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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 228. Draculae part 2: Surprises in the Vaults

May 26, 2026 The Allusionist

Happy World Dracula Day to all who celebrate!

This is the second episode of the Draculae miniseries, about a literary mystery which 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 Draculae part 2, Ásgeir Jónsson explains how he got that Icelandic adaptation of Dracula back into print, to little fanfare - but then Dutch scholar Hans Corneel de Roos set about making an English translation. Following that: like me, Will Trimble also got meme-struck, and that propelled him to get a translation of the Swedish version that begat the Icelandic one.

Before listening to this, check out the first episode of the Draculae miniseries explaining the three versions of Dracula: 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.

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In episodes Tags Draculae, arts, society, culture, literature, books, fiction, novels, Bram Stoker, Dracula, vampires, Iceland, Sweden, Icelandic, Swedish, Powers of Darkness, Makt Myrkranna, Mörkrets makter, Valdimar Asmundsson, Rickard Berghorn, Will Trimble, Asgeir Jonsson, Hans de Roos, translation, Google Translate, cover versions, fan fiction, adaptation, Count Dracula, copyright, Twilight, serialisation, spon, vorlage
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Allusionist 228. Draculae part 2: Surprises in the Vaults
Allusionist 228. Draculae part 2: Surprises in the Vaults
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Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
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Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
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Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.