by Hans De Roos
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 on
to 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” (“skipb
rot”): 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.