H. P. Lovecraft

by H. P. Lovecraft

  141.34 aegipans] Creatures in Greek mythology that are half-man, half-goat.

  145.5–6 Delrio: “An sint . . . nasci queat?”] From Disquisitionum Magicarum (1599) by the Spanish Jesuit Martin Antoine Del Rio (1551–1608): “Have there ever been demons, incubi, and succubae, and can offspring be born from their unions?”

  146.13 the well of Democritus] The aphorism “Of truth we know nothing, for truth is in the depths” has been attributed to the Greek philosopher Democritus. In the epigraph to “A Descent into the Maelström” (1841), Edgar Allan Poe quoted from “Against Confidence in Philosophy and Matters of Speculation” (1676) by Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680): “The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways; nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus.”

  154.36 crotala] Small cymbals used in ancient Greek religious dances.

  154.40 domdaniel] A den of iniquity.

  167.1 Cthulhu] In a letter of July 23, 1934, to the fantasy and horror writer Duane Rimel (1915–1996), Lovecraft wrote that “Cthulhu” was “supposed to represent a fumbling human attempt to catch the phonetics of an absolutely non-human word. The name of the hellish entity was invented by beings whose vocal organs were not like man’s, hence it has no relation to the human speech equipment. The syllables were determined by a physiological equipment wholly unlike ours, hence could never be uttered perfectly by human throats.” He continued: “The actual sound—as nearly as human organs could imitate it or human letters record it—may be taken as something like Khlûl’hloo, with the first syllable pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, since the h represents the guttural thickness. The second syllable is not very well rendered—the l sound being unrepresented. My rather careful devising of this name was a sort of protest against the silly and childish habit of most weird and science-fiction writers, of having utterly non-human entities use a nomenclature of thoroughly human character; as if alien-organed beings could possibly have languages based on human vocal organs.”

  167.4–10 “Of such great powers . . . sorts and kinds.] From The Centaur (1911), a novel by the British writer Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951).

  169.35–36 W. Scott-Elliot’s Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria] The volume, printed in 1925, collected The Story of Atlantis (1896) and The Lost Lemuria (1904). Scott-Elliot was an English theosophist.

  169.39 Frazer’s Golden Bough] The Golden Bough (12 volumes, 1890–1915) by the British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941).

  179.13–14 before D’Iberville, before La Salle] Pierre le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville (1661–1706) landed at Mobile Bay in 1699, explored the lower Mississippi, and established the first permanent French colony in Louisiana. Robert Cavalier, sieur de La Salle (1643–1687) led a party down the Mississippi from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico in 1682.

  180.4 a Sime or an Angarola] Sidney H. Sime (1867–1941), British artist who illustrated The Hill of Dreams (1907) by Arthur Machen and numerous works by Lord Dunsany; Anthony Angarola (1893–1929), American artist who illustrated The Kingdom of Evil (1924) by Ben Hecht.

  183.26 Irem] A legendary lost city of southern Arabia, Irem may have been another name for Ubar, which was located near Shisur, Oman, in the early 1990s with the help of satellite imagery.

  183.31–32 Necronomicon . . . Abdul Alhazred] Lovecraft first mentioned the fictitious Necronomicon in his story “The Hound,” written in 1922. “Abdul Alhazred” was a name Lovecraft adopted when he was five years old as part of his fascination with the Arabian Nights.

  185.6–7 Clark Ashton Smith] See note 55.1.

  187.8–10 a learned friend . . . mineralogist of note.] Lovecraft’s friend James F. Morton (1870–1941) was curator of the Paterson Museum, 1925–41.

  198.15 Fuseli] Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), Swiss-born English painter whose works include The Nightmare (1781).

  200.36 Magnalia . . . Wonders of the Invisible World.] Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) and Wonders of the Invisible World (1693), which contains a narrative of the Salem witch trials.

  203.3 Andros and Phipps] Sir Edmund Andros (1637–1714) was governor of New England from 1686 until his overthrow by rebellious colonists in 1689; Sir William Phips (1651–1695) was governor of Massachusetts, 1692–95.

  211.2–9 “The essential Saltes . . . been incinerated.”] From “Pietas in Patriam,” the appendix to Book II of Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) by Cotton Mather. The passage is attributed by Mather to “the Incomparable Borellus,” i.e., the French physician Pierre Borel (1620–1689).

  214.15–16 the Moses Brown School] A Quaker school in Providence founded in 1819.

  224.2–16 Dr. Checkley . . . John Merritt] Both Checkley and Merritt are described in Providence in Colonial Times (1912) by Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, which Lovecraft read in 1925.

  224.30–31 Agricola . . . Stahl] German mineralogist Georgius Agricola (1494–1555); Flemish chemist and physician Jan Baptista van Helmont (1580–1644); German chemist and physician Franciscus Sylvius (1614–1672); German chemist Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604–1668); Anglo-Irish physicist and chemist Robert Boyle (1627–1691); Dutch physician Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738); German chemist and physician Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682?); German physician George Ernst Stahl (1660–1734).

  225.5–11 Hermes Trismegistus . . . De Lapide Philosophico] A series of Greek writings on astrology, alchemy, and magic from the first three centuries A.D. were attributed to the god Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice greatest”). The Turba Philosophorum is a work on alchemy by Guglielmo Grataroli (1516–1568); Geber was an alchemist in the 14th century; Clavis Majoris Sapientiae is a work on alchemy attributed to Artephius (d. 1119?); the Zohar (c. 1285) is a collection of kabbalistic writings; Albertus Magnus (?1200–1280) was a Dominican bishop who studied science and alchemy; Ars Magna et Ultima (1305–8) is a theological work by the Catalan mystic and Neo-platonist philosopher Ramon Llull (c. 1235–1316). Thesaurus Chemicus is not known to be among the works of the English philosopher Roger Bacon (c. 1220–c. 1292).

  231.25–27 Cosmo Alexander . . . Gilbert Stuart.] Alexander (c. 1724–1772), a portraitist trained in Italy, began teaching Stuart in 1769.

  231.40–232.1 Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Brown, and Benjamin West] Stephen Hopkins (1705–1785) served as the elected governor of Rhode Island, 1755–56, 1758–61, 1763–64, and 1767, and later signed the Declaration of Independence. Joseph Brown (1733–1785) was a manufacturer, architect, and scientist who, along with his brother Nicholas, was instrumental in moving Rhode Island College, founded in 1764, to Providence in 1770 (the college was renamed Brown in 1804). Benjamin West (1730–1813) was an astronomer who observed the transit of Venus from Providence in 1769.

  233.21 provisions of the Sugar Act] The Sugar Act, passed by Parliament in 1764, increased import duties in the colonies on refined sugar and other items, while accompanying legislation strengthened the customs service.

  235.29 Black Prince’s . . . Limoges in 1370] Edward, the Black Prince (1330–1376), the eldest son of Edward III of England, sacked the city of Limoges and massacred 3,000 of its inhabitants in 1370 in an attempt to suppress a revolt against his rule in Aquitaine.

  235.34 Haute Vienne] The department of France Limoges is located in.

  242.32 Sylvanus Cocidius] Shrines to the Roman-Celtic deity Silvanus Cocidius, linking the Roman forest god Silvanus with the Celtic war god Cocidius, have been found in forts along or near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.

  249.11–14 “DEESMEES . . . Mirandola] The incantation is taken from The Mysteries of Magic (1886), a collection of writings by the French occultist Eliphas Lévi (pseudonym of Alphonse-Louis Constant, 1810–1875). Lévi describes the words as possibly having no meaning and then cites the Italian philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) as having affirmed th
at “the most barbarous and absolutely unintelligible words are the best and most powerful in black magic.”

  252.11–12 Lord Dunsany’s tale] “The King That Was Not” (1906) by Edward Lord Dunsany (1878–1957).

  256.6 Roodemas] May 1, or the eve of May 1.

  257.38 bolection moulding] Molding that separates two planes and projects beyond the surface of both.

  275.1–9 “Eliphas Levi” . . . veni, veni.”] The incantation is taken from The Mysteries of Magic; see note 249.11–14.

  293.12 Steele’s Conscious Lovers] The Conscious Lovers (1722), a comedy by Sir Richard Steele (1672–1729).

  299.38–39 Transylvania . . . Roumania] Transylvania was ceded to Romania by Hungary under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon, signed on June 4, 1920.

  317.4 Phaleron] An ancient port of Athens, later superseded by Piraeus.

  319.4–6 Koth . . . Randolph Carter] An allusion to “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” the novella Lovecraft wrote in 1926–27 prior to beginning “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.”

  319.27 kylikes] A shallow cup with a tall stem.

  319.28 Argand lamp] An oil lamp in which air is fed by a tube to the inside of a cylindrical wick. It is named after its inventor, Swiss scientist Aimé Argand (1750–1803).

  341.3 “blasted heath”] Cf. Macbeth, I.iii.75–78; John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), I.612–15.

  344.10 well-sweep] A long pivoted pole used to raise and lower a bucket into and out of a well.

  344.31 the borax bead] A chemical test used to identify metals in which the sample is heated along with a borax bead; the resulting color of the bead indicates its composition.

  345.16 Widmannstätten figures] Patterns made up of bands of the iron-nickel alloys kamacite and taenite.

  359.31 democrat-wagon] A light wagon, usually drawn by two horses.

  363.24–25 the flames . . . Pentecost.] See Acts 2:1–3.

  370.18 “Witches and Other Night-Fears”] From The Essays of Elia (1823) by Charles Lamb (1775–1834).

  373.12 psychopomps] Conductors of souls to the afterworld.

  387.2–3 Arthur Machen’s Great God Pan] “The Great God Pan” (1894) depicts the havoc caused by the shapeshifting daughter of the union of a young woman and the god Pan.

  398.32–36 Trithemius’ Poligraphia . . . Klüber’s Krytographik.] Works on ciphers and secret writing published between 1518 and 1819; all of them are cited in the article on “Cryptography” in the ninth (1875–89) edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

  399.22 Aklo] A language mentioned in the story “The White People” (1906) by Arthur Machen.

  399.36 Voorish] Cf. Arthur Machen, “The White People”: “It was all so still and silent, and the sky was heavy and grey and sad, like a wicked voorish dome . . .”

  401.12–13 Daemonolatreia of Remigius] A guide to witchcraft and witch-hunting published in 1595 by Nicholas Remi (1530–1612).

  403.33 Negotium perambulans in tenebris . . .] Psalm 91:6: “Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”

  415.25–26 Vermont floods of November 3, 1927] A tropical storm system caused widespread flooding in Vermont on November 3–4, 1927, killing 84 people.

  419.6–7 Governor Wentworth’s colonial grants] Benning Wentworth (1696–1770), the royal governor of New Hampshire, 1741–67, made extensive land grants west of the Connecticut River from 1749 to 1764, when the privy council in London ruled that the region belonged to New York.

  420.34 kallikanzari of modern Greece] In Greek folklore, goblins who cause havoc during the 12 days of Christmas.

  421.14 extravagant books of Charles Fort] The Book of the Damned (1919) and New Lands (1923) by Charles Fort (1874–1932), an American writer on paranormal phenomena.

  430.4–7 Yuggoth . . . Magnum Innominandum] Lovecraft first wrote about the planet Yuggoth in his sonnet cycle “Fungi from Yuggoth” (1929–30). The god Tsathoggua first appeared in the story “The Return of Satampra Zeiros,” written by Clark Ashton Smith in 1929. Lovecraft described Azathoth as a “boundless daemon-sultan” in “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” (1926–27). Hastur is mentioned as “the god of shepherds” in “Haïta the Shepherd” by Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?), published in Can Such Things Be? (1893). Yian is a mythical land that appears in The Maker of Moons (1896) by Robert W. Chambers (1859–1933). Lovecraft described Leng as a “cold desert plateau” in his story “Celephai’s” (1920) and located it in Central Asia in “The Hound” (1922). Bierce quoted the prophet Hali in “The Death of Halpin Fraser” and “An Inhabitant of Carcosa,” both which were collected in Can Such Things Be? Bethmoora is an Eastern city in the story “Bethmoora” (1910) by Lord Dunsany. In The King in Yellow (1895) by Robert W. Chambers, the “Yellow Sign,” a “curious symbol” that did not “belong to any human script,” is linked to the “The King in Yellow,” a dangerous book that has “spread like an infectious disease.” L’mur-Kathulos is an Egyptian entity in the story “Skull-Face” (1929) by Robert E. Howard (1906–1936), and the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn is the hero of a series of stories by Howard. In a letter to Bernard Austin Dwyer written in November 1927, Lovecraft described a dream about Roman Spain involving human sacrifices to the “Magnum Innominandum,” the “unknown, unnamable deity” of the “Strange Dark Folk” living in the mountains.

  430.31 the new planet beyond Neptune] Pluto, discovered on February 18, 1930.

  447.18–19 cormophytic fungi] Fungi with stems composed of both vessels and cells.

  462.18–23 K’n-yan . . . Klarkash-Ton.] Lovecraft created K’n-yan, Yoth, and N’Kai, underground realms beneath Oklahoma, in “The Mound,” the story he ghostwrote for Zealia Bishop (1897–1968) in 1929–30, and first mentioned the “Pnakotic Manuscripts” in his story “Polaris” (1918). Commoriom was a city in the land of Hyperborea, the setting of several stories by Clark Ashton Smith, whom Lovecraft often addressed in correspondence as Klarkash-Ton.

  464.9–11 Doels . . . Yig] The Doels are mentioned in the story “The Hounds of Tindalos” (1929) by Frank Belknap Long (1901–1994). Lovecraft invented the snake god Yig while ghostwriting “The Curse of Yig” for Zealia Bishop in 1928.

  485.11 Nicholas Roerich] The Russian painter Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) traveled extensively in India, Sinkiang, Altai, Mongolia, and Tibet in 1923–28. Lovecraft saw his paintings of the Himalayas during a visit to New York in 1930.

  485.36–40 “—the lavas . . . the boreal pole.”] “Ulalume—A Ballad” (1847), ll.15–19.

  494.34 Comanchian] A term for the Lower Cretaceous geological epoch, approximately 135 million to 96 million years ago.

  498.17 radiata] Invertebrates with radial body structures, such as sea urchins and sea anemones.

  509.10 Scoresby] The son of an English whaling captain, William Scoresby (1789–1857) studied natural philosophy and chemistry at Edinburgh university before taking command of the whaler Resolution in 1811. He published his observations on polar meteorology and natural history in An Account of the Arctic Regions and Northern Whale Fishery (1820).

  526.17–18 Lemuria . . . Lomar] In 1864 the English zoologist Philip Sclater (1829–1913) proposed that Madagascar, Ceylon, and Sumatra were once linked by a land bridge he named “Lemuria.” The theosophist Madame Blavatsky (1831–1891) later described Lemuria as the home of an advanced civilization in The Secret Doctrine (1888). Commoriom and Uzuldaroum are cities in Hyperborea in the story “The Return of Satampra Zeiros” (1929) by Clark Ashton Smith. Olanthoë and Lomar appear in Lovecraft’s story “Polaris” (1918).

  526.21–22 Valusia . . . Nameless City] Valusia is the ancient kingdom ruled by King Kull in a series of stories by Robert E. Howard. R’lyeh is the sunken city of Cthulhu in “The Call of Cthulhu”; see pp. 167–96 in this volume. The city of Ib in Mnar appears in Lovecraft’s story “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” (1920), and his “The Nameless City” (1921) is set in the Arabian desert.

  545.28–29 Taylo
r, Wegener, and Joly] American geologist Frank Bursley Taylor (1860–1938) proposed a theory of continental drift in a paper published in 1910. German meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) first advanced his theory in an address given in 1912 and developed it in a series of subsequent books. Irish geologist John Joly (1857–1933) supported the theory in The Surface History of the Earth (1925).

  550.16 Wilkes and Mawson] Charles Wilkes (1798–1877), an American naval officer, explored the Antarctic coast in 1839 and 1840; Douglas Mawson (1882–1958), an Australian geologist, led Antarctic expeditions in 1911–14 and 1929–31.

  556.24 Borchgrevingk] Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink (1864–1934) led the first expedition to spend winter on the Antarctic mainland, 1899–1900.

  581.5 nefandous] Not to be spoken of; unmentionable.

  596.29 Dagon] The god of the Philistines, sometimes depicted as being part man and part fish.

  608.30 the conqueror worm] Cf. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Conqueror Worm” (1843), ll. 37–40: “While the angels, all pallid and wan, / Uprising, unveiling, affirm / That the play is the tragedy, ‘Man,’ / And its hero the Conqueror Worm.”

  619.13 Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin—] “Numbered, weighed, divided,” the words written on the wall at the banquet of King Belshazzar in Babylon; see Daniel 5.

  655.11–12 Book of Eibon . . . von Junzt] The Book of Eibon was invented by Clark Ashton Smith in his story “Ubbo-Sathla,” in which Eibon was described as a Hyperborean wizard. Robert E. Howard introduced von Junzt and his book Nameless Cults in “The Black Stone” (1931); August Derleth (1909–1971) later supplied a German version of the title at Lovecraft’s request.

  655.19–20 Judge Hathorne] John Hathorne (1641–1717) was a judge in the Salem witch trials and the great-great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

  682.28 infandous] Unspeakable.

  693.19–20 notorious Baudelairean poet Justin Geoffrey] A character in “The Black Stone” (1931) by Robert E. Howard.

  695.9 Plattsburg] A training camp for army officers was established at Plattsburg, New York, during World War I.