Powers of Darkness (Iceland)

Powers of Darkness (Icelandic Makt Myrkranna) is a 1901 Icelandic book, purportedly a translation of "Dracula" by Valdimar Ásmundsson, that was based upon an early draft of "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, and differs quite significantly from the original. 
"Makt Myrkranna".
Between January 1900-March 1901, "Dracula" was serialized in the Reykjavik newspaper "Fjallkonan" ("Lady of the Mountain") under the title "Makt Myrkranna" ("Powers of Darkness"). The editor of "Fjallkonan", Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir, was the wife of the Ásmundsson who translated "Dracula". In 1901, Ásmundsson published "Makt Myrkranna" in Reykjavik with the publisher being listed only as "Nokkrir Prentarar" ("various publishers"). It remains unknown who actually published the book. Part 1 of "Makt Myrkranna" consisting of pages 5-167 concerns the visit of Thomas Harker (as Jonathan Harker is renamed here) at Castle Dracula in Transylvania while Part 2 consisting of pages 168-210 concerns the rest of "Dracula". Included in "Makt Myrkranna" was a preface written by Stoker, which though it is dated August 1898, was written for "Makt Myrkranna" at the request of Ásmundsson.
Stoker's preface.
In his preface, Stoker claims that his novel is based upon a "mysterious manuscript" and the events of "Dracula" were in fact real with the names of the characters changed only to protect their privacy. The preface was ignored by international scholarship until 1986, when it was discovered by the scholar Richard Dalby, who translated it into English. The preface to "Makt Myrkranna" had never been included in any of the English editions of "Dracula". Most notably, Stoker in his preface described the murders committed by Jack the Ripper in 1888 as having happened "recently" and speaks of the crimes committed by a "Jacob the Disemboweller" who "came into the story a little later". The reference to "Jacob the Disemboweller", a character who appears in neither "Dracula" nor "Makt Myrkranna" has mystified scholars.
Stoker's preface reads: "The reader of this story will very soon understand how the events outlined in these pages have been gradually drawn together to make a logical whole. Apart from exercising minor details which I consider unnecessary, I have let the people involved relate their experiences in their own way; but for oblivious reasons I have changed the names of the people and places concerned. In all other respect, I leave the manuscript unaltered, in deference of the wishes of those who consider it their duty to present it before the eyes of the public.<br>I am quite convinced that there is no doubt whatever that the events described really took place, however unbelievable and incomprehensible they might appear at first sight.<br>And I am further convinced that they must always remain to a certain extent incomprehensible, although continuing research in psychology and the natural sciences may in years to come, gave logical explanations of such strange happenings, which at present neither scientists nor the secret police can understand.<br>...Various people's minds will go back to the remarkable group of foreigners who for many seasons played a dazzling part in the life of the aristocracy here in London: and some will remember that one of them disappeared quite suddenly without apparent reason, leaving no trace.<br>All the people who having willingly-or unwillingly-played a part in this remarkable story are known generally and are well respected. Both Jonathan Hawker and his wife (who is a woman of character) and Dr. Seward are my friends and have been for many years, and I have never doubted that they were telling the truth; and the highly respected scientist who appears here under a pseudonym will also be famous all over the educated world for his real name, which I have not desired to specify, to be hidden from people-least of all those who have experience learnt to value and respect his genius and his accomplishments, through they adhere to his views of life no more than I. But in our times, it ought to be clear to all serious-thinking men that "there are more things in heaven and earth/than are dreamt of in your philosophy". London, August 1898."
Reception of "Makt myrkranna" in Iceland.
In Iceland, "Makt myrkranna" received only one contemporary review - and it was negative. In 1906, Benedikt Björnsson (1879-1941) wrote. Without doubt, for the largest part it is worthless rubbish and sometimes even worse than worthless, completely devoid of poetry and beauty and far removed from any psychological truth.
"Fjallkonan" presented various kinds of garbage, including a long story, "Powers of Darkness". That story would have been better left unwritten, and I cannot see that such nonsense has enriched our literature.
Björnsson was of a younger generation than Valdimar and feared that the translation of "cheap" sensational fiction from abroad might replace Iceland's own literary production, including his own. Ásmundsson, on the other hand, promoting the liberalization of trade relations with England, hoped to connect his readers with the newest literary trends from the UK and attract more subscribers to his newspaper.
Despite the lack of positive reviews, Makt myrkanna became a household name in Iceland after "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi (1931) had been shown in a Reykjavik cinema in 1932; it became the generic name for a whole series of vampire movies.
The Icelandic Nobel Prize Laureate Halldór Laxness (1902-1998) was heavily impressed by the Icelandic edition of "Dracula": "And do not forget "Makt Myrkranna" (Bram Stoker) with the famous un-dead Count Dracula in the Carpathians, who was not less popular than today; one of the best pens of the country was engaged to translate the novel: Valdimar Ásmundsson." Halldór's own novel "Kristnihald undir Jökli" (1968) was largely based on "Makt myrkranna."
The buzz around the English translation by de Roos has also sparked new interest in the novel in Iceland.
Discovery.
In 2014, the Dutch scholar Hans Corneel De Roos first noticed that the Icelandic version of "Dracula" was in fact not a translation, but was rather a very different novel from Stoker's version. In 2017, De Roos translated "Makt Myrkranna" into English under the title "Powers of Darkness The Lost Version of Dracula". The discovery of the differences between the novels sparked much debate with three theories being offered:
Differences between "Dracula" and "Makt Myrkranna".
The plot of "Makt Myrkranna" is essentially the same as "Dracula", through he differences between "Dracula" and "Makt Myrkranna" have been much commented upon. Many of the characters had different names, the book was shorter and there was more much emphasis on sexuality of the characters in "Makt Myrkranna". Roos wrote: "Although "Dracula" received positive reviews in most newspapers of the day...the original novel can be tedious and meandering..."Powers of Darkness", by contrast, is written in a concise, punchy style; each scene adds to the progress of the plot." Stoker in "Dracula" has the count speak favorably of the Viking berserkers from Iceland as bloodthirsty warriors who were the terror of Europe, Asia and Africa, which Ásmundsson removed. Likewise, Stoker gave Dracula the ability to shape-shift into any animal he pleased, which was likewise removed by Ásmundsson, even through the inspiration for this power of Dracula's came from Icelandic folklore, which Stoker had learned about from reading "The Book of Were-Wolves" by Sabine Baring-Gould, who had lived in Iceland for a time. 
Despite the fact that Stoker's preface spoke of his "friend" Jonathan Harker, in "Makt Myrkranna", he is called Thomas Harker, Mina Harker becomes Wilma Harker, and Lucy Westenra is renamed Lucy Western. Only Count Dracula is not renamed. Wilma Harker is described having gone to Vienna to be treated by Dr. Sigmund Freud, an aspect of her background story that does not appear in "Dracula". "Dracula" is an epistolary novel; by contrast "Makt Myrkranna" has an omniscient narrator in Part II. The American novelist Colin Fleming has argued that the frequent references to Norse mythology and Scandinavian literature in "Makt Myrkranna" were Ásmundsson's contribution to the story rather than Stoker's. Fleming noted that in "Dracula", Stoker worked in subtle sexual references to serve as metaphors for "...deeper, dark concepts: the idea of an antichrist, the blood-sucking serving as a compelling, hellish inversion of communion. "Makt Myrkranna", conversely, could have had the subtitle Lust in a Cape". In "Makt Myrkranna", Harker has an obsession with breasts as he speaks frequently of the "bosom" of various women he encounters in Transylvania.
One of the principle differences between "Dracula" and "Makt Myrkranna" is that the bulk of the latter concerns Harker's stay at Castle Dracula with the story that makes up the majority of "Dracula" being appearing only a very abridged form. Harker's visit to Transylvania takes up 80% of "Makt Myrkranna". The Canadian novelist Michael Melgaard in a review described "Makt Myrkranna" as being more of a "slow burn" as Harker takes much time to realize that he is a prisoner of Dracula; by contrast in "Dracula", he realizes almost immediately that he is a prisoner. The experiences of Harker at Castle Dracula are more visceral and intense in "Makt Myrkranna". For an example, in "Dracula", Harker finds the ruins of a chapel that he describes as "evidently been used as a graveyard" that becomes a room full of rotting corpses and occult markings in "Makt Myrkranna". Other experience for Harker not found in "Dracula" include finding the body of a dead peasant girl killed by Dracula and watching the count perform a black mass that ends in human sacrifice. 
Lord Arthur Holmwood in "Makt Myrkranna" has a sister named Mary who does not appear in "Dracula". The Brides of Dracula do not appear in "Makt Myrkranna" as Dracula as has only one female companion, the beautiful and alluring Josephine. One of the heroes of "Dracula", Dr. John Seward goes insane in "Makt Myrkranna" as a result of the horrors committed by Dracula while Seward's deranged patient, Renfield, does not appear in "Makt Myrkranna". Dracula is more developed as a character in "Makt Myrkranna" and is in contact with various governments in what is hinted at is a bid for world domination. In "Makt Myrkranna", Dracula displays strong Nietzschen tendencies as he speaks of his contempt for Christianity for venerating the weak instead of the strong, and declares his intention is make the entire world "bow before the strong ones". Social Darwinism was a popular ideology in the 1890s, and much of the rhetoric Dracula uses in "Makt Myrkranna" reflects Social Darwinist themes, as he repeatedly declares his contempt for the weak who exist only to serve the strong; in this case literally as Dracula and his fellow vampires live off the blood of humans too weak to defend themselves. In "Makt Myrkranna", Dracula does not flee back to Transylvania, but he is instead killed at his London home by a band of heroes led by Dr. Van Helsing. 
In "Makt Myrkranna", there is a Sherlock Holmes-like detective named Inspector Barrington who investigates the murders committed by Dracula who does not appear in "Dracula". In "Makt Myrkranna", Dracula comes to England not alone, but rather with a deaf-dumb woman who is apparently his slave and together with another beautiful aristocratic female vampire, Josephine, who flaunts her sexuality. Josephine is described as having her "neck and upper chest revealed" while wearing a "necklace of glittering diamonds", whom Harker finds that there is "something indecent" about her despite his evident attraction to her. Most notably, Dracula lives not in an estate in the Essex countryside, but rather in a decaying old mansion in London's East End. The British scholar Clive Bloom noted that when Stoker first started writing the novel that became "Dracula", he envisioned Dracula's English residence as a mansion in the East End that had seen better days, and only changed Dracula's English home to a genteel mansion in the countryside in the final draft of "Dracula" that was written in early 1897. Bloom has argued that the fact Dracula in "Makt Myrkranna" lives in a decayed London mansion entirely consistent with Stoker's original vision strongly suggests that "Makt Myrkranna" is based upon an early draft of the novel.
Stoker's biographer, David J. Skal, has likewise argued that Ásmundsson based his translation upon an abandoned early draft of "Dracula", noting that Stoker's notes while he writing "Dracula" showed that he envisioned Inspector Barrington as one of the book's heroes, only to eliminate him later on as he assigned his role in the plot to Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. Since Inspector Barrington is not a character in "Dracula", Ásmundsson could have not have known of him, which proves he was indeed using an early draft of "Dracula" as his source, which he obtained either directly or indirectly via the "Mörkrets makter" serialization. Stoker's notes showed that he envisioned Dracula as a having a mute-deaf female housekeeper slave, who did not make the final cut into "Dracula", but who appears as a character in "Makt Myrkranna", which is further evidence that "Makt Myrkranna"'s source material was an early draft. Likewise, Stoker's notes show that he wanted Dracula to be always the last guest to arrive at a dinner party, a personality trait he displays in "Makt Myrkranna", but not in "Dracula", which is further confirmation of the "first draft theory".
Latest developments.
In February 2017, de Roos's translation of "Makt Myrkranna" into English was published. The publication led the Swedish scholar Rickard Berghorn to point out that much of "Makt Myrkranna" is based upon the "Mörkrets makter" serialization in "Dagen" in 1899-1900. De Roos told the Icelandic journalist Anna Margrét Björnsson: "No one saw it coming. Neither my research colleagues nor my publisher nor my friend Simone Berni from Italy, who is a specialist for the early translations of Dracula. For more than a hundred years, "Makt Myrkranna", the Icelandic adaptation of "Dracula", has not been known outside of Iceland, except for the preface apparently authored by Bram Stoker himself. Evidently, those in Iceland who were familiar with Valdimar Ásmundsson’s modifications, did not recognize their significance for Dracula Studies in the UK or in the US. And the other way round, English-speaking researchers never cared to try and read the Icelandic text. I had to learn Icelandic, only to get to the gist of the matter.<br>
Now it turns out that the same has been happening in Sweden. Several Swedish experts already were familiar with an early version of "Dracula", that has been serialized in the Swedish newspapers "Dagen" and "Aftonbladet" from 10 June 1899 on. But no one ever paid attention to it, until Rickard Berghorn read about my English translation of "Makt myrkranna" and realized that this – still older – Swedish version bore an identical title. "Mörkrets makter", as is the title of the Swedish serialization, means exactly the same as "Makt myrkranna": "Powers of Darkness". That is how he made the link between the Swedish and the Icelandic version. First he assumed that "Makt myrkranna" would be a straight translation of the Swedish publication, but then he found out that the Swedish text is more complete and contains scenes neither described in "Dracula" nor in "Makt myrkranna". And the madman Renfield is still in the story, among others." De Roos stated that Berghorn's discovery has changed the focus of his research, as it would now be necessary to examine the relationship between Stoker and Harald Sohlman, the editor of "Dagen" and "Aftonbladet", adding he was "...again assuming that Stoker had a hand himself in creating this more erotic and more political version. Rickard, at least, believes so".