The Yuletide 2025 Commentary Post

[calliopes_pen]

- This was my 19th year doing Yuletide, as I’ve been signing up since 2006! My assignment was for Nosferatu (2024). I ended up tackling this prompt: “After the film, with Thomas left all on his own, he turns towards something dark. He brings back Friedrich, guilty for having brought all this agony to his dearest friend's life. Friedrich comes back wrong.”

When I was plotting it all out, somehow it went from Thomas willingly dabbling in black magic because of guilt, to Thomas getting haunted and possessed by Orlok, and basically made to think it must be done to best serve Orlok's cause, and was wondrous for his Lordship's needs.

-I mentioned the fact I was writing a character name wrong, and had to go back and fix that. The character’s name is Friedrich Harding. For some reason, I was writing his name as Frederich Harding. (And eventually spotted one compounded error when I flubbed that second and had him as Frederick.) I didn’t catch this for the longest time. I happened to look at Wikipedia for something involving one of the actors, the spelling finally clicked after I double checked the assignment.

It was fixed soon after.

-I went on a writing spree for a full month, apparently, and uploaded it to the archive on December 1st. This is fortunate, thanks to the fan dying in my 18 year old computer on December 7th. Not so fortunate was the fact that it happened while I was in the process of trying to edit a scene and include a couple new aspects to it when I wanted to expand a moment during beta reading.

That particular scene had not yet been transferred to the external hard drive, while the copy of the story itself already had been.

Fortunately, nothing was lost once it was up and running after returning from the repair place. That scene was the possessed Thomas interacting with Gerda after leaving Von Franz and Sievers. Originally, he would just brush against a nameless woman who may or may not have wanted to pick his pocket. He would glare, and stalk off.

I realized it was too vague overall. And when I came up with the scene of Gerda waving at him to set things up before things actually started going on in chapter 1, it turned into another encounter with her. And then it turned into her returning the locket.

-I eventually realized that I may have taken Gerda's name from the housekeeper in Horror of Dracula (1958).

-Titles: In the planning stages, I briefly considered Remember How Once We Were, but that didn’t last long; it’s also used a lot in fanfic for Ellen/Orlok in this fandom. I went with From Graves Forgotten Stretch Their Dusty Hands, although for a while there I was seriously considering Away From Everlasting Sleep, because of what Friedrich says in the film, which is repeated in the story.

Others seriously considered: That Word Shall Wrap Thy Heart In Flame. And Yet Shall Mourn With Ever-Returning Spring. When The Livid Morning Comes.

The title I went with comes from the poem Haunted Houses, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This is the second time that I have gained a title from that. The other one was Harmless Phantoms On Their Errands Glide, which was a post-Dracula novel Yuletide story.

-The final word count was 42,055 words, no matter what Ao3 says. I’m not counting The End, scene breaks, or the like. The beta reading went down to the wire, with us finally concluding the last batch of additional stuff I tucked in there at the very end around December 23rd.

-Going in, with initial brainstorming before I had everything settled, the story was meant to be four chapters. As more things occurred in it, and the plot became bigger, chapters got so long that I had to break them in half. The first two chapters were originally just one massive chapter, until I went with the cliffhanger of Possessed Thomas gazing out the window for a rather natural spot to break things up.

-It’s unclear just how many cats lived with Von Franz in the film, although Cinema Cats spotted at least three; unclear if the one in his lap later is from that batch, so I went with four. So, aside from Greta, he also has Gustav, Johann, Constanze, and Ruth. In the end author’s notes, I’ve already mentioned where I gathered each name from, but I’ll go ahead and copy that over to here, too.

Greta was, of course, named after Greta Schröder, who played Ellen in Nosferatu (1922). On my part, Ruth is named after Harding’s sister in that incarnation, and the actress was also named Ruth Landshoff. Gustav comes from the actor that played Hutter: Gustav von Wangenheim. There is a character in Dracula’s Guest (by Bram Stoker) named Johann.

Constanze is named after Constanze Engelbrecht, who dubbed Isabelle Adjani’s voice for the German version of Nosferatu (1979).

-In the film, Ellen said she had felt Orlok crawling like a serpent in her body. Ah, diabolical inspiration for the imagery of Thomas’ possession scene.

-There is a mention of Thomas hearing the Mephistophelian laughter of Orlok, just before he gets possessed in chapter 1. This and a later mention of wolves speaking like men (in chapter 5, I believe) and the eve of Szent András originates from a deleted scene from the film. You can watch the scene here.

Via the shooting script:
“Yesternight was but the eve of their Szent András. Our common people say it is the darkest witching night when Devil’s magic bids the wolf to speak with tongues of men, and every nightmare freely treads upon this earth, ascendent from the torturous grave.”
‘This does not comfort THOMAS. ORLOK lets out a Mephistophelian laugh.’

For anyone that wants to read a pdf of the movie’s shooting script, follow the above link. I consulted it quite often.

-In the movie, Orlok says he was in the darkest pits until Ellen woke him from his slumber. With his defeat, that’s basically where he was again. When he possessed Thomas in the fanfic, Thomas got a good dose of that shadow realm, either real, or as a creepy illusion.

-Von Franz always carries cat treats on his person in the film, so I continued with that. In the fanfic, he gives the cats treats to comfort them after the possessed Thomas scares them half to death with his very presence.

-Orlok’s presence within Thomas would have also shattered a mirror as they looked upon it, but given the fact cats were going to be running around near it soon after, I opted not to do that. No, Gustav! Don’t run there! It would have also tipped the men off that something was wrong before Thomas came downstairs.

-When I settled on a possession, two things were written at once. The first was Von Franz and Sievers finding the chalk sigils everywhere. The second? The line “Nature, unfurl thy perfidious concealment!” just popped into my head. Two versions of that being uttered were considered. In the one I didn’t use, Thomas would have still been in the house when it was spoken, just as he exited.

There would have been a tidal wave of fog about to consume Von Franz at the doorway, as Thomas disappears down the block, but I couldn’t make it work (and Von Franz just locks the door and tells Sievers he wasn't going home that night; Sievers is fine with that).

-I went through several versions of how Thomas would be upon coming downstairs. One of the alternative ways I rewrote a bit and folded into the scene. It’s the bit where Von Franz sees Orlok’s shadow over Thomas’ face.

In an alternative version, it would have been witnessed by Sievers, too, who would have been terrorized by the shadow doing something to make him nearly smother. However, I determined that if Thomas/Orlok were on a deadline, they wouldn’t waste time tormenting someone for half an hour. There was also a consideration of whether his eyes would be like Ellen’s were when she was possessed and talking to Von Franz one night, pupils blown.

I opted not to do so, because he’s not actually communing with other realms, he’s just possessed (and mind controlled and brainwashed, sort of, at the same time).

-The individual character posters for the film were useful. When I was trying to get the look right for when Thomas is possessed and is about to exit, I realized his appearance was close to this when Von Franz tries to detain him. The shadow over his face that I mentioned. The white gleam turned to glowing white with silver when he was doing the sorcery.

-I think Von Franz might be a hoarder, but hey. He kept a dozen bottles of holy water under the bed, and those came in handy! He kept boxes of everything Knock had.

-Thankfully, I rewatched the film after writing the bit of Thomas staggering back home to Von Franz and Sievers. Initially, he wasn’t going to have such a time of it getting to the door. And then I noticed just how many steps there are when Ellen walks Von Franz back to his house, and rewrote that bit.

-Sievers can be taught! Do not drug someone when they are dealing with demons. Von Franz is very proud of him for learning after dealing with Ellen’s problems. As Sievers says in the fanfic: “I would suggest laudanum for a restful night free of troubled dreams, but with the introduction of possession-induced sorcery to the more casual diagnoses, I would be remiss indeed to sedate you.”

The plan was that when Sievers tells them to keep him informed of the situation, that would be the last time he was seen in the story. I just couldn’t leave him out of the loop, though, and so he goes to the graveyard with them, and saves Thomas later.

-When it comes to how he came back wrong, at first I wasn’t sure what Friedrich would become. And then I remembered a Dracula Daily related conversation about Jonathan Harker from a few years ago, where people discussed the Wiedergänger. Reading up on that, I wasn’t sure if Friedrich could become that. There were a lot of fascinating sites about its characteristics.

Via the Wikipedia entry: “The humans had to carry him, frequently as far as to the wall of the churchyard or to the place where the body was buried. The aufhocker (also called "huckop" or "huckupp") became ever more heavy, and the victim would finally break down exhausted or dead. In some legends, the troubled humans succeeded in banishing or redeeming the villain by a spell or a prayer.”

Also: “They exist either to avenge some injustice they experienced while alive, or because their soul is not ready to be released, as a consequence of their former way of life.”

-I discovered an offshoot of the Wiedergänger in German folklore, called the Nachzehrer. That is what I decided Friedrich would become. More on it can be found here and here. They aren’t weakened or harmed by sunlight or holy objects, but by salt. “This creature is a type of wiedergänger or revenant, believed to be capable of dragging the living into death, either due to malicious intent or the desire to be closer to loved ones.”

When it comes to the characteristics of the Nachzehrer, they are pale, with sunken eyes that burn and long nails. They tend to eat their burial shroud, but Friedrich couldn’t do that, or eat his family, since the latter are dead, and he was cremated in a crypt. People tended to put a coin in the deceased’s mouth, and a sickle on their chest to keep them from rising.

Oftentimes the body was decapitated prior to the sickle. Tend to devour their funeral shroud and clothing, but hey, none to be found. They tend to be linked to plague victims, but usually with the first victim of one, and not the last, as Frederich would have been.

The Nachzehrer supposedly does not need to eat or sleep. Tend to be dispatched with decapitation and either stones in the mouth, or coins, depending on what site I was reading. Sometimes earth, or consecrated sand. The severed head would be placed between the legs in its tomb to keep it from rising again; that particular aspect I have read about in various site digs for archaeologists. I always found it interesting, being the morbid sort that I am.

Right after settling on this aspect, I spotted a discussion of the Nachzehrer over at the AskGermany subreddit. This helped me deterrmine the draining of the life force could also be done through prolonged eye contact, so that gets a mention by Von Franz, I believe.

-I found a Youtube channel called Tales of Mythology, and a video called The Untold Story of the Nachzehrer: The Vampire Eater. It was interesting! 21 minutes long. I also found the Inside Strange Times podcast, which discussed the creature in Nachzehrer: The German Plague Vampire of Medieval Folklore.

-For the scene where Thomas resurrects Friedrich, I consulted the article Sublime Cinema: Symbolism in Nosferatu (2024), and confirmed that Thomas required a septagram, and not a pentagram, and what some of the symbols of Orlok’s sigil mean, though I didn’t have Thomas screaming “Zalmoxis!” Instead, I left it vague, because I wasn’t up to writing out everything he said in all those languages. I also confirmed the sigil had a Dual Ouroboros.

-When I was Googling Solomonari Grimoire to determine what languages I would have Thomas be forced to get through, I kept running into a black metal album called The Grimoire of Solomonari. There is also, apparently, a black metal band in Boston called Nachzehrer. At least I didn’t run up against tons of articles on them in my research!

-I read up on a few things in this article, Nosferatu and the Solomonic Magician. For the look of Orlok’s grimoire, which Thomas is led to find, I pictured Orlok’s seal on the cover. It’s the same as is on his sarcophagus. You can see it and read an in depth discussion on all aspects of the seal in this article: The Saturnian Allure Of The Vampire: Unveiling the Real Occult Ties of Nosferatu.

-I needed to know when sunset would happen in Wisburg in Spring of 1839, for a passing comment. Wisburg is a fictional city, based on a few possible options. As a Reddit comment mentioned the most likely one was Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in Northern Germany, I went with that. I’ve set the story three months after the events of the film, so it’s March of 1839. It was around Christmas in the movie, so I went with the very first day of Spring, March 20th.

According to Time And Date, sunrise on March 20th, 1839 was at 6:09 AM, and sunset was at 6:17 PM. It’s also the equinox. However, SunToday said it was 6:07 for sunrise, and 6:27 for sunset. All this just for when to get Thomas to go to bed too early, and then for when to get him up and out the door when he’s possessed, as it's around sunset.

So he passes out around 4 PM, gets up probably at 6:15 PM, giving him time to get downstairs, be weird, be noticed for that, and then exit dramatically, coat flapping in the wind.

-As the final chapter involves Thomas sitting in a dark room with the only illumination possibly from the moon outside, I actually checked online. I believe the date would have been around March 23, 1839. According to this site, the moon in Germany was in the Waxing Gibbous phase and illumination is 66%. Which actually worked out nicely for what I was going for, once Thomas blows out a candle and lays waiting for Friedrich.

-I researched the best method for decapitating a Nachzehrer in Northern Germany in 1839 or 1840, to the point that Google might think I have something odd going on. I needed a weapon that would be at Thomas’ disposal, or that Von Franz might have in all of those boxes for whatever reason.

Something with a good blade to decapitate, and was not too big. Could be swung in a dark room, and kill him in a single slice. I considered the scythe--no, too long, Friedrich would have stopped Thomas before he finished swinging it.

For a while there, I was going with a sickle, before I consulted pictures. The blade I saw in a few didn’t seem suitable for cutting off someone’s head, though I found a good handle. Thomas could easily grasp it and swing. I saw a mention somewhere of peasants in Germany using sickles during an uprising, but various sites made it apparent it was mostly for slashing, and ill-suited for my purposes. I consulted little_details on both Dreamwidth and Livejournal, though opted not to post, given the secrecy involved.

I then pondered the kukri, since I know it cuts off a head well, as we learn in Dracula. And Thomas Hutter being almost a version of Jonathan Harker with his origin, albeit without the same success rate when it comes to getting his revenge on the Count. I decided no, but kept the thought as a last resort should I not find something better.

From other searches, I found the Sica dagger, and felt like it could be an interesting option. I was amused by the fact it was Dacian in origin, as Orlok is that, and he caused the whole mess for Thomas. There would be a high probability that since it related to Orlok or Orlok’s birthplace, that Knock might have gotten hold of it. Professor Von Franz would, therefore, have custody of it after finding all the Solomonari items squirreled away in the film.

From this site: “The sica first gained notice among Thracian and Dacian tribes of the eastern Balkans around the third century BCE, celebrated for a curve that slipped past a hoplite’s round shield and bit deep into linen armour.”

-For a passing comment about Von Franz using the rest of the salt for his alchemy, I checked around. Yes, alchemists used salt. Salt and Alchemy: The Mystical Relationship from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

-Once I settled on the date, when we were beta reading I randomly looked it up to see if there was something I could work in there that might have related to why Orlok got through then. There is a mention of the interplay of light and dark on that date, in relation to some myths.

Also! Von Franz gets to make a mention of this in the research, found via the site I linked. “At the ancient site of Chichén Itzá in Mexico, the equinox brings a remarkable event—shadow patterns resembling a serpent slithering down the steps of the Pyramid of Kukulcán. This spectacle was believed to represent the descent of the feathered serpent god, signaling renewal and divine energy.”

The thought of large serpents slithering around Thomas is a bit upsetting for the guy, but it delighted Von Franz. American explorers didn’t rediscover Chichén Itzá until 1841 (a book was published about it in 1843), and the fanfic is set in 1839. If news eventually reached Von Franz, he would be thrilled. Nobody would let him go on an expedition, though.

-Originally, Von Franz just put “a copper coin” in Frederich’s mouth, to hold him in place (and presumably keep healing from occurring if it could) post-decapitation and pre-cremation. And then I went into research mode once again for historical accuracy. I determined that Von Franz might have a newly minted pfennig by the end of March 1839. Kudos to this site, for showing exactly how they looked every year.

-The sight of Friedrich’s arm was almost gorier, with bone visible. However, I didn’t know if that level of gore was something my recipient wanted, and so I refrained from describing it in too much detail. So you mostly get Thomas’ reactions in the crypt, and his sadness when Friedrich appears in his room. And, of course, when Thomas feels the consumption of the arm happening in chapter 8, as though it was done to himself.

-Friedrich says “My arms are hungry enough for you, as is the rest of me.” Just a little nod to the Stoker novel, where Lucy says “My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!” Friedrich also basically confirms it’s not the person Thomas knew in control at all when he says “I was shattered and lay bare and naked in the dark, until you led me to this body.”

Although I do feel like the real Friedrich is somewhere forced to watch all of this going down, much as Von Franz speculates at one point. He just can’t stop what’s happening, one foot in the afterlife, and one foot watching that.

-When I was still in the planning stages, the end would have just been using Thomas as bait, and when Friedrich gets in, Von Franz would decapitate him. And then I started writing and Thomas' little speech in chapter 8 about why he needs to do this for himself just happened.

-The inspiration for Friedrich coming into the room was from a rewatch of Dracula (1931), when Renfield mentions a red mist spread over the lawn.

-Two monsters have now died in two different bedrooms for Thomas. At least Friedrich didn’t die on the bed.

-The entirety of what Von Franz tried to say (but was prevented) when Thomas is possessed by Orlok in the fanfic is this: “By the protection of Chamuel, Haniel, and Zadkiel, impart your speech unto me. In the name of Eligos, Orabas, and Asmoday, impart your speech unto me.” That’s from the film. Those are the “divine and the infernal” he wanted to call on, as he tells Thomas in chapter 5.

-In the final chapter, as Friedrich’s body is burned, I needed the little exorcism that Von Franz said in the film. Alterations were made to account for what Friedrich became, and I required the correct spelling. The one thing that wasn’t in the script, for whatever reason. And so, I asked the RobertEggers subreddit, and was told. Here's the film's dialogue, not in the script!

"In the Name of Jehovah, and by the power and dignity of these three Names, Tetragrammaton, Anexhexeton, Primematum, cast thee, O thou disobedient Spirit Nosferatu, into the Lake of Fire, there to remain until the Day of Doom and not to be remembered before the face of God who shall come to judge the quick and the dead and the world with fire."

-Decades ago, I read a book of folklore. I don’t know the title anymore, but I checked it out from the library way too many times. I found one thing where if you burn a vampire after killing it, there’s always a chance tha something could escape the flames and reform, unless you throw everything back in that you see, no matter how innocent it is. After reading this comment on what might have happened after the final scene of the film, I remembered that.

Specifically, the part where they say “Burn the remains. Maintain a watch. Anything that tries to come out of the fire must be struck down and put back in.”

I did briefly consider having something innocuous like a moth or a snake coming forth for something that Thomas might be forced to panic about and kill, but opted not to. The creature that was sort of partially Friedrich was definitely dead, and paralyzed by the coin in his decapitated head. Thomas did scatter the ashes just off shore, though!

-Thomas got himself an awkward and strange friendship with Gerda. I was originally starting to write an epilogue where Thomas is writing the letter, and Von Franz gets him the address after realizing just how much Thomas needs to do this. I realized early on that it wasn’t going to work because I didn’t need an epilogue, and instead what I had planned was just folded into that ending summation of how things went for him.

Which means technically there weren’t any deleted scenes with this story, since I still used it.

-I went back and forth on even mentioning this last one. Right before author reveals happened, I learned that the story gained a quick mention over at coaltide in this comment, where someone just rounded up a bunch of the longer stories that were written this year. “Nosferatu - haven't seen the movie yet, most of the tags squick me.”

That was completely understandable to me, and why I warned for the things I warned for. I had gone back and forth on warning for the cannibalism since it wasn’t entirely on screen save for some of the aftermath when it comes to Friedrich’s arm, and reactions to something about that, and something in the graveyard, but I didn’t want to give someone a terrible surprise if they were uncomfortable with that subject matter.

And as I said earlier, it could have gone into more explicit realms than it did, but I held back on that one. Or if someone was uncomfortable with something else in the tags like the grief aspect that hangs over things for Thomas, they needed to know going in. I respect those that couldn’t read such for whatever reason.

If anyone other than the recipient chose to read it at all, and enjoyed any bit of it, that’s wonderful and I’m thrilled. I usually occupy the smallest fandoms.

-All in all, even with the madness going on around me throughout the month of December that I barely touched on in this public post, I have to say that this story was fun to write. It was interesting how it kept evolving and expanding whenever I thought I was finished.

I loved all the research on the German folkloric creatures that I waded through, and found the characters and situations involved interesting to tackle.