De Parelduiker of October 2012.

22 Icelandic: “snilld.” Dalby’s translation gives “genius,” which is the first translation listed in modern dictionaries; Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874, gives “masterly skill, eloquence” and “excellency of art, skill” as translations, referring to acquired skills or knowledge or great intellect rather than to the romantic concept of genius.

23 A quote from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, in which Prince Hamlet addresses Horatio. Instead of retranslating the Icelandic, I have reinstated Shakespeare’s original text. Stoker’s friend and employer, the actor Henry Irving, was famous for his performance as Prince Hamlet, so Stoker must have known these words by heart.

24 The date of August 1898 suggests that some of the most significant modifications of the novel must have been discussed between Bram Stoker and Valdimar Ásmundsson more than a year before the first installment was published in Fjallkonan: the appearance of “remarkable foreigners” in “London aristocratic circles,” the reference to a series of horrible crimes causing public concern and finally the involvement of the secret police.

25 The Castle in the Carpathians (Le Château des Carpathes) is also the name of an 1893 novel by Jules Verne, which may have inspired Stoker’s description of Castle Dracula.

26 Stoker borrowed the surname “Harker” from Joseph Cunningham Harker, a set designer at the Lyceum Theatre.

27 The first deviation from the original story: in Dracula, Harker takes the train to Bistritz, not the mail coach.

28 Between 1867 and 1920, Transylvania was a principality within the Hungarian empire, which had controlled it since medieval times. Bukovina had been annexed by the Habsburg Empire in 1775; only in 1918 was it reunited with Moldavia, of which it had been a part since the 14th century. Moldavia and Wallachia united under the name “Romania” in 1859. Following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Russo-Turkish War, Romania proclaimed sovereignty in 1877. The territory of modern Romania was formed only in 1920 (Treaties of Trianon and Paris), when Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Bukovina, and Bessarabia were united. During World War II, Romania was compelled to leave a part of the northern territories to the Soviet Union.

29 Icelandic: “herstjórnarráðuneytið.” Up till 1964, the British Ministry of Defence was called “War Office.” In 1855, the Board of Ordnance, traditionally in charge of Ordnance Survey mapping services, became a part of this War Office. In Dracula this sentence reads: “I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps.” In fact, the military maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Transylvania, were highly detailed, but not available to the public.

30 “Bistri a” in modern Romanian, a city in the northeast of Transylvania (“Nösnerland”), fortified and inhabited by Saxon (German-speaking) settlers after 1200.

31 From Bistritz, the road to the Borgo Pass (today known as “Tihu a Pass”) went in a northeast direction. After the village of Maros-Borgo, the road continued up the mountain past the customs post of Tihucza where the Borgo Pass began, and gradually turned north until the border of Bukovina was reached at M gura Calului at a height of 1,117 m.

32 Transylvania was dominated by the Saxons, Magyars, and Szeklers, who in 1437 had proclaimed the Union of the Three Nations (Unio Trium Nationum). Although the Romanian-speaking people (named “Vlachs,” “Wallacks,” or “Wallachians”) constituted the majority of the population, they were deprived of political rights; in Dracula, they are hardly mentioned. For an analysis of Stoker’s “mythical Transylvania,” see Cri an, 2013.

33 Reflecting the overall shape of the Carpathian Mountains, like Dracula’s term “horseshoe.”

34 Icelandic: “hjátrú og hindurvitni,” a first example of alliteration in this novel. Alliterative rhyme had a strong tradition in the Old Icelandic Poetic Edda (13th century), a text that Valdimar was very familiar with.

35 Stoker knew about these topics from the article Transylvanian Superstitions by Emily Gerard, July 1885; other important sources on local traditions and history were the books by William Wilkinson, Charles Boner, Major E. C. Johnson, A. F. Crosse, and Elizabeth Mazuchelli (see list of references).

36 Icelandic: “allur í lögfræðinni”—this can also translate to “completely the lawyer.” Perhaps coincidentally, in Dracula Harker calls himself “a full-blown solicitor” (Chapter 2, Journal of 5 May) while he is waiting in front of the gate of Castle Dracula.

37 Similarly, in Dracula the hotel is named “Golden Krone,” which Stoker may have derived from Baedeker’s description of Salzburg; the story originally was set in Styria. See Klinger, 2008, pp. 22f., note 42.

38 Baedeker’s Travel Guide for Austria, 1896, tells us that the distance from Bistritz to Kimpolung (Câmpulung Moldovanesc) was 126 km, and could be covered by post coach in 17 hours. Klinger, 2008, p. 33, note 81.

39 This archaic sign-off is rarely used today, but we can find several examples of it in the letters of George Washington.

40 Stoker took the name “Dracula” from a book by Wilkinson about the history of Moldavia and Wallachia, but understood it as the denomination of a whole dynasty or clan. The Drăculesţis, named after Vlad II Dracul (a member in the Order of the Dragon), ruled over Wallachia. From the 1970s on, Professors Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu propagated the idea that Stoker had heard of the cruel reputation of Vlad III Dracula the Impaler, the son of Vlad II, and, with this in mind, had picked him as the model for his vampire character. In their book Prince of Many Faces (1989) they even presented a mistranslation of a medieval poem by Michael Beheim, who, according to them, describes Vlad III as drinking the blood of his enemies (see my article The Great Dracula Swindle,www.vamped.org of 26 May 2016). While the Count in his conversation with Harker actually refers to a voïvode whom we recognize as Vlad III, Stoker neither knew the name “Vlad” nor his bloodthirsty reputation. In Chapter 25 of Dracula, Van Helsing and Mina identify their enemy as “that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over the great river into Turkey-land.” This might be a reference to Michael the Brave, on whom Stoker took notes from Wilkinson’s book. In the novel itself, however, it appears as if Stoker preferred this “other” to remain anonymous (see my article Bram Stoker’s Vampire Trap, Linköping University Electronic Press, 19 March 2012).

41 Both in Dracula and Makt Myrkranna, the Count calls himself a Szekler and claims that the blood of Atilla runs through his veins; the Szeklers lived in the eastern part of Transylvania and spoke Hungarian. There are at least three different theories why Stoker introduced a noble with a Wallachian name but a Ugric origin. See also note 134.

42 Stoker’s notes of 14 March 1890 also mention “the purchase of London estate”; in the typed manuscript (1897), Plaistow (eastern suburb of London) was replaced by Purfleet in Essex, 20 km farther east. See Klinger, 2008, p. 483, note 8. Makt Myrkranna shifts the action back to London itself—maybe based on Stoker’s original ideas.

43 In Dracula, bats only appear in the Whitby, Hillingham and Purfleet scenes, representing the vampire Count in disguise. “The early bat catches the worm,” the author(s) of Makt Myrkranna must have thought.

44 An Icelandic expression describing the scorn provoked by non-conformist behavior.

45 Icelandic: “hefði verið ættfylgja,” lit.: “had been the ghost of the family.” In Old Norse mythology, “fylgja” is a spirit attached to a person or family, influencing their fate or fortune; it may appear in the form of an animal, mostly during sleep. A related concept is that of the “hamingja” (Old Norse: “luck”), which also personifies the luck or fate of a person or family.

46 In Dracula, the Count lives with three women of ambiguous origin and status; here, he is said to have had three wives whom he has lost.

47 Harker does not suspect that he is travelling during the Romanian St. George’s Eve. Because the Eastern Orthodox Church in Transylvania still used the Julian Calendar, its St. George’s Day (23 April) would coincide with the date of 5 May in England (Gregorian Calendar). Stoker took notes on these calendar differences. See Eighteen-Bisang & Miller, 2008, p. 25; p. 121; p. 93, footnote 200.

48 Icelandic: “leika lausum hala,” lit.: “play with a free tail,” derived from the Poetic Edda, Lokasenna (Loki’s Wrangling), verse 49: “Lightly said, Loki! | But too long it won’t last | That your tail freely plays | As on this peak, with the guts | Of your own ice-cold son | The gods will bind you.” (my translation). Like the evil spirits the land-landy fears, the god Loki represents malice and deceit in Scandinavian mythology; in many aspects, he resembles the suave but spiteful Count Dracula in Makt Myrkranna.

49 Icelandic: “rétttrúuðum,” lit.: “of the true creed,” which would translate to “orthodox.” To avoid confusion with the Roman-Orthodox religion practiced by the Vlachs in Transylvania, I have deferred to Stoker’s original term “English Churchman.”

50 Like Dracula’s “Mina,” the name “Wilma” (Icelandic: “Vilma”), is derived from “Wilhelmina,” the full name of Harker’s fiancée. According to the 1891 census, “Minna” was the name of a governess living in the household of Bram’s brother George at 14 Hertford Street in London.

51 An observation perhaps based on Icelandic daylight hours: On 5 May, twilight starts before 3:00 a.m. in Reykjavik (natural local time). In Bistritz, dawn would have come at 5:30 a.m.

52 In Dracula, Stoker explains that the Transylvanian rulers would abstain from repairing the roads too quickly, to avoid suspicion that they were preparing for war.

53 Stoker’s dramatic description of the Borgo Mountains was actually derived from the travel journal by Major E. C. Johnson, reporting on his trip through the much steeper Bicaz Pass, approx. 60 km south of the Borgo Pass.

54 As carriages were rare in ancient Iceland, the word “vagn” covers all kinds of vehicles. In Dracula, Stoker uses “calèche,” a word borrowed from Wilkinson, 1820. I have re-introduced this term here, to distinguish the Count’s lighter vehicle from the heavy stagecoach or the transport carriages later used by the Slovaks.

55 In Dracula, it is one of Stoker’s fellow travellers who quotes Burger’s Lenore in German by saying: “Denn die Todten reiten schnell” (“For the dead travel fast”). The same quote is used in Dracula’s Guest, engraved on the tomb of Countess Dolingen-von Gratz.

56 In Dracula, the coach driver tells his passengers that they had covered the distance to the agreed meeting point in “an hour less than the time”—obviously, he had been speeding in order to arrive well before the Count’s driver so as to offer the Englishman an excuse to continue to Bukovina.

57 In the Icelandic text, Mr. Hawkins is mostly referred to as “Hawkins málaflutningsmaður.” Zoëga, 1922, lists “lawyer; solicitor, attorney; barrister.” As already described in Hrafnkels Saga (10th century), “mála-flutningur” pertains to the conduct of a suit, originally before the General Assembly at Þingvellir. After 1873, the title would thus more specifically translate to “Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.” In the rest of the story, I have avoided repeating Mr. Hawkins’s title. According to Davies, 1997, p. 133, the name “Hawkins” was borrowed from Anthony Hope Hawkins, author of Prisoner of Zenda (1894).

58 Icelandic: “aftakaveður,” mostly translated as “violent storm.” The literal meaning: “murder-weather.”

59 Actually, the Borgo Pass region was very popular for bear hunting during Stoker’s time − see Tsérnatony, 1902, pp. 256ff, and the hunting statistics given by Boner, 1865, p. 155.

60 A pile of stones used to indicate a border, a path or a certain spot. The Icelandic expression “hverfa út í” is mostly used when someone dissolves or vanishes into the night, into the fog, into the blue, etc. It is curious that Harker could still see clearly what the driver was doing in the forest.

61 In Dracula, all characters driving to Castle Dracula from the Borgo Pass fall asleep during their trip, such that their route cannot be exactly reconstructed from their diaries. Perhaps, Stoker wished to obscure the castle’s true location, which I contend is on Mount Izvorul C limanului, ca. 25 km (beeline) southeast of the Borgo Pass (see my book The Ultimate Dracula, 2012). Makt Myrkranna omits the last part of Dracula, in which the vampire hunters pursue the Count through Moldavia back to his stronghold, so that decisive clues about the castle’s location are missing in the Icelandic version.

62 In Dracula’s Transylvanian episode, Harker is unarmed; later he fights with the kukri knife.

63 Icelandic: “við erum bráðum komnir heim,” lit.: “we will soon be back home.” The Icelandic text repeatedly uses “að koma heim” in the sense of “to arrive.”

64 See footnote 61.

65 In Dracula, the following events are still part of Harker’s Journal Entry of 5 May (continued).

66 Icelandic “heljarmaður” literally means “a man from Hell”: a brute, a strongman, a muscleman.

67 Lit.: “full three ells high.” Since the 13th century, the Icelandic ell (“alin”) had been identical with the “lögalin” (“law-ell,” approx. 49.2 cm). By the beginning of the 16th century, the Hamburg ell (57.8 cm) was adopted, until it was replaced by the Danish ell (62.5 cm) in 1776, so that Harker was at least 187.5 cm (6 ft 1 in) tall. In this novel, I have converted all ells to feet.

68 This character is unique to the Icelandic version, but in Stoker’s preparatory notes, there is also mention of a deaf and mute female servant of the Count.

69 Galloons are woven trims, mostly used to decorate uniforms. The German equivalent is “Tresse,” related to the English word “tress” (“braid,” “lock of hair”).

70 In Dracula: “Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!” and later: “Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!” The Icelandic version condenses these formulas. Stoker introduces the idea that a potential victim must enter the vampire’s territory voluntarily.

71 Icelandic: “hvíldar og hressingar,” another alliteration.

72 In Dracula, Harker addresses his client simply as “Count.” In Makt Myrkranna, Hawkins and Harker use “Sir Count” (“Herra greifi”)—a phrase found in many 19th century novels (Scott, Dickens). What is quoted here as a complete letter is, in Dracula, only a passage from it. I have inserted “for not personally tending to you” to avoid the impression of impoliteness.

73 This phrase combines Dracula’s description of the peppered paprika hendl, which Harker enjoyed at the Hotel Royale in Klausenburg, with the qualities of the “excellent roast chicken” served in Castle Dracula.

74 Tokay (Tokaj) is the center of a famous wine region in northern Hungary, between the rivers Bodrog and Hernád. Louis XV of France praised the Tokay wine as “The Wine of Kings; the King of Wines.”

75 Lit.: “was like paradise-food in my mouth.”

76 Canines: incisor teeth. For Stoker, these teeth seemed to be a special sign of animalistic power: “Tennyson had at times that lifting of the upper lip which shows the canine tooth, and which is so marked an indication of militant instinct. Of all the men I have met the one who had this indication most marked was Sir Richard Burton.” “As [Burton] spoke the upper lip rose and his canine tooth showed its full length like the gleam of a dagger.” See Stoker, 1907, pp. 130 and 229.

77 Icelandic: “um alla heima og geima,” lit.: “about all worlds and spaces,” about things that are within reach and things which are out of reach.

78 Icelandic: “Þvílíkir tónar!”—an alliteration.

79 The Count calls himself “an old hunter,” just like the driver of the calèche. In Dracula, Harker soon suspects that they are the same person.

80 In Dracula, Harker’s Journal of 7 May starts here.

81 In Dracula, this paragraph points to the absence of mirrors, as vampires do not cast a reflection in the mirror: “There are certainly odd deficiencies in the house, considering the extraordinary evidences of wealth which are round me. The table service is of gold […] but still in none of the rooms is there a mirror. There is not even a toilet glass on my table, and I had to get the little shaving glass from my bag before I could either shave or brush my hair.”

82 The shortened form “D-a” might point to a hastily jotted, almost illegible signature.

83 Icelandic: “gullgerðarlist,” lit.: “the art of goldmaking.” The secret art of alchemy dealt with turning worthless materials such as lead into gold.

84 In Dracula, there is no reference to sunsets in Scotland, but while preparing his novel, Stoker and his family used to spend holidays in Cruden Bay, near Aberdeenshire; Stoker’s The Mystery of the Sea (1902) was set here.

85 In Dracula, there are no bats in or near the castle. Makt Myrkranna seems to anticipate the 1931 Universal Pictures movie Dracula (Tod Browning, dir.), in which a large bat hovers outside the open window of the castle.

86 In all conversations, the honorific form “þér” (“ye”) is used. Today, this form is as good as extinct in Iceland—as in Britain. To avoid an archaic rendering, I have used the modern “you” (which originally also was honorific).

87 The original text uses “feber,” in quotation marks—the word is used in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, not in Icelandic. The 2011 text uses “hitasótt.”

88 In Dracula, Harker meets with three vampire girls, the blonde, blue-eyed one being the most provocative; Makt Mykranna singles her out from the group and assigns her a major role in this Transylvanian episode.

89 This could refer either to Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), the wife of Napoleon I, or to her eldest granddaughter, Joséphine of Leuchtenberg (1807-1876), Queen consort of Sweden and Norway. The dresses of their time would show more skin than those of Victorian England.

90 Icelandic: “skygðum” (1900 and 1901) or “skyggðum” (2011). In modern dictionaries, the verb “að skyggja” is translated as “to darken” or “to overshadow,” but both the 1874 and the 1922 dictionaries still give the meaning “to polish.” Accordingly, the 1874 dictionary lists “skyggðr” as “bright, polished, transparent, so as to throw a light.” Similarly, the 1922 dictionary lists “skygður” as “polished, bright” and “óskygður” as “not polished.”

91 Icelandic: “það kemur sér […] betur,” the comparative form of “það kemur sér vel” (“that comes in handy”), is used to indicate a preferable situation. Unfortunately, the text does not explain why or for whom Harker’s good looks are advantageous. Maybe a double entendre is meant: “að koma sér vel” means “to make oneself popular,” especially with the other sex.

92 The plural “our” might be a pluralis majestatis, also mentioned in Dracula with regard to the Count: “Whenever he spoke of his house he always said ‘we,’ and spoke almost in the plural, like a king speaking.” The girl starts her sentence with “I,” however. Moreover, the pluralis majestatis is hardly ever used in traditional Icelandic. The “our” could either refer to the girl and the Count, both inhabiting the same castle, or to possible “vampire sisters,” or it could suggest an unmentioned partner.

93 Icelandic: “austurlensku augum,” lit.: “Eastern eyes.” This might point to the Count’s descendance from the Huns or to the genetic influence of the Tatars—as mentioned later in the novel—or simply to his Transylvanian homeland.

94 A first indication of the Count’s aspiration for power. In Dracula, Harker’s host is portrayed as a former military leader, but doesn’t show public ambitions; in the Whitby and London episodes he remains hidden, unless confronted by surprise.

95 Now the Icelandic uses “það kæmi sér best,” the superla tive form of “það kemur sér vel” (“that comes in handy”)—see footnote 93.

96 Harker’s intuition is surprisingly exact, given the fact that he seems unfamiliar with the habits of vampires and does not suspect that the Count is one of them.

97 A brilliant example of sociopathic speech, putting Harker in a double bind. “I was just searching for it when this woman came into the library.”

98 Icelandic: “fögur eins og gyðja, en geðveik” − an alliterative wordplay.

99 Icelandic: “mannsefninu sínu,” mostly used in a retrospective sense to describe the man whom a woman will marry someday: her husband-to-be. In Makt Myrkranna, it is unclear whether the term refers to a particular fiancé, who may have left the unlucky girl, or to a potential new partner − or to a man she might mistake for her former lover.

100 Grimm, 1854, pp. 914-918 retells a dozen of such legends, the white maidens representing princesses or ancient heathen goddesses. See also the English translation in Grimm, 1883, pp. 962-968.

101 Dracula mentions a similar myth, but in a completely different context: The Whitby chapter alludes to the ghost of St. Hild, sometimes appearing in the ruined abbey. Later, the sleepwalking Lucy Westenra is seen at the graveyard as “a half-reclining figure, snowy white”; in London, she turns into the white-clad “Bloofer Lady,” wandering about Hampstead Heath and victimizing small children. Davies, 1997, p. 132 points to The Woman in White (1859) by Wilkie Collins as an influence.

102 Icelandic: “menningar birtu þessarar aldar.” Icelandic inflection allows two translations: “civilizations of light of this age” or “light of civilization of this age.” The second possibility sounded more plausible to me.

103 A few lines earlier, Harker already reported that the Count thoroughly examined the documents.

104 Like in Stoker’s original typescript for Dracula; see footnote 42.

105 Icelandic: “að dreifast,” lit.: “to be scattered.” The connection with being buried is evident from the corresponding text in Dracula: “I rejoice also that there is a chapel of old times. We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie amongst the common dead.”

106 Icelandic: “hafa lifað dagslífi.” This could mean that the common people − unlike the vampires, who live forever − are like the mayfly, only living for a few hours and dying in the evening. Alternatively, the Count could mean that they have only lived during the day (because they sleep at night, when the vampires are awake).

107 Icelandic: “ofninn,” lit.: “oven” or “furnace.” Previously, Harker had mentioned a fireplace.

108 Icelandic: “haugeldar,” a fire seen on a burial mound. In Norse pagan rituals, a “haug” was a mound erected to honor a buried person. Stoker took his information about flames and treasures from Emily Gerard’s article on Translyvanian superstitions: “In the night preceding Easter Sunday witches and demons are abroad, and hidden treasures are said to betray their site by a glowing flame.” See Gerard, 1885. Such Transylvanian folk beliefs had much in common with their Norse counterparts: “It was a consequence of their ideas of a future state [=life, existence—HdR], to bury with the dead in the grave, not only useful implements […], but also gold and ornaments with which they could shine in the halls of Hel, or else splendid armor with which the spirit […] could make an honorable entrance into Valhalla. These treasures, which, when very rich, were thought to betray themselves by nocturnal fires which burned above the mounds (haugeldar), often allured bold men to break open and rob the graves. But these mound-breakers had to go prepared for a hard struggle with the inhabitant of the mound (haugbúi) or the ghost of the buried man.” Quoted from Keyser, 1854, p. 307f.

109 Icelandic: “fylgja,” again referring to Old Norse mythology: a spirit or ghost attached to a specific person, defining or influencing his character and destiny.

110 In Dracula, Jonathan Harker explains: “I started, for it amazed me that I had not seen him, since the reflection of the glass covered the whole room behind me.”

111 Davies, 1997, p. 133 explains that this scene was inspired by The Compensation House (1866) by Wilkie Collins.

112 Previously, Harker mentioned the fire burning in the hearth in his room, now he speaks of an oven or furnace—matching the presence of a coal basket. See also footnote 107, about the fireplace in the dining room.

113 Icelandic: “ættfylgju”—again meaning a ghost influencing the character of a tribe, a clan or a family.

114 The Icelandic “frænka” can mean cousin, aunt or niece. Because the girl is much younger than the Count, I opted for “niece” here. Later we will learn more about their family relationship. Harker’s use of apostrophes suggests that he is unsure about the precise nature of their kinship—or even doubts it completely.

115 Icelandic: “Hvítu handleggirnir hvíldu …” Another example of alliterative style.

116 It remains unclear why Harker puts any trust in the Count’s words now.

117 Icelandic: “ljúfsárrar tilkenningar.” “ljúfsár” = “ljúfur” (“sweet” or “lovely”) + “sár” (“bitter” or “painful”), a combination mostly used to describe nostalgic longing. Dracula uses a similar wording: “There was something about [the vampire women] that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear.”

118 In Dracula, there is a similar notion: “The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great wavy masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where.” It is speculated that this blonde girl reminds Harker of the Countess Dolingen-von Gratz appearing in Dracula’s Guest (1914), a story often seen as the deleted first chapter of Dracula or a study for the novel.

119 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen published his research on X-Rays in December 1895 and Marconi discovered the principle of wireless transmission a few months later. Therefore, it is not surprising that by the end of the 19th century, psychic researchers were starting to speculate about “thought rays” influencing the brain.

120 This is intriguing: The girl acts as though she were Harker’s accomplice, warning him to be careful … For what?

121 In Dracula, Harker’s Journal of 7 May mentions that he looks at a map of England in the Count’s atlas and discovers little rings marking Exeter, Whitby and the East of London. The Count has planned his arrival in Whitby well in advance, although Harker never mentioned that Mina and Lucy would go on holiday there.

122 While in modern movies, the infamous Whitechapel murders mostly take place in gas-lit alleys swirling with fog, the actual Ripper killings were committed on clear nights, in unlit streets. Typical for London by the turn of the 19th century was a mixture of smoke and fog; in July 1905, the word “smog” was coined at the Public Health Congress in London. Harker must mean this unhealthy combination of humid air, smoke and sulfur dioxide. Normal mist also occurs in the mountains, as described in the following chapters.

123 Icelandic: “og eldur brann nærri því úr augum hans,” an expression repeatedly used between 1820 and 1920, inspired by old Icelandic sagas. See Fornaldar Sögur Nordrlanda (eftir gomlum handritum), 1829, p. 111; Fjörar Riddersögur, 1852, p. 19; Sagan af Starkaði Stórvirkssyni, 1911, p. 138. Halldór Laxness also uses it in his first novel, Barn náttúrunnar, 1919, Chapter 24, p. 217.

124 Icelandic: “valska.” In Iceland, the rat was unknown before the 17th century; when it arrived there aboard of ships, it was called “valska” or “völsk mús,” lit.: “Welsh mouse.” The word “Welsh” refers to something foreign or strange (originally used by the Anglo-Saxons to denote the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of Wales).

125 In Fjallkonan, we find the word “dömu” (cf. English “dame”); in the 1950 and 2011 editions “konunni” (“woman”).

126 Although I could find no other mentioning of “dragon jewels” in Icelandic literature, dragons played an important role in Icelandic myths and were also depicted on jewelry. See Cutrer, 2012, p. 17.

127 The Icelandic text allows two interpretations: either the picture was seen at the latest art show or the woman in the picture is being offered at the latest slave trade show. In Britain, however, slavery was already counteracted by the Habeas Corpus clause in the Magna Carta (1215); it seems very improbable that Harker ever saw a slave market. A few pages later we will learn that he knows “savages” only from pictures. The topic of a nude female slave being presented by a slave trader was popular with 19th century painters such as Jean-Leon Gerome, Ernest Normand, John William Waterhouse and Géza Udvary.

128 Icelandic: “Eins og hún þarna uppi?” The use of “þarna” (“there”) suggests that the speaker refers to an object or person already discussed. To introduce something or someone new, “hérna” (“here”) would be used. After discussing various other paintings, the Count now speaks of the large portrait of the beautiful woman again.

129 Lit: “the brother-daughter of my father”—the woman portrayed is the Count’s first cousin. Since the Count claims that she is the great-grandmother of the blonde girl, Count Dracula’s uncle must be the girl’s great-great-grandfather, while the Count’s father would be her great-great-granduncle; Count Dracula and the blonde girl would be first cousins, thrice removed. The story strongly suggests, however, that the blonde girl is actually the woman in the portrait, locked in eternal youth by her vampiric nature.

130 Harker is shocked because the Count advocates inbreeding, which he claims to be healthier than exogamy.

131 By repeating “hún þarna uppi” and by the use of the definite article (“towards the portrait”), the text indicates that the Count is still talking about his first cousin depicted in the large portrait he showed at the start.

132 These words are reminiscent of the lines Napoleon wrote to Joséphine de Beauharnais in February 1797: “You to whom Nature has given spirit, sweetness, and beauty, you who alone could rule in my heart, you who doubtlessly know all too well the absolute power you exercise over me!” See Bonaparte, 1935 (my translation). Cf. Blaufarb, 2008, p. 40. 132 Icelandic: “fallegu hendurnar hafa haldið …” another example of alliteration.

133 The historical Dracula dynasty ruled over Wallachia, but Stoker’s vampire Count lived in the northeast corner of Transylvania. The mountaintop on which I contend Stoker imagined his Castle Dracula to be located, Mount Izvorul C limanului, actually belonged to a district with a 63% share of Szeklers in the population, vs. 2% in the Bistritz region. See population map in Boner, 1865. In Dracula’s typescript, the Count speaks of throwing off the “Austrian yoke”—which would match the view of both Magyars and Szeklers. In the printed book, however, the Count refers to “the Hungarian yoke,” although the Szeklers were Hungarian allies. With this last-minute switch, Stoker may have tried to restore the Wallachian ancestry of his “Dracula race.”

135 The Scythians were semi-nomadic Iranian tribes living in the Central Asian plains since 700 BC.

136 The lines in Dracula mentioning the battles of the Dracula dynasty with the Turks are omitted in Makt Myrkranna, eliminating possible associations with historical persons, that is, the anti-Turkish campaigners within the Dracula clan.

137 This is another possible allusion to Joséphine de Beauharnais, who was said to rule the world from her bedroom.

138 Napoleon I was crowned on 2 December 1804.

139 The only male member of the Dracula family mentioned so far who would qualify is Harker’s host himself, the first cousin of the lady in the portrait. This would explain his surprisingly intimate knowledge of the story that is about to be told.

140 This mirrors the biblical words: “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40: 6-8, King James Bible). This thought is reiterated by Thomas à Kempis in his Imitation of Christ (around 1420): “This life is short. It is like the flower in the field, it springs to life in the Spring, flowers in the Summer, begins to fade in the Fall and dies in the Winter.” The same idea is also worded in the Dance of Death from the Preacher Churchyard in Basel (around 1440): “O Mensch betracht | Und nicht veracht | Hie die Figur | All Creatur | Die nimpt der Todt | Früh und spot | Gleich wie die Blum | Im Feld zergoht.” [Oh Man, behold | how here unfold | On graveyard’s wall | The fates of all | Who soon or late | To Death must yield | Like on the field | The flowers fade.” (My transcription from the German). See also Job 14:2 and Psalm 103:15.

141 Still another possible reference to Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), who in 1779 married the young Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais (1760-1794). Joséphine indeed made the name “de Beauharnais” famous. After Alexandre was executed during the Reign of Terror, the young widow had several amorous affairs with leading politicians, until she married Napoleon Bonaparte in January 1796, being his senior by six years. Still the same year, while Napoleon led military campaigns abroad, she started a liaison with Hippolyte Charles, a young good-looking Hussar lieutenant (1773-1837). The affair was reported to Napoleon; in his rage, he decided to divorce her, but his letter with instructions to his brother Joseph was intercepted by Admiral Nelson, thus adding ridicule to shame when it was published by the London and Paris newspapers. Josephine dumped her lover in order to save the marriage, although Napoleon had several mistresses himself and in 1809 demanded divorce all the same, when she could not produce an heir. During their marriage, Napoleon presented her with various sets of exquisite jewelry, which—through her grandchildren—were inherited by the Norwegian and Swedish royal families.

142 The disdain with which Harker’s host describes his first cousin’s second husband here casts doubt on our suspicion that both Counts might be the same person.

143 Icelandic: “hlaupið fyrir ætternisstapann,” lit.: “jumped over the Family Cliff”—a bitter mockery, referring to Gautrek’s Saga. Upon getting lost in the woods during hunting, King Gauti of West Götaland meets with a dull-witted family; the eldest daughter, Snotra, explains to him: “There is a steep bluff near our farm, it is called Gilling’s Bluff, and it has an overhanging cliff, which we call “Family Cliff.” It is so high and the drop so deep that no living creature can survive falling down from it. We call it “Family Cliff” because we use it to reduce the size of our family when something very wondrous happens; there, all our elders can die without suffering any illness, and fare straight to Odin. This way, they become no burden for us and we do not have to endure their stubbornness, as this blissful bluff has been open to all members of our kin alike, and therefore we do not have to put up with lack of money or food, nor with any other strange marvels or miracles that may befall us.” (my translation). At the start of the saga, the unknown writer already warns his readers that this is a “merry story”: The ideas and behavior of this family are obviously foolish. According to Norse beliefs, Odin and Freya will only receive those who have died an honorful death in battle. Those who have died from sickness and old age would go to the realm of Hel; those who had committed suicide (especially for such trifling reasons as later occur in the saga) probably to a particularly gruesome section named Náströnd, the Shore of Corpses, where snake poison endlessly drips on murderers, oath-breakers and adulterers. According to Christian beliefs, the boy (guilty both of suicide and adultery) would also go to Hell (a name derived from the Norse “Hel”). In the theme of forbidden love, ending with a fatal drop, lies a still deeper parallel between the Count’s story and Snotra’s words; cf. Milroy, 1966-69, and Grimm’s tale of Rapunzel.

144 Icelandic: “að veita nábjargir.” In the old Norse tradition, this means the service of closing eyes, nostrils and mouth on a dead person. See Boyer, 1994, p. 56.

145 Icelandic: “taugaveikur.” Today, “taugaveiki” is translated as “typhus.” The first typhus epidemy reached Iceland only in 1906, however. Here “taugaveikur” refers to a state of nervous agitation (“tauga-” means “nervous,” while “veikur” means “ill”), as mentioned in Nordri of 30 April 1856: “sjúkdóma […] kallada Taugaveiki (Hypocondrie og Hysterie).” While hypochondria could also befit men, hysteria was believed to be an exclusive women’s disease. Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot—mentioned in Dracula—treated large numbers of women diagnosed with this mysterious illness in the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris; he claimed it was a defect of the brain. The School of Nancy, on the other hand, maintained that hysterical behavior had psychological, not physiological causes. Shortly before his death in 1893, Charcot had to admit that his views had been wrong; the number of “hysterical” patients dwindled dramatically. See my article on Bram Stoker, Dr. Van Renterghem and hypnosis in the Victorian Age in De Parelduiker, October 2012.

146 An allusion to Christian views: “take no account of it if they do thee wrong” (“virð einskis við þá er þer gora í mein”), from the Icelandic Book of Sermons (12th century); in 1872, a much-acclaimed Swedish edition of this handwriting was published: Wisén, 1872.

147 The Count now speaks of himself in the third person and refers to his planned relocation to England.

148 This either hints to a strong hereditary trait, possibly reinforced by the practice of inbreeding, or to Dracula’s and his cousin’s centuries-long existence chronicled in the paintings.

149 Icelandic: “fór út í aðra sálma,” lit.: “started to read from another psalm.”

150 Icelandic: “… úr afli, fegurð og öðru atgervi,” echoing Egil’s Saga (13th century), Chapter 8: “About Þórólf and Bárð people said that they were equal in handsomeness, stature, strength and all other good qualities.” (“Þat var mál manna um Þórólf ok Bárð, at þeir væri jafnir at fríðleik ok á vöxt ok afl ok alla atgervi.” (my translation).

151 In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species; despite resistance from clerical side, within the next 20 years it was broadly accepted as an explanation of the variation and selection of species in their struggle for existence. The Count’s presentation of Darwin’s mechanism of natural selection is accurate, but Harker obviously dislikes his host’s conclusion that the stronger have a “natural” right to rule and exploit the weak—a normative judgement not included in Darwin’s theories.

152 This is another character that only appears in Makt Myrkranna.

153 “Natra gamla” must refer to the old housekeeper woman. Perhaps the text plays with the word “naðra,” meaning “adder,” “viper,” “serpent,” or “snake” (Old High German “natra”). The Völuspá, the first and most famous poem of the Older Edda, tells how Thor fights with the World Serpent Jörmungandr, guardian of Midgard; deadly wounded, Thor still manages to walk away: “Nine steps still strode | Earth’s son in pain | struck by the snake | fearing no sneer.” (“Gengr fet níu | Fjörgynjar burr | neppr frá naðri | níðs ókvíðnum.” (my translation). As we will see later, the old woman actually acts as a guardian, keeping an eye on Harker when he tries to find a way out. Another option is that Valdimar played with the name of a well-known church ruin in Sweden, “Nätra gamla.” Today, “natra” is propagated by Icelandic language purists as the native word for “stinging nettle,” mostly called “netla.”

154 The following scenes, spread out over two days, correspond to Harker’s Journal entry of 12 May in Dracula, but the conversation about the blonde girl only appears in Makt Myrkranna.

155 Like “frænka,” the word “frændkona” can refer to different kinds of female relatives, except mother, daughter or sister.

156 A strange apprehension for a libertine who has just explained that passion is not bound by any conventions. Considering the girl’s hunger for a romantic partner, the Count’s concern is not unrealistic, but it remains to be seen, who in the end would be the victim, and who the perpetrator.

157 Icelandic: “Í kveld,” lit.: “In the evening.” This must be the evening of 8 May, because the Count later refers to the agreement about Harker’s prolonged stay, discussed the night before.

158 Probably meaning Borgo-Prund, the largest of the villages between Bistritz and the Borgo Pass. See K. & K. Spezialkarte, 1876-1907, Zone 17, Columns XXXI and XXXII.

159 The alliterative expression “að sér hitnaði um hjartaræturnar” literally means “to become warm around the roots of the heart” and mostly refers to a sudden sympathy or enthusiasm. Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874, also gives the negative variant “to be alarmed”—the only logical reaction to the Count’s arrogance.

160 Like in Dracula, the Count has planned his arrival in Whitby in advance, although Harker never told him that his fiancée and her friend intended to spend their holidays there—see also footnote 121.

161 In Dracula: “Herr Leutner, Varna”—“Seutner” may be a transcription error. In Dracula, it is to be from Varna that the Demeter, with the vampire aboard, starts her journey towards Whitby.

162 This ignores Stoker’s inside joke: Dracula mentions “Coutts & Co., London,” the bank of Stoker’s wealthy friend Angela Burdett-Coutts (see Davies, 1997, p. 133f). In the 2011 republication of Makt Myrkranna, we read “Corsets bankastjóra,” meaning: “the bank director of Corset’s Bank”—maybe a typographer’s joke.

163 In Stoker’s Dracula: “to Herren Klopstock & Bill-reuth, bankers, Buda-Pesth.”

164 In Dracula, we find the opposite observation: “I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I was getting too diffuse; but now I am glad that I went into detail from the first, for there is something so strange about this place and all in it that I cannot but feel uneasy.” See Dracula, Chapter 2, Harker’s Journal of 8 May.

165 Icelandic: “að setja hlerana fyrir”—“to let the shutters down.” Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874, defines “hleri” as “a shutter or door for bedrooms and closets in old dwellings, which moved up and down in a groove or rabbet, like windows in Engl. dwellings, and locked into the threshold.”

166 Icelandic: “stétt.” In Icelandic communities, the “stétt” was the heightened pavement running in front of the houses. In this scene, it obviously is a kind of ledge or rim horizontally set along the outer wall.

167 In Dracula, the Count crawls along the wall like a lizard, face down, which rules out any kind of natural explanation. Makt Myrkranna leaves this possibility open here.

168 Harker will later describe that the ledge runs between the southwest tower and the southeast tower (where his bedroom is), and so the human figure must have come from the tower on the right, not on the left—unless Harker, writing this diary entry in the library, adapted his description to the perspective he had in the library.

169 Another character unique to Makt Myrkranna. In Dracula, the Count hands the vampire women a bag with a “half-smothered child.” Later, the lamenting mother is devoured by wolves.

170 Meaning that wolves, if they were hunting for prey, would have guzzled their victim. The way the girl is ravaged reminds of werewolves, but as we will see later, the castle houses still other creatures.

171 Icelandic: “varla hálfvöxnu tungli”: the moon in the fifth or sixth night after new moon, shortly before reaching the first quarter.

172 Icelandic: “ég (…) þóttist ganga úr skugga um.” The expression “ganga úr skugga um” means “to ascertain,” “to verify,” “to check.” The mediopassive form “þóttist” followed by an infinitive is mostly translated as “to pretend to …,” but here it is used in the original meaning of “to think to oneself.” In his rendering of Mark Twain’s The Million Pound Banknote, Ásmunddson used exactly the same phrase to translate “I (…) judged by the look of things.” See Twain, 1893, p. 34 and Fjallkonan of 1 May 1894, p. 71.

173 Maybe these mirrors date back to a time when the Draculas were still mortal people? In Stoker’s 1897 novel, no such mirrors are mentioned.

174 This description matches Harker’s Journal of 15 May in Dracula: “At last, however, I found one door at the top of the stairway which, though it seemed to be locked, gave a little under pressure. I tried it harder, and found that it was not really locked, but that the resistance came from the fact that the hinges had fallen somewhat, and the heavy door rested on the floor.” The same method to build suspense will be repeated twice in the Icelandic version.

175 Throughout the novel, the Icelandic text uses the word “höll” (“hall” or “palace”) to describe Castle Dracula; in this sentence, “kastali” (“castle,” “fortress”) is used to set the gate tower apart from the rest. Because Castle Dracula is not a palace (associated with elegance, luxury, located in a park or garden), I have used “fortress” here to describe the gate tower and kept to the term “castle” in the rest of the novel—as also used in Dracula.

176 Icelandic: “ég átti hægra með,” where “hægra” is an archaic comparative form of the adjective “hægr” (“easy”). Today, “hægr” is written “hægur,” with “hægari” (male & female) and “hægara” (neuter) as comparative, while “hægri” and “hægra” nowadays mean “right” or “dexter.”

177 In the 2011 edition, this paragraph starts with “I do not know how much time passed until I truly realized what had happened to me,” almost verbally repeating the first line of the previous paragraph. In Fjallkonan and in the 1901 edition, there is no such repetition.

178 In Fjallkonan, this line ends with “hálfhaltur” (“half limping”), omitted in the 1901 edition.

179 In light of the occult books in Dracula’s library, this is perhaps another indication that the Count is engaged in witchcraft and occult practices. In Dracula, a reference to such signs in the castle’s crypt is absent. Like most folk beliefs, Icelandic folklore knows a number of magical symbols. These magical runes or staves include, among others, “ægishjálmur” (protection or invisibility in battle), “vegvísir” (a magical compass), “óttastafur” (to induce fear in the enemy), “lásabrjótur” (to open locks and escape from custody), “þjófastafur” (protection against thieves) and “stafur gegn galdri” (to protect against the magic of others). The use of magical runes is described in Sigrdrífumál, a part of the Poetic Edda.

180 In Dracula, this whole trip is described in only a few words; after climbing along the outer wall to the Count’s room, Harker quickly arrives in the chapel: “I descended, minding carefully where I went, for the stairs were dark, being only lit by loopholes in the heavy masonry. At the bottom there was a dark, tunnel-like passage, through which came a deathly, sickly odour, the odour of old earth newly turned. As I went through the passage the smell grew closer and heavier. At last I pulled open a heavy door which stood ajar, and found myself in an old, ruined chapel, which had evidently been used as a graveyard.” See Jonathan Harker’s Journal of 25 June. See also footnote 191.

181 While in the 2011 edition, this line ends with “sem olli mér óhug” (“which scared me”), in Fjallkonan of 11 August 1900 we read “sem fékk mér íhugunarefni,” lit.: “which gave me material for reflection”—which better matches the depicted events.

182 “Mountain ash” is another word for “rowan tree” (Sorbus aucuparia). We remember that Harker was handed rowan twigs in the mail carriage, to protect him from evil. In Dracula, Harker’s Journal of 15 May informs us that mountain ash was growing on “the sheer rock” around the castle. Incidentally, mountain ash was the only tree growing in Iceland during the Settlement, next to the dwarf birch; it was dedicated to Thor.

183 In Dracula, neither the murdered girl nor her mourning family is described; instead, there is a desperate mother looking for her abducted child. Harker’s patronising words about the family’s “ignorance” demonstrate that he still does not realize he is lodging in a vampire’s lair.

184 Was the door really locked before or did Harker simply assume so? If the sound he heard was real, then who was the person opening the door for him—and then quickly disappearing? Until now, only one of the characters we have read about would qualify as an accomplice, ready to assist Harker in undermining the Count’s rules.

185 A logical error: in the morning, Harker had complained that he did not know where the Count was sleeping.

186 This he did while watching from his bedroom window, in the morning. Harker had also entered this tower, some floors higher, when he explored the gallery and went through the door on its far side.

187 In 1900, Iceland’s currency was the new Danish crown, introduced in 1875. The value of 2,480 new Danish crowns was equivalent to that of one kg of fine gold. A million crowns would thus be worth the price of 403 kg fine gold, today (March 2016) approximately 14 million Euros (16 million USD). Accordingly, “many millions of crowns” would mean several tons of gold.

188 Icelandic: “fáguðum gimsteinum.” Today, “fágaður” mostly describes someone sophisticated in manners or something in impeccable order. Here it is still used in the original sense of “polished,” meaning that the stones were cut and reflected the light.

189 Icelandic: “sem svöruðu til herbergja þeirra annars vegar í höllinni,” in which the expression “svara til” means “to match” or “to correspond to,” from the From Old Norse “svara” = “to answer.” Compare Anglo-Saxon “and-swarian,” Old English “andswaru,” Middle English “answere” and the later English “an-swer.” In this case, Harker must mean that the Count’s private rooms are the—thusfar unaccessible—counterpart of the already known rooms: his own bedroom, the dining room and the library. Either Harker must have an excellent orientation to know that the Count’s private rooms are on the same floor level as the dining room, or the furnishing in all rooms must look similar.

190 Harker arrives at the dining room coming from the private rooms of the Count, which are on his left side when he leans out of the dining room window; the gate tower is on his right side. See the essay at the end of this book, and our online floor plans.

191 In Dracula, Harker makes this tour in reverse: First he crawls along the outside walls into the Count’s room and finds the gold; from there, he descends a narrow stairway and ends up in the dilapidated chapel with the Count’s coffin. See also footnote 180. There is no door connecting the Count’s room with the dining room—Harker has to climb back along the castle’s walls.

192 This matches the Count’s remark that “old Natra” never uses the corridor, but always takes “another path.” In Stoker’s preparatory notes for Dracula, a secret room in the Count’s residence is mentioned, but this idea did not show up in the 1897 publication. Like the presence of the deaf and dumb housekeeper woman, this suggests that Makt Mykranna may be based on early ideas for Dracula.

193 Icelandic: “Ætti ég ekki – – –” The subjunctive form of “að eiga” mostly precedes an infinitive, describing something one should do (“eiga að gera”). As the question is left unfinished, the possibilities are myriad.

194 Icelandic: “mundi herma rétt frá.” The phrase “að herma rétt” means “to report correctly.” The verb “mundi” (“he would”) indicates a probability or uncertainty: Harker doubts if the Count has told him the whole story. Curiously, this exact expression was used only a single time in the history of the Icelandic press, in Fjallkonan of 12 August 1889: A certain Mr. Lárus Blondal from Kornsá had complained that the newspaper had reported inaccurately about the meeting of a trade association in the north of Iceland. As Fjallkonan’s editor, Valdimar replied that the article was based on a letter from a local gentleman, of which the newspaper had assumed “that he would report correctly about the meeting.”

195 In Dracula, Harker is simply defiant: “The Count’s warning came into my mind, but I took a pleasure in disobeying it.” See Chapter 3, Harker’s Journal entry of Later: the Morning of 16 May.

196 The presidential address to the Hastings Health Congress of 30 April 1889 dealt with contagious mental diseases such as the dancing mania of the 14th century, mental epidemics on the Shetland Islands (1817) or a suicide wave in Napoleonic times. See Longman’s Magazine of June 1889, pp. 145-163. Until today, the causes of the medieval dancing mania could not be identified with certainty; for all three phenomenons mentioned, imitative behavior would be a more probable explanation than infectious germs.

197 By the end of the 19th century, the modern germ theory of disease superseded the old miasma theory, which had maintained that “bad air” was the cause of epidemic illnesses − a view fittingly worded by the reactionary Count. Researchers such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch studied the life-cycles of micro-organisms causing cholera, diphtheria, dysentery, smallpox, scarlet fever, tuberculosis (consumption), typhus, typhoid fever, malaria, syphilis and the plague; many of these diseases feature a dormant state, during which the symptoms disappear, although the germs survive and wreak havoc in a secondary or tertiary stage.

198 Icelandic: “Ég […] nennti ekki að hræra legg né lið.” The alliterative expression uses two near-synonyms (“leg” and “limb”) to amplify the statement; they serve as a pars pro toto for the whole body.

199 Icelandic: “að verða […] heitt um hjartaræturnar,” lit.: “to become warm around the roots of the heart,” this time in a positive sense. See also footnote 159.

200 Again, this may be a hint that this line was created in Reykjavík, where the summer nights never are truly dark. But also in London (51°31’ North), the nights would be somewhat lighter than in the Borgo Pas (47°16’ North), additionally, the Victorian metropolis would show the first signs of light smog.

201 As described in the previous paragraphs, Harker is lying, not sitting—otherwise the girl, kneeling next to the bench, would not be able to reach his throat.

202 In Dracula there is no such dialogue: Harker faints after seeing the Count hand a bag containing a wailing child to the three vampire women.

203 The Icelandic text seems to be elliptic here; I inserted the words “were he to reproach me” to arrive at a logical statement. See next footnote.

204 The last two sentences in Icelandic: “Hitt væri skiljanlegra, að ég hefði brotið móti boði hans með því að vera þar uppi. Ég gæti þá fremur skilið í því, að allt, sem mér þykir hafa borið fyrir mig sé draumur − − −” The expression “Hinn/Það væri skiljanlegra, að …” is often used to describe the arguments or wishes of another party, in a conceding sense, “skiljanlegra” meaning “more understandable,” “more than understandable” or “perfectly understandable.” I assume that Harker describes here how he would have reacted if the Counted had spoken frankly with him and had reproached him for being upstairs, instead of pretending that he had found Harker in his own bed. In this case, Harker might have been willing to consider the possibility that his last encounter with the blonde girl had merely been a dream. Because he notices, however, that the Count is lying about this one point, he concludes that his host must also be lying about the other points.

205 In Dracula, it seems as if the Count’s highest goal is to remain inconspicuous and merge with the crowd. After the present Transylvanian episode, however, Makt Myrkranna deviates from this concept and assigns the Count a more public role, entertaining international diplomatic guests at his Carfax house. Intriguingly, they all communicate in French, not English!

206 Icelandic: “ljúft eða leitt,” another alliterative standard expression.

207 With the threat of “Oriental tyranny,” Herodotus referred to the clash between the Greek democratic city-states and King Xerxes of Persia in the Battles of Marathon (490 BC) and Thermopylae (480 BC). In the 1850s, Karl Marx used the term “Oriental despotism” to describe the “Asiatic mode of production,” characterized by state control over land ownership and irrigation systems. Friedrich Engels set forth this thought in his Anti-Dühring (1878). Valdimar, familiar with socialist theories, may have introduced this vocabulary, which is not used in Dracula.

208 The following episode was published in Fjallkonan of 13 October 1900, but omitted from the 1901 book publication and its second and third edition.

209 An Icelandic alliterative pun: “við erum engir englar, Englendingar.”

210 Previously, the Count had told Harker that to rule over people is the only thing that counts in life. In his view, power and sex must be closely connected.

211 This may refer to Joseph, the virtuous husband of the Virgin Mary, or to Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel. Genesis 37-50 describes how his brothers mocked at Joseph, calling him a “great dreamer,” In Egypt, Joseph resisted Potiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; he became a prisoner, but later rose to power. When his brothers came to Egypt to buy food, they fell on their knees before him, their faces to the ground, and called themselves his servants.

212 Icelandic: “kærleikar kvenna kringsnúa jörðinni,” probably an alliterative creation of Valdimar’s own making, with “kvenna” being the genitive plural of “kona.” An alternative translation would be “Loving women is what makes the world go round.” In Alice in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll, we find: “Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love that makes the world go round,” spoken by the Duchess in Chapter 9. Sometimes, the phrase is attributed to the dramatist W. S. Gilbert. Bram Stoker personally knew both authors.

213 Starting with 18 May, the Icelandic text changes the date format to “the 18th” etc. and later to “the 10th of June” etc. For clarity’s sake I have standardized the date format.

214 These words effectively install Wilma as a saintly or virginal figure, the counterpart of the lascivious blonde girl. Although Dracula today is often read as an encoded description of sexual excess, Stoker himself insisted: “… the book is necessarily full of horrors and terrors but I trust that these are calculated to cleanse the mind by pity & terror. At any rate there is nothing base in the book …” See Stoker’s letter to William Gladstone, 24 May 1897. A decade later, the novelist pleaded for censorship in fiction, arguing that “the only emotions which in the long run harm are those arising from sex impulses.” The views of Valdimar may have been different. In an article about the United States, he took a critical stance at American Puritanism: “The respect for women takes such a subtle form [in the US], that it is possible to sue a man for hanging his underwear in a place, where a housewife can throw an eye on it. […] Doctors say that the high infant mortality rate [in the US] is due, among others, to the fact that mothers are hindered to breast-feed their babies.” See Fjallkonan of 10 June 1890. p. 70.

215 Icelandic: “sterkar á svellinu,” lit.: “stronger on the ice,” an alliterative phrase denoting superior power.

216 This thought seems to come out of nowhere. But as noted in the Introduction, the previous chapter, omitted from the book editions, interrupts Harker’s legal studies in the Count’s library; here he is picking them up again.

217 At the time that Dracula and Makt Myrkranna were written, legal and medical circles fervently discussed whether or not criminal behavior could be triggered by hypnotical suggestion. Although many physicians maintained that an intact moral instinct could not be overruled by abusive suggestion, some culprits claimed that they had acted under hypnotic influence, e.g. Gabrielle Bompard in the Gouffé murder case, which the Paris court dealt with in 1890. This debate had a direct relevance for Dracula and Makt Myrkranna, as the portrayed vampires wield hypnotic powers, forcing their victims to act in an immoral way. Stoker was most likely familiar with these medico-legal discussions, e.g. in The Nineteenth Century. The play Trilby, based on George du Maurier’s 1895 novel and dealing with the abuse of hypnosis, was a huge stage success at the time. See my article in De Parelduiker of October 2012. Ironically, the physician who most strongly opposed the idea that hypnotic influence could provoke criminal impulses, Gilles de la Tourette, was shot in the head in 1893 by Rose Kamper, a woman who claimed that he had ruined her sanity by hypnotising her against her will.

218 Previously, Harker had described himself as a man of the “true creed” (“rétttrúuðum”), which I translated as “English Churchman” (see footnote 49). This time, the Icelandic uses “sannlúterskur” (“truly Lutheran”). Like the Icelandic Lutheran State Church, the Church of England follows Lutheran principles. Neither church recognizes the authority of the Pope nor practices a Maria cult, and both churches prefer the simple (empty) cross symbol over the crucifix showing Christ’s tortured body.

219 While Fjallkonan and the 1901 edition state “finni til hryllings,” the second and third editions read “finni til tryllings”—a transcription error.

220 Madness (feigned or real) was an essential topic both in Shakespearean and Victorian drama and plays an important role in Dracula as well: Both Harker and Holmwood doubt their own sanity, and Seward suspects that Van Helsing is mad, while the latter describes his own wife as “no wits, all gone.” Surprisingly, Dr. Seward’s mad patient Renfield acts as a learned philosopher in his dialogue with Van Helsing.

221 The following scenes—a bit more than a “few” words—have no equivalent in Dracula.

222 Icelandic: “… þótt mér tækist ekki að finna hann.” The second and third book edition replace “tækist” with “takist,” which makes little sense, grammatically.

223 Icelandic: “í krók og kring,” another alliterative expression.

224 Icelandic: “járnbrautar ljósberanum,” lit.: “railway lightbearer.” In 1900, Iceland had no railroad system and in my team of native speakers, no one had ever seen this word in Icelandic; even the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavik could not find any reference. In Europe and the US, however, the second half of the 19th century was the heyday of railway development and railroad lanterns played a vital role in signalling. Another option would be that Stoker wrote a text containing the word “train lamp,” meaning a lamp fuelled with whale train—just like Van Helsing in Dracula uses a candle made of whale sperm. The Icelandic “járnbrautar ljósberanum” would then be a translation error; the correct term would have been “grútar-lampi.” In both cases, however, the lantern should have a wick, not a candle.

225 The 2011 edition uses “12”—which made me wonder how Harker could identify the number of instruments so precisely. In Fjallkonan, however, we read “tólf” (“twelve”) so I assume that Valdimar picked what—in his eyes—was a round number, just like in Egil’s Saga, where everything comes in dozens: twelve men to make a company, twelve ounces of gold in the spangles, twelve witnesses to swear an oath, twelve people from each folk to act as judges, or like in Laxdæla Saga, where twelve women were seated behind a curtain. Up till Christianization, the Icelandic “hundrað” (“hundred”) meant 10 x 12 = 120 and only later, the “stórt hundrað” (“big hundred”) or “tólfrætt hundrað” was distinguished from the decimal hundred (“tírætt hundrað”) by the extra adjective, if needed. Iceland adopted the metric system only in 1900.

226 The Icelandic word “básúna” has the same roots as Dutch “bazuin” and German “posaune” (Latin: “bucina”). Today, trumpets, horns and trombones mostly have piston valves or a slide mechanism, but Makt Myrkranna probably refers to a natural trumpet here. The Icelandic sagas frequently mention the use of such trumpets in war.

227 The Icelandic word “rim” refers to the rim or rung of a ladder, but as the text speaks of a spiral passage carved into the stone, we must conclude that Harker is still walking on stairs, not on a ladder.

228 In the 19th century, it was commonplace to associate animalistic qualities with people of color; neither Bram Stoker (The Mystery of the Sea, The Lair of the White Worm) nor Valdimar Ásmundsson were exceptions.

229 In fact, the Israelites marching around Jericho blew ram’s horns or shofarots, not copper instruments. See Joshua 6:1-20.

230 Stoker’s Count only wore black; Bela Lugosi’s vampire cape was white. Makt Myrkranna’s red cape matches the bloody character of the ritual the Count is leading.

231 This may be another Biblical reference: “Yes, a human being’s days are like grass, he sprouts like a flower in the countryside—but when the wind sweeps over, it’s gone; and its place knows it no more.” See David, Psalm 103, Complete Jewish Bible, 1998.

232 Cf. Egil’s Saga, Chapter 25: “Men have arrived here outside, twelve men in total—if one could call them such—because they look more than giants in build and appearance than normal men” (my translation). A few moments later, Skallagrim’s men split up: Six enter the hall to greet the king, while six stay outside to guard their weapons.

233 In Dracula, Van Helsing and his men perceive a similar transformation in Lucy: “The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness. […] When [Lucy] advanced to [Arthur] with outstretched arms and a wanton smile he fell back and hid his face in his hands.” See Chapter 16, Dr. Seward’s Diary of 29 September.

234 After repeatedly describing these men as “ape-like,” the Icelandic text uses “mannhundur” here, (lit.: “man-hound”), maybe as they listen like dogs to their master. Generally, this word means “scoundrel,” “villain,” “bandit” or “rascal” and had already been used in the Icelandic sagas: Flateyjar-bók, Gísla-Saga, Karla-magnus-Saga and Stjöran-Saga. I did not find any connection to animalistic mythical creatures, such as the wolf-man (“vargr,” “úlfr” or “úlfhédinn,” lit.: “wolf-hide” or “wolf-skin,” and later: “varúlfur” = “werewolf”) or the bear-man (“berserker”), which are warrior types. See Gudmundsdóttir, 2007.

235 Harker now takes on the role of a Victorian Dante, after descending step by step to the lowest circles of Inferno.

236 The following scene matches Harker’s Journal entry of 19 May in Dracula. That Harker discovers and reads any newly arrived letters addressed to the Count is unique to Makt Myrkranna.

237 The Icelandic uses the imperative form to word a request; it does not know the word “please.” See also footnote 379.

238 In Dracula, the dates are 12 June, 19 June, and 29 June, followed by the exclamation: “I know now the span of my life. God help me!” The Icelandic date of 22 June may be based on a transcription error, because Harker’s Journal entry of 28 June makes it clear that he considers this day as his last day in safety. His entries of 20, 23 and 24 June do not mention that his time might be running out.

239 The entries of 29 and 31 May in Makt Myrkranna correspond to Harker’s Journal entry of 28 May in Dracula.

240 Makt Myrkranna describes the Tatars in the same way as Stoker describes the Gypsies.

241 In Dracula, Harker worries about his fiancée’s tender nerves: “To her I have explained my situation, but without the horrors which I may only surmise. It would shock and frighten her to death were I to expose my heart to her.” In Makt Myrkranna, there is no such reservation—this may be another indication of Valdimar’s influence. Although Stoker’s major heroines (Norah Joyce, Mina Murray, Margaret Trelawny, Marjory Drake, Teuta Vissarion, Mimi Watford) are always intelligent and strong-willed, their male partners never forget to protect and patronise them.

242 Icelandic “hraðskrift,” lit.: “quickwriting,” meaning “shorthand,” which became popular in the UK during the 19th century, especially in the form of “Pitman shorthand,” developed by Sir Isaac Pitman. The system called “speed writing” was only developed in the 1920s by Emma Dearborn.

243 Icelandic: “trúlega,” today translated as “probably,” but here in the original sense of “faithfully,” “safely,” “to be relied on.” Hence the mentioning of “loyalty” in the next sentence.

244 Icelandic: “huldu fræða,” lit. “hidden sciences,” referring to systems of knowledge and wisdom repudiated by modern rationalism: alchemy, astrology and other forms of divination, secrets of healing and eternal life, etc. We remember the collection of esoteric books in the Count’s library. In Dracula, Van Helsing refers to the Count as an alchemist and a scholar of the Devil himself.

245 While Stoker’s Count has helpers but no allies, here the vampire seems to envision some new world order, in which those who have been loyal to him will be rewarded—maybe by eternal life, plenty of blood and victims, gold or political power. The Count’s vision might be understood as a satanic counterpart to the Christian expectation of a Last Judgment.

246 Icelandic: “örgustu,” superlative of “argur,” in old Norse used to ridicule men who were too cowardly to defend themselves, which was despised in Norse culture. Cf. Grimm, 1828, p. 644. The word was considered so abusive, that the mocked person had the right to kill the speaker on the spot. See Wilda, 1842, p. 50, footnote 4.

247 Icelandic: “Örvæntingin getur fundið sér hvíld.” In Dracula, the corresponding phrase reads: “Despair has its own calms.”

248 Icelandic: “nýjar velar.” In modern Icelandic: “new machines.” In older Icelandic, “vél” or “væl” would mean “artifice,” “craft,” “device,” “fraud,” or “trick.” The corresponding line in Dracula confirms this reading: “This looked like some new scheme of villainy.”

249 In Dracula, this scene corresponds to Harker’s Journal of 31 May.

250 Until now, the old housekeeper was only deaf and dumb but still able to spy on Harker; here the poor lady also loses her eyesight—probably through a mere slip of the author’s pen.

251 Icelandic: “laglegasta,” lit. “the most beautiful.” In Icelandic the superlative is often used to indicate that something is “quite OK.”

252 Icelandic: “um dagmálabil,” lit.: “the time of daymeal,” which was between 8 and 9 a.m. in old Iceland.

253 This scene corresponds to Harker’s Journal entry of 17 June in Dracula.

254 This may be an allusion to the Haymarket Riot of 4 May 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. Fjallkonan reported on the demonstration itself (issue of 18 June 1886) and four years later, in an article about the US (10 June 1890) it commented critically on the subsequent trials and verdicts.

255 Lit.: “governmental freedom.”

256 Icelandic: “feigðarsvip.” In medicine, this refers to the facial expression of a dying person, facies hippocratica. In Norse mythology, it stands for an apparition foreboding imminent death. The Icelandic noun “feigð” signifies a foreboding of death; the English “fey” and the Dutch “veeg” are cognates of the Icelandic adjective “feigur” (“doomed to die”); “svip” means “appearance,” “looks,” “expression,” “resemblance,” “apparition” or “spectre.”

257 Icelandic: “dökkur á á brún og brá,” lit.: “dark at eyebrow and eyelash”—an alliterative expression, pertaining to the whole complexion. Thus this man cannot be the Count himself, who has white hair and a pale skin.

258 This scene corresponds to Harker’s entry of 24 June in Dracula; there, Harker only sees the Count himself, wearing Harker’s clothes and carrying the bag he had given to the three vampire women. Later he hears a short, suppressed wailing in the Count’s room and a desperate mother shows up at the gate, demanding her child back.

259 Icelandic: “Hann hafði ekkert á móti því, og við skildum, þegar ég hafði lokið kveldverði, og fór ég þá inn í herbergi mitt” (my italics). This is a typical example of how the Icelandic text strings several statements with “og” (“and”), which in English would be considered poor style. I have replaced one “and” with “so.”

260 That is, the tower on the southeast corner, where Harker’s own bedroom is, and the room where the Countess was locked in with her young lover.

261 Not entirely correct: After his nightly adventure with the blonde girl, Harker visited this room once again to check the evidence of his stay there.

262 Icelandic: “mauravefir,” lit.: “ant webs,” used to indicate something very fine and fragile. The newspaper Heimskringla of 16 December 1931 advertised “silk fishnet stockings, thin as ant web” (“silki netjasokkar, þunnir eins og mauravefur”). Here, cobwebs or rags of dust must be meant.

263 Icelandic: “framhlið,” normally the frontside of a building. Here, however, Harker can only mean the south facade of the castle, previously described as the “back side.”

264 Icelandic: “ríkast,” superlative of “ríkur” (“rich”), here in the original sense of “powerful” or “important.” Harker’s suspicions are indeed still vague; the essential characteristic of vampirism—being damned for all eternity to drink people’s blood—has not been addressed yet; instead, an anti-democratic conspiracy and barbarian sacrificial rituals are the obvious threats posed by the Count and his followers.

265 In fact, Harker’s associations are very appropriate, as the Devil—or the lost souls obeying him—is often depicted as wandering about the earth.

266 An incorrect statement, as Tatars and Gypsies are completely different people. In Dracula, only the Gypsies (“gipsies”) are mentioned, sometimes as “Szgany”: “A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are encamped in the courtyard. These Szgany are gipsies; I have notes of them in my book. They are peculiar to this part of the world, though allied to the ordinary gipsies all the world over.” See Chapter 4, Harker’s Journal entry of 28 May. It is unclear why Valdimar and/or Stoker decided to replace Dracula’s Gypsies with Tatars; a possible explanation would be the destructive role played by the “Tatars” (actually, the Mongolians) in the North-Transylvanian region in the 13th century.

267 In Icelandic pagan beliefs, trolls are the original, giant-like inhabitants of the world, driven out by the gods to make place for humans, and are therefore mostly hostile; they dwell in caves and woods. Comparing men to trolls is common in the sagas: “Hann var mikill vexti, nær sem troll.” (Gísla Saga, ed. Valdimar Ásmundsson, 1899, p. 55), “hann var mikill vexti sem troll” (ibidem, p. 156) or “Maðr […] mikill sem tröll” (Egil’s Saga, Chapter 40), all referring to men “as big as a troll.”

268 Icelandic: “Innst í hvelfingunni, þar sem vissi út að hallargarðinum.” The expression “að vita út að” could neither be found in the SNARA Database nor in Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874, but I found several examples in the translation of the Arabian Nights (1857-1864) by Steingrímur Thorsteinsson. Comparing these passages with other renderings, by Jonathan Scott, Richard Burton, Edward William Lane and Dr. Gustav Weil respectively, confirmed the meaning “to face in the direction of” or (of windows) “to look out over.” From Harker’s diary of 10 May, we know that this crypt was gloomy and had high set bow windows—which probably looked onto the courtyard, the lower part of the room being underground.

269 This discovery of the Count lying in a transport box matches Harker’s Journal entry of 25 June in Dracula, when Harker uses the ledge on the south wall to climb into the Count’s room then descends a narrow staircase, leading to the chapel and underground graveyard. See also footnotes 180 and 191.

270 Icelandic: “og var sem eldur brynni úr augum hans”—an expression already used when the Count spoke about the London murders (Journal of 8 May—see footnote there) and about the anarchists.

271 “Hence, [logic], as a propaedeutic, merely represents the antechamber to the sciences, as it were; and when we speak of knowledge, we admittedly presuppose a logic as an instrument to judge it, but the acquisition of knowledge as such can only be accomplished by the sciences proper, that is, by the objective sciences.” Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Preface to the Second Edition (1787) (my translation from the German).

272 Icelandic: “… en í forsal vísindanna, þar sem líf og dauði liggja í efnishrúgum,” lit.: … “than the antechamber to the sciences, where life and death lie in piles of material.” The word “efnishrúga” (“pile of matter”) is sometimes used in a metyphysical context to criticize Materialism, which perceives the human body only as a soulless agglomeration of matter. Accordingly, the Count criticizes Western scholars for thinking that life and death have their basis in the material body alone; his view would match that of Van Helsing, who explains the vampire’s existence from the workings of a soul that fails to leave the body and ignites new life in it (see Part II). It would also correspond with Valdimar’s own interest in the work of the Society for Psychical Research, trying to demonstrate the existence of a soul with scientific means. But “liggja í hrúgum” is also a common expression for “to lie in piles,” just like the gold coins in the west tower are lying in piles on the floor, so that this phrase could also mean that life and death are “lying around” on the floor of the vestibule of sciences as raw material waiting to be explored or utilized by advanced scholars such as the Count. Whatever the case, in effect the Count claims that Western scientists have not deciphered the true nature of life and death yet. There is no parallel in Dracula, except for Van Helsing’s suspicions that chemical, magnetical or electrical reactions may have been co-responsible for the Count’s prolonged life (Chapter 24).

273 Icelandic: “Það er ekki við lömb að leika sér,” lit.: “It is not playing with lambs,” an alliterative expression indicating that one is dealing with a tough adversary.

274 In Dracula, this matches the scene from Harker’s diary of 29 June, where the Count actually opens the gate, but the howling wolves frighten Harker into remaining.

275 The “huldufólk” (“Hidden People”) or “álfar” (elves) play an important role in Icelandic and other Scandinavian folk beliefs. In the legend of Hildur, the Queen of the Elves (Hildur Álfadrottning), Hildur rides on the back of a herdsman to Elf-Land on the night of Christmas eve; he follows her into a precipice between the rocks: “Then mounting on his back, she made him rise from the ground as if on wings, and rode him through the air, till they arrived at a huge and awful precipice, which yawned, like a great well, down into the earth […] So he managed, after a short struggle, to get the bridle off his head, and having done so, leapt into the precipice, down which he had seen Hildur disappear.” See Stephany, 2006, p. 4, quoting from Booss, 1984, p. 621.

276 In Dracula, Harker hangs the crucifix over the head of his bed, to sleep more quietly. See Journal of 12 May.

277 In Dracula, Mina shows her trust in Jonathan by wrapping his journal in a piece of paper and promising that she will never read the it, unless for some dire circumstance.

278 In Dracula, Harker overhears how the Count tells the “three terrible women”: “Back, back, to your own place! Your time is not yet come. Wait! Have patience! To-morrow night, to-morrow night is yours!” See Dracula, Harker’s Journal entry of 29 June. In the first American edition by Doubleday and McClure (1899), the last sentence begins, “To-night is mine.”

279 During the Victorian age, elegantly cut glass bells were much in use to call the house staff. In Dracula, the voice of the three “weird sisters” is described in a similar manner: “They whispered together, and then they all three laughed—such a silvery, musical laugh, but as hard as though the sound never could have come through the softness of human lips. It was like the intolerable, tingling sweetness of water-glasses when played on by a cunning hand.” And when Lucy speaks to Arthur in her tomb, Dr. Seward notes: “There was something diabolically sweet in her tones—something of the tingling of glass when struck—which rang through the brains even of us who heard the words addressed to another.”

280 In Dracula, this particular greeting occurs after Harker, intimidated by the wolves, has hesitated to go through the opened gate: “The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me; with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.” See Dracula, Harker’s Journal of 29 June.

281 Icelandic: “makt myrkranna”—the title of the book is taken from this passage.

282 In Dracula: “At least God’s mercy is better than that of these monsters, and the precipice is steep and high. At its foot a man may sleep—– as a man.”

283 Icelandic: “alþýðuskólum,” lit.: “people’s school.” The nearest equivalent is “board school,” an elementary school administered by an elected board, as regulated in England and Wales by the Elementary Education Act of 1870. They were meant to offer education to all classes, without imposing religious indoctrination. In Dracula, Mina calls herself an “assistant schoolmistress.”

284 Here Makt Myrkranna switches from an epistolary novel to the more conventional form of an omniscient narrator, while Dracula continues to present diary entries, letters and newspaper articles. In the 1950 and 2011 editions of Makt Myrkranna, Part II is titled “Baron Székely,” but in the original edition no extra title is given.

285 Icelandic: “… mjög laus á kostunum”—an expression not listed in Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874; it starts appearing in the Icelandic press in 1882 and loses popularity after the 1960s. Heimskringla of 23 November 1892, p. 3, uses “laus á kostunum” to translate “fickle-minded” from an English novel (“Waters,” 1863, p. 229); Zoëga, 1922 gives “loose, of easy virtue.” Icelandic dictionaries list synonyms meaning “dissolute,” “unchaste,” “promiscuous,” “licentious,” “libertine,” “rakish,” “sluttish,” “wanton,” “orgiastic.” Here, like in other places, Makt Myrkranna uses a more drastic vocabulary than Dracula, wherein the mother explains Lucy’s sleepwalking as a simple hereditary trait.

286 In Dracula, Dr. Seward’s asylum is located in “Purfleet,” which is a village in Essex County on the banks of the Thames, east of London.

287 In Dracula, Quincey’s wealth is only mentioned in Chapter 26, when Mina notes that he “has plenty of money.” His character was probably based on that of the famous Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), whom Stoker met through his friend and employer, the actor Henry Irving. See Warren 2003, and Warren, 2005, p. 331.

288 This means that Wilma till now has only received her fiancé’s first letter from Dracula’s castle (mentioned in Harker’s Journal of 8 May); the three letters dated 12 June, 19 June and 22 June obviously have not arrived yet.

289 In Dracula, Mina is desperate as well but takes no action herself, except for travelling to Budapest when the letter from Sister Agatha arrives.

290 A fitting image for an Icelandic text, as Iceland is famous for its hot springs. As usual in Iceland, Ásmundsson used the word “hver”—the name “Geysir” was reserved for a single hot spring in Haukadalur, created by volcanic eruptions at the end of the 13th century.

291 Icelandic: “hár og horaður,” another alliterative expression. deckhands also believed they’d noticed a stowaway.

292 The Icelandic literally speaks of a “shipwreck” (“skipbrot”): Although the schooner made it safely into the harbor, it stranded itself on the sands. In Dracula we read: “There was of course a considerable concussion as the vessel drove up on the sand heap. Every spar, rope, and stay was strained, and some of the top-hammer came crashing down.” Regarding the Russian ship on which Bram Stoker based his story, a local newspaper wrote: “The Russian vessel Dimitri which so gallantly entered the harbour on Saturday in spite of the terrible sea afterwards ran ashore in Collier’s Hope. It was supposed that she would be safe here, but on the rise of the tide yesterday morning, the seas beat over her with great force. Her masts fell with a terrific crash, and the crew were obliged to abandon her. She is now a complete wreck.”

293 Both Uncle Morton and the Count’s conversation with Lucia are unique to Makt Myrkranna; in Dracula, the Count is always in hiding after his arrival in England and never has regular social contact with either of the girls.

294 Icelandic: “stóð í nærfötunum.” In Dracula, Lucy wears a night dress, which in Icelandic is called “náttkjóll,” a word used in Icelandic newspapers since 1885. In Kvennblaðið—run by Valdimar’s wife Briét—of August 1898, “njáttkjólar” were advertised along with other kinds of women’s wear; Valdimar’s use of the word “undergarment” thus is not due to a lack of an Icelandic word for “nightgown.” See also next footnote.

295 Lucia’s loose hair and her impulse to roam about at night in her “unmentionables” already portend the unholy transformation that will take place. In Norse-Germanic culture, loose hair, inappropriate clothing and leaving the house after sunset could indicate that a woman is a witch: “Woman, I saw you riding on a stick, with loose hair and ungirded, in witch garb, in the twilight.” See quoted by Jacob Grimm as a punishable insult from Vestgötalag (a Swedish juridical codex, 1281); Grimm, 1883, p. 1054; cf. Grimm, 1854, p. 1007 and Grimm, 1828, p. 646. My transcription to English.

296 This remark about Gypsies is not included in the 1950 and 2011 editions.

297 In Dracula, the Count neither engages in polite conversation nor is there any mention of Tatars or Gypsies in England.

298 Icelandic: “með kostum og kynjum”—another alliterative phrase.

299 In ancient cultures, it was a sign of respect to kiss or touch the seam of someone’s robe.

300 A chivalric and biblical figure of speech: The Tatar leader refers to himself in the third person.

301 This scene appears to be a loose end, as Mary is not mentioned again in this novel. It gives us some background information, however, about the function and bad reputation of Prince Koromezzo, who plays a role in the last chapters of this novel. It also demonstrates that the Tatars indeed have supernatural powers, although the visions they show in their crystal ball can have a misleading and manipulative effect: Lucia is led to believe that Arthur has a paramour, while in fact, he is greeting his own sister.

302 Icelandic: “… og talaði oft við hana,” lit.: “… and often spoke with her.” Again, this is a major deviation from Dracula, where the Count remains almost invisible after Harker’s adventures in Transylvania. Stoker’s preparatory notes, however, mention the Count as a sickbed visitor, next to “the Texan” (Quincey Morris).

303 To avoid confusion, I have in some cases replaced “doctor” with “professor” to indicate Van Helsing.

304 In Dracula the servants are merely drugged with laudanum.

305 Icelandic: “toku til starfa,” lit.: “started working.” The text of Dracula is more precise: “Lucy’s heart beat a trifle more audibly to the stethoscope, and her lungs had a perceptible movement.”

306 Again, a suggestion that women who leave the house alone after dark may be witches, criminal or suspect.

307 In Dracula, the police play no active role at all in investigating any of the Count’s crimes.

308 In Dracula, Lucy sees “the head of a great, gaunt grey wolf.” It is the Norwegian wolf Bersicker, which had escaped from the London Zoo. During this horror-filled night, he was accompanied by a large bat. See Dracula, Chapters 11 & 12. It is curious that the Bersicker episode is left out here. For Valdimar, it would have been an opportunity to link the story with the Norse wolf-skinned Berserker warriors mentioned in Chapter 3 of Dracula: “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. Here, in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them, which their Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, ay, and of Asia and Africa too, till the peoples thought that the were-wolves themselves had come.” Equally, Dracula’s description of Arthur as “a figure of Thor” (Chapter 16) is absent in the Icelandic version.

309 Tellet neither appears in Dracula nor in Stoker’s notes. See the Introduction for a possible explanation of the name. He is described as a “sendimaður,” in this context an agent or messenger working for Hawkins.

310 Probably a reference to Szolyva, a Hungarian town 185 km north of Bistritz, today named “Svalyava” in Ukraine.

311 Who is this English investigator? Tellet does not embark on a new search, at least not on his own: He leaves for Bistritz with Wilma. Instead, the person who wrote the official reports must have been meant here.

312 Barrington is another new character; he may correspond to Inspector Cotford mentioned in Stoker’s early notes. See my Introduction for a possible explanation of the name.

313 Icelandic: “gamli greifinn Drakúla.” In Icelandic, “gamall” (“old”) is frequently used for any older person, without a patronising connotation. In the Icelandic press of the last two centuries, we thus find “Metternich gamli,” “gamli Wellington,” “Napoleon gamli,” “Disraeli gamli,” “Gladstone gamli,” “gamli Bismarck,” “Vilhjálmur gamli,” “gamli Kruger,” “Roosevelt gamli,” “Hitler gamli,” “Stalin gamli,” “Churchill gamli,” “Nixon gamli,” “Clinton gamli,” etc.

314 Icelandic: “Hawkins gamli málaflutningsmaður”—see previous note.

315 For “spyrja til” + genitive, modern dictionaries only give “to enquire about,” but Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874, still lists “to receive intelligence about,” which makes more sense in combination with “believed.”

316 Icelandic: “að gamni sínu,” lit.: “to entertain themselves.” In this context, with Thomas still unheard from and false rumors still lingering about, and with Castle Dracula being deserted, this passage probably refers to their travelling under the pretense of pleasure.

317 There actually is a nunnery in the Borgo Pass, at Piatra Fântânele, on a hill just opposite of the Hotel Castel Dracula. At night, the hotel is lit in glaring red, while the monastery is marked by a gigantic white neon-lit crucifix. In the bar of Hotel Castel Dracula, many impious jokes have already been cracked about the sign of the cross having been placed there by the good nuns in order to protect themselves from the forces of evil.

318 In Fjallkonan, Valdimar used the word “heilafeber” (in quotation marks), which is the literal translation of Stoker’s term “brain fever”—the word “feber” being borrowed from Norwegian, Danish or Swedish. The Icelandic word for “fever” is “sótthiti,” while in Faroese, “fepur” is still in use. In the 1901 edition, Valdimar opted for “heilasjúkdómi,” meaning “brain disease.”

319 Icelandic: “vélabendu.” Again, “véla” is used in its archaic sense here (“trick” or “deceit”).

320 Icelandic: “að gera það samt fyrir sín orð,” an expression already found in Eyrbyggja Saga, relating to the events in Snæfellsnes in the 10th century: “Arnkell bað hann gera fyrir sín orð og bæta honum heyið” (Chapter13).

321 Hansom or hansom cab: a light horse-drawn carriage—the Victorian equivalent of a taxi. In Dracula, the girl is waiting in a victoria (another type of carriage) and receives a small parcel from Guiliano’s, a famous jeweler at 115 Piccadilly. See Klinger, 2008, p. 255, note 37; the “dark stranger” merely stares at her and then hails a hansom in order to follow her; Jonathan and Mina decide to sit down in Green Park, opposite 138 Piccadilly—a property identified as the Count’s town house by Bernard Davies, co-founder of the London Dracula Society.

322 In the Transylvanian part of the story, Harker mentioned an iron cross, not a brass cross.

323 Lit: “borrowed the text.” The Icelandic does not know the word “please” and mostly uses the imperative to make a polite request: “Give me the butter” instead of “Could you please give me the butter?”

324 Icelandic: “að Tómas hefði aftur fengið minnið,” lit.: “that Thomas had regained his memory.” In fact, this recovery is a gradual process that has only just started—as we will see at the start of Chapter 15.

325 Icelandic: “þar sem þau Vilma áttu heima.” This is probably an error in the text, as the pronomen “þau” (“they”) corresponds with the plural “áttu eiga” (“they lived”), while “Vilma” is singular. At this point, Wilma and Thomas are already married and live in Hawkins’s house together; in the first line of this paragraph, however, only Wilma is mentioned. Maybe Valdimar had noticed that this was awkward and intended to correct it in the second line, but forgot to cross out “Vilma” there.

326 Icelandic: “að Tómas hefði fengið minnið aftur,” echoing the words of Professor Van Helsing. See footnote 323.

327 Icelandic: “sem hrífa oss til góðs eða ills.” The expression “færa til góðs eðr ílls” is already used in the Gragas, the Grey Goose Laws of the 13th century. Cleasby/Vigfússon, 1874, translates it as “to turn to good or bad account,” describing the effect caused by the original actor; in combination with “ad hrífa” (“to affect,” “move,” “touch,” “stimulate,” “stir into a passion,” “enchant,” “inspire”) it could also mean that these beings incite humans to act in a good or evil way − an idea picked up some paragraphs later.

328 Icelandic: “eftir því sem verkast vill.” A standard expression, meaning “depending on how the situation develops.” In this context, it is up to the will of these invisible beings to determine which direction we may be influenced.

329 Icelandic: “þótt þær deyi,” lit.: “although they die.” This only makes sense in past or perfect tense.

330 Today, “draugur” is translated as “ghost,” “phantom,” “spectre,” “spirit” or “spook,” but I assume that the text refers to the Old Norse “draugr.” While ghosts today are mostly depicted as pale, semi-transparent apparitions, hovering weightlessly in the air, the revenants from Norse mythology are revived corpses, blackened, decaying and swollen; they have superhuman strength, can increase their size at will and crush humans with their weight. They also kill by drinking their victim’s blood or by driving people mad. Like vampires, they can die a “second death” when their bodies are burned or dismembered. The “haugbuí” watching over the grave mounds are a special sub-category: They mostly stay in their mound or its immediate neighborhood. See Jakobsson, 2011.

331 As in Dracula, the characteristics of the un-dead are only named at the end of the story—albeit here without using the word “vampire”; only Thomas Harker uses the term, once, to describe the London fog. Lucia’s neck shows no fangmarks, nor does she ever bite children; Wilma is never bitten nor forced to drink the Count’s blood; even Quincey’s remark on the Argentinian vampire bat is omitted. During the ceremony in the castle’s vault, it is not the Count who drinks the victim’s blood but the ape-like brute. In Dracula, Harker over time understands that the vampire women follow a special diet: “[…] nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were—who are—waiting to suck my blood.” See Dracula, Harker’s Journal entry of 16 May. In Makt Myrkranna, however, the intentions of both the Count and his cousin remain obscure—for never are they caught with their fangs in someone’s neck.

332 Icelandic: “sem fundust eftir Seward,” a somewhat cryptic phrase: “found by Seward,” “found to be written by Seward,” “found after Seward’s death” are some of the suggestions I discussed with my team. As we know with certainty that Seward wrote these papers (see end of Chapter 14), and that they must have been found by others, I finally opted for “written by Seward.”

333 Icelandic: “ráð og rænu,” another example of alliteration.

334 Icelandic: “að hún var vön að falla í öngvit.” This part of the sentence has been omitted in the 1950 and 2011 editions.

335 The phenomenon of people speaking with a voice seemingly not belonging to them was a central element of Spiritism; attending séances where a (mostly female) medium would speak in “voices from beyond” was a popular pastime in Victorian higher circles. Between 1870 and 1900, neuro-physiology, hypnotical experiments and research on telepathy, clairvoyance and spirit communication still belonged to the same scientific field. The Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.), the Metyphysical Club and the Ghost Club had numerous high-ranking members, many of them friends with Bram Stoker. Valdimar had an interest in the subject as well: on 9 September 1890, he dedicated his complete front page to the work and writings of the S.P.R. See Introduction.

336 Icelandic; “núning,” lit.: “friction” or “rubbing.” This refers to the act of rubbing the limbs of the patient in order to stimulate the blood circulation. Klinger, 2008, p. 182, note 38, informs us that Victorian doctors avoided visual examination of their female patients, as it was considered inappropriate. Strangely enough, tactile manipulation and massage—underneath the garments or from behind closed curtains—seemed to be consented to, even to the point of stimulating female patients to “paroxysmal convulsions” in order to treat “hysteria,” as reported by medical historian Rachel F. Maines in The Technology of Orgasm (1998) and the UK movie Hysteria (2011, directed by Tanya Wexler).

337 As we know from the Whitby chapter, Prince Koromezzo is the Austrian Ambassador in London with a bad reputation.

338 Prince Koromezzo means here the evening of the next day, as the Countess had previously agreed upon with Dr. Seward.

339 Chloral is an aldehyd. Mixed with water, it forms chloral hydrate, with sedative and soporific qualities. Like laudanum (containing opium), it was often used in the Victorian Age. Makt Myrkranna copies this detail from Dracula but omits Seward’s chivalrous qualms: “I am weary to-night and low in spirits. I cannot but think of Lucy, and how different things might have been. If I don’t sleep at once, chloral, the modern Morpheus—C₂HCl₃O. H₂O! I must be careful not to let it grow into a habit. No, I shall take none to-night! I have thought of Lucy, and I shall not dishonour her by mixing the two. If need be, to-night shall be sleepless…” See Dracula, Chapter 8, Dr. Seward’s Diary of 19 August.

340 Intriguingly, in Bram Stoker’s early notes for the novel, a dinner party at Dr. Seward’s house was planned, the Count arriving as the last guest. In Makt Myrkranna, Seward takes on the role of a guest. Even though the Count is the owner of Carfax, he still arrives to the party as the last participant. If we do not accept this as coincidence, this means that Stoker’s original ideas for Dracula show up in Makt Myrkranna again.

341 The person whom Harker believed he saw in a corridor of the castle was also described as short and stocky.

342 Icelandic: “sér gegnum holt og hæðir,” lit.: “to see through hills and hillocks.” People with “skyggn” can see ghosts, goblins and elves that otherwise are invisible (“huldufólk”), and perceive things in the distance or that are otherwise obstructed from normal sight.

343 Icelandic: “Hún […] veit óorðna hluti,” lit.: “She […] knows things that have not happened yet.” In The Mystery of the Sea (1902) and The Lady of the Shroud (1909), Bram Stoker extensively dealt with the gift of second sight, which—both in Scandinavian and in Scottish popular belief—included precognition.

344 Marquis Rubiano is here referring here to their previous conversation about the experiment.

345 Icelandic: “kroppinbakurinn”: “the hunchback.” The only character fitting this description is the short, stocky man who previously talked to Seward about the evening programme. The Icelandic “rekinn saman” used for this stocky person literally means “compressed.”

346 The reason for this cry is never revealed. Perhaps another sacrificial ceremony, or a snack for the guests?

347 Previously, Morris has been described as a friend of Arthur Holmwood.

348 In Dracula, Stoker’s vampire is a human who has survived bodily death, but can appear in animal shape, e.g. the form of a bat. The vampire’s predatory behavior also points to his animalistic qualities.

349 Icelandic: “að flytja búferlum”: lit.: “take down one’s tents (and pitch them elsewhere)”, mostly translated as “to move,” “to migrate.” In this case, I suspect a temporary relocation: Thomas could not simply close down his law firm in Exeter. In Dracula, the whole team lodges in Dr. Seward’s asylum, next to Carfax.

350 In Stoker’s earliest notes for Dracula, Dr. Seward is typified as a “mad doctor.” In Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula, editors Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller state that “this discrepancy [between the original ‘mad doctor’ and the later ‘Doctor of a Madhouse’] raises the question of whether Seward was originally as insane as his ‘mad patient.’” The fact that, of all characters in Makt Myrkranna, Seward is the one to go mad, once more suggests that Makt Myrkranna may be based on Stoker’s early ideas for the plot.

351 This echoes the burning of the diaries by the Count in Chapter 21 of Dracula while the Count is raiding Seward’s house. Holmwood reports: “He had been there, and though it could only have been for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the manuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashes; the cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax had helped the flames.” Here I interrupted. ‘Thank God there is the other copy in the safe!’” See Dracula, Dr. Seward’s Diary of 3 October.

352 In confessing to protect Van Helsing, Morris, as in Dracula, takes on the role of the martyr—in Stoker’s original he is killed in the final battle with the Count’s men. That the police accept a confessed murder without consequences could mean that they have also been informed about the supernatural goings on of late. This also lends itself to the preface, which alludes to the police and secret service being confronted with irresolvable, supernatural riddles.