The Cthulhu Dynasty - "The Nameless City" and "The Hound" by HP Lovecraft

[Abe Sargent]

As mentioned in a post in the general forum, I am interested in doing a dynasty where I read one of the great horror short stories in the Cthulhu Mythos. Then I post my own review and synopsis.

Here is how this dynasty will run:

1). I'll post what the next story in the dynasty is, and if possible, I'll supply a link to where you can find it on the Net. Then I'll wait a day or two before posting my review. This gives any reader a chance, if they want, to read the story. Some of the stories that I will be reading are among the most influential short stories in the history of horror literature.

2). Then I post my review and synopsis, and we can comment on the story, you can post your own thoughts if you've read it, and so forth. I'll also provide a historical perspective on many of these stories.

And thus the dynasty would go, slowly moving over the face of the great Mythos stories.

So, let's try it out! The first short story that I am going to review is "The Call of Cthulhu." You have to start with this story. It is easily one of the top ten or maybe even five most influential horror short stories of all time and the originator of the Mythos.

If you are interested in reading The Call of Cthulhu, clck your mouse at:

hxxp://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecallofcthulhu.htm

And give it a read!


I will post more on the Mythos and this story in particular a bit later. I hope to post my review and synopsis on Friday, but if I can't, expect it over the weekend.


Good luck!


Let's include an updated Table of Contents, in case folks want to catch up. These are the stories we've read and discussed thus far:


1). The Call of Cthulhu, by HP Lovecraft; 4.5 stars
2). The Shadow over Innsmouth, by HP Lovecraft 5.0 stars
3). The Dunwich Horror, by HP Lovecraft, 4.0 stars
4). The Haunter of the Dark, by HP Lovecraft, 4.0 stars
5). At the Mountains of Madness, by HP Lovecraft, 4.0 stars
6). The Colour Out of Space, by HP Lovecraft, 4.5 stars
7). The Tale of Satampra Zeiros, by Clark Ashton Smith, 4.0 stars
8). Ubbo-Sathla, by Clark Ashton Smith, 3.5 stars
9). The Seven Geases, by Clark Ashton Smith, 5.0 stars
10). The Black Stone, by Robert E. Howard, 4.0 stars
11). The Thing on the Roof, by Robert E. Howard, 3.0 stars
12). The Fire of Asshurbanipal, by Robert E. Howard, 4.0 stars
13). Worms of the Earth, by Robert E. Howard, 4.0 stars
14). The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long, 3.0 stars
15). The Shadow out of Time, by HP Lovecraft, 2.0 stars
16). The Challenge from Beyond, by CL Moore, A. Merritt, HP Lovecraft, Robert Howard and Frank Belknap Long, 2.0 stars
17). The Space-Eaters, by Frank Belknap Long, 2.5 stars
18). The Lair of the Star-Spawn, by August Derleth and Mark Schorer, 2.5 stars
19). The Walker on the Wind, by August Derleth, 3.0 stars
20). The Sealed Casket, by Richard F. Seawright, 2.0 stars
21). An Inhabitant of Carcosa, by Ambrose Bierce, 5.0 stars
22). Haita the Shepherd, by Ambrose Bierce, 4.0 stars
23). The Yellow Sign, by Robert W Chambers, 5.0 stars
24). A Shop in Go-By-Street, by Lord Dunsany, 3.5 stars
25). Of Skarl the Drummer, by Lord Dunsany, Unranked (Too Short)
26). The Kraken, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Unranked, too short and famous
27). The Moon Pool, by A. Merritt, 3.5 stars for short story (3.0 for five five chapters of novel)
28). The Shambler from the Stars, by Robert Bloch, 2.5 stars
29). The Shadow from the Steeple, by Robert Bloch, 2.5 stars
30). Fane of the Black Pharaoh, by Robert Bloch, 3.5 stars
31). Winged Death, by HP Lovecraft and Hazel Heald, 4.0 stars
32). The Outpost, by HP Lovecraft, Unranked (too short)
33). The Tree-Men of M'Bwa, by Donald Wandrei, 4.0 stars
34). The Fire Vampires, by Donald Wandrei, 2.5 stars
35). Ithaqua, by August Derleth, 3.5 stars
36). The Whisperer in Darkness, by HP Lovecraft, 3.0 stars
37). Bells of Horror, by Henry Kuttner, 3.0 stars
38). The Eater of Souls, by Henry Kuttner, 3.5 stars
39). The Jest of Droom-Avista, by Henry Kuttner, 3.0 stars
40). The Dreams in the Witch House, by HP Lovecraft, 2.0 stars
41). The Salem Horror, by Henry Kuttner, 2.0 stars
42). The Black Kiss, by Henry Kuttner and Robert Bloch, 2.5 stars
43). A Study in Emerald, by Neil Gaiman, 5 stars - Won Hugo Award
44). Only the End of the World Again, by Neil Gaiman, 3.5 stars
45). I, Cthulhu, by Neil Gaiman, 3 Stars
46). Pickman's Modem, by Lawrence Watt-Evans, 3 stars
47). 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai: by Roger Zelazny, 5 stars - Won Hugo Award
48). A Quarter to Three, by Kim Newman, 3.5 stars
49). The Big Fish, by Kim Newman, 4 stars
50). Jerusalm's Lot, by Stephen King, 3 Stars
51). Crouch End, by Stephen King, 3.5 Stars
52). The Church in High Street, by Ramsey Campbell 2.5 stars
53). Cold Print, by Ramsey Campbell, 3.5 stars
54). Some Notes Concerning a Green Box, by Alan Dean Foster, 3 stars
55). The Horror on the Beach, by Alan Dean Foster, 2 Stars
56). The Eye of Hlu-Hlu, by Donald Burleson, 2 Stars
57). Dark Awakening, by Frank Belknap Long, 3.5 stars
58). The Terrible Parchment, by Manly Wade Wellman, 3 stars
59). Than Curse the Darkness, by David Drake, 2.5 stars
60). The Courtyard, by Alan Moore, 4 stars
61). Neonomicon, by Alan Moore, Not Ranked, Won Stoker Award
62). Shaft Number 247, by Basil Copper, 4 Stars
63). Black Man with a Horn, by T.E.D. Klein, 4 Stars
64). The Fishers from Outside, by Lin Carter, 3.0 Stars
65). Dead of Night, by Lin Carter, 2.5 Stars
66). Out of the Ages, by Lin Carter, 2.0 Stars
67). The Horror in the Gallery, by Lin Carter, 2.0 Stars
68). Nameless City, by H.P. Lovecraft
69). The Hound, by H.p. Lovecraft


EDIT - I decided to edit in my ratings for these stories.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, let's begin with a discussion of Lovecraft and the Mythos. Why should you care? Why is this stuff important? (Other than being good, of course)


HP Lovecraft was a pulp writer in the late teens, twenties through the mid thirties before he died. His early stories are written in a very Poe vein and his middle stories are written in a very Dunsany vein. It isn't until the above story, The Call of Cthulhu, that he finds his own voice. He'll only be writing short stories under his own voice for about 10 years before he dies.

Oh what ten years they are

Lovecraft is not a major writer of the time. He's not even a major pulp writer. Lovecraft was a minor pulp writer who was good enough to keep getting published and have respect and a living but not nearly enough to really skyrocket. His works were so visionary and different that manyr eaders simpyl did not like them At a time when people were turning to the pulps for cowboy stories dressed up as sci-fi stories, with simple plots, big breasts, and fights, Lovecraft wrote real literature.

It wasn't until years after his death that his writings generally became seen for the genius that they are. (There were visionaries. After publishing The Call of Cthulhu, Robert Howard wrote Weird Tales and said that this story would go down as one of the best weird short stories of all time. He was right.)

There were three major writers for Weird Tales. Clark Ashton Smith was the most prolific, Robert Howard the most popular, and Lovecraft, the most skilled. These three were great friends and exchanged letters and story ideas.

Lovecraft began using similar elements in his stories from one to the next. He would borrow a place, character, book or being from one of his previous stories in order to more fully flesh out his current story. This is the beginning of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Of course, this was just one writer sharing ideas among stories. That's nothing particularly unusual. What chanegd was the other half of Lovecraft's works.

Lovecraft is one of the most noted epistolareans of our age. He wrote letters that were pages long to correspondants, and he loved writers. He would write letter after letter to writers, asking them about their stories, complementing their style or a clever turn of phrase, and talkign with them about various ideas, stories, and so forth.

Lovecraft would counsel young writers like August Derleth and Robert Bloch while co-writing stories with tons of young writers, like Zeala Bishop and Adolphe DeCastro. This combination of writing with young writers while also counseling others and working with established writers created a cadre of writers that communicated back and forth.

Most people believe that it was Clark Ashton Smith who began the Mythos by adding an element to one of his stories. In one of his fantasy stories set in an old Earth, CAS wrote Kultulten as an evil deity. Someone wrote in and asked if this was an old form of Cthulhu. He hadn;t mean it to be so, be after considering it, he liked the idea, and responded that it was, in fact, Cthulhu.

That was the beginning.

Robert Howard grabbed the Necronomicon for one of his stories and Lovecraft responded by taking Howard's Unaussprechlichen Kulten and adding it to his own stories. Lovecraft grabbed the evil deity Tsathoggua from Clark Ashton Smith's writings and added it to his writings.

This give and take continued and increased with more authors and more material until Lovecraft died in early 1937. When he died, one of his proteges, August Derleth, really took over Lovecraft's works.

Derleth founded Arkham House Publishing and began compiling Lovecraft's works and publihsing them. He kept Lovecraft alive again and again through printing after printing, and Arkham House still owns the rights to Lovecraft to this day.

Derleth also wrote heavily in the Mythos. He coined the term, "The Cthulhu Mythos," and then wrote and inspired others to keep writing their horror stories in the Mythos. Derleth would also "co-write" books with Lovecraft by turning Lovecraft's outlines or short stories into novels.

The problem with Derleth, and this is why he is usually universally scorned by Lovecraft fans, is that he is not nearly the writer Lovecraft was. Where Lovecraft would spook you with mystery, mood and the unknown, Derleth would gleefully pull back the curtain. Whether or nor Lovecraft had envisioned his universe to be as Derleth painted it, one has to admit that Lovecraaft at least never revealed it, like a clever showman.

Lovecraft was a masterful magician and Derleth was the sufficient magician who made his living showing you how magicians did things.

Derleth also changed Lovecraft's visions significantly and in ways which we will likely get into later (I don't want to burden new readers with the language of the Mythos until later).

There were tons of writers that wrote short stories that incorporated one or more elements of this growing myth-cycle. In fact, writing a short story or three in the Cthulhu mileau is common for major writers. In my seven or eight Mythos antholgies, I have short stories in the Mythos by:

Neil Gaiman
Stephen King
Phillip Jose Farmer
Harlan Ellison
Robert Howard
Robert Bloch
Roger Zelazny
Brain Lumley
Ramsey Campbell
Lin Carter
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Fritz Leiber

and much more. In fact, I've read novels or works by all of these writers in other areas (King his novels, Leiber the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, Robert Howard's Conan, and so forth).

Many writers great and small have spun tales using one or mroe Mythos elements, and therefore, this world in unlike other shared worlds that are controlled by a company. This is all, for the most part, public domain. I could point you to websites that still accept public submissions from writers like me and you that are Mythos and will publish them if they are good enough.

It's a great area to read and explore, and therefore, I hope you at least read the reviews and such, even if you choose not to read the stories.

[Chas in Cinti]

My fave Cthulu novel is "Nightmare's Disciple" by Pulver. I think it was published by Chaosium, but I really got into it!

Regards,
Chas

[Raven Hawk]

You've piqued my interest. I may be following and reading along.

[Abe Sargent]

Yay!

[Abe Sargent]

The Call of Cthulhu - Synopsis

All synopses are spoilers, so do not read this if you do not wish to know what happens.

Our story begins with the protagonist, who in this story is nothing more than a compiler of information. The protagonists uncle, a noted professor of archeology and ancient languages at Brown Univeristy has just passed away under mysterious circumstances. In his papers, the protagonist finds a locked case, and opens it with a key on his uncle's personal key ring.

In the box are some papers, newspaper clippings, a bas-relief that is only a year or two old, and a journal. The bas-relief has an odd figure at once part octopus, part anthropod and part dragon. There is an unknown language on the bas relief and it appears to be a scene on an isle.

The protagonist opens the papers and begins reading. He discovers that the bas-relief was made by a person, Wilcox, who claimed to have seen the scene and carvings in a dream. He then sculpted what he saw and appraoched the professor. Some of the words he remembers hearing include Cthulhu and R'lyeh. The professor began to keep notes on Wilcox's dreams, corresponded with others abroad, and began to research more intimitely.

Wilcox will then go into a long dark stupor that lasts for days until he pops out with no memory and no longer has the dreams.

As the protagonist continues exploring the contents of the box, the science shifts to the professor's own journal from 17 years prior at an archeologist convention where an Inspector Legrasse of the New Orleans police department arrives with an odd statue. Legrasse comes with a story of a black cult that they busted and confiscated the statue.

The assembled archeologists are amazed because none have any information on this statue. It's obviously old, of an unknown substance, high quality and of a octopus/dragon with an upright gait.

Then one distinguished colleague points out that he had heard of rumors of an obscure tribe of eskimo in West Greenland that supposedly worshipped an old demon god. He then ventured out to meet this dark tribe of eskimpo, and observes silently their worship and overhears them recite a chant over and over again.

At this point, Legrasse is asked to recount his story. 20 police officers responded to calls from a group of squaters out deep in the bayou of strange chants and lights in the night from a deep, black area of the swamp where no one supposedly goes. The officers investigate and discover a large number of cannibal worshippers, dancing naked aroudn a statue of an old figure int eh middle.

Legrasse and the one archeologist agree that they overhead the same chant. Legrasse asked the cannibals that they had captured what it meant and they inform him that it means "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

One older cannibal celebrant is named Castro, and Castro will give information to Legrasse about an ancient cult that worships the Old Ones who have died long ago but continue to await their reawakening at the hands of their servents, with whom they communicate via dreams.

After finishing these tales of his uncle's, the protagonist disocovers on his own a paper clipping from an Australian Newspaper of a ship that was captured with an idol the same size at Prof. Legrasse's. Our protagonist heads to Australia and finds that one person survived, but he has moved back to his home at Oslo. Our protagonist follows but arrives too late. His wife remains, dressed all in black, and informs that her husband died a few days ago to mysertoius circumstances. Johanson, the remaining sailor, left a journal, which our protagonist takers, and then reads.

The story goes like this:

The sailor was on a ship bound for New Zealand when a ship of fifty people tells them to turn back. The ship attacks and overcomes these apparent pirates, and then continues to sail to see why they required Johanson's ship to turn around. They arrive on an island that is where none exist and there they disocver gigantic ruins ("cyclopean" as the author describes them) with an odd, non-Euclidean geometry that does not correlate with the known laws of math and science.

After investiagting, the group stumble across a huge door in the floor/wall (hard to tell with the geology and architecture being unrelateable). The door slowly opens and a positive darkness spills out, darkening the sky and sun. They begin to hear the splash and movement of something gigantic.

Several begin to move away from the door, including Johanson, when out comes a giant clawed hand that sweeps away three of the men. The remaining men began running towarsd the steamer they left behind and out from this cyclopean doorway appears a gigantic figure, part octopoid, with great wings and an erect walking figure.

More will fall, die, or faint dead, but two make it to the steamer. One is struck mad and eventually dies gibbering. The other is Johanson. He begins the ships, but the gigantic figure of the creature folllowing enters the water, where the head only remains above the water.

Realizing that the creature is faster than him, he turns the boat around and sails full speed at the head, hitting it full force and the octopus head explodes like a balloon.

As he looks back, he sees the head reassembling. He continues to sail away. Several days later, a fierce storm hits, and when people go back to the spot, nothing is there.

Our protagonist puts it all together, however. Wilcox has his dream on the same night that an earthquake hit, causing R'lyeh to rise fromt the ocean floor, and Cthulhu to begin to send out dreams. When Johanson and his men landed on the island and opend the door, Wilcox started to go crazy, until the storm occurs, when R'lyeh sinks below the seas, and Wilcox goes back to normal suddenly, and the dreams cease.

The protagonist fears for his life, and that agents of Cthulhu might kill him as they did his uncle and Johanson. That is the last entry in his journal. The journal was found among his effects after his death which occured the following day after the last entry.

[Abe Sargent]

The Call of Cthulhu - Review

All reviews are spoiler free.

Why is The Call of Cthulhu so important to horror literature? You can see in the first paragraph. I want you to read this paragraph, the first one in the story:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Can you see what this story did? In one paragraph, in one story, he advanced horror past all previous stories. Lovecraft writes the first, what I call large scale horror story.

Previous horror stories involves a guy getting bricked behind a wall or a group of friends fighting a vampire in London, or a guy discovering that the woman he was engaged to was actually his sister or an evil plant actually being a harginger of a murdered corpse or a ghost haunting a army troop.

This story launches past that. This story creates the basic Cthulhu Mythos concept that we are insignificant little creatures who are beneath the notice of beings significantly more powerful than ourselves.

This story has a macro scale. It is concerened with things much bigger than a vampire, a ghost, a murderer, or a wierd death. This is concerned with the nature of existance. The term Lovecraft coined for this was cosmic horror.

This is cosmic horror on a major plane. This story not only advanced horror but it also was Lovecraft's wake up story. This allowed him to fully realize his own voice, his own world, and his own ideas. It's a very lonely place.

Lovecraft's philosophy has come to be known as Cosmic Indifference. Nobody cares about us, nothing. We aren't even worth noticing. In the scheme of existance, we are lower than ants.

This sense of loneliness goes beyond being hunted by a werewolf. We are alone in the cosmos. Throughout dimensions and space, nobody cares about us, unless they need something from us, just as we might occasionally need something from bacteria.

All we are is tools to powers greater than our entire race combined, and as soon as we've outlived our usefulness, we'll be discarded with no more though that you or I would give to discarding a used match.

That's why Lovecraft is so great. That's why writers are still emulating his concepts 80 years later. That's why writers great and tiny are still writing in his world. He is a genius that pushed a genre beyond the pervious boundaries, and scared people with what was discovered.



I'd give this a 4.5 stars out of 5. It can be a little uneven at times, but it is amazing for the most part, and well ahead of its time.

[Abe Sargent]

The next story to read is The Shadow Over Innmouth.

hxxp://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/theshadowoverinnsmouth.htm


This is the second most anthologized of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos fiction (the third most overall. One of his Poe-esque stories, The Rats in the Walls is actually his most anthologized because it is considered so technically proficient).

I believe this is his best work. It is considered by most fans to be the best of his stories after The Call of Cthulhu. It is interesting to note that this story was never published for five years after it was written, until just before his death. Yet most remember it very fondly.

This is a perfect second story to read, because it is a bit easier to read that The Coulour Out of Space or The Shadow Out of Time or The Whisperer in Darkness.

I'll try to get this review and synopsis up Monday.



One more thing - if you have played The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners fo the Earth by Bethesda Softworks, then you will really identify with this story. That game was based on this one.

[Abe Sargent]

Some info on The Shadow Over Innsmouth:

It's Lovecraft's longest short story, although he wrote three novellas that are longer. That's why I'm giving an extra day

Its the story I've read the most. I read it last night again for the fourth time. Great, high quality stuff.


It's very easy to get into. That may be why it is the most used of his works. In just this century, there is:

2001 - Dagon, Horror Film based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth (TSOI)

2005 - The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Video Game, based largely on TSOI

2006 - Cthulhu, horror film to be released later this year, based on TSOI

Click here to see trailer for Cthulhu:

hxxp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478126/trailers-screenplay-E27378-10-2


-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

The Shadow Over Innsmouth Synopsis

All synopses are spoilers. Please skip this if you want no spoilers.


We open with our protagonist in Newburysport, in a coming of age tour of the area of his ancestry in New England. He is wanting a train to Arkham but does not want to pay the fare, so he is directed to a bus to Innsmouth that will then lead to Akrham. The locals advise him away from Innsmouth, and curious, he does a little investigation into Innsmouth while in Newburysport.

He discovers that the town is an old fishing village that may have, once, been a decent port, but has since decayed, with naught but one gold refinery and a lot of fishing as its remaining economy. He swing sby the Newburysport Historical Register and takes a look at a piece of gold supposedly from the Innsmouth refinery. It's a gold diadem with an alloy of some metal he does not recognize. The archaic tiara is fully developed and fleshed out, like it has centuries of art behind it, but does not resemble any known human style of art. The angles look off and the tiara appears to be shaped for an unusually sized head.

Intrigued by this piece of gold and by the rumors, our protagonist, with a fierce curious streak, decides to save a few bucks and takes the bus to Innsmouth. The bus is driven by Joe Sargent and he looks...off. The author will describe Joe Sargent's looks and although no individual description is unusual on its own, the cumulative effect is a very disquieting feeling.

The bus heads to Innsmouth and our protagonist views the countryside, observing the dilapidation of Innsmouth close up. He does get a bit of fright when passing a church newly dedicated to the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Out of the door walks a priest wearing a similar tiara, and he gets a bit of a scare, but nothing serious.

Our protagonist arrives and exits the bus. He can occasionally sees a fellow Innsmouth person and notices that they have a similar look to Joe Sargent. The young ones look farily normal, but older ones show more pronounced features. The portagonist calls this the Innsmouth Look, and beleives it is due to inbreeding on a massive level. There are not any old people about.

He heads to a local gorcery store which is a chain, where there is a normal service person there, from out of town. He explains the town, its eccentricities, where visitors are allowed to go, and gives the protagonist a crudely drawn map of Innsmouth.

The protagonist, as a historian of architecture, sets out to explore Innsmouth and observe the buildings. He explores the town for several horus before he comes across Zadok Allen sitting by the fire station. The clerk at the gorcery store mentioned that Zadok Allen, a man of 95 years old, could tell stories of early Innsmouth if it was loosened by liquor.

Seizing the opportunity, the protagonist procures a bottle of homemade whiskey and leads Zadok to a quiet and secluded area by the shore. Out over a mile and half is the Devil's Reef, where mysterious things are said to take place. Out of the way of peering eyes, the protagonost plies Zadok with alcohol until his tongue is loosened.

Several pages are dedicated to the history of Innsmouth as told by Zadok. Here is his short story:

A sailor named Obed Marsh owned several vessels and sailed out of Innsmouth to all corners of the world. While in Indonesia, Obed came across a group of native on a secluded island that were rich with these gold artifacts and fish. None of the other islands had a bounty of fish. These natives claimed that those they worshipped gave them fish and occasionaly these gold trinkets. In return, they gave sacrifices to the sea.

Obed traded for the gold trinkets and returned to Innsmouth. The depression of the early 1840s hit Innsmouth hard and the people were desparate. Then Obed sailed away again, and this time, he arrived with the natives and spoke with them at greater length. The chief gave him a lead stone with odd carvings and said that if Obed dropped the lead stone in the water anywhere near these Deep Ones, they would come up the surface. Supposedly, the Deep Ones would want to mate with humans and walk around outside, for they were amphibians and enjoyed such things. Their spawn would be immortal.

Obed left with a stone and a new bride from the tribe. When he rearrived at Innsmouth, he brought a group of desparate folk together and sailed out to Devil's Reef and called up the Deep Ones. Soon, a few people around town came up missing, and Zadok Allen, as a boy, realized that it was Obed who was taking them to Devli's Marsh, so he called up the town leaders.

This was several months after Obed had begun working with the Deep Ones. The village elders rose up and captured Obed and all of his crew in one fell swoop, over 30 men. Then, after a few days of not getting their tribute, the Deep Ones attacked Innsmouth en masse, butchered the town leaders, and installed Obed Marsh as the new leader of Innsmouth.

Obed took politicial power and used it against other nearby cities for a while, even tricking some poor Akrham bloke to marrying his hybrid daughter.

Obed created a bunch of new rules, such as don't tell strangers this story.


End Story:

As Zadok is pointing out some things on Devil's Reef, he cries out that they;ve been spotted from the water. He tells the protagonist to leave immeidately for it is no longer safe for him. Zadok flees from the water, but a sudden wave hits and when it relents, Zadok cannot be found anywhere.

The protagonist doesn't beleive old Zadok, and when he returns to Innsmouth to catch the outgoing Bus to Arkham, he is informed that the bus broke down and will not be able to make it that evening. He finds lodgings at the Gilman House in Innsmouth and lies down to sleep after repairing the broken bolt to his room and sliding the bolts to the north and south adjoining rooms.

After some time, he realizes that someone is using a key in his door's lock. They gently try to the lock but find that his repair to the deadbolt had kept it tight. They then try the two adjoinging doors quietly, testing them to see if they work. As they leave to go back downstairs, the protagonist can hear them talking to someone else. The protagonist realizes that his death is imminate and investigates the window. He sees that he will need to go north or south two rooms in either direction before tryign to jump on an adjacent building's roof.

He dares not go outside so he tries the south door, but finds it opens towards him, and it will be difficult to bash open. He slides a bookcase in front the door and then looks north. As he goes to that door, he hears someone knocking on his room door. He checks the north door and the knocking gets louder, hopefully covering his banging on the north door.

He blasts through the north door but the sound in tremendous. He sees that the door to the hallway is unbolted, so he slides the bolt just as someone reaches the door. He then dashes through the open adjoining door and closes the hallway door in this third room as the door is being opened. He pulls a bedcase against this door and he hears people slamming against the door in his first bedroom where the bookcase now is.

He slides furniture against all of the doors to the current room and moves to the window. The bashing against the doors and furniture is getting loud, and something heavy is being used as a ram against one door.

The protagonist sees that there is a large ledge on the opposite building and he goes over, then crawls up to an open skylight and runs down this new building, ultimitely hitting the street.

Consulting his map, our protagonist begins moving towards one of hte main roads, and as he does so, he will sometimes dash, sometimes hide, and sometime walk out in the open using the shambling Innsmouth gait. As the hue and cry level continues, he realizes that all of the main entries to city are guarded by Innsmouth folk, and he decides to head to the old railraod and use it as a way out (Innsmouth is surrouded by Salt Marshes and not really a place you just want to scurry around)

As he moves towards the station, he sees some lights on distant Devil's Reef and then turns around and sees those same lights coming from the Gilman House, like messages coming back and forth. Then, as the moon comes out from behind the cloud, he sees the ocean.

At first, he thinks the ocean is very choppy, but there is no wind. Then as he walks closer to the shore in order to get closer to the train station, he sees that the water is full of things swimming to shore from the Reef.

He ducks into a side alley and scurries to the train station. He begisn to follow the old train tracks and there is no pursuit. He jumps over a gap in the tracks at a covered bridge and comes to where the railroad crosses the main road in and aout of Innsmouth. As he gets closer, he observes that the people are on the road, out and looking for him.

He has a good hiding place, and can observe the people following him. His natural inclination is to close his eyeys and keep them shut from the terrors that he suspects as they people pass close by his hiding place in the brush. Ultiamtely, he looks and sees these fish/toad/human creatures moving about, and one is wearing the same type of tiara that he had seen twice before.

He passes out, only to awaken the following morn when he scurries to the nearest town and babbles all he saw to the local constabulary which calls in the feds. His information is verified and then acted upon. In one swift action, the feds torpedo Devil's Reef, kill and catpure most of Innsmouth and silence the ring leaders.


Several years later, our protagonist is continuing his genelogical investigations and there is a deadend with his grandmother. His grandmother was a ward of the court with a anonymous benefactor that paid her way through school. She married an Akrham man and they had a daughter, that was our protagonist's mother, and a son that was hs uncle.

The protagonist fears knowledge when he discovers that his grandmother was a Marsh, but there are many Marshes in the Essex County region of Massachusetts.

His grandmother had disappeared under strange circumstances, and his uncle committed suicide with a pistol (his mother died when he was very young to an accident). He had, as a chield, never liked the look of his grandmother and uncle, but it wasn't until he looked at their pictures that he noticed the similarty

Didn't Zadok mention that Obed had tricked an Arkham man into marrying his daughter?

Our protagonist has a cousin in the insane asylum in Canton spoting things about dreams and Deep Ones and many columned Y'ha-nthlei.

As our protagonist's investigations continue, his own dreams become more concrete. He dreams of swimming with his grandmother in great Y'ha-nthlei and of joining his brethern underneath the sea. As he looks in the mirror, he sees an increasingly familar and comfortable face staring back.

So far I have not shot myself as my uncle Douglas did. I bought an automatic and almost took the step, but certain dreams deterred me. The tense extremes of horror are lessening, and I feel queerly drawn toward the unknown sea-deeps instead of fearing them. I hear and do strange things in sleep, and awake with a kind of exaltation instead of terror. I do not believe I need to wait for the full change as most have waited. If I did, my father would probably shut me up in a sanitarium as my poor little cousin is shut up. Stupendous and unheard-of splendors await me below, and I shall seek them soon. Ia-R'lyehl Cihuiha flgagnl id Ia! No, I shall not shoot myself - I cannot be made to shoot myself!

I shall plan my cousin's escape from that Canton mad-house, and together we shall go to marvel-shadowed Innsmouth. We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever.

-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Shadow Over Innsmouth

All reviews are spoiler free, except I allow myself to refer to the first page.

This is Lovecraft as his best. It is a great example of his sense of scale. Horror is developed by scale, as the reader becomes increasingly cognizant of the surrounding terror.

It's also a very rich story. Lovecraft will engulf you in details of Innsmouth, giving you an amazing and fleshed out backstory. This is more that you normally get from Lovecraft, and you can see what he could do when he was firing on all cylinders.

It also hits all fo the major Lovecraft sub-themes. Lovecraft loved exploring dreams in his stories, and here you have dreams. Lovecraft loved exploring the consequence of blood and ancestry, and here you have his best example of this sub-theme. Lovecraft had a thing about not liking oceans and seas, and here you get that disquieting sense of the brine.

My favorite scene in all of Lovecraft is the one I detailed signifciantly in the synopsis. It's marvelouslly done, with loads of tension with ever increasing revelations that continute to add to the sense of impending doom.

I think this is also one of the most flavorful of Lovecraft's stories. Can't you just taste Innsmouth? It's smell clogs your nostrils, you can feel it on your skin, you can hear and see the sights. It's a very sensational work.

Although this was published a few months before Lovecraft's death, only 150 copies were made before the printer went out of business. It would be printing in Wierd Tales 5 years later to great acclaim, and was instantly realized as one of the authors greatest works.

I think one of the reasons Lovecraft didn't like this story is that it was a bit different for him and it included elements that were very un-Lovecraft, like the (spoiler, but not really, since you learn this on the first page) feds getting involved. This was particularly outside the realm of Lovecraft since he prefers his characters to stand or fall (and usually fall) on their own.

I hope you either enjoyed reading the story or reading the synposis and review.


I'd give Shadow Over Innsmouth a 5 out of 5 stars. It is a pitch perfect story.

[Abe Sargent]

The next story is The Dunwich Horror. You can find it here:

hxxp://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thedunwichhorror.htm


The Dunwich Horror completes the Lovecraft Trilogy of Perfection, toerhwise known as his three greatest Mythos stories. It's not nearly as long as The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

I'll try to get the synopsis and review up on Wednesday.


I am going to start editing the post title with the title of the new work I am reading.

[KWhit]

Great thread, but I'm behind. I am going to start on The Call of Cthulhu tonight.

[Abe Sargent]

Great!

I'm a little behind as well. I'm super busy with training, so it may be a day or two before I finish The Dunwich Horror and have time to post my thoughts on it.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Dunwich Horror

The story begins in a rural village named Dunwich that is older than most New England towns, and dilapidated in both genepool and architecture. One decaying family, the Whateleys, live in a farmhouse away from Dunwich.

One night, Lavina Whateley, an albino, gives birth to Wilbur Whateley. No one knows the father, but the grandfather, Old Whateley, is quite proud. Over time, Wilbur ages quickly, and begins to exhibit odd features, like elongated ears and such.

His grandfather educates him in the black arts of various tomes and what, while also working on fixing up the house. The people of Dunwich shun the farm and its three inhabitatants.

Old Whateley boards up the top of the house and begins buying a lot of cattle. His herd often look diseased and it appears like his cattle must die quickly.

Lavina and Wilbur are spotted dancing on top of Sentinel Hill where some old stones lie. The spotter thinks they might be naked.

Wilbur always dresses more impeccably than the rest of his family. His room is on the bottom of the house. More carpentry is done, including putting an incline up to a top window and taking out some walls and what.

Lavina starts to be excluded by Old Whateley and Wilbur and is a bit frightful. The few guests never leave the ground floor of the old farmhouse.

Years pass. Eventually, Old Whateley dies, but before he does, he tells Wilbur that he needs to reference page 751 of the unabridged version. As he dies, the Whipporwhills chant ferociously.

Shortly thereafter, Lavina goes missing as well.

Wilbur moves out of the house into a shed and does more carpentry work to the Whateley house.

He arrrives at Misktonic University in Arkham to review their copy of the Necronomican. It seems that his copy is the abridged English copy and he needs to reference the Latin unabridged copy kept there. The librarian is Dr. Henry Armitage, who visited Wilbur Whateley a few years ago and remembers a nasty, unwholesome smell faintly.

Wilbur asks to take the Necronomican back with him. While he was researching it, Armitage references that passage and discovers that it is a reference to Yog-Sothoth as the gate to the Old Ones.

Henry elects not to allow Wilbur to take the Necronomicon, and Wilbur takes off for Harvard to see their copy. Meanwhile, Armitage contacts Harvard and Cambridge and lets them know that Wilbur should not be given any information about the Necronomicon, and they agree.

A while later, Henry Armitage awakens to the sound of the library guard dog howling and a shout like something unhuman. He crosses the street and enters the library where there is evidence that someone broke in. Lying on the floor is what is left of Wilbur Whateley. He was struck by the dog, and his body lies on the floor.

His body is not human, and was apparently a human hybrid with something else. It kept human form only through tight clothing. It had around 20 tentacles around the abdomen, eyes on its hips, a furry back, and this foul stench hangs over the body, the same smell Armitage rememebered from his visit to the Whateley farm.

Over time, the corpse dissolves, and Armitage begins to pack for Dunwich with Professor Rice and Doctor Morgan, two other experts from Miskatonic U with expertise in the area of the antiquarian.


Meanwhile, in Dunwich:

They arrive in Dunwich to find the village people are scared of sounds and odors that come from the Whateley Farm. On the evening of September Ninth, two boys came back to their mothers and claimed that they saw something nasty coming from the Whateley Farm. Most of Dunwich's men gathered and charged the place.

They arrive at the farm only to find that the farmhosue is in ruins and a trail of something large tears trhough the forest. They choose not to follow and return home.

That night, something that stank massively tore into a local farmhouse and evoured the cattle before leaving.

Two more nights pass, and no farms are threatened. The large swath of destruction left by whatever the Dunwich Horror is can be followed, but the people are not threatened. Some begin to feel that maybe the dark time has passed.

On the fourth night, the whipporwhills chanted all night, and when morning came, the entire Frye farm had been completely destroyed, and death and destruction were the only things harvested there.


Meanwhile, in Arkham:


The diary of Wilbur Whateley, discovered in the farmhouse by the people of Dunwich, is sent to Miskatonic University. The diary is in a language that is not easily deciphered.

The books found in the farmhouse ruins along with the diary are given to Armitage's care. Ultimately, armitage cracks the code of the diary. After reading the diary and a subsequent fever, he realizes what has been done in Dunwich by the Whateleys, and what they have let in.

Armitage, Rice and Morgan continue to ready themselves to go to Dunwich, but now with additional alchemical preparations. Unfortunately, their preparations are cut short by news out of Dunwich of the additionall horrors.

They arrive to find a state police car with five officer has arrived to investigate, and the officers have left to follow the trail of the Horror.

They decide to wait the night out, and in the morning, another attack begins, this time in the day, with a storm. A dozen Dunwich folk arrive where the three professors are waiting for the Horror and inform them that the Horror is trampling through some farms.

Armitage rallies the few townsfolk he has, and tells them that the Horror is invisible. He says that he has something that might work against it, and they might as well go after it now.

They arrive at the Bishop place where the Horror supposedly just struck, and the destruction is similar to the Frye incident. Death, and a noisome foetor linger.

Using a spy scope, they see the bushes moving on Sentinel Hill and it appears like the Horror is moving up the steep slope. The townsfolk became frightened and refused to go further, so the three professors trudged on toward Sentinal Hill alone.

The three professors are seen by the townsfolk, using the spyglass, to ascend the hill, and then Rice prepares to spray using a powerful bug spray container with a new formula in it where they believe the Horror to be. This will supposedly turn the Horror visible for a short time.

The townsperson with the spyglass, Curtis, sees the Horror become visible and drops the spyglass, shaking. His broken words:

'Bigger'n a barn... all made o' squirmin' ropes... hull thing sort o' shaped like a hen's egg bigger'n anything with dozens o' legs like hogs-heads that haff shut up when they step... nothin' solid abaout it - all like jelly, an' made o' sep'rit wrigglin' ropes pushed clost together... great bulgin' eyes all over it... ten or twenty maouths or trunks a-stickin' aout all along the sides, big as stove-pipes an all a-tossin' an openin' an' shuttin'... all grey, with kinder blue or purple rings... an' Gawd it Heaven - that haff face on top...'

He'll faint a few seconds later.

The townsfolk pick the spyglass back up to see the three professors running for the top of the Hill and nothing more. The Horror is invisible again. The figures reach the top and one is waving his arms ceremoniously.

The daylight darkens for no discernable reason, dogs begin baying, and a rushing deep tone can be felt from deep away. Lightning flashes with no clouds in the sky.

The sounds appear to be coming from an altar stone atop Sentinel Hill. Then a cry can be heard, montsrous, crying out to its father. Crying out to Yog-Sothoth.

A blast of fury tears from the Hill, ripping through trees, killing whipporwhills, and stripping vegetation of leaves. A short while later, the three professors can be seen marching towards the townsfolk.

They arrive and decide not to answer any questions. Then the person who had seen the Horror awoke and exclaimed that the face of the Horror resembled Old Whateley's.

Armitage decides to let them know what happened. The Horror had been growing inside the side, and it was Wilbur's twin brother. It just resembled its father more than Wilbur had.

[Abe Sargent]

I'll post the review later. I'm not sure where to go next with the dynasty, after the big three, but I have an idea.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Dunwich Horror

Like his two previous works that we've read, Lovecraft imbues this story with a sense of the immense. Even though it is a lower key intensity in terms of scale, its still bigger than a vampire or a ghost story.

I think I know why Lovecraft is so popular among horror writers and enthusiasts. Most horror writers write nameless things. Zombies shamble out from behind tombstones, ghouls attack at night, madmen wield power tools and the perverted torture and maim.

There's no rhyme or reason. Things happen for sensationalism. Lovecraft, on the other hand, understands that true horror goes beyond a scream or a disgusting zombie. He created a world where the very foundation was scary, and then tapped into the world in his stories, giving the reader a glimpse of the unthinkable.

Few horror writers create mythologies. Fantasy writers do, sci-fi writers do, but horror writers do not. Lovecraft created an enduring mythology, and that may be his greateest contribution to horror literature.

The Dunwich Horror, in my opinion, drags a bit. Lovecraft is at his best when he tells one story from one perspective all the way through, like The Shadow Over Innsmouth. When he starts a stary from the point of view of the Dunwich folk, then switches to a Whateley, then to Armitage, then to more townsfolk, then back to Armitage, I think he ruins the horror element.

I also think Lovecraft gives away too much in the early pages of his works. All horror writers use foreshadowing to build suspense, but I sometimes think Lovecraft uses it a bit too much. The Innsmouth foreshadowing let you know that something major happened, but you have no idea as to what. This one tells you the plot early.

As a result, the technical aspects are not nearly as good as Shadow. The Mythos elements are there in full force - Akrham, Dunwich, Miskatonic University, Yog-Sothoth, and the Necronomicon among others. You get a real sense of his world as he intended it, and you get a good sense of Lovecraft as his best. That sense is fleeting however.

Of the Lovecraft trilogy (The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror) that every horror fan should read, this is the weakest.

As such, four out of five stars.

[Abe Sargent]

What's next?

I want to give any readers out there a bit more of a Lovecraft foundation than you already have. I don;t think a Mythos reader needs to read all Lovecraft stories, or even start with all of his Mythos stories. Hoeever, I do think you need a bigger start than this.

Lovecraft has some horror Mythos stories that have significantly heavier sci-fi elements. These include The Colour Out of Space, The Shadow Out of Time, The Whisperer in Darkness and such.

On the other had, more traditional horror stories also exist, like The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and At the Mountains of Madness,

I should recommend At the Moutnains of Madness next. However, it's a novella, so I'll skip it for now. Instead, I'll recommend one of my favorites in the classic horror style that's left.

The Haunter of the Dark

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary...rofthedark.htm


This is one of Lovecraft's final works, and you can see the sum talent of his accumulated skill in it. I actually like it better than The Dunwich Horror. Enjoy!

[Groundhog]

At the Mountains of Madness was the first H.P. Lovecraft I read. I struggled through the first 20 pages or so as I really didn't like his style of writing, but soon enough the real horror began, and I quickly appreciated how perfectly his style of writing and his use of words complimented his stories.

It remains my favourite Lovecraft, though The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a close second. It's a shame he didn't write more stories of the same length as these.

[Abe Sargent]

If you can get past the length of the story, it is VERY good. At the Mountains of Madness is, frankly, better then The Dunwich Horror, and Lovecraft fans list it as their third fav story after Call and Innsmouth.

I think Haunter, Call, Innsmouth, Mountains, would be in my top five. I do not know what my other top five would be.



I finished Haunter just now (it was only 20 pages long), and I'll try to find time to post a synopsis and a review tomorrow. Here are Mythos elements in Haunter:

Necronomicon
Un. Kulten
Des Vermis Mysteriis
Les Cultes des Ghoules

Nephren-Ka

Nyarlathotep
Azazoth
Yog-Sothoth


All of these, except for Nephren-Ka are mentioned very briefly as window dressing. You could pick up Haunter Of the Dark and read it without any previous Mythos expereince and it would work for you, so I like that.


-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

I finished freshmen move in today and I have to go around to the floor meetings in a few minutes to introduce myself. I beleive that in the next day or two I'll have a chance to get my synopsis and review of Haunter up.

In teh meantime, I've decided to cave in and the next story WILL be At the Moutnains of Madness. It's that good, and its that important. It is, however, a novella, so it will take a few extra days and nights to get done. I won't have Mountains up until at least Wednesday.

You can find this story here:

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary...ofmaddness.htm


-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

The Haunter of the Dark Synopsis

The Haunter of the Dark is a shorter tale than previous works that we've analyzed, therefore the synopsis is shorter as well.

The tale beings in Providence, Rhode Island, there the main character, Blake, has rented a room on College Hill which overlooks much of the city. Blake is an occultist in the sense that he is well read, and researches the occult in order to get inspiration for his writing. He has published several short stories as well as done paintings and sculptures.

One day, while gazing out his room at the Providence skyline, he notices an old church steeple that has been darkened with age and disuse. He finds it an interesting dichotomoty against the clean, white surrounding buildings.

He continues to study the church facade from a distabce, and soon finds himself staring at the steeple for a lot of time each day. Obsessed with this old church, he sets forth to find it.

He heads to the area of the city where th church is, and its a largely Italian section. He asks the people but they feign ignorance. He eventually crosses a street that allows him to glimpse the church and heads towards it.

The church is old and dilapidated. Some of the boards have come apart and the surrounding fence is disused. In a moment of impulse, Blake steals into the church and enters the basement.

He sees some odd things (the cross is odd, some glass stained windows are off, a few texts like The Necronomicon and whatnot, etc) and then goes upstairs to the steeple that he saw from his room. Instead of finding a bell, he discovered a podium in the center of the room with seven chairs arrayed around it.

On the podium is a box made of odd materials. He approaches the box and opens it, and inside is a Shining Trapezohedron, a oddly shaped stone of unknown origian that glistens and calls to one's soul teh longer one stares at it.

For a while, Blake stares at the stone until he feels soemthing staring back. Frightnened, he closes the box and takes it. He sees a skeleton in the corner underneath dust with a journal and reads the journal and finds it is the remains of a jounralist who was investigating the church thiry years prior. Something happened to the investigator and he was never heard from again.

Blake leaves and sensing another presence and heads back home. He does some research on the Shining Trapezohedron and discovers that it was unearthed in Nephren-Ka's pyramid. Nephren-Ka is the Black Pharaoh, one who investigated the dark side of man and such and therefore scoured the stars and skies for information about the Old Ones and how to contact them. His name was purged from all Egyptian records until his pyramid was discovered and his remains exhumed along with the Shining Trapezohedron.

This object supposedly began a cult called the Starry Wisdom. This church was supposedly their headquarters long ago. There were mysterious noises and such seen long ago.

Blake realizes that he called out a presence when he stared at the Shining Trapezohedron too long, so he searches for a way to fight it. Apparently, exposing it to light will kill it, and it moves in total darkness. He knows that it is still there, in the upper reaches of the steeple of the church, lurking and waiting.

Then, there is a short blackout. Deaths and noises are reported in the Italian section of the city and he night ends with dozens of Italians with candles and lanterns around the old chruch praying against the forces of evil.

Blake begins to panic, and research more and more. Then, another storm hits and another black out occurs. Blake is staidng at his window and he knows that the Haunter of the Dark will come for him to claim him. Lightning keeps flashing, which keeps the Haunter at bay. Then the lightning stops momentarialy.

The Italians and priest that are gathered outside the old church in another vigil see the steeple explode in the darkness (in the candles and lanterns), with shards flying everywhere. Then, a shreech is heard and the local fraternity in College Hill hears a loud sound and a massive Lightning Bolt rends the sky.

The following day Blake is found at his window, dead from, apparently, electrical shock but the window is unharmed. His notebook is found with his scrawlings after the power went out.

[Abe Sargent]

The Haunter of the Dark Review

As mentioned before, this tale is much shorter than the previous three that I read. I think it's actually a better tale that The Dunwich Horror. I love the imagery of this story, and the various elements really work together to create a very nice mood.

I think, at least in this case, shorter is definitely better. Many of Lovecraft's longers works are highly regarded (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, At the Moutnains of Madness). Still, this shows him a bit more elegant. His prose is tighter and well woven, creating a nice tapestry.

You can tell that he is at the height of his craft when he writes this story. This was near the end of his life and he had already been diagnosed with the stomach cancer that would kill him. He wrote several stories during this time, but this was the only story he wrote by himself. It was really his swan song, since only one other tale (co-written as many of his last tales were) would follow and its not even in the mythos (it is, however, really, really good (The Night Ocean)).

One problem is that the story does have more conventional horror elements at times. As such, it is an easy read from those getting into Lovecraft for the first time, but its a bit disappointing for those who enjoy the uniqueness of Lovecraft's vision.

As a result, I'd say the technical precision is Lovecraft at his best, but the occasionally mundane elements bring it back down.

Four out of Five Stars.

[Abe Sargent]

After "At the Mountains of Madness" I'm going to hit up one more Lovecraft story before moving on to another writer or two.

The last story is "The Colour Out of Space." It is a sci-fi oriented story, so you get a taste of what Lovecraft done the sci-fi way is like. Lovecraft, in his letters, called Mountains and Colour his two best stories, or alternatively, the two stories he wrote that he liked the most. It is appropriate, then, to read these now at the end of our first jounrey through Lovecraft.

You can find Colour at the same website as the other Lovecraft stories and just go to the archive and find Colour and read it.

We'll occasionally come back to Lovecraft after venturing out to other writers. It's not like we'll never see him again. However, we only have two more stops on the Lovecraft Express before moving on to the next line.

-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

I've finished Mountains last night, and I expect to have the synopsis and review up today sometime.

[Abe Sargent]

At the Moutains of Madness Synopsis

Since this is a huge novella sized story, I'm am going to eschew my nomral lenthy and detailed synopsis in lieu of a quick and dirty synopsis.

The narrator and a team of experts in various fields leave Mistonic University on a expedition to the Antarctic. They reach the continent and head inland. After several months of exploring and drilling, the majority of the contingent goes up ahead into the continent while a smaller group stays behind.

The leader of the contingent that goes ahead, Lake, discovers a huge mountain chain. Bigger than the Himalayas by a couple of miles. With odd cube rocks on the slopes. Lake lands the planes at the base of this huge unknown mountain chanin and starts drilling.

Some of the men discover a pocket under the ground where an old cave is. In this are bones of tons of animals with various degrees of scarring. There are also some corpses of this amazing creature, a star shaped (Radially, not vertically), tentacled thing.

Lake takes the 13 specimens of these Star Creatures back to his camp to begin scientific work on them. They are ancient, millions of years old each. He begins to dissect one and makes severl importnat discoveries before a major snow storm moves in.

The smaller group left behind does not hear from Lake's expedition. Again. They head to the camp and discover mutilated corpes, missing star bodies, a missing camp member, a missing dog, lots of missing equipment and more. The smaller expedition starts packing what is left and buries the remains of the bodies.

Two members, Danbury and the narrator take the plane over the Mountains to see what is there while the remaining men pack up the camp.

They see an ancient, worn city on a huge plateau four miles above sea level. The area has been glaciated. They land and explore and discover art that shows the history and culture of the star beings.

After investigating the star beings in the art, including their origins, their war with the servants of Cthulhu aeons ago, their arrival from space, their genetic manipulation of the Shoggoth and more, the two continue deeper into the heart of the city.

A underwater city supposedly existed at the bottom of an underground sea as the last vestige ofthe star beings. The two decide to descend to see what they can see.

After a while, they come across the equipment from camp including the slegdes packing with the stolen equipment and the carefully killed and stored bodies of the missing dog and person. The star beings that awakened and left the camp are nowhere to be found. The two delve deeper.

They notice that the art has changed serious as they get closeo the lake and then they come across four bodies of the star things, recently killed. A mist begisn to form from the lake and a creature changes them back up the inclines and they realize that it is a Shoggoth that is chasing them, and that the Shoggoth must have killed all of the star beings and taken over this last city.

They barely escape and Danbury looks back to see one last unknown horror as they fly away. They leave, never to return and swear that they shall keep others from coming back to Antartica.


Obviously the story is amazingly more detailed than that, but thats the basic gist.

[Abe Sargent]

At the Mountains of Madness Review


This story is famous because is represents Lovecraft demythologizing his own mythos. He takes various elements of his mythos and connects them together in a basic and understandable way. In a way, he pulls aside the curtain and allows readers to see behind the scenes.

The story still has horror elements in it, no doubt. However, Lovecraft loves to mix horror with wonder, and this story is his piece de resistance when it comes to mixing the two.

Mountains was amazingly well researched, from the geography to reading about previous journeys to the Antarctic and more. The science in it is incredible - like reading a Jules Verne novel.

The story includes or mentions a lot of mythos elements like Cthulhu, the Mi-Go, various tomes, and more. It is a core mythos story because it is the story that connects the dots, so to speak.


It can drag a bit at times when Lovecraft does what he really wants, which is to tell you about his universe. Otherwise, its a fine story.

4.0 out of 5.0 stars.


-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

Next up is the last Lovecraft story we'll do for now, The Colour Out of Space. You can find it in the same site as the others (Dagonbytes.com). This one has a different feel with a bit of sci-fi poking out around the edges.


-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

I'm considering picking this back up again for a while. Any interest?

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Anxiety

I'm considering picking this back up again for a while. Any interest?

Absolutely. Been a while since I read any Lovecraft, but reading through this has got me in the mood to pick some more up.

[Abe Sargent]

The Colour Out of Space Synopsis


If you don't want spoilers, move to the next post.


This story open with the narrator, employed by a company building a dam nearby, doing scouting of the area that will be underwater. The reservoir built by the dam will be used for drinking water for Arkham.

One area roughly five acres in size is called the blasted heath. Here nothing grows, everything is grey, and things feel odd. The area around the heath is also odd, but to smaller degrees. After passing through, the narrator stop in Arkham to inquire as to what happened. They tell him it happened in the 1880s, and don't listen to Ammi, a man who lived there and rambled about it. Of course, our narrator seeks out Ammi, the last person living in the wide valley, and gets the story.

In 1882, a meteorite falls to Earth at Nahum Gardener's estate. scientists from a local university arrive to take samples, and the meteorite is completely odd and unusual. It's shrinking, it remains hot, and most tests on it show it to be inert. However, when shining light into a fragment under study, scientists note that it gives off light of various colours, including some that are unreal.

they come back a few days later to get another sample, and while chipping it, find a globule of a plastic/glassy substance. It glows of the same strange unknown colour as was shown, and one cracks it with a hammer. It breaks, and loses its coloration. They try to find another globule to take with them, but fail, so they head back to do more research. After these samples shrink away, they return to the farm to find that after a night of thunderstorms in which lightning hit the meteorite six times, i has completely disappeared.

Over the next few months, more and more disturbing things occur on the farm. Animals are acting queerly, fruit is much bigger, but tastes awful, and so forth. Slowly, over time, more queer things occu.r

Eventually, trees sway at night, plants grow, turn grey, and die. But the most unusual thing is that many plants and animals turn a shade of the unnatural colour and then grey and are destroyed. People in Arkham won;t put stock into these "superstitions." Eventually, animals start dying, and the humans living on the farm are affect. They begin to go mad, and soon, one dies and then another.


At last, almost a year after the fall of the meteorite, Ammi heads back to the farm to check on the family. He finds Nahum in a crazy, mad mood, and his wife locked away and changed. Vapors of the colour brush past him, and the wife, dead, head downstairs to Nahum. Nahum begins to decay in front of Ammi.

Ammi leaves to tell those in Arkham of the death of the Gardeners. Officials arrive at the farm to investigate. They find Nahum and his wife as described by Ammi, greyed and decaying.

They begin to explore the farm for the lost tow children, scour the well. They find two skeletons there. That night, while still investigating, everything begins to coalesce. Glowing plants, trees, swaying, and more turn into bright lights exploding with a range of colours like that of the meteorite, and the farm begins to erupt in that light and miasmas form. Eventually, all fo the light combines and shoots off into the night sky, leaving earth.

A giant popping is heard, and the farm and trees collapse. Ammi notices another wave of the colour on the farm falling into the well, and believes another entity is sill down there.

We slide back to real time, and our narrator mentions he won;t drink any of the water from the new Arkham reservoir.

[Abe Sargent]

The Colour Out of Space Review


All reviews are spoiler free


This is a piece that's more about mood than plot. It's one of the first where Lovecraft combines science fiction and horror, rather than more traditional things with horror. This was an era of occult in horror, including goblins, witches, magic, ghost, vampires and werewolves. Lovecraft's horror is moving into distinctly non-occult and non-gothic areas.

It's not that long. Just 24 pages in my book. He only managed to sell it for $25 to Amazing Stories. The Editor, famous Hugo Gernsback (after whom The Hugo Awards are named) paid him late and he refused to publish with them again. It was the only story ever published for Amazing Stories to be in a famous annual anthology of short stories of various genres called the best of the year (The Best American Short Stories).

It's considered by many one of the best written stories, and again, Lovecraft felt is was his best short story. It's written and published in 1927, the year after The Call of Cthulhu was written but one year before it was published.

As a story at the front of the Mythos, elements in it are very light. If you have never read a Mythos story, then this won't look like it. However, a few famous Lovecraftian scholars point out that it's more important that a story have the Lovecraft tone and values than details like the Neronomicon or Cthulhu. Using that metric, this is a very important story (although Arkham is a Mythos elements, as a fictional town in Massachusetts where a lot of Mythos stuff happens).

I wanted this to be the sixth story and the last Lovecraft story for a while for several reasons. You can see a Mythos story light on elements, and how nice it is, you have a sci fi story, and you have an early mythos story that is before most of the later stuff. It's well written and well-received by critics ever since it saw print. The mood and tone are great!


I hope you enjoyed it if you read it!


I give it a solid four and a half stars out of five.

[Abe Sargent]

What's next?

I want to flesh out Generation 1 for a while before we go up or down the spectrum.


For purposes of this dynasty, we will be using my own language for discussing the Cthulhu Mythos. I am not a scholar, but just someone who loves reading this stuff!



Generation 0 - The foundational pre-Lovecraftian works that were later added to the Mythos, or which have mood, tone and details in common with the Mythos, and inspired Lovecraft and others. This is where you will find stories by Arthur Machen, Robert W Chambers and more.


Generation 1 - HP Lovecraft, and his immediate circle of friends and protegees. These are the first stories, coming out in the late 20s through roughly 1940 a few years after Lovecraft's death. Stories here are in all sorts of genres and feature writers we are about to explore.


Generation 2 - Robert Barlow was given Lovecraft's estate by his will, and was one of his protegees Lovecraft tutored in the craft of writing. August Derleth was another protegee who refused to allow Lovecraft's works to die out. Together, they pushed Lovecraft's works into the public. This gen ends around, roughly, the mid 1960s. It's a time of much change in the Mythos, as we will discus later

Generation 3 - Lin Carter and other writers appear on the scene in the mid 1960s. Too young to have read Lovecraft when he was alive, these new writers had been introduced to him via the collections published by Derleth and others, ans well as Gen 2 stories. Many of them move the Mythos forward in significant ways. Carter sort of takes over the Mythos from Derleth, editing many magazines and collections. He also uses his job s editor at Ballentine Books to bring back several Mythos writers such as Arthur Machen and Clark Ashton Smith. This lasts until, roughly, the mid 80s.


Generation 4 - The modern era. The RPG based on the Mythos put the stories into many more hands. Printing of stories explodes as people demand stories old and new. Many writers set stories in the Mythos as a way of telling art or adding to the story. With greater exposure through publishers like DelRey Books and Chaosian, many writers push the Mythos into many new places, while keeping essential elements. Even as recently as 2004, the Hugo award was given to Neil Gaiman for a short story set in the Cthulhu Mythos (and the Sherlock Holmes one as well - it's just a perfect short story, btw.)


So, those are my views of the various generations and the Mythos.

[Abe Sargent]

The next story will be one of the major authors of the era, and in the Mythos. This story is a bit odd, and will take your Mythos reading to a completely different era.


Clark Ashton Smith wrote fantasy stories set in the future or past of Earth. He's known for the many worlds he created and wrote stories in. The story we are reading is The Tale of Satampra Zeiros.

This was an attempt to channel Lord Dunsany's stories - HP Lovecraft loved it, and praised CAS's story. He also takes an element from the story and adds it to his own - Tsathoggua.


Tsathoggua is introduced in this story, so this is an essential Gen 1 story. It's also the first of the stories set in Hyperborea, a long lost age of man thousands of years ago, before the last Ice Age. Look for CAS's trademark dark humor here.


You can find it, for free, online here:

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros by Clark Ashton Smith


A lot of Gen 1 writers are writing things in the past and bring those elements into their age. We'll see it with the next writer on our list, Robert E Howard. We'll check out another story or two of CAS before moving to REH, or as Lovecraft called him, Two Gun Bob.


It clocks in at a mighty 12 pages in my anthology, so it's not going to keep you up all night or anything.

[CrimsonFox]

ponders running a call of cthulhu game here someday

[britrock88]

Well, I've now read The Call, and will be catching up in the near future. Kudos.

[Abe Sargent]

Cool cool!!!

[Abe Sargent]

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros Sypnosis




In this story, the great thief Satampra Zeiros opens by telling the story of how he lost his left hand. He begins by introducing a life-long friend and co-thief of majesty, Tirouv Ompallios. They pulled off some major heists, but it has been a while since they last scored ,and they are looking for the next thing.

They live in the city of Uzuldaroum, which is now the capital of Hyperborea. At one time, the capital was Commoriom, but it was deserted centuries ago. The people moved one day’s journey away to establish the city of Uzuldaroum. Perhaps Commoriom was deserted because of a prophecy against it by the White Sybil as is rumored, or for some other reason. The people of Uzuldaroum don’t go back. Tirouv and Satampra get the notion to head to Commoriom and explore, stealing the royal treasures that are still there.

They spend the day moving toward Commoriom and steal what they need from farmers and merchants along the way. They arrive at the ancient ruins of the city. It’s becoming dark. They decide to begin exploring immediately, an come across an old temple to Tsathoggua. They expect there might be some choice jewels or such left behind, so they head in to explore.

They push open the door and move in. There is a large basin of bronze with a liquid on it to the side, and in front is an altar with an idol of Tsathoggua on it. They find no precious stones or anything in the basin or idol. Seeing nothing by the altar/idol they moved toward the basin. An odor begins to ooze from it. The liquid agitates and swells. It moves out of the basin and solidifies into a creature.

Instantly ,they begin running from the shrine. They run for a long time, and have left Commoriom, but they see and hear the monster still chasing them, so they keep it up. They run for hours, and still hear pursuit. The moon sets, and their run is darker, and they hit trees, scratch themselves and stumble. Still they run Eventually they emerge from the forest to find themselves back where they left, and by the temple. Both Tirouv and Satampra move to hide behind the idol, but Satampra gets there first and there’s not room to hide too, so he has to hide in the basin. The creature enters and finds and slays Tirouv. Satampra creeps to the door while it is digesting Tirouv and makes it there but has to throw open the bolt, telling it where he is. As he does, a tentacle from the monster snakes out and bites off his left hand and he escapes.

[Abe Sargent]

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros Review

Well, we are definitely out of Lovecraft for a while! CAS has a much different style of writing. So let’s talk!

A few notes about Clark Ashton Smith – He had a memory that was almost eidetic. He read a dictionary from front to back while a child, and remembered most of the words. He also read the Encyclopedia through twice. As such, his works tend to be littered with words that I have to look up or skip over. I love it! I learned the word ignescent a few weeks ago and have used it twice since then.

This is a classic CAS story. CAS has a weakened reputation among fantasy enthusiasts because he was never published in the right way. Let me explain. Right now, if I want, I can buy a book of Robert E Howards Conan tales or horror tales. I can find a collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs Pelucidar stories or H Rider Haggard’s Allen Quartermain stories and so forth. You can’t do that with CAS. You have to buy a big, expensive hard cover book of all of his stuff. You just can’t spend 5 bucks for his Hyperborea cycle or his Zothique Cycle. The copyright is still owned, because he died a lot later than many other writes of his era. Anyway, his stuff is really good, with different language, different tones, and different moods that most other stories of his era or other Mythos tales.

While this is a fantasy story, it’s also clearly a horror story. There’s no question that this is different from both Lovecraft’s sci-fi horror or the eldritch horror of much of the Mythos. It’s nice to read it, because CAS is a nice blast of fresh air.

CAS has a different take on the eldritch characters such as Tsathoggua. He writes the character as virtually a malign deity not unlike many others in mythology. He might be a bit ugly, but Tsathoggua is not unlike Loki. Because CAS’s stuff was all written on Earth in various ages, he incorporates these elements such as Tsathoggua everywhere. That means most of his entire output of literature is essentially Mythos, but I’d say it’s Mythos-lite for the most part. Because of that, we’ll read more by CAS before REH moves in for a while.

Overall, this story is a hallmark of CAS’s style – dark humor, fast paced, not a lot of time on detailed discussions of the area (compare his one paragraph description of Commoriom vs Lovecrafts two and a half pages to begin The Colour Out of Space), and tight. It’s a great story that stands on its own.

(For historians, it is important to note that while this story is the one the creates Tsathoggua in 1929, it is not published until 1931. Lovecraft read the script and incorporated Tsathoggua into a story that was published in 1930, so by some accounts, this is not the introduction of Tsathoggua in print).

Tsathoggua is one of the big greats of the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft uses him a lot, and Howard uses him a ton more than any others.


I give it four stars out of five.

[Abe Sargent]

Next up!

Ubbo-Sathla, by Clark Ashton Smith

At a whopping six pages, this is hardly a major task to read. It’s very easy to read through in just a few short moments.

This is a very important work by CAS for the Mythos. It sets the tone for the introduction of many more entities on the level of Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, Tsathoggua, and more. Many other writers would add their own major powers to the list in Gen 1 and Gen 2. Once we had enough, most later writers would tell additional tales about these rather than getting involved in creating more. As each generation progressed, the number of stories being written increased significantly. Even if I created a creature in my story called Spjeuaoct in 1960, the likelihood that anyone would read it and consider it good enough to add to their stories was very low. We have what Gens 1 and 2 (and to some degree 0) gave us. This is a direct addition to the Mythos, and as such, is very interesting.

It was published in 1933. Due to its short length, I will not be taking long to give you a chance to read it before moving on. I'll likely finish it up tomorrow

You can find it here:

Ubbo-Sathla by Clark Ashton Smith

[Abe Sargent]

Ubbo-Sathla Synopsis





We open with Paul Tregardis discovering a crystal. He picks it up in a local shop and takes it home. He is an arcanist and cultist expert who recalls a line in the Book of Eibon about it. It was supposedly found in Greenland, which matches the location of Hyperborea in old times, when the Book of Eibon was written

In the Book of Eibon, it mentions a wizard named Zon Mezzamelech who owned a crystal with a description that matches the one he has found. He pulls down his copy of the Book and finds the reference. It said that he could use the stone to observe the ancient past of Earth and creation, all the way back to the source and Ubbo-Sathla, the demiurge. The crystal and mage were lost.

Paul sets down the book and peers deep into the crystal. He stares deep into it for minutes and longer, until he notices changes. He becomes, in a sense, a dream like someone else. He realizes that he is Zon Mezzamelech while still connected to Paul Tregardis in London. He sees and knows what Zon knows. Zon wants to recover the secrets of the gods, and believes the crystal is his tool to do so.

Zon is about to use the crystal for the first time. The vision of the crystal becomes more distinct and Paul forgets his connection and is fully Zon. Zon begins to use the crystal and his mind is racing backwards into the past, witnessing various scenes. The scene is too much, and Zon breaks off connection, and Paul returns to consciousness in London.

Something is wrong. Paul does not fully feel himself. He still considers himself Zon and the real world is more like a dream. He feels a bit disconnected. Details off his life seem like another’s. On three separate occasions, Paul peers into the crystal again, and as Zon in the past, again tries to tear into the past. He goes farther each time, but he wants to see past everything.

Then he vows not to turn back, and one final time Paul peers into the glass and becomes Zon in Hyperborea. Zon uses the crystal and peers into the past. Scenes begin to flow past him, and they see and become other users of the crystal before Zon. He lives many lives and learns many things as time speeds past in reverse. Not all of these lives are human. Then he speeds past life itself and moves to the source and finds Ubbo-Sathla there at the beginning.

Paul is never seen from again and the crystal is not found among his belongings.

[Abe Sargent]

Ubbo-Sathla Review


It’s a 6 page story, how much can you write about it? Ubbo-Sathla is a minor character among the family. It’s not Nyarlathotep or Azathoth or any of the others, but you’ll see it here and there. Maybe even in the next story!

This is CAS writing in a more Lovecratian venue. Modern day occultist expert comes across item from ye olde days (or ye olde beyond) and that items and occultist interact in such a way as to reveal a part of reality that the person is not ready for. He connects the story with his own fantasy tales, and enables both to combine. This is also proof that Hyperborea and Cthulhu-earth are the same place. The Book of Eibon becomes one of the more important elements of the Mythos as well.

I wish we would have had more on Ubbo-Sathla, but like all of these stories, the less said the better. I’d rather a writer erred on the side of less than more, you know?

Anyway, I give it three and an half out of five stars, but next is CAS magnum opus.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, one more CAS story for now, and we’ll move on to Howard for a few stories. This is longer than the previous ones. Say hello to The Seven Geases, by CAS.

In my opinion, The Seven Geases is the single most important short story by Smith to read, even if you don’t like this stuff. There’s not a lot of horror here, and Smith keeps things moving at a brisk pace. This one is three and a half times as long as Ubbo-Sathla (21 pages) but still on the shorter side for a Lovecraft story.

Why is this such an important story? Not only does it impact the Mythos in many ways, but it also was a huge influence on Gary Gygax and Dungeons and Dragons.

In OD&D, there’s no guarantee that things are fair. One of Gary’s and Rob Kuntz’s favorite stories, says Mornard, was Clark Ashton Smith’s The Seven Geases, in which (spoilers removed) That was one of the seminal texts of D&D, said Mornard, and one of the stories it was designed to model. “The story that D&D tells,” said Mike, “is the story of the world. (spoiler removed).

I’ll give you the full quote in the review.

Now, having read that, are you interested in reading Seven Geases? Here we go!



The Seven Geases by Clark Ashton Smith

[Izulde]

H.P. Lovecraft Answers Your Relationship Questions « The Bygone Bureau

Thought this was a fitting add to this thread.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Seven Geases


Ralibar Vooz, lord and magistrate of Commoriom, is hunting. They camp at Mount Voormithadreth, and hear locals killing a saber tooth tiger and alpine catoblepas. Vooz is here to hunt the locals, called Voormis after the mountain. They head up the Mount but find no sport. The Voormis cannot be found.

They eventually arrive near some caves. They climb up above them to get down to them, but the opening down is not appearing, and his men and himself keep spiraling up the mountain. He is leading them up the mountain and spies smoke before hearing voices in front. He yells to his men to join him and bellows an announcement of his arrival to the people he hears and heads around the rocks. He spies a cabin in the mountain and approaches.

He finds an old man by an oddly colored fire in front of the hut. The old man and his archaeopteryx familiar curse Vooz and his arrival for ruining his evocation. Vooz doesn’t understand all that the sage is telling him, but he’s pissed that the guy is talking to one such as him rudely. Of course, he threatens the old man with violence, and the man announces that he is Ezdagor, a mighty wizard. In response to Ralibar Vooz’s interruption of his magic, and subsequent threatening, Ezdagor places him under a geas.

Vooz must cast aside all weapons and armor and head into the den of the Voormis. He is to fight against the whole tribe and then deeper into the cave until he finds Tsathoggua. Once there, he is to announce that he is the sacrifice to Tsathoggua from Ezdagor. The familiar archaeopteryx will go with him to guide him to the right place. Ultimately, Vooz is allowed to keep his basic armor to help him reach Tsathoggua.

Due to the leadings of the familiar, he is able to find the cave of the Voormis and enters. He slays the shaggy Voormis, and their females and children. Then he breaks through their camp and moves in deeper. He arrives at a foul-smelling cave wherein Tsathoggua lies. He announces that he is to be the sacrifice. The creature announces that he just feasted on a sacrifice and is sated for the moment, so he is given a second geas – to find Atlach-Nacha, and to announce that he is the sacrifice sent by Tsathoggua.

Down caves and caverns the familiar and Ralibar Vooz head. Finally he arrives at a giant chasm with many webs woven across it from one side to the other. In the middle of the webs, hovering over the abyss, is a dark creature. Seeing it, Ralibar announces has sacrificial status. It moves across the webs with lightning speed. It is a gigantic mix of human and spider. Atlach-Nacha says that he has not the time to extract Vooz from his metal shards, because he has to always guard the abyss. He sends Ralibar on to the Ante-Human sorcerer Haon-Dor with a third geas.

Vooz moves over the webs to the other side and across a ledge. They find stairs, and at the stairs is a giant snake. Seeing the familiar, it moved aside and allowed access to the stairs. They entered the palace of Haon-Dor. They penetrate various rooms and corridors, due to the knowledge the archaeopteryx has. They find the throne room on which sits a patch of darkness, in the shape of a being. He announces that he was sent by Atlach-Nacha. Silence ruled for some time, but ultimately sound radiated from the figure. He considered feeding him to his familiars, but they are too many and Vooz to little food. Instead, he will send him to his allies, and gives him another geas. He is to find the serpent people and present himself to them.

Deep into this underworld went Vooz led by the archaeopteryx. He finally found the serpent-men. He announces his appearance, but it takes a while and more announcing before the serpent-men acknowledge he is even there. They inspect Vooz and then go and find two specimens of people – one a Voormis and another a man. They give a lecture on anatomy to other lizard men in some other language. Eventually one speaks to him and thanks Huon-Dor for sending him to them, but they already have a sample of his species and they have dissected many others and have all of the knowledge they need. They don’t even eat meat anymore and his body has no pharmaceutical value. They give him another geas, to find and submit himself to the Archetypes.

They continue down, and discover a T Rex among spongy ground. It chases him and eats him, but with a body that’s astral, he manages to fall out and is fine. It moves way to find something digestible. They pass many other dinosaurs. He eventually arrives at two vaguely humanoid people. They claim to be the originals of mankind and are upset at how coarse a copy mankind now is of them. They disown Ralibar Vooz. He is given yet another geas, to depart without delay and to find Abhoth.

He is tiring but cannot stop. He finds a cavern with disgusting creatures all over. Giant worms with many tails and oddly shaped lizards. A thick steam hung about the cavern he has entered and stained his armor. Here he finds a pool and the familiar stops. From it spawned the creatures that filled the cavern. Many mouths appeared across it to eat those that spawned but moved not fast enough. He proclaimed to Abhoth his arrival as per the geas. A part of the pool rose, like a tentacle and created a rough hand, who moved and explored Vooz’s body.

Abhoth communicates with Vooz telepathically and is upset that the Archetpyes bothered him. It doesn’t appear that Vooz is anything Abhoth can devour, since he is not one of his progeny or progeny’s progeny. Therefore, he banishes Raliber Vooz to the Outer Realm and gives him a geas to leave here at once and go outside.

The familiar allows Vooz to rest for a bit before continuing. The archaeopteryx found a fish’ish thing and Vooz eats it raw due to his hunger, weariness, and lack of anything else available. They begin to leave the underworld. The route they are taking is a short cut. They skip past The Archetypes, serpent people and temple of Huon-Dor, using a different exit. Eventually, the arrive at the Abyss guarded by Atlach-Nacha. All along the way he was chased by the progeny of Abhoth that grew as they left his side. One creature moves onto the webbing and he is chased by the progeny to the webs. He moves in after the wake of the first creature and tries to escape the progeny. However, the webbing has weakened, and it falls. He plunges into the Abyss.

The final line is:

This, unfortunately, was a contingency that had not been provided against by the terms of the seventh geas.

Full quote:

In OD&D, there’s no guarantee that things are fair. One of Gary’s and Rob Kuntz’s favorite stories, says Mornard, was Clark Ashton Smith’s The Seven Geases, in which the hero survives a horrible death at the hands of seven different monsters only to die meaninglessly slipping from a ledge. That was one of the seminal texts of D&D, said Mornard, and one of the stories it was designed to model. “The story that D&D tells,” said Mike, “is the story of the world. Heroes aren’t invincible”

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Seven Geases



I love this story so much. First of all, you won’t find a better example of CAS’s dark humor. My favorite example is when the

Spoiler

lizard folk, who are scientifically oriented say that the mystic geas is nothing more than hypnosis.

He deconstructs his own story IN the story, and that’s crazy funny. He shows you such a large and sprawling world under the mountain.

This was published in 1933 and was a great story in the Hyperborea cycle, and it also demonstrates Smith’s different view on Tsathoggua in specific and all of the entities in general. All he is in a powerful, bloated deity that happens to be powerful and therefore gets sacrifices feeding to it.

There are some who believe that Abhoth and Ubbo-Sathla are the same creature, viewed at different epochs with different names. The Mythos does play games like that, and you will read of an era in which Cthulthu is spelled and pronounced Kultult or something. But these are radically different names. They have similar appearances, and my guess is that they are related – parent and child or aunt and niece or whatever.

Anyway, you can see the influence on early D&D as mentioned above, the influence on the Mythos, and the fact that it’s simply a great story.


I honestly believe this is a five outta five, and it is to Clark Ashton Smith what The Call of Cthulhu is to Lovecraft. We still feel it’s impact to this day.

A lot of people are turned by the ending, which they see as lazy, but I think it was the only ending possible. As I look back on the story, I can’t think of a ending that would have better fit the story. So if you don’t like it, you are not alone. Many others agree, and we can discuss it away!

I expect that we will come back to Smith later.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, next up, we move to Robert E. Howard for a few stories. Are you ready?



The first Howard story we’ll be reading is The Black Stone.


This story is published in 1931, and introduces Mythos elements such as Justin Geoffrey and Von Junzt’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten. It also probably features some of Clark Ashton Smith’s works.

You can find it here on Project Gutenberg Australia: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601711.txt


It takes 16 pages in my anthology, so you won’t see a lot before we move in.

We will be reading four stories by Howard, before we move onto other writers. Read The Black Stone, and then we’ll see a synopsis and review.

[Abe Sargent]

On Howard

If you have never read a story by REH, such as Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, or other characters, then you need to read this post. We need to discuss Howard, and what he cares about.

Some people have accused HP Lovecraft of being racist. Consider, for example, in the Call. The way he describes the savage tribe of people in Greenland is hardly complementary. His depiction of the people of New Orleans are similarly unflattering. A good word for these folk is degenerate. Lovecraft depicts many non-white people as degenerate worshippers of the dark ones. To be fair, he doesn’t generalize. He never states that all of the people of Greenland are at the same level of savagery and evil as that one tribe. He also happily has lost enclaves of white people that have inbred and become degenerate as well. New England is rife with old towns centuries old that time and morality have past by. He’s equal opportunity.

There are some stories that appear to have latent tones of discriminatory outlook such as Horror at Red Hook. For the most part, it’s not there (and remember, this is a guy who married a Jew.) I believe that Lovecraft was likely a person who shared the believes of his day in white superiority, but it really doesn’t impact his work. For example, if you read Winged Death, set in Africa, most Africans are depicted as normal people, or even brave.

Howard, on the other hand, completely changes this. Howard really cares about race. His stories are rife with ideas of race. Take a look at man Conan/Kull stories that you will see the white Aryan fighting against evil races of others. Whether it’s the serpent men of Valusia or the little people of Wales, his people really are cognizant of race and bound to battles between them. There is a lot of racism in Howard’s works, but not in the traditional sense of black vs white (Although he does have some yellow peril stories). Howard embraced the underdog, and shared a real affinity for natives. His entire ethos embraces noble savagery. He doesn’t find evil in savages, unlike most white writers of the time. Instead, he finds it in other races. A modern reader may be uncomfortable reading some of his stories. For example, we will not read The Children of the Night, which is blatantly racist and whose pro-Aryan lines could be read in a very poor context post-Hitler. Do you really want to read lines like this:

For I come of a royal race, and such as he is a continual insult and a threat, like a serpent underfoot. Mine is a regal race, though now it is become degraded and falls into decay by continual admixture with conquered races. The waves of alien blood have washed my hair black and my skin dark, but I still have the lordly stature and the blue eyes of a royal Aryan.


We’ll skip past most of this stuff, but one story slides into it.

On other news, the works of Howard were brought into the Mythos. Both his own works brought them in, and Lovecraft did as well. He mentions long lost Valusia and its serpent men in many stories. Other references appear. If you pick up a collection of Conan stories, you are reading Mythos works. But they aren’t adding anything to the Mythos, or using elements of the Mythos. We won’ be picking up a Kull story or a Conan story. I just want to point out that they all occur on the same world.

Okay, let’s Black Stone it up!

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Black Stone



This story opens with our narrator coming across a reference to a Black Stone while reading Nameless Cults or Unaussprechlichen Kulten in its original German. In that book, there is a reference to a Black Stone high in the mountains of Hungary. He mentions it much in passing, since it’s use in ancient cultic ceremonies is long since dead, and he wasn’t much interested in it. However, the appearance of age speaks to the narrator. He digs further.

He finds a quick mention in a historical book and says that it is right outside of the town of Stregoicavar – which means something like witch-town. It’s such a small town it’s not even on maps or in travel books. Then he realizes a connection between Justin Geoffrey, the mad poet and this stone. In one of his poems, he discusses the People of the Monolith. He finds the whole thing extraordinary and plans a trip to investigate.

This is nearby the battle site where Count Boris Vladinoff tried to hold off the Turks, but ultimately failed in 1526. His train meanders through the hills, and he discovers a passage on the battle. It describes Vladinoff having originally won the first battle, and then an aide brings to him a small lacquered case confiscated from a famous Turk historian. He reads the case’s contents, but gets very pale. Then cannon reinforcements from the Turks arrive and blast the ruins of a castle in which he had made his headquarters. He was buried underneath the rubble and to this day that is his tomb. They pass the rubble on the train, where it is believed that he still rests.

The town of Stregoicavar is a sleepy little town. They mention that they had a visitor about ten years before named Justin Geoffrey, confirming that the mad poet had come through here. He gets some people to talk about the Black Stone. There are rumors about staring into it too long and about what happens on Midsummer’s Night. The inhabitants of Stregoicavar are from other Hungarian towns. The Turks killed everyone here and they moved in after the Turks left. They have no resentment towards the Turks, because their ancestors didn’t like the people here any more than the Turks did.

The following day, our narrator sets out to find the Black Stone. After a bit of hiking, he encounters it. There are unusual markings present that speak of lost languages from far off. He discovers no connection with it and anything else. He returns and finds someone who has dreams about the Stone and talks with him. He finds the schoolmaster is not as reserved when discussing the stone as the rest of the village and discusses it at length with him. The schoolmaster believes the stone was not built by those who worshipped it but simply used by them. He believed that the legends around the stone were just myth.

As that night was Midsummer Night, the narrator takes a trip to the Black Stone, and sits right where he believed Justin Geoffrey must have sat. He observes the setting of the sun, and the ebbing of day. Soon midnight strikes, and he begins to witness a scene. Many people are coming to the Stone, but they are not the people he has met. A Priest in a deer skin and a naked woman arrived. The Priest whips the woman, who frantically dances in a pagan ritual. An evil ritual results, which the killing of people, at the end of which, a toad like figure appears over the stone and the priest brings it a struggling girl, but then the narrator falls unconscious.

He awakes and it is dawn. He believes that what he saw was the vision of something from the past, but maybe it was just a vivid dream, heightened by the nighttime. He realizes, that he can find proof! He moves to the place where Count Vladinoff supposedly fell and begins to excavate the ruins. He finds the bones of a man and a small damaged, case. Inside is a scroll written in Turkish and an object wrapped in silk. It describes a scene very similar to what he saw, and the item is a toad like medallion that matches a place on the priest where one was missing. The Turks tortured the people in Stregoicavar to find out what was happening, and then they hunted down and killed a toad like creature that resulted in the death of many Turks.

Our narrator realizes that the stone is not a stone at all, but the spire of a castle built long ago but covered by earth over the years.

Key Quote at the end:

Man was not always master of the earth – and is he now?

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Black Stone


I think there is a lot to like in this story. Howard knows where he is going and gets you there. He introduces a lot of elements to the story, and yet, there is no obvious Mythos element here. He doesn’t use the Necronomicon or The Book of Eibon. Gone is the dank corridors and oppression of many tales. We aren’t investigating long lost caves and caverns or finding deep mysteries under things. All we have is a rock that defies explanation with a past.

Many of the Mythos stories of Howard take place in other eras, but not this one. As such, it’s easy to slide in alongside the others. Many consider it his best written horror story, including Robert Price. I think it’s great except for one thing.

Spoiler

I find the descriptions of what the narrator sees a bit prosaic. After reading a lot of Mythos fiction, there are a few details I can do without, and pagan rituals, orgies, sacrifices, and altars are some of them.

There are many great things to recommend this story, and many a reader wishes we would stay in Stregoicavar for longer. Getting outside of New England and England, and breaking into these places is something very nice indeed.

Howard’s description of the story lacks the focus of the scientist that Lovecraft has. It has, instead, the focus of a researcher. Compare, for example, Lovecraft’s depiction of the analysis of the meteorite in Colour with Howard’s of the narrator’s initial research. Each focuses on what they know best.


Anyway, I think this is a very good story by Howard, and arguably his most important Mythos work. I give it a 4 out of five stars.