Warning
Contains spoilers for Sepia and Silver, The Libelle Papers, Tragic Silence & Darkest Dreams
Donaueschingen, Hanna's hometown, is named as such because it sits close to the source of the Danube. This river features in all three Tragic Silence novels. Bernstein is the German word for amber. This stone, formed from fossilised tree resin, is said to have healing properties - appropriate for a family of doctors.
As a teenager, Hanna daydreamed about studying music in Hamburg. This refers to the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Hamburg, one of the largest universities of music in Germany. She instead went on to study medicine at Hochschule Furtwangen University, an institution in the same state as Donaueschingen. The book concealing Die Gift's safe in Hanna's house is The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.
The first papers of Die Gift were written in 1756. This date is also the 4-digit code used to open the safe. Die Gift holds a record of a juvenile latency period lasting for ten years. Later, Hanna recalls a rumour of some demons being strong enough to derail trains, and also tells Frank that Doktor David Bernstein was attacked by one of his own experiments. All three instances refer to Jack Wotton (also known as James Hayes and Jack Newburgh). Jack was also responsible for slashing Bernstein's cheek, giving him the scar which allows Hanna to recognise him.
The first half of Edmund's Test, used to determine the approximate time before a juvenile's final transformation, is loosely based on DNA genome experiment methods. Hanna's nickname, Libelle, is the German word for dragonfly. These animals symbolise transformation, adaptability and maturity: all aspects of her character. They are also believed to be connected to emotions; appropriate for Hanna as she struggles to acknowledge her own feelings and desires.
A couple of times throughout the story, Hanna plays Fleetwood Mac's Landslide on guitar. This is her theme song, symbolising her relationship with her father, her desire to rediscover her own passions and sense of self, and the choices she must make for herself and others. Despite it playing a role in the story, in real life, there is no multi-storey car park outside Friedrichschafen Airport.
Mina is named after Mina Harker from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Many of the everyday vampirism effects suffered by juvenile and harmless characters, such as the headaches, painful eyes, and itchy blistering rash, are exactly the same as my own photosensitive conditions: photophobia and PLE. Photophobia can be caused by the pupils not constricting fast enough, allowing too much light to enter the eye. PLE (Polymorphous light eruption) causes a rash which is triggered by exposure to sunlight and UV light. The measures taken to manage them, such as submerging the rash in cold water, wearing tinted glasses and using blackout curtains, are also ones I use.
Hanna jokes that she hopes factor 100 sunscreen will be invented one day. In reality, this is the factor which I have to use in summer. Hanna inspires Frank's future choice of vehicle. She flippantly mentions to him that she would like to own an old Volkswagen Beetle. In Tragic Silence, this is the car that Frank drives.
Frank mentions that he would like to return to Budapest one day. He does so in Tragic Silence, in order to accompany Bianka Farkas to Kerepesi Cemetery. On several occasions, Hanna cooks spargel, or white asparagus, for dinner. Spargel is a popular German ingredient; due to its high iron content, asparagus is often eaten by juvenile and harmless vampires throughout the series, especially close to times when they need to drink blood.
After Frank enjoys watching an old Disney film, Hanna jokingly wonders if his showpiece on guitar is The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down. This is the theme tune for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros. between the 1930s-1960s. David Bernstein's experiments on vampires coincided with the later period of the Scientific Revolution in Europe, when the old superstitions were being transformed by advancements in mathematics, biology, and chemistry. It was not uncommon during this time for dissections and vivisections to be performed on both living and dead subjects, often with no anaesthetic. As Hanna states, the procedures were brutal and unethical, but paved the way for modern science and medicine.
Hanna states that vampirism's origin can be traced back to the rabies virus. Alongside light sensitivity, rabies was a major inspiration for the transmission of vampirism in the series. The two conditions share many similarities, such as the incubation period following a bite, and movement along the peripheral nerves, before a heightened stage of symptoms is reached. This is known in the series as 'coming of age' or 'the final transformation'. Around the fire, Frank plays While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles. This is essentially his song to Hanna, stating how he acknowledges her struggles and unrealised potential.
Hanna mentions that she would be able to play Elton John's album Caribou in its entirety on guitar. This album was the first to feature Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, which she later performs at Wilhelm's funeral. Although Doppelgangers are not traditionally associated with vampires, the Blutsauger and Aufhocker are both found in German vampire folklore. Their names literally mean 'bloodsucker' and 'to jump upon', respectively. In the case of the Aufhocker, this name relates to their practice of jumping onto a person's back before tearing out their throat.
The concept of Doppelgangers has been explored by several well-known writers, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, both of whom served as influences on the Tragic Silence series. Another to write of them was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: the namesake of the Goethe Tower in the Frankfurt City Forest, where Hanna, Frank and Bernstein convene to rescue Jocelyn. Wilhelm mentions that a habit of Romanian Strigoi demons is targeting young children. This detail is taken from an 1865 account of Transylvanian folklore, which attested that Strigoi fed on infants. The article in question was written by one Wilhelm Schmidt, after whom both Wilhelm's first name and Mina's surname are derived.
The alias surname 'Karnstein', which Hanna, Wilhelm and Frank use while in hiding, is the real name of the vampire Carmilla in J. Sheridan Le Fanu's novel of the same name; Carmilla is revealed to really be called Countess Mircalla Karnstein. When faced with the prospect of allowing Frank to come of age, Hanna ponders how he will manage in five years' time when their ordeal is over. This foreshadows her own death in Wings of the Dragonfly, which occurs in 2004: five years later.
David Bernstein is named after the vampire David from The Lost Boys. During the final confrontation, Frank leaps between Hanna and Mina with his wings spread, in order to prevent Mina from using her telekinesis on Hanna. This is exactly the same way he attempts to protect Bianka at the end of Tragic Silence.
At the end of the novel, Hanna and Frank spend the winter in Geneva. This is where, in 1816, Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, John William Polidori and Claire Clairmont spent a summer. While there, Byron suggested they have a competition to write the best ghost story. This led to the creation of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and The Vampyre by Polidori. The latter was the progenitor of the Romantic vampire genre, and was inspired by Fragment of a Novel by Byron - itself one of the first stories written in English featuring a vampire theme. Hanna briefly mentions to Frank that she once heard a legend of a priest who tried to wipe out demons. This references the Hattyupatak Final Purge, of which Janos Kalvin was the sole survivor - and who Frank would later face in Tragic Silence.
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