This is all based on Eli’s revelation to Oskar that he is over 200 years old. We learn that Eli sleeps for several months out of the year and then wakes up in a weakened state.
Eli says that when he awakes from his long sleep he is “little again” and “weak” and needs help. By “help” he means someone like Håkan. We learn early on that Håkan had predecessors.“I mean there are months at a time when I don’t . . . get up at all. And then a few months when I . . . live.”
In what part of the year would Eli be sleeping? One part of the novel that did not make it into the film version is the changing of the seasons. The novel meticulously gives us dates and times for the narrative. We begin in the fall on October 18. The film starts in the dead of winter, but in the book the weather is still fall-like. When the book ends, winter is well under way. I am filling in the blanks here, but I am going to say that Eli’s dormant period would be the spring and summer. The days grow longer in the spring and summer, especially in countries close to the artic circle. Not a good time for a vampire trying to avoid the sun. As fall arrives, the days get shorter and there is more darkness. Winter is the season for vampires. Eli emerges from his long (six months maybe) sleep and needs some help. We have a rough idea how long Håkan has been with Eli because he mentions two previous murders. That would place his active employment as Eli’s servant beginning in the fall.
This human element in Eli’s vampire life is one that really does defy logic. How are you going to find a reliable servant on skid row? How are you going to find someone like Håkan to whom you are going to entrust your life? The only way I can see this working is if Eli has some unspecified supernatural ability. Eli would need “glamour” to seduce or delude someone enough to have a reliable servant, much like Dracula does with Renfeld. Then it would make more sense, although I still can’t see Eli surviving 200 years with these dodgy arrangements. Eli would not only need a serial killer, but also a guardian to protect his hiding place while he is sleeping.
As the story begins, Eli has recently emerged from his long sleep and being weak he can not kill for himself, at least not kill and “turn off” his victims the way he wants to, so Håkan needs to be engaged to do the dirty work and in this scene he balks:
During this period I believe Eli is actually regaining his strength and after enough feedings will be the supernaturally powerful vampire discussed in other threads. Arguing with Håkan, Eli says that he is uncertain whether he is strong enough to kill. This part of the story gives a much more sinister meaning to the early meetings between Eli and Oskar. The Rubik’s cube, the shower that Eli takes, these are all devices used to get closer to Oskar so that Eli can kill him. Oskar is intended to be Eli’s first take-down of the season. Oskar makes a good candidate for this honor because he is young, naïve and weak. Oskar is also small, so it will be easier for the body to be disposed of. Happily, things don’t turn out the way Eli intended.“I’ll die”
“Then die”
“Do you mean that?”
“No. I don’t. But you could do it yourself.”
“I’m still too weak.”
“You’re not weak.”
“Too weak for-that.”
Eli instead kills Jocke, and discovers that he is indeed strong enough to kill a grown man. I think Håkan is sent out to dispose of the body because that would be too risky for Eli. The whole idea is to conceal Eli’s existence as a vampire, even if Håkan is not happy with his “work.” Notice all the grumbling about how heavy the body is.
As winter progresses and Eli feeds repeatedly he regains his vampire powers that are detailed in the novel. His flying, his claws etc. The season changes from fall into winter. As the world becomes more lifeless, Eli is able to resume his perverse life as a vampire. Eli has his “starving times,” and that unpleasantness about being invited in, but overall the sense I get is steady progress towards the powerful vampire that swoops into the swimming pool at the end of the novel.
At least, that is how I have imagined it.
