Powers of Darkness is the title given to a pair of Nordic Dracula translations, both wildly different to Bram Stoker's text and each other.
In 1901, writer Valdimar Ásmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker's Dracula for an Icelandic audience. Whilst the foreword was re-translated in 1986, and the story itself republished in its home country as recently as 2011, it took until 2014 for anybody to realise Valdimar had reworked the entire story, adding in new characters and events whilst removing and shortening others. It was, quite possibly, the world's first Dracula fanfiction.
An English translation was published in 2017, by Dutch Dracula scholar Hans de Roos and a team of translators and localisers.
However, it was later discovered that Makt Myrkranna was not the first of its kind. Valdimar Ásmundsson had ostensibly based his work on an earlier Swedish variant, Mörkrets Makter, which in turn was an abridging of an 1899 serialised translation. The Swedish variants retain some of the elements absent from the Icelandic translation, such as Renfield, but only the unabridged Swedish text retains the original's epistolary format throughout.
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Powers of Darkness provides examples of:
Makt Myrkranna (Iceland)
- Adaptational Badass: Here, Harker has the common sense to bring a revolver with him to Castle Dracula.
- Adaptation Expansion: Harker's experiences at Castle Dracula are greatly expanded, learning of the Count's family via a portrait gallery and repeatedly meeting a mysterious and beautiful woman, whilst also discovering a chamber in the bowels of the castle where Dracula and a cult of ape-people engage in human sacrifice.
- Mina/Vilma's journey to Budapest is also portrayed, exploring the abandoned Castle Dracula with a pair of detectives, before being attacked by... something... and winding up in the same hospital her fiancé is in.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- Jonathan Harker becomes Tómas (Thomas) Harker.
- Lucy Westenra becomes Lúsiú (Lucia) Western.
- Mina Murray becomes Vilma (Wilma) Murray.
- Dracula becomes Drakúla.
- Adapted Out: Renfield is nowhere to be seen, and Mina/Vilma is never forced to drink Dracula's blood. Likewise, the chase back to Transylvania is omitted, and Dracula is killed by the heroes whilst still in London.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Dracula hardly appears in the original novel whilst in England; here, he is much more sociable, chatting with Vilma and Lúsiú (under an alias) in Whitby whilst also organising grand parties and balls in London.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Alongside the Count himself, several of the aristocrats he's in league with are heavily implied to be shady individuals, and quite likely vampires themselves.
- Canon Foreigner:
- Uncle Morton, Lucy's uncle.
- Mary Holmwood, Arthur's sister.
- Barrington, a detective investigating Dracula's crimes.
- Tellet, an agent of Harker's employer Peter Hawkins.
- Various diplomats and foreign aristocrats with ties to Dracula.
- A deaf/mute woman who acts as Dracula's servant and housekeeper.
- A clan of ape-like people dwelling in the bowels of Castle Dracula.
- Composite Character: Dracula's "Brides" or "Sisters" are compressed into one singular character.
- Compressed Adaptation: Everything after Harker's escape from the castle is compressed down drastically. Case in point: Lúsiú Western (Lucy Westenra) falls ill and dies in the span of four pages, which includes the whole debacle with the repeated blood transfusions over the course of three or four chapters in the original.
- It's also this to (both) the Swedish texts on which it is based, shortening even the abridged version.
- Creepy Basement: Aside from the crypt where Harker finds the Count's resting place, there is also a sacrificial chamber in the bowels of the castle, where the Count conducts frightening rituals.
- Cult: Dracula has one comprised of strange ape-people.
- Cultural Translation: Valdimar Ásmundsson adds various Icelandic elements to the story, such as references to geysers and nods to traditional Icelandic folklore and mythology.
- Death by Adaptation: The Westenra Family's maids are drugged with laudanum during the incident with the wolf and the death of Lucy's mother, but here one of them is murdered, presumably by Dracula.
- Epistolary Novel: Zig-zagged. Harker's journal entries at Castle Dracula remain intact, but everything after his escape is told by an omniscient third-person narrator, with the sole exception of the Demeter's logbook.
- Hotter and Sexier: Whilst the Brides were described as "voluptuous" in the original novel and Harker, though somewhat entranced, is generally afraid of them, here their equivalent is explicitly bare-breasted in one scene, and Harker expresses several times a desire to see her again.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Quincey Morris no longer dies fighting Dracula; instead, he is arrested for the Count's murder, but after an investigation behind closed doors, is acquitted by the police.
- It is unclear whether Lúsiú (Lucy) becomes a vampire; she still dies, and Arthur mentions that he thought he saw her rise out of her grave, but nothing ever comes of it.
Mörkrets Makter (Sweden)
- Adaptation Expansion: Harker's experiences at the castle are heavily expanded on; he learns of the Count's family history and the legends associated with them via a candlelit tour of the portrait gallery, and frequently encounters a mysterious woman lurking about the castle, whom he feels an intoxicating attraction to. He also discovers a chamber in the bowels of the castle, where Count Draculitz and a cult of ape-people, theorised to be his inbred ancestors, engage in Human Sacrifice.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- Jonathan Harker becomes Thomas Harker.
- Lucy Westenra becomes Lucy Western.
- Mina Murray becomes Vilma Murray.
- Dracula becomes Mavros Draculitz.
- Composite Character: The Count's "Brides or "Sisters" are compressed into one singular character.
- Epistolary Novel: The (unabridged) Swedish text retains the Scrapbook Story format of the original novel.
- Zig-Zagged with the abridged variant, which follows the same pattern as the Icelandic text above.
- Secret Path: Harker discovers one leading down to the castle's Creepy Basement, which is also how the Count's deaf-mute housekeeper gets around.
"The Powers of Darkness are not so easy to eradicate."
