dunwich lovebirds

ring by wilcox-silvershrimp at materialicious.

'' then too the natives are mortally afraid of the numerous whippoorwills which grow vocal on warm nights. it is vowed that the birds are psyhchopomps lying in wait for the souls of the dying, and that they time their eery cries in unison with the sufferer's struggling breath. if they can catch the fleeing soul when it leaves the body, they instantly flutter away chittering in daemonic laughter; but if they fail, they subside gradually into a disappointed silence ...

'' old whateley noticed the growing number of whippoorwills that would come out of cold spring glen to chirp under his window at night. he seemed to regard the circumstance as one of great significance, and told the loungers at osborn's that he thought his time had almost come. "they whistle jest in time with my breathin' naow," he said, "an' i guess they're gitten ready to ketch my soul. they know its a-goiin' aout an' dun't calc'late to miss it. yew'll know boys, arter im gone, whether they git me er not. ef they dew, they'll keep up a-singing' and laffin till break o' day. ef they dun't they'll kinder quiet daown like. i expeck them an' the souls they hunt fer hev some pretty tough tussles sometimes" ...

'' that hallowe'en the hill noises sounded louder than ever, and fire burned on sentinal hill as usual; but people paid more attention to the rhythmical screaming of vast flocks of unnaturally belated whippoorwills which seemed to be assembled near the unlighted whateley farmhouse. after midnight their shrill notes burst into a kind of pandaemonic cachinnation which filled all the country side, and not until dawn did they finally quiet down. then they vanished hurrying southward where they were fully a month overdue. what this meant no one could be quite certain till later. ...

'' a loud chourus of whippoorwills among the shrubbery had commenced a damnably rhythmical piping, as if in unison with the last breaths of a dying man. ... outside the window the shrilling of the whippoorwills had suddenly ceased, and above the murmurs of the gathering crowd there came the sound of panic struck whirring and fluttering. against the moon vast crowds of feathery watchers rose and raced from sight, frantic at that which they had sought for prey ... dogs howled from the distance, green grass and foliage wilted to a curious, sickley yellow-grey, and over field and forest were scattered the bodies of dead whipporwills. ''

i: caprimulgiforme songs at naturesongs.

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

Posted with Blogsy

undimensioned threshold

nor is it to be thought, (ran the text as armitage mentally translated it) that man is either the oldest or the last of earths masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. the old ones were, the old ones are, and the old ones shall be. not in the spaces we know, but between them.

they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. yog-sothoth knows the gate. yog-sothoth is the gate. yog-sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. past, present, future all are one in yog-sothoth. he knows where the old ones broke through of old, and where they shall break through again. he knows where they have trod earths fields and where they still tread them, and why know one can behold them as they tread.

by their smell can men sometimes know them near, but of their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those they have begotten on mankind; and of those there are many sorts, differing in likeness from mans truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is them.

they walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the words have been spoken and the rites howled through at their seasons. the wind gibbers with their voices, and the earth mutters with their consciousness. they bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites.

kadath in the cold waste hath known them, and what man knows kadath? the ice deserts of the south and the sunken isles of the ocean hold stones wherein their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? great Cthulhu is their cousin, yet can he spy them only dimly.

ial shrub-niggurath! as a foulness shall ye know them. their hand is at your throats, yet ye see them not; and their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. yog-sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet.

man rules now where they ruled once; they shall soon rule where man rules now. after summer is winter, and after winter summer. they wait patient and potent, for here shall they reign again.

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

wilburmas

''it was in the township of dunwich, in a large and partly inhabited farm house set against a hillside four miles from the village and a mile and a half from any other dwelling, that wilbur whately was born at 5am on sunday, the second of febuary, 1913. this date was recalled because it was candlemas, which people in dunwich curiously observe under another name; and because the noises in the hills had sounded, and all the dogs of the country side had barked persistently, throughout the night before. ...

''there was a hideous screaming which echoed above even the hill noises and the dogs' barking on the night wilbur was born, but no known doctor or midwife presided at his coming. neighbors knew nothing of him till a week afterward, when old whateley drove his sleigh through the snow into dunwich village and discoursed incoherantly to the group of loungers at osborn's general store. ... "i dun't keer what folks think--ef lavinny's boy looked like his pa, he wouldn't look like nuthin' ye expeck. ye needn't think the only folks is the folks here abouts ... let me tell ye suthin'--some day yew folks'll hear a child o' lavinny's a-callin its faher's name on the top o' sentinel hill!"

''the only persons who saw wilbur during the first month of his life were old zechariah whately, of the undecayed whateleys' and earl sawyers common-law wife, mammie bishop. mammie's visit was frankly one of curiosity, and her subsequent tales did justice to her observations; ... public interest in the whateleys subsided after most of the country folk had seen the baby, and no one bothered to comment on the swift development which the newcomer seemed everyday to exhibit ... his motiions and even his vocal sounds showed a restraint and deliberateness highly peculiar in an infant, and no one was really unprepared when, at seven months he began to walk unassisted, whith falterings which another month was sufficient to remove...

''the next january gossips were mildly interested in the fact that "lavviny's black brat" had commenced to talk, and at the age of only eleven months ... his facial aspect, too, was remarkable for its maturity; for though he shared his mother's and grandfather's chinlessness, his firm and precociously shaped nose united with the expression of his large, dark, almost latin eyes to give him an air of quasi-adulthood and well nigh preternatural intelligence. he was, however, excedingly ugly despite his appearance of brilliancy, ... he was soon disliked even more decidedly than his mother and grandsire, ... dogs abhorred the boy, and he was always obliged to take various defensive measures against their barking menace ...

''when wilbur was a year and seven months old--in september of 1914--his size and accomplishments were almost alarming. he had grown as large as a child of four, and was a fluent and incredibly intelligent talker ... at home he would pore diligently over the queer pictures and charts in his grandfather's books, while old whateley would instruct and catachise him through long, hushed afternoons ... wilbur was growing up uncannily, so that he looked like a boy of ten as he entered his fourth year. he read avidly by himself now; but talked much less than formerly ... the aversion displayed toward him by dogs had now become a matter of wide remark, and he was obliged to carry a pistol in order to traverse the countryside in safety. his occasional use of the weapon did not enhance his popularity amongst the owners of canine guardians ...

''it had for some time been noticed that dogs had begun to hate and fear the whole whately place as violently as they hated and feared young wilbur personally ... about 1923, when wilbur was a boy of ten whose mind, voice, stature, and bearded face gave all the impressions of maturity, ... wilbur was by this time a scholar of really tremendous erudition in his one-sided way, and was quietly known by correspondence to many librarians in distant places where rare and forbidden books of old days are kept . he was more and more hated and dreaded around dunwich because of certain youthful disappearances which suspicion laid vaguely at his door, ... he was now tremendously mature of aspect, and his height, having reached the normal adult limit, seemed inclined to wax beyond that figure ... his height had increased to more than seven feet, and shewed no signs of ceasing its development.

''the following winter brought an event no less strange than wilbur's first trip outside the dunwich region ... almost eight feet tall and carrying a cheap new valise from osborn's general store, this dark and goatish gargoyle appeared one day in arkham ... he had never seen a city before, but had no thought save to find his way to the university grounds; where, indeed, he passed heedlessly by the great white-fanged watchdog that barked with unnatural fury and enmity, and tugged frantically at it stout chain ... deep and terrible the snarling, half-mad growls and barks continued; always in mounting volume, but with hideously significant pauses. then there rang out a scream from a wholly different throat--a scream as roused half the sleepers of arkham and haunted their dreams ever afterward.''

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

roadscape

an excerpt from the "dunwich horror", edited to show approach to and through dunwich.

''when a traveller in north central massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the junction of the aylesbury pile just beyond dean's corners he comes upon a lonely and curious country. the ground gets higher, and the brier-bordered stone walls press closer and closer against the ruts of the dusty, curving road. ...

''when a rise in the road brings the mountins in view above the deep woods, the feeling of strange uneasiness is increased. the summits are too rounded and symettrical to give a sense of comfort and naturalness ...

''gorges and ravines of problematical depth intersect the way, and the crude wooden bridges always seem of dubious saftey. when the road dips again there are stretches of marsh land that one instinctively dislikes, ...

''as the hills draw nearer, one heeds their wooded sides more than their stone-crowned tops. those sides loom up so darkly precipitously that one wishes they would keep their distance, but there is no road by which to escape them. across a covered bridge one sees a small village huddled between the stream and the vertical slope of round mountain, ...

''one dreads to trust the tenebrous tunnel of the bridge, yet there is no way to avoid it. once across it is hard to prevent the impression of a faint, malign odour about the village street, as of the massed mould and decay of centuries. it is always a relief to get clear of the place, and to follow the narrow road around the base of the hills and across the level country beyond till it rejoins the aylesbury pike. afterward one sometimes learns that one has been through dunwich.''

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

whippoorwill's lament

'' then too the natives are mortally afraid of the numerous whippoorwills which grow vocal on warm nights. it is vowed that the birds are psyhchopomps lying in wait for the souls of the dying, and that they time their eery cries in unison with the sufferer's struggling breath. if they can catch the fleeing soul when it leaves the body, they instantly flutter away chittering in daemonic laughter; but if they fail, they subside gradually into a disappointed silence ...

'' old whateley noticed the growing number of whippoorwills that would come out of cold spring glen to chirp under his window at night. he seemed to regard the circumstance as one of great significance, and told the loungers at osborn's that he thought his time had almost come. "they whistle jest in time with my breathin' naow," he said, "an' i guess they're gitten ready to ketch my soul. they know its a-goin' aout an' dun't calc'late to miss it. yew'll know boys, arter im gone, whether they git me er not. ef they dew, they'll keep up a-singing' and laffin till break o' day. ef they dun't they'll kinder quiet daown like. i expeck them an' the souls they hunt fer hev some pretty tough tussles sometimes" ...

'' that hallowe'en the hill noises sounded louder than ever, and fire burned on sentinal hill as usual; but people paid more attention to the rhythmical screaming of vast flocks of unnaturally belated whippoorwills which seemed to be assembled near the unlighted whateley farmhouse. after midnight their shrill notes burst into a kind of pandaemonic cachinnation which filled all the country side, and not until dawn did they finally quiet down. then they vanished hurrying southward where they were fully a month overdue. what this meant no one could be quite certain till later. ...

'' a loud chourus of whippoorwills among the shrubbery had commenced a damnably rhythmical piping, as if in unison with the last breaths of a dying man. ... outside the window the shrilling of the whippoorwills had suddenly ceased, and above the murmurs of the gathering crowd there came the sound of panic struck whirring and fluttering. against the moon vast crowds of feathery watchers rose and raced from sight, frantic at that which they had sought for prey ... dogs howled from the distance, green grass and foliage wilted to a curious, sickley yellow-grey, and over field and forest were scattered the bodies of dead whipporwills. ''

i: caprimulgiforme songs at naturesongs.

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

burglar-alarm and whippoorwills

'' the thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, ... it was not quite dead but twitched silently and spasmodically while its chest heaved ...

'' it would be trite and not wholly accurate to say that no human pen could describe it, ... it was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very manlike hands and head, and the goatish, chinless face had the stamp of the whateleys upon it. but the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous, ... above the waist it was semi-anthropomorphic, ... below the waist, though, it was the worst; for here all human resemblance left off and sheer phantasy began. the skin was thickly covered with coarse black fur ... the limbs, save for their black fur, roughly resembled the hind legs of prehistoric earth's giant saurians; ...

'' of genuine blood there was none; only the foetid greenish-yellow ichor which trickled along the painted floor beyond the radius of the stickiness, and left a curious discolouration behind it. ... a change came over the yellow, goatish face of the prostrate thing, and the great black eyes fell in ... one need not describe the kind and rate of shrinkage and disintegration that occurred ... it is permissible to say that, aside from the external appearance of face and hands, ... whateley had had no skull or bony skeleton; at least in any true or stable sense. ''

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

i: teratological research at "the teratology society".
ii: teratology at "wikipedia".

dear baffling diary

''an almost interminable manuscript in strange characters, written in a huge ledger and adjudged a sort of diary because of the spacing and the variations in ink and penmanship, presented a baffling puzzle to those who found it on the old bureau which served as its owner's desk.

''after a week of debate it was sent to miskatonic university, together with the deceased's collection of strange books, for study and possible translation; but even the best linguists soon saw that it was not likely to be unriddled with ease ...

''the curious manuscript record or diary of wilbur whatley, delivered to miskatonic university for translation, had caused much worry and bafflement among the experts on languages both ancient and modern, being absolutely unknown to any available authority. the final conclusion of the linguists was that the text represented an artificial alphabet, though none of the usual methods of cryptographic solution seemed to furnish any clue ...

''the old ledger was at length given wholly in to the charge of dr.armitage, both beacause of his peculiar interest in the whatley matter, and because of his wide linguistic learning and skill in the mystical formulae of antiquity and the middle ages.'' h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

lavinia

''it was in the township of dunwich, in a large and partly inhabited farmhouse... that wilbur whateley was born... the mother was one of the decadent whateleys, a somewhat deformed, unattractive albino woman of thirty-five, living with an aged and half-insane father about whom the most frightful tales of wizardry had been whispered in his youth.

''lavinia whateley had no known husband, but according to the custom of the region made no attempt to disavow the child; ... on the contrary, she seemed strangely proud of the dark, goatish-looking infant who formed such a contrast to her own sickly and pink-eyed albinism, ... she had never been to school, but was filled with disjointed scraps of ancient lore that old whateley had taught her.

''the remote farm house had always been feared because of old whateley's reputation for black magic, and the unexplained death by violence of mrs. whateley when lavinia was twelve years old had not helped to make the place popular...

''lavinia was fond of wild and gradiose daydreams and singular occupations; nor was her leisure much taken up by household cares in a home from which all standards of order and cleanliness had long since disappeared.''

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror