By
Until recently the disparities that existed between the accounts edited by Fred Saberhagen, which purport to be the Memoirs of Vlad, Count Dracula would seem to indicate that Saberhagen’s Dracula was not the same Count Dracula previously documented by Bram Stoker and John H. Watson. Saberhagen’s Dracula has been theorized to be a relative of Count Dracula or an alternate world version whose accounts somehow found their way to the WNU.
Saberhagen’s Dracula claim to be The Dracula and his memories of Vlad Dracula’s life seem to bear this out, yet, there are differences between Saberhagen’s Dracula and Stoker’s Dracula in terms of in terms of power and possibly in terms of their powers and liabilities. While many of these character differences could be explained as a matter of perspective, that is the account of THE DRACULA TAPE, is merely Vlad’s version of Dracula. As such it is a self-serving justification by a "misunderstood" being. While this is true in part, this does not explain this particular Dracula’s actions in 1795 and his later two (so far) adventures with Sherlock Holmes. In these adventures, THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE and SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE, Vlad Dracula proved himself , while not an angel not a demon either. He in fact had strict code of honor which Holmes rather admired.
The question then arises which is the True Dracula? Stoker’s or Saberhagen’s. At the risk of having carrion thrown at me, I say both.
Le Professeur, Docteur Charles Loridans’ Animus Klonos Theorem (1) provides the key as how this may be possible as does the obscure text, Annotations by Herr Doktor Theophagus Kraft on Praetorius’ The Filtration of Nature and Effects of Homunculi Distillation (2)
This tome so far as I know is the only account of how Dr. Praetorious was contacted by Count Dracula in the early 1700’s for a unique experiment. Dr. Praetorious had by this time acquired a reputation among Alchemists and scientists of the time. One of his elixirs had made him immortal or so he claimed. (It may be that he was already innately immortal due to genetics) (3)
Dracula had already been making soul clones for a couple of centuries and while they increased his power, they did not provide him with what he truly desired, an escape clause from his demonic pact. Dracula believed that if he could somehow form a body innocent of evil and transferred his psyche into it, then he would be able to escape the clutches of the demon when the final death claimed him. Yet he wished the body to retain his vampiric powers and none of the liabilities which went along with them. While we can look at Dracula’s ultimately futile quest with a some degree of detachment and realize that it was Dracula’s psyche, his soul, if you will, that was the corruptive factor not the body, even Immortal evil beings have a degree of self-deception that can be astounding.
Dr. Praetorius price for the experiment was a vial of Dracula’s blood.
The experiment consisted in part, of generating a homunculus as detailed in Albertus Magnus’ DE NATURA RERUM. Yet the various bodily fluids which Dracula donated were run through a filtration process designed by Praetorious in which the "evil" qualities of Dracula’s fluids would be drawn into a lodestone taken from a fallen star.
Dr. Praetorious managed to hide his surprise when they removed the cover from the pot of manure, (4) to discover two homunculi laying side by side. One was a beautiful infant, the other was furry, wizened and rat-like. Praetorius explained that Dracula’s evil was too intense to fully be absorbed by the star stone so it had merely filtered it into two infants, one good and one evil.
Praetorius insisted that Dracula keep his distance from the two homunculi they came into their full growth, aided by another of his elixirs. During the time when the two homunculi were growing, Paracelsus conducted controlled experiments on them, the rat-like one was highly susceptible to all of the vampiric liabilities; garlic, holy objects, sunlight, silver and wood. He also had a great thirst draining whole pigs of blood. The handsome child however seemed immune to holy objects, garlic and silver, although wood did affect him aversely. While he too possessed an appetite for blood, his was slaked with merely by draining a mouse or rat.
Praetorius kept the two subjects separated so there would be no chance of contamination in the "clean" vessel. When the homunculi were fully grown it was time to make them into full soul clones. Count Dracula wished to destroy the ugly one but Praetorius believed that they were connected and to kill one might be to kill the other. Dracula bit and exchanged blood with the two homunculi. However he found himself in a triple sided battle of wills with himself. Only by focusing on the star stone was he able to maintain his own consciousness and keep from becoming a soul clone of the other two. He was only moderately successful in making them into soul clones. They had his memories and most of his personality but he was unable to control them unless in their presence and if he had the star stone with him. He had this star stone melted down and incorporated into his famous Ring. While Count Dracula lay in a torpor following the heavy feeding needed to recover his strength, the "good" Homunculi escaped.
Praetorious told him this was
just as
well, the longer that Dracula’s psyche was inside the homunculus’ body,
the
more it would be corrupted and so useless for what he planned to do
with it.
Fortunately, through the star stone, Dracula was able to sense the
presence of
the homunculi. He named the other homunculus Orlock, a corruption of
his name
and had him sealed away until further use. Orlock would be released in
the
early 1830s to take over
The "good" homunculus, who we will from now on refer to as Vlad or Saberhagen’s Dracula, underwent a traumatic psychological event when Count Dracula’s memories were implanted into his consciousness. He probably wandered around disoriented for years as he sorted his memories out. Vlad knew he could not have done all those things attributed to him as Count Dracula, King of Vampires. Nor would he as a good Catholic sell his soul to a demon in order for immortality. Rather it was his supreme will to live that had kept him from dying under the swords of his traitorous country men. There was also the possibility that one of his lovers during his breathing days was in fact a vampire.
He created false memories to fill in his memory gaps and to explain away the bad memories. All of the actions that he considered evil he attributed to his brother Radu, also a Vampire who also went at times by the name Count Dracula. A title, Vlad had to admit, however grudgingly that was entitled to Radu.
As for his present mental confusion, he attributed it to Radu working in concert with the Borgias, another pair of Vampires that Vlad had crossed paths with. They had evidently used some potions designed by Cesare to muddle his mind while Radu planted false memories. Vlad’s reasoned that it was through his supreme will power he was able to overcome the conditioning set upon him by the Borgia’s and Radu (6).
Vlad immediately went scouting for his brother seeking vengeance against his actions against him. Count Dracula and his brother Radu, did have a rivalry that began prior to their deaths, starting when Radu became, politically and physically, the bedfellow of the Sultan of the Turks. Radu later with Turkish aid usurped the throne of Wallacia from Count Dracula.
Vlad discovered his brother on the somewhere continent and found in his possession several of the Borgia potion, which proved to Vlad’s satisfaction that his deduction had been correct. Vlad promptly set to punishing Radu for his transgression. Vlad had actually been made stronger than Count Dracula in many ways with his ability to travel a bit more freely during the daylight coupled with his immunity to garlic and silver. He also apparently acquired more resistance to metals than the Count, although this could be an exaggeration. He beat Radu severely with a wooden cane until he screamed for mercy and then beat him some more for being so weak. As can be seen even being a "good" vampire doesn’t necessarily mean Mr. Nice Guy.
Vlad dosed Radu with some of the
Borgia
potions and used his own mesmeric powers to make Radu relive the same
nightmare
over and over. He severed Radu’s head from his body with a sword. The
vampires
of the Dracula clan are notoriously difficult to kill; dismemberment,
staking,
exposure to sunlight and even immolation are at best, temporary
measures. Even
if he could have destroyed him, Vlad would not. Count Dracula probably
would
have but Vlad would not. Vlad had sworn an oath to his father to guard
his
brother’s life. Being honorable to the extreme, Vlad carried out his
father’s
wishes even beyond the grave. He placed Radu in a special coffin which
kept his
head separated from his body and had him transferred to
However in 1790, grave robbers
disturbed
Radu’s hidden grave in
Vlad became aware that Radu had
been
awakened in 1790 and tracked him to
Radu showed up at the vampire gathering as well as a female Vampire named Constanza who had been one of Count Dracula’s conquests. She believed that Vlad was the Count Dracula who had turned her. Vlad discovered that Radu had been telling everyone that he was the great impaler etc. He might even believe it. Radu tells Vlad that he is willing to finally put their feud aside. Vlad agrees in principle but doubts his brother’s word.
Vlad discovers to his dismay that the vampires of this gathering had for a treat killed and eaten three small children. The honorable Vlad you see, usually slakes his thirst by drinking from willing human’s blood or some other form of mammalian blood. Unless absolutely forced to do so by starvation he does not tap the veins of the unwilling, unless they happen to be his enemies. They were about to dispose of the last, a little girl when she came running up to Vlad and asked for help. Despite opposition from his brother and from the other Vampires, Vlad leaves with the girl, stating that a truce with his brother was a bad idea.
Vlad returned the girl to her
parents and
returned to his
He would later emerge once more to terrorize Philippe Radcliffe’s descendants in 1996. (7)
The years between 1795 and 1897
are a bit
of a mystery as to the whereabouts of Vlad. There is some evidence he
may have
been in
In 1887, (8) the events of which has been described in DRACULA by Bram Stoker and in SHERLOCK HOLMES VS DRACULA by Loren D. Estleman occurred. The main question is was Vlad the Dracula who participated in these events or not? THE DRACULA TAPE by Fred Saberhagen poses a good argument that it was indeed he. However, the evidence by several witnesses to the Dracula affair and by the Good Doctor Watson’s description of his character would indicate otherwise.
How then do we explain Vlad’s account, I will deal with that a bit later. Suffice it to say that by 1897 Vlad ‘s memories of the years from 1880’s to 1897 were no longer his. Vlad had apparently been carrying on an affair with Mina Harker, whose marriage was rocky at best. Although this is just supposition on my part, it was not uncommon for victims of rape to be treated as if they were soiled goods, and so Mina as the victim of a vampiric rape was possibly considered even more damaged. Despite Jonathan Harker’s best efforts and protestations to the contrary, it is possible he just could not forgive his wife for being defiled.
Vlad had either convinced her of his version of the events of 1887 or else he had convinced her that the Count Dracula that she met was Radu. She may have been willing to be convinced because of her unhappy marriage and because of the state of her daughter, Lucy. (9) One of the truths that the Saberhagen Dracula books reveals to us is the fact that when a pregnant woman has an affair with a vampire, the result can be altered children. Sometimes there are born single births which are dhampires such as in the case of Ygor Dracula , his sister Marya Zaleskas or the Vampire Hunter Blade. Then there are the occasional twin births, identical or fraternal, which result in one child being normal for the most part and the other having something of the vampire in them. This can become full fledged vampirism from trauma and will certainly result in vampirism after death.
Mina had twins, Jonathan and Lucy. Jonathan was normal, Lucy was outwardly normal but upon reaching maturity aged slowly. Later on when Count Dracula desired to wreak vengeance on those who had thwarted his efforts in 1887, Lucy suffered a terrible fate.
It is perhaps because of Lucy’s dual nature that Mina was persuaded by Vlad that he was not evil nor were vampires intrinsically evil.
Their affair was still
transpiring in 1897
when Vlad crossed paths with Sherlock Holmes. Vlad is mugged by being
hit on
the head with a wooden cudgel. He finds himself chained to a bed. He
becomes an
amnesiac from the blow and his body cannot repair itself since he is
not
getting the right kind of nourishment. His captors have captured a few
unsuspecting
They threw an oilskin bag over
Vlad and
threw him in the
Racing to one of his hidden caskets of Earth he had a full day’s rest. Awaking the next night to seek vengeance on those who had wronged him.
Meanwhile a young American woman
to
discover the whereabouts of her fiancée had hired Sherlock
Holmes. Her fiancée,
Dr. John Scott, was supposed to be in
As Sherlock Holmes pursues his investigation, he becomes aware of the strange death of a nurse known as Frau Grafenstein, whose throat had been torn out by a wild animal or a madman on a Thames dock yet there was little blood. He is also aware that a person that closely resembles him is also on the periphery of this case.
Although, Holmes is not certain if this person is directly responsible for the disappearance of John Scott and other strange doings, he is somehow involved. A few more clues allow him to discover the shocking truth of the person’s identity. (10)
Holmes sets up a ploy to lure Vlad to his home. He had discovered Vlad’s unclaimed trunk of Transylvanian soil. Vlad used this when he was traveling on a more than a twelve hour journey. According to THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE first published in 1978 this is apparently the first time that Count Dracula and Holmes had ever met. Yet according to an account also written by Dr. Watson which also came to light in 1978, SHERLOCK HOLMES VERSUS DRACULA, which was edited by esteemed novelist Loren D. Estlemen, Holmes first encountered Dracula during the events of the 1887 (DRACULA by Bram Stoker) A closer examination of the two accounts also reveals that SHERLOCK HOLMES VERSUS DRACULA was written by Watson in 1897 whereas THE HOLME’S DRACULA FILE was written in 1916. Why is there a discrepancy?
Holmes was undoubtedly aware that there was more than one vampire running around calling himself Count Dracula. He was not certain if it was indeed the one that he and Watson had met in 1888 or not. There was a close resemblance but it was not identical. Watson records Holmes says, "Let us play games no longer. I shall be greatly pleased to hear from your own lips, Count Dracula, the truth of how Frau Grafenstein came to her end" (11)
In an proof copy the phrase actually reads, "Let us play games no longer. I shall be greatly pleased to hear from your own lips, Count Dracula, or should I say one of them, the truth of how Frau Grafenstein came to her end" (12) The second telling sign came when Vlad did not recognize Holmes or Watson nor their names. Now had this been the Dracula that Holmes and Watson encountered in 1887, he surely would have recognized them. Count Dracula had abducted Watson’s wife and they had come near to destroying him, forcing him to flee to the continent, where he had been pursued by Van Helsing and company. (13)
Sherlock Holmes shoots Vlad across the arm with a wooden bullet to prove his ability to harm or kill him. He then asks Watson and the others to leave the room while he has a private chat with the Count.
Watson and the others leave, albeit reluctantly.
Vlad and Holmes then have a discussion that reveals many things, some of which were not revealed by either Watson nor Vlad in their accounts (14)
Holmes reveals that he was not certain as to whether the person who he suspected was a vampire was a Dracula or his twin brother. He demands to know where Dracula had been in 1853 for his mother had been having an affair with a vampire at that time. Because of their resemblance, Holmes thought it might have been Vlad. Vlad however believes that he was no where in the vicinity of where the Holmes family on their European trip of that year. This as we will later see was false. He thinks, as he tends to when there is blame to go around, that his brother Radu might have been Mrs. Holmes seducer.
Holmes states that the result of his mother’s liaison was a twin brother who was a vampire from birth, but as earlier explained, while the children of such unions often display vampiric traits, they are usually not full-fledged vampires. If they were born vampires it is likely that they would never grow past the infant stage, as Holmes’ brother evidently did, since he was stated to resemble both Holmes and Vlad.
While Vlad suspected his brother
of having
seduced Mrs. Holmes, he wisely said nothing about it. He did offer the
explanation that several of the Dracula family had immigrated to
Holmes told Vlad that his mother had died shortly after giving birth to his twin and that his twin had disappeared. However, this was more than likely a lie on Holmes’ part, since as evidence has shown Mrs. Holmes gave birth to several other children after Sherlock and his twin brother, Rutherford. (15) It also likely that Holmes knew where his brother was but did not want Vlad to know that fact, since he did not want the so called King of Vampires turn Rutherford into one of loyal subjects. (16)
Holmes then demanded an explanation for the differences in the identities between Vlad and the Count Dracula that they had met in 1887. Vlad launched into a detailed account of the "true" story of the events of 1887, while at the same time truthfully claiming not to have met Holmes or Watson at that time.
Holmes was persuaded to accept
Vlad’s
account of the events of 1887, not having a very high opinion of Van
Helsing
himself. He however did not come to believe, as did Vlad, that the
undead was
the preferred state to be. Holmes thought about the encounters that
Watson and
Holmes had had with Count Dracula in 1887. He quickly realized that he
and
Watson had never had a confrontation with Count Dracula while at the
same time
as did Van Helsing and the other vampire hunters. He came to the
conclusion
that the Vampire that he and Watson had encountered in 1887 was in fact
his
mother’s seducer, mocking and toying with him, using Dracula’s presence
in
This is one of the few times in his life that Holmes was wrong but we will get to that in a moment or two. You may ask how Holmes could be so easily swayed by a lack of hard evidence, well the fact of the matter is that Vlad in order to save time used his mesmeric powers to convince Holmes of the veracity of his claims. Had there been any real opposition to this line of thinking, it is doubtful that even the vast powers of Vlad could have changed Holmes’ mind.
After hashing out some differences Holmes and Vlad agree to work with one another.
The two cases converge as it turns out that there is a criminal conspiracy afoot. Dr. John Scott and his companions had discovered a giant rat in Sumatra that was a carrier for the plague. They used this giant rat to infect thousands of rats with the plague, planning on holding Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee hostage by threatening to release the rats into the general populous on the during the height of the celebration unless their demands are met.
According to the account published in 1975, the secret villain of the piece is no other person than Dr. Jack Seward, Count Dracula’s former enemy.
Holmes and Vlad save the day, setting afire the warehouse where the infected rats are stored. Seward is killed and eaten by the Giant Rat. This case however was not the Giant Rat of Sumatra hinted about by Watson, but just one of those odd occurrences that happen too often in the Wold Newton Universe.
Holmes and Watson meet the Harkers and Lord Goldaming who are in town for the Jubilee. Watson finds the Harker’s daughter Lucy a bit odd but still another wise normal child.
Holmes client is informed that his treacherous partners had killed her fiancée in Sumatra.
The name of Seward as the villain of the piece is I am afraid one of the deliberate falsehoods that found its way into this version of the manuscript. This was done for the express purpose of blackening Seward’s name. The actual villain is, I am afraid, John Scott, the supposedly dead fiancee. Holmes told his client he had been killed in Sumatra to spare her feelings.
Now why did John Watson besmirch Seward’s name, a person he knew and had worked with? He did not. The manuscript of THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILES was placed in a bank vault in 1916. Years later Vlad forged John Watson’s handwriting and placed in the vault an account that was substantially the same but with some slight revisions, using his mist form to get inside the bank vault.
Let me now clear up a few points that I alluded to earlier. Okay, who was the Dracula that Holmes and Watson encountered in 1887. It was indeed Count Dracula.
Who was the vampire lover of Mrs. Holmes. It probably was Vlad, although the resemblance did between he and Sherlock and Rutherford did come about through a family relationship rather than because of genetic exchange between the two. Holmes had other relatives, Lord John Roxton for example who closely resembled him as well.
Nor did Jonathan Quincy Harker or Lucy Harker display any apparent Dracula physical characteristics.
Confused, well so am I! Actually it is quite simple. Vlad did have an encounter with Mrs. Holmes circa 1853 but had his memory of it wiped. After the events of 1887, Count Dracula, knew that eventually the story of his failure in England would get out, his experience with the Van Helsing family had borne that out before. This time he decided to counter attack. Around 1890, he used the starstone on his ring to locate Vlad. Using the star stone, some of the Borgia drugs that affected Vampire biology, mesmerism and telepathy to wipe out Vlad’s memories and instill in their place, tailored memories of what had happened with the Harkers, Westenras, Van Helsing and company. He also instilled in him a desire to write his own memoirs to show people the truth about vampires and about Count Dracula in particular. Part of this was to make the idea of being a vampire attractive to some people, part of it was a ploy to both create more believers in vampirism and yet contradictorily make it appear to most people that vampires and vampirism were total fantasy. If not a true soul clone, Vlad had become in essence an unwitting PR puppet for Count Dracula.
It was the tailored memories and slightly different appearance from Count Dracula that allowed Vlad to convince Holmes that there were in fact two Dracula’s running around in England of 1887.
However it was not until 1967, when Vlad felt the compulsion to bring his story to the public, as related in THE DRACULA TAPE. Why this year, well, Count Dracula was still stinging from having one of his operations stopped cold by the Men from UNCLE He was slightly worried that a spy organization of that magnitude could eradicate all of vampire kind, if they were of a mind to do so. So he put into play his public relations ploy.
Although Vlad’s account is in most respects Count Dracula’s self serving justification for his rape of two young English women, there are some salient points that the great Van Helsing overlooked in regards to the Westenra affair. Specifically how could Count Dracula had drugged the servants wine if he could not have gained access to the house without having been invited in first. Second of all, while Count Dracula would probably have eventually have drained Lucy Westenra dry, he most likely did not kill her but rather it was indeed the many transfusions from various people without regard to blood type that did her in.
Count Dracula also makes a somewhat valid point in asking why it was necessary to kill Lucy Westenra? She in fact had not killed or really hurt anyone. True she had taken some blood and scared some children but she had not much harm them. Was this worthy of death?
There is also the question of the Count’s Death. Van Helsing himself states that after sunset the vampire’s powers grow. He also is the one who states that among their powers is the ability to become mist. In the closing scenes of Dracula, the intrepid vampire hunters open the Count’s coffins just as the sun is setting, Harker and Morris stab him with knives. The Count collapses immediately into dust. If the Count were powered up as it were, then Vlad’s statement that the Count merely turned to mist and wafted away, waiting for these annoying humans to leave him alone. Colleague, Professeur Charles Loridans provides an account of what really happened at this time (17)
One of the main purposes of THE DRACULA TAPE was to discredit and dishonor the names of Count Dracula’s foes, Seward, Harker, Godalming and especially Van Helsing. Why? As a quick view of the timeline provided by Professeur Loridans, these gentlemen and their families remained a hawthorn in Count Dracula’s side over and over. Attacking them physically did not seem to be effective, so he decided to try a more subtle approach, while still trying to violently kill them of course.
As we will see in a further exploration of this article, not only do Vlad’s accounts provide the necessary contradictory function that equates into matching parts disbelief and belief, but it also presents a false portrait of the general vampire as regards to their powers and motivations. Lulling the general public into disbelief about some actually effective anti-vampire measures such as holy objects or garlic. Vlad’s works also give the public a false picture of Count Dracula so far as his personality and motivations are concerned, presenting a misunderstood man of honor, who just happens to have a peculiar dietary need.
Vlad’s Memoirs are like the Flashman Papers, jumping about in time and not published in any chronological order. The accounts are usually related to some crisis in the present with links to the past. Therefore the best way to discuss the books is by publishing date rather than chronological date.
The next book published was entitled AN OLD FRIEND OF THE FAMILY Circa 1978 a Chicago family named the Southerland has a series of tragic happenings, the eldest daughter is found dead after a party of no apparent causes and the youngest a son is kidnapped, his little fingers torn off of his hands and sent to his parents as proof that his is being held.
Desperate, the family Matriarch uses a summoning spell passed down to her from her grandmother, Mina Harker,( although she is referred to as Harker, it is possible that her name was actually something else, and Harker was just used for recognition factor). Shortly after the summoning Dr. Corday arrives from London.
He quickly determines that the eldest daughter has been turned into a vampire and its likely that the son will be turned as well. As it turns out the changing of the girl and kidnaping and torture of the boy is part of Byzantine plot to draw Count Dracula to Chicago by an old foe of Count Dracula. As according to plan, even other vampires get Vlad confused with Count Dracula. This is a case of the Count’s ability to win friends and influence people rebounding disastrously onto Vlad. If the Count knew about this encounter and he probably enjoyed the fact that Vlad was drawing out his enemies and defeating them for him. The Vampire plotting against Count Dracula, and by default Vlad, was none other than Morgan Le Fay.
She called a council of vampires to render judgement on Count Dracula for crimes and for oppression of the nosteratu. The vampires called fear her and fear Vlad and vacillate between making a decision , so when Vlad recovers from her plot to stake him and leave him in sunlight, there is a battle royal between vampires. Morgan and her cronies flee through the overcast day into the snow filled Chicago streets. Vlad tracks them down and executes them for their crimes against the Southerland family.
Kate Southerland, the fledgling vampire, had by force of will reversed the process in order to save her dying fiancee, Joe Keogh, forcing her way into a residence into which she had not been invited. She thereby became a breathing human being once more.
Joe Keogh became one of Vlad’s best friends among the breathers, sharing a goodly portion of adventures with him.
The next Memoir to be published was THORN 1980. Vlad becomes aware that a rare painting that he once owned attributed to Verrocchio is going on auction in Arizona. He travels to attend the auction. He begins to remember the history leading up to the creation of this painting. King Matthias of Hungary had arranged for his sister Helen to marry Dracula while he was imprisoned. She was however an errant woman and had run off to Italy with an artisan. King Matthias charged Dracula to bring her back.
During the course of his capturing the King’s willful sister, Vlad and she fell in love. The painting in question was actually painted by Leonardo, a student of Verrocchio’s. As Vlad, posing as Mr. Thorn, tries to acquire the painting in 1980, he becomes involved with a young woman who claims that she was given the painting by the recently deceased owner. There is mystery about the deceased owner, he was brutally murdered yet may not be dead. Vlad senses vampires involved.
Incidentally the true artist of the painting was none other than Leonardo Da Vinci, whom Count Dracula also encountered after his transformation into a vampires as related in A MATTER OF TASTE.
Two important pieces of information are gleaned from this particular memoir. That there exists a form of rare vampirism which is possessed by the by some of the insane members of the vampire family. These vampires are not aware that they are vampires, they are unaffected by sunlight, able to eat regular food and able to sleep anywhere on earth but they never cease to be restless, always on the move.
The other important piece of information is that is revealed the Mina (Harker?) became a vampire upon her death in 1967. She however became a vampire in the mold of Vlad, who as has been pointed out was a unique, new species in the annals of vampirism.
The next memoir is DOMINION while investigating a series of murders that appear to have been committed by a vampire, Joe Keogh obtains the assistance of Mr. Talisman, aka Vlad. Their investigation leads them to a castle in the community of Frenchman’s Bend. The adventure involves Nimue, the sorcereress of Arthurian Epic and a short time traveling trip by Vlad to Arthurian England. Nimue has been planning a blood sacrifice of immense power to bring the vampire Medraut into the present prior to his burning at the stake.
The next memoir is entitled A MATTER OF TASTE and it once again involved enemies of Count Dracula seeking revenge upon him only to take it out upon poor old Vlad. Vlad is in Chicago visiting the Southerland family, having been invited to meet the fiancee’ of John Southerland. John was the young man Vlad rescued in AN OLD FRIEND OF THE FAMILY. Vlad is poisoned when he partakes of blood a fetching young woman. The poison is specific to the vampiric biochemistry and was created by Lucretia Borgia. The poisoner was Cesare Borgia. He seeks to have Count Dracula suffer as he suffered, in agony for centuries.
With the Southerland’s help, Vlad defeats the Borgia’s plans.
Count Dracula had been one of Lucretia’s many lovers, he had promised to her that he would not kill Cesare. When Cesare had been turned into a vampire Count Dracula had sealed him a tomb. Purportedly Count Dracula had not known the Cesare was not a native of Italy but had been born in Spain. Since Cesare could not rest on his native earth he tossed and turned in frightful agony until the tomb had been opened.
Vlad convinced Cesare that it had been an honest mistake. They agree to have an uneasy truce. Despite Vlad’s recollections of the incident, it is quite likely that Count Dracula did indeed seal Cesare inside a tomb without his native earth on purpose. The exquisite torture is something that Count Dracula would have delighted in.
The next memoir of Vlad is A QUESTION OF TIME , but I do not really consider it to be germane to the discussion at hand.. If any of my fellow scholars have information which I have overlooked concerning this volume, do not hesitate to send if forth.
This volume is concerned with a missing person case that Joe Keogh, now a private investigator, is pursuing. It leads to the Grand Canyon and to a mystery some thirty years in the past. Some of the tunnels and byways of the Grand Canyon stretch into the past ond future.
The next book is entitled SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE. This is the second of the cases in which Vlad worked in concert with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It takes place in 1903 and concerns pirates, Russian dissenters and spiritualism. Of note to our purposes it reinforces the argument that Vlad is an honorable man. Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes and even Mycroft Holmes seem to attest to this fact. The tale also has cameos by Inspector Merrivale and Rasputin (18) The latter provides a substantial clue that Vlad while a vampire and possessing many of the memories of Count Dracula, is not The Count Dracula. Rasputin possesses a high degree of mesmeric skill but he is not a vampire. He mesmerizes Vlad and convinces him to stand on a balcony and greet the rising sun. Holmes using a Tibetian technique neutralizes this mesmeric spell in time.
It stands to reason that Dracula, even without the aid of his special ring would never succumbed to the mesmeric abilities of a mere mortal.
In summation, we have seen while that there are distinct differences between Vlad (Saberhagen’s Dracula) and Count Dracula, there are explanations which seem to suggest that they may co-exist in the same universe. Vlad is in fact one of the most effectively dangerous of all of Dracula’s ploys, helping to foster the romanticism of vampirism, disseminating the notion that Dracula is not such a bad guy, spreading false information about effective anti-vampirism tools and discrediting dedicated vampire hunters. While Vlad can be perhaps admired for his many positive qualities he is to be pitied above all else. As powerful as he is Vlad remains in essence, Count Dracual’s Public relations puppet.
As always my fellow scholars are free to accept or reject my claims.
ENDNOTES
1 Animus Klonos Theorem by Professeur Charles Loridans Wold Newton Research Institute Press, October 2000
2 Annotations by Herr Doktor Theophagus Kraft on Praetorius’ The Filtration of Nature and Effects of Homunculi Distillation, privately printed 1788, reprinted with original text Ingolstadt University Press, 1971
3 There is some speculation, unproven at the moment that Dr. Praetorius is one of the rare immortals descended from the Delphic Orb meteorite family. Some theories even state he was Hermes Trimegistes but this scholar tends to doubt that particular claim.
4 This is of course your standard incubation chamber for the homunculi. They arise from spontaneous generation formed in manure seeded by urine and semen. Please, don’t try this at home.
5 Noseratu, Eine Symphonie Des Garuens film Prana-Films 1922
6 Cesare Borgia later turned up to plague Vlad in 1990.Saberhagen, A Matter of Taste, Tor 1990
7 Speculations about events described in Saberhagen, Fred, A Sharpness on the Neck, Tor 1996
8 The 1887 date of the events of Dracula by Bram Stoker is deemed by modern scholarship, as demonstrated by Professor’s Eckert and Loridans in The Original Wold Newton Universe Chronology Eckert, Wold Newton Research Institute Press, 1998 and in the Children of the Night: A Timeline concerning major events, and people from the files, of The League of Anti-Diabolists, Loridans, Wold Newton Research Institute Press, 2000.
Although the date 1890 is given in Estleman, Loren D Sherlock Holmes Vs Dracula. Doubleday 1978 and a date of 1891 is given in Saberhagen, Fred The Dracula Tape, Warner, 1975. Miss Murray-Harker’s activities during 1898 as detailed by Moore, A. A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, America’s Best Comics 1999, seems to call for the earlier date.
9 Lucy Harker is first mentioned in the end chapter of Saberhagen, Fred, The Dracula Tape, and is encountered by Dr. Watson in Saberhagen, The Holmes-Dracula File Tor 1978 Her ultimate fate is revealed in Professeur Charles Loridan’s Children of the Night Timeline.
10 These events are described in Saberhagen, The Holmes-Dracula File Tor 1978
12 Watson, John H. The Extraordinary Case of the Transylvanian Bat and the Plague Rat of Sumatra David Vincent Collection, privately owned. A handwritten account of The Holmes-Dracula File that differs in some areas from the version found in the locked bank safety deposit box.
13Events described in Estleman, Loren D. Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula Doubleday, 1978
14So then how do we know about the conversation. Stuck in the pages of Watson’s unaltered handwritten account is a three page typewritten note which details the conversation. The final sentence reads, "Watson, use this if you must, if not I trust in your discretion. It was signed S. Holmes. A hoax? Perhaps.
- Sherlock’s many siblings are discussed in the exhaustively detailed Holmes Family Tree by Professor Brad Mengel, of the Wold Newton Research Institute, Hervey Bay, Australia branch. The Family tree is available in an online version and is also available as a reasonably priced paperback in the Wold Newton Institute’s bookstore at that location but as they do not fill mail orders it will be necessary to travel to Australia to buy a copy.
- Dr. Mengel, excuse me, Professor Mengel, also provides information on Sherlock’s Vampiric Twin, "I have also discovered evidence that Sherlock Holmes' twin brother, whom I have (discovered is) named Rutherford, may still be alive and sometimes impersonated his brother. I stumbled onto Geoffery A Landis' "A Quiet evening by Gaslight" in ALTERNATE OUTLAWS ed Mike Resnick where Watson sees Holmes in a very different light after Holmes finishes reading DRACULA and discusses it with his friend. I presume that Rutherford occasionally impersonated his brother Later on by 1977 Rutherford had set up a detective agency of his own under the name of Cardula as Seen in Jack Ritchies' "Cardula's Revenge" in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery magazine."
I have uncovered more of Rutherford’s activities that Professor Mengel may be unaware. It appears that Rutherford may had created a sort of a soul clone by accident. While visiting Judge Justin Playfair an acquaintance of his on the occasion of Playfair’s wife’s funeral, Rutherford had a private condolence meeting with Playfair. Unfortunately Playfair suffered a devastating stroke brought about by grief. Not wishing to see his friend die nor to bring any untoward attention to himself, Rutherford attempted to save Playfair’s life. Rutherford pricked his own finger and let the semi-vampiric blood drip into Playfair’s mouth. Playfair regained full health but unfortunately some of Rutherford’s memories and innate abilities fused with Playfair’s. Playfair’s mind reacted by becoming Sherlock Holmes, while remembering he had been Playfair in the past. Playfair’s "madness" is recounted in the film, They Might Be Giants, Universal 1971
17 Loridans, Children of the Night, A Timeline concerning events and people from the Files of the Anti-Diabolists League, Wold Newton Research Institute, 2000
18 Although Holmes and Rasputin do not directly interact in this tale, operating on the periphery of on another, it is possible that the death of Rasputin’s tame vampire, Kukulov by the hands of Watson or Holmes, set the stage for Rasputin’s Revenge against the Son of Holmes in John T. Lescroart's sequel to his Son of Holmes, published by Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1987.
Bibliography
Eckert,
Win Scott The
Original Wold Newton Universe Chronology
Wold Newton Research Institute Press, 1998
Estleman,
Loren D. Sherlock
Holmes Vs Dracula or
the Adventure of the Sanguinary Count, Doubleday, 1980
Kraft,
Theophagus Annotations
by Herr Doktor Theophagus Kraft on
Praetorius’ The Filtration of Nature and Effectsof
Homunculi Distillation, privately
printed 1788, reprinted
with original text Ingolstadt University Press, 1971
Loridans,
Charles Children
of the Night,
Wold Newton Research Institute Press, 2000
Mengel, Brad The Holmes Family Tree, Wold Newton Institute Press 2000
Saberhagen,
Fred The
Dracula Tape, Warner, 1975
The Holmes-Dracula File, Tor, 1978
An Old Friend of the Family, Ace, 1979
Thorn, Ace, 1980
Dominion, Ace, 1982
A Matter of Taste, Tor, 1990
A Question of Time, Tor, 1992
Séance For a Vampire Tor, 1994
A Sharpness on the Neck, Tor, 1996
Stoker, Bram Dracula, Lancer, 1970
Watson,
John H. The
Extraordinary Case of the Transylvanian Bat
and the Plague Rat of Sumatra
David Vincent Collection, privately owned
Return to the Table of Contents
© 2001 by Dennis E. Power