#mr. swales

[hotvintagepoll]

this is a poll for a movie that doesn't exist.

It is vintage times. The powers that be have decided to again remake the classic vampire novel Dracula for the screen. in an amazing show of inter-studio solidarity, Hollywood’s most elite hotties are up for the starring roles. The producers know whoever they cast will greatly impact the genre, quality, and tone of the finished film, so they are turning to their wisest voices for guidance.

you are the new casting director for this star-studded epic. choose your players wisely.

Previously cast:

Jonathan Harker—Jimmy Stewart

The Old Woman—Martita Hunt

Count Dracula—Gloria Holden

Mina Murray—Setsuko Hara

Lucy Westenra—Judy Garland

The Three Voluptuous Women—Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall

Dr. Jack Seward—Vincent Price

Quincey P. Morris—Toshiro Mifune

Arthur Holmwood—Sidney Poitier

R.M. Renfield—Conrad Veidt

The Captain of the Demeter—Omar Sharif

The First Mate of the Demeter—Leonard Nimoy

Edit: adding since there’s been some confusion—this is for MR. SWALES, the old seaman with a bizarre accent in today’s entry of Dracula Daily.

[thedupshadove]

Kudos to Mr. Swales for bucking stereotype by being a Crotchety, Accented Old Country Person In A Horror Story who insists to our protagonists that nothing supernatural could possibly be going on.

[see-arcane]

Mina, stranglehold on her composure, about to snap her pen in half: Okay! Okay. So, we got a portentous omen of death in the ghost ship with the ghastly sea captain corpse tied to his ship with a bottled account of an inhuman murderer arriving with a hellish storm. Followed by the unceremonious Terror Death of my newest old man friend right in the place where Lucy and I sit. Followed by a man kicking his dog in front of us and sending some kind of empathic horror-signal to Lucy. Followed by my daily and increasingly intense bout of Worry for Jonathan who continues to be missing in another country. Which country? I don't know! Still! Sure hope he's not part of the Hot Slaughter Summer queue, ha ha! At least Lucy is doing better with the health and the sleepwalking and whatnot! :) Let's hold onto that one single mote of good news! :)) Surely we can wring a microdrop of positivity out of that! :)))

Dracula, in his beachside rental suicide grave: :3c

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

Mina to Lucy, as soon as Mr. Swales walks away

[vickyvicarious]

"It be all fool-talk, lock, stock, and barrel; that's what it be, an' nowt else. These bans an' wafts an' boh-ghosts an' barguests an' bogles an' all anent them is only fit to set bairns an' dizzy women a-belderin'. They be nowt but air-blebs."

Indulging myself with the idea of Mr. Swales calling Dracula "nowt but an air-bleb" to his face. It'd be funny until it all went wrong...

[theriseofthesea]

Mr. Swales apologizing to Mina about his insensitive talk of death is just so lovely.

It shows that he really does care about her.

She’s spent a lot of time getting to know him over the past few weeks. Mina having someone to talk to really helps get her mind off of Jonathan.

Even though Lucy considers what Mr. Swales has been talking about to be wicked, Mina is truly invested in what he has to say. She understands that he has enjoyed talking to her as much as she’s enjoyed talking to him.

Mina is more upset with reminder that her new friend is going to die soon and that unfortunately turns her mind to being worried about Jonathan.

[yallemagne]

Mr. Swales: *speaks*

Me: "I love him..."

Me: "WHY am I crying. Bitch."

[ultranerdygirl]

I forgot Mr. Swales died so soon after the Captain. Poor guy. :(

[mayhemchicken-varneyposting]

"To give an idea of the sort of nautical tomfoolery I had to slog through for this chapter, I will reproduce a small sample of dialogue; imagine, if you will, pages and pages of this bullshit."

I am never complaining about Van Helsing again

[xtruss]

Ships that stopped at Whitby Harbor (Seen here circa 1880) inspired Bram Stoker as he wrote Dracula. Photograph By Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, The Royal Photographic Society Collection/Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty Images

The Little-Known Shipwreck That Inspired Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’

Stoker was moved by grim details from the world around him while penning his horror masterpiece. The real fate of a ship called the Dmitry played an outsized role in his imaginings.

— By Melissa Sartore | August 18, 2023

The arrival of the Demeter in Bram Stoker's Dracula serves as a fundamental part of the titular character's story: the ship brings death himself to England.

Stoker drew inspiration for his genre-defining horror novel from his time in Whitby, and the dark 1885 fate of the real ship Dmitry on the town’s shore.

The death and tragedy around Stoker ultimately shaped the story that became one of the most famous pieces of English literature and set the stage for the next century of vampire lore.

The wreck of the Dmitry from Narva, now Estonia, aground on Tate Hill Beach in 1885, Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. Photograph By Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, Colin Waters/Alamy Stock Photo

The Dmitry Becomes the Demeter

During the summer of 1890, Irish novelist Bram Stoker vacationed at the seaside town of Whitby in northeast England. Despite spending only a month in the town, Stoker was enthralled by his surroundings: Grand Mansions and Hotels lined the West Cliff while remains of the seventh century Whitby Abbey towered over the East Cliff. Nearby, the cemetery at the Parish Church also served as inspiration as the story of Dracula came to life.

Stoker was also enchanted by the many ships making harbor here. He reportedly visited the Whitby Museum to explore the history of these vessels, as well as a local library, where he came upon William Wilkinson’s book The Accounts of Principalities of Wallachia and Moldova. Stoker marked in his notes:

DRACULA in the Wallachian language means DEVIL. The Wallachians were, at that time, as they are at present, used to give this as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous either by courage, cruel actions, or cunning.

Stoker reportedly asked around the shore about shipwrecks in Whitby, notably the Dmitry, a ship that had wrecked five years earlier.

The cargo vessel Dmitry had set sail from Narva in Russia (modern-day Estonia) in 1885. On October 24, the Dmitry was one of two ships run ashore at Whitby by “a storm of great violence,” according to contemporary newspaper accounts. The other vessel, the Mary and Agnes, was stranded in the raging sea and a lifeboat was sent to rescue its crew. When the crew of the Mary and Agnes was ferried to the shore, per the Leeds Mercury, “their safe landing [was] the signal for loud huzzas by the thousands of people assembled on shore.”

Those same onlookers watched on to see what would happen with the Dmitry. As reported by the North-Eastern Daily Gazette, the crew remained on board in the hopes they would be able to dock, but “the sea beat savagely against the vessel. Her masts gave way and fell with a crash over her side, and the vessel herself began to break up.”

Though unclear exactly how they were rescued, in the end, all seven members of the Dmitry’s crew were safely brought to shore.

There were several unique aspects to the last voyage of the Dmitry that appear to have stood out to Stoker. The Demeter originated in Varna (an anagram for Narva, where the Dmitry originated), and similarly carried “ballast of silver sand, with only a small amount of cargo—a number of great wooden boxes filled with mould.”

Through conversations with fishermen in Whitby, Stoker learned of an untold number of local deaths at sea. Stoker reportedly made note of some 90 names from gravestones in Whitby for future use in his story, including the surname “Swales.” Soon after the arrival of the Demeter in Dracula, he wrote “Mr. Swales was found dead… his neck being broken.”

What Inspired Dracula’s Canine Form?

In Stoker’s novel, Dracula himself took the form of a dog to make his way from the Demeter to dry land, but there was no dog reported to have been on the Dmitry. According to Mel Ni Mhaolanfaidh and Marlon McGarry in 2021, the dog in Dracula may be an homage to the wreck of the Greyhound in 1770.

The Greyhound sailed from Whitby and sank off the coast of Ireland on December 12, 1770 (120 years prior to Stoker’s arrival in the town). Stoker’s mother, Charlotte, was from Sligo, a town in close proximity to the wreck. When the storm that sank the ship surged again, a young cabin boy was left stranded. The rescue effort failed, with only one out of the some 20 men sent to save him tragically dying in the process.

Stoker made no reference to a dog in his notes until two months after he’d departed from Whitby. On October 15, 1890, Stoker wrote, “When ship ran in to Collier's Hope, big dog jumped off bow & ran over pier - up Kiln Yard & church steps & into churchyard…Local dog found ripped open & graves torn up…” It’s not clear if Stoker learned of these details from the Dmitry wreck, another Whitby wreck, or was his own creation.

In the novel, the arrival of the Demeter was paired with a similarly remarkable incident: “The very instant the shore was touched, an immense dog sprang up on deck from below, as if shot up by the concussion, and running forward, jumped from the bow on the sand.”

The dog, a disguised Dracula, wrought bloodshed and death from that point forward. This dog resembled the barghest, a mythical monster often associated with Yorkshire. Spellings and specific forms of barghest vary but the dog-like being foretold of pain, disaster, or even death to all who saw it. The barghest also elicited howling from dogs in its vicinity, something Dracula protagonist Mina Murray reported took place soon after the arrival of the Demeter.

[tenebris-lux]

(Catching up on Dracula Daily, because I’m bad with due dates. It will happen again.)

August 1

Mina’s got one hell of an amazing memory, recalling everything that Mr. Swales said. I know it’s late, but I’d love to see fanart of this scene, Swales going on and on; Mina smiling, amused and interested; and Lucy like, “Umm … not really a fan.” Poor Lucy. She just wants to hang out with her friend and enjoy the view…. And then there are these guys.

In Re: Dracula, I LOVE Lucy’s disapproving tone to Swales. I can envision her expression perfectly, like she disapproves of the immaturity and thoughtlessness. And speaking of Mr. Swales, Graham Rowat’s accent and delivery is perfect.

Also, I ADORE the musical transition from the end of Mina’s entry about Mr. Swales to the beginning of her later entry, as her thoughts turn to grief and anxiety and uncertainty. She ends her first entry almost matter-of-factly, stating how the situation with Jonathan upsets her a little. But then, in the next entry…. I love how her voice slowly drops its “I’m getting by” front as she speaks, until she’s on the verge of tears by the end. She’s not fine. She’s not just getting by. She’s enjoying hanging out with Lucy and listening to these old codgers chat … but distractions are temporary; they aren’t a solution. It’s a situation she can do nothing about besides endure. She has nothing to go on, so she can’t find out anything for herself. And it hurts. It really hurts.

Many, many kudos to Isabel Adomakoh Young for getting ALL of that across.

Another thing I really enjoy in listening to Re:Dracula is the monologues. Many classical books—Dracula included—include very long, no-breaks-no-pauses monologues. When reading with my eyes, I take most of it in at the same speed, and that makes it hard for me to translate how they would sound if spoken aloud. I appreciate how the actors in Re:Dracula take their time with them, give thoughtful pauses and tone changes, which break up the pace and lends more feeling to the words than I can get from reading it myself. It’s a beautiful translation from the page to the voiced.

[lithiumseven]

Always exciting to see Mr Swales!

[your-friend-bram]

August 6

Oh Mina, I know Mr. Swales may just seem like an old man to you who was suddenly struck with the realization that he's going to die someday. He's confessed to you how he's been uncomfortable with his own mortality, so he'd joke about death and all the people who have died, but he is right about one thing. Death is coming. It's coming on that wind that's carrying that strange ship. And it's name is Dracula.

-Bram

[see-arcane]

Goodbye, Mr. Swales. I'm sorry for how you ended. After all your talk of disbelief, of folktales and histories made of lies, of your long life spent in a world that no longer fears the wild dark and the monsters sensible people no longer see in it, you had yourself proven so terribly wrong at the end. The fool-talk was true for you as it skulked up the hill.

Though he was no barghest, the black dog that came to meet you was no sane animal known to God. Not on four legs. Not when he rose up on two. Did you startle back and snap yourself to death to seek mercy out of his reach? Or did you have his help to remove you, an impatient paw or hand put cold and tight on a brittle throat to be rid of a witness? You can never tell us now.

I wish you'd haunt a while, though you have no faith in ghosts.

Your young mourners could have used the warning.

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

me, cheering up a crying person: there, there... don't ye dooal an' greet, my deary

[vickyvicarious]

The first part of Mina's entry starts out really funny. Mr. Swales has given off a "sweet old incomprehensible grandpa" vibe, but today I noticed some other stuff going on that's quite funny, even if in another situation it might be a little annoying. He's very much the 'main character' of his friends (Mina doesn't even bother to take down their names), and will cling to that role very tightly. Has to be the center of attention, everyone has to agree with him, very stubborn and will bully until he gets his way, he'll perform to the crowd and make sure his boys are laughing at his jokes. He's actually quite cynical, though it's possible some of that is also performative here. He's also super fixated on that idea of the souls carrying their gravestones on their backs on the Day of Judgement, he circled back to that one like four separate times.

I also love this bit:

"Now look you here; you come here a stranger, an' you see this kirk-garth." I nodded, for I thought it better to assent, though I did not quite understand his dialect. I knew it had something to do with the church. He went on: "And you consate that all these steans be aboon folk that be happed here, snod an' snog?" I assented again.

Mina internally: just smile and nod.

But on a more serious note... in all of this, there's something kind of interesting going on. The fact that he's talking so much about lies alongside empty graves/coffins. I'm not totally sure of where I want to go with it exactly, but it reminds me of Dracula's boxes. Though those are full of dirt, but still. They're like empty coffins in a way, and the entire use of the headstones to cover up the darker truth with a polite/pretty lie sure does remind of the Count. I'm sure this talk of empty suicide grave and such won't be relevant at all...