“There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part.” ~ Bram Stoker
I welcome friend and fellow author Ed Erdelac to The Dark Fantastic once again, yet in a capacity I’d never imagined. In a twist of serendipity so fitting such a student of history as Ed, he discovered proof that Bram Stoker’s supposed creation, Abraham Van Helsing, was a flesh and blood person who truly existed, his experiences even more disturbing than those chronicled in Dracula.
I sat down with Ed to discuss the amazing find he stumbled across in the dusty vaults of the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago.
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What was running through your head when you realized Stoker’s enigmatic character was a real person?
EE: I was floored. My first thought was, if Van Helsing was real, then very likely Count Dracula was real, and if Dracula was, real what other things of a supernatural nature long considered to be myth and folklore are real? However, I wouldn’t say I was frightened, or that my world view was obliterated like some poor nut in a Lovecraft story. Having been raised Catholic, I feel like the philosophy I had been weaned on was affirmed to a certain extent. If vampires exist, and they can be turned aside by crosses, then very likely there is a God as well, or at least, an intelligence behind the universe. I was kind of relieved.
These papers are an archeological milestone into supernatural research, throwing gasoline on the presumptions of the oft-questionable field. What do you intend to do with such proof that there truly are creatures hiding amongst us we know so little about?
EE: Just put it out there, and keeping put it out there as long as I can. I know that sounds lame, but I’m far from being some kind of respected scholar. I write ghoulie books for Crissakes. I’m probably the last person in the world Van Helsing or Seward would choose to push the veracity of their work, but I couldn’t ignore it after it fell into my lap. I’ve had to publish it under the aegis of fiction, pitch it as a story in a ‘found document’ framework like Stoker did just to get it out there.
Are you worried, now that you’ve chosen to publish these papers, that you might discover the reason why the Harkers and Holmwoods chose to let the stories disappear might have more to do with the physical subjects of the papers, the creatures involved, rather than the public reaction?
EE: It’s funny that you ask that. When I first discovered the papers no such thing entered my mind, but as I’ve got further in to compiling them, I’ve come to realize that there are things Van Helsing encountered that I struggle with bringing to light for the very reason you’re intimating. I suppose that’s why Van Helsing asked that the papers not see the light of day until a year after his death. The Harkers and Holmwoods didn’t participate too much in Van Helsing’s later career, but there was an incident that took place about 1898, not long after the publication of Dracula of which I’m hesitant to even write, let alone publish, mainly because a certain organization involved may very well have survived in some form to the present day, and may not take too well to their nature being revealed to the public.
How much stock do you put into Van Helsing’s adventures beyond the Stoker accounting? Where do you think the line between fiction and truth blurs?
EE: I absolutely believe the Van Helsing papers are genuine. In preparing Terovolas I’ve spent years tracking down and verifying the existence of the people mentioned, even down to the hermit Buckner Tyree and mention of the Morris family’s long serving cook, Pepperbelly. In compiling the other segments of Van Helsing’s career I’ve come across too many supporting documents to discount them. As to Stoker’s work, I can say that one small fact was omitted from Dracula. As part of Van Helsing’s desperate bid to save the life of Lucy Westenra, she and Lord Godalming were indeed wed just prior to her first death. The reason for this excision relates directly to the events of 1898 I mentioned earlier. I can’t vouch for the rest of Dracula as I don’t have access to those documents. Apparently the relevant entries in the records of Van Helsing and Seward were stolen from Purfleet by a certain party which at this point I can’t name due to litigation.
Just how prepared are you to tell the world that vampires and other creatures of the night truly exist?
EE: Well, I better be pretty prepared. The book will be on Amazon November 16th. If you mean am I worried about my reputation, I don’t really have one, at least not in the kind of academic or pseudo-academic circles Seward concerned himself with. I’m sure most people will just dismiss Terovolas as fiction and interviews like this one as publicity stunts. Those who are inclined to be open to truth will find it.
Should something happen to you before you get the truth out there, what would you have people know?
EE: Well I don’t really believe anything will happen to me, at least not with the publication of Terovolas. The parties involved in this account are surely long dead, and any relations that have survived to modern day I think, by their character, would be more concerned with covering their tracks than striking at me or my family. They’ve had more than a century to do that, so no worries. Like I mentioned though, I am aware that putting out future volumes of the Van Helsing papers may engender an element of risk. I’m making preparations for that even as we speak.
However, in terms of a legacy, I guess I’d just be proud to add my name to the company of Van Helsing and Seward, Holmwood and Harker, as someone who searched for the truth, and when they found it, did all they could to share it with the world. I would hope too that somebody else would take up the job if I don’t finish it.
My main purpose though, is to shed light on the career of an admirable and forgotten individual from history, a pioneer in the field of paranormal research, who has been much maligned recently as a fanatic and ‘vampire hunter’ (if Van Helsing is remembered as a vampire hunter for having encountered one or two vampires in his time, then should Einstein be remembered as a patent clerk?), while Count Dracula has become a sympathetic character, even lionized by some popular writers.
