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A literary mystery came to me via a meme:
“Someone translated Dracula into Icelandic, and it took over 100 years for anyone to point out he just made a fanfic rewrite of what he wanted the story to be.”
In this first instalment of a short series about three versions of Dracula, we familiarise ourselves with the plots of Dracula published by Bram Stoker in 1897; the Icelandic version Makt Myrkranna by newspaper editor Valdimar Ásmundsson, serialised in his newspaper Fyallkonan in 1900-1901; and the Swedish version Mörkrets makter by an author known only as A—e, and serialised in a couple of Swedish newspapers 1899-1900.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
The first translation of Dracula was Hungarian, in 1898.
There is some dispute over whether Dracula was popular or not when first released. Was it?
Edward Gorey designed really cool sets for Dracula on Broadway.
Our podpal Imaginary Worlds learned about a possible Wild West inspiration for Count Dracula.
Listen to the episode of Song By Song wherein Jenny Owen Youngs and I consider Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
Jenny, her Buffering the Vampire Slayer cohost Kristin Russo and I discuss further vampire matters in the Bufflusionist episode of this show.
Sign up at theallusionist.org/donate to fund the continuing existence of this independent podcast. In return, you can join me for regular livestreams where I read relaxingly from my ever-expanding collection of vintage dictionaries, plus behind the scenes info about every episode, membership of the Allusioverse Discord community, and watchalong parties for films and TV shows.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
nutation, noun
1: a periodic variation in the inclination of an axis of rotation, especially that causing the earth's precession to follow a wavy rather than a circular path.
2, botany: the circular swaying movement of the tip of a growing shoot.
Origin 17th century (denoting nodding of the head): from L. nutation-), from nutare 'to nod'.
CREDITS:
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.
The meme and the music were provided by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social… Essentially: if I’m there, I’m there as @allusionistshow.
Back in two weeks with the next episode of Draculae — HZ.
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