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Some of the names in this story... Oy vey! Including the name of the title character! I get it that you want something that sounds foreign, completely and utterly alien, but sometimes authors take it a bit too far. fugacity: fleeting or evanescent retiarii: a type of Roman gladiator who fought with a net and trident oleaginous: We have two definitions here: 1) rich in, covered with, or producing oil; oily or greasy; 2) exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious. It seems both of these definitions could apply simultenaously to this creature. To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/243/the-weird-of-avoosl-wuthoqquan

I kept wanting to say the name Robilar instead of Ralibar. Old AD&D grognards will get that reference. Indeed, I did record it as Robilar now and again and had to re-record such passages to correct it. There seems to be a great deal of confusion over how to pronounce 'geas'. Not being a speaker of any Gaelic language, I have no idea. What I used here is definitely correct in some forms of Gaelic, maybe not in others. I don't know. It's what you are getting, like it or not :-P But what is a geas? A (generally magical) vow, obligation or injunction placed upon someone to do or not do something, which typically brings harm if violated and blessings if obeyed. Catoblepas also doesn't seem to be widely agreed upon in pronunciation. And what is a catoblepas? A legendary creature from Ethiopia, said to have the body of a Cape buffalo, scales on its back, and the head of a wild boar, which always points downward because of its weight. It's gaze was said to be lethal. Tsathoggua gives us a tie-in to Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos! One reference I can recall specifically is in his story "The Mound", in chapter 5. I really enjoyed that story, go give it a listen if you can spare a few hours. Looks like also in "The Whisperer in Darkness". I believe it first appears in Clark's writings, and Lovecraft picked it up and used it as well. anlace is a new one on me - a double-edged dagger of the Medieval period. porrected: extended forward caul has two meanings: the amniotic membrane enclosing a fetus, or a woman's close-fitting indoor headdress or hairnet. "Caul of darkness" is probably using the second definition. The picture used is "Tsathoggua" by Kaek, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/192/the-seven-geases

The picture used is "Hyperborea" by SOLIDToM, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/prose-poetry-plays/33/the-muse-of-hyperborea

This essay strikes me as rather weak - I don't feel very well informed by it, except maybe to get a couple of titles for books for future recording. And not because he gave me any useful info about the titles, I had to go look that up myself, rather he just game me some names to look up. W.T Stead was a British newspaper editor and pioneer of investigative journalism who died in the sinking of the Titanic spagyric: pertaining to alchemy Nicolas Flamel: 14th century French scribe. Apparently also a character in Harry Potter? I don't know, didn't read it (or watch it), but in searching for info about him a lot of Harry Potter stuff comes up. If you recognize the name only from HP, now you know he was an actual historical person besides! Thomas Vaughan: 17th century Welsh clergyman, philosopher, and alchemist. Silurist: a native of Brecknockshire in Wales, or a member of the ancient Silurian tribe. The two things are related, but I don't know anything about Vaughan or his writings to know which way its usage here is intended. The brother who is the Silurist would be Henry Vaughan Lumen de Lumine, by Thomas Vaughan, subtitled: A new magicall light discovered and communicated to the world by Eugenius Philalethes. Magia adamica, by Thomas Vaughan, subtitled: or the antiquitie of magic, and the descent thereof from Adam downwards, proved. Whereunto is added a perfect, and full discoverie of the true cœlum terræ, or the magician's heavenly chaos, and first matter of all things. By Eugenius Philalethes. Ashmole's "Fasciculus Chemicus": Elias Ashmole was a 17th century English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Also a founding fellow of the Royal Society. "Fasciculus Chemicus", or Chymical Collections. Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors is an anthology of alchemical writings compiled by Arthur Dee in 1629 while resident in Moscow as chief physician to Czar Michael I of Russia, and translated into English by Ashmole in 1650. Denys Zachaire: 16th century French alchemist Payne Knight: English scholar, archaeologist, and numismatist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. MP for Leominster, and then Ludlow. "A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus" was his first book, published in 1786. A.E. Waite: British poet and mystic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His "The Real History of the Rosicrucians" was published in 1887. Hargrave Jennings: 19th century British Freemason and Rosicrucian. It's unclear which work Machen is referring to here, Jennings did write a fair bit, but we do find a book entitled "The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries" from 1870 which seems like a fair guess. Joris-Karl Huysmans: 19th century French novelist. Là-bas was published in 1891. It is a work on Satanism in contemporary France. Gilles de Rais: French Baron of the 15th century, friend of Joan of Arc, and convicted serial killer of children. Léo Taxil: 19th century French writer and journalist. His story is rather complicated, being raised a Jesuit, then becoming anti-Catholic, then becoming Catholic again, writing various hoaxes, saying his conversion to Catholicism was a hoax, it's quite a story in its own right. Henry De Vere Stacpoole:late 19th and 20th century Irish author. Sounds like rather a Dutch name to me, but he was born and raised in Ireland, near Dublin. The pictures used are: Ouija board Painting of John Keats by William Hilton Contemporary artwork depicting Babylon at the height of its stature, by Bazil Amin, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en). Photo of William Thomas Stead taken in 1905 by E.H. Mills Flamel as represented in 1402 on the portal of Sainte-Geneviève des Ardens (from Étienne François Villain, 1761) Henry Vaughan - apparently Thomas and Henry were twins. I couldn't find any pictures of Thomas specifically, but there seems to be a portrait or two of Henry, but given they are twins... Restoration of a late antique ceiling painting, depicting prose writer Apuleius. Bischöfliches Museum (Bishop's Museum), Trier, circa 330 AD Folded-out engraving showing witches' sabbat, by Laurent Bordelon (1710), from the University of Glasgow Library, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/). the Rosy Cross as used by Rosicrucianism, by RootOfAllLight Painting of Sir Walter Scott by Thomas Lawrence in the 1820s Sketch of Margaret Oliphant by Frederick Augustus Sandys in 1881 Alfred Percy Sinnett M. P. Shiel Henry De Vere Stacpoole Arthur Machen

The BBC was founded in 1922, and this story was published I believe in 1936? In the 1930s, no doubt, so the reference to it here works out fine. 4 or 5 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 2.2 to 2.8 Celsius. Morton Grange - I can find places with this name in Lincolnshire and Durham and Derbyshire, but I can't find a reference to one in Essex. There's another one in Gloucestershire, which is close to the border with Wales and might be where Machen heard the name. So it's a name that definitely exists in the UK, just maybe not in Essex. He does say 14 or 15 miles northeast of London. If we take "London" here to mean Westminster, as so many of his stories with London locales are specifically Westminster locales, 14 to 15 miles NE of London is still within the M25 London Orbital Motorway. To give you an idea of just how massively London has sprawled out over the past century, that in the 1930s, such a distance was still considered "the country".... Glamis Castle is a real castle in Scotland. There appears to be a "monster of Glamis", which is presumably what Machen is referring to here, being a child born in 1821 and claimed by the parents to have died in 1821, but others say the child was hideously deformed and survived and lived, but hidden away in the castle never to be seen by outsiders. Chère reine is French for "Dear Queen". The idea that the name of Charing is derived from the expression "chère reine" is a folk myth related to Queen Eleanor of Castile (wife of King Edward I), who died way back in 1290. In fact, the name Charing is likely to be several centuries older than that, from the Anglo-Saxon word ċerring. Andrew Lang: given the time frame involved, this is presumably a reference to the Scottish poet, and collector of folk and fairy tales. Chancery, at the time of this story, would be the Chancery division of the High Court of Justice, dealing with business law, trusts, probate, insolvency, and land law, along with patents and tax. stretch a point: apparently there are several meanings to the phrase, but the one we are interested in here is: to break the rules, or make an exception, for a good reason Crookes: William Crookes, a British chemist and physicist and inventor of the Crookes tube. He was for a while also interested in spiritualism. Markham is a common enough surname, but if I had to make a guess, it'd have to be either Sir Clements Markham (explorer, author, and ultimately president of the Royal Geographic Society) or Sir Albert Hastings Markham (an explorer, author, and officer in the RN). The problem with either candidate is that they both died before the end of WW1, and this story is clearly set after WW1. But there are no other better candidates. Unless it is meant to be a fictional person, which is entirely possible. diem clausit extremum: he closed his last day, i.e. he died mortuus sine prole: died without issue vert a chevron or: heraldric terms. Vert = green, or = gold, you know what a chevron is. So a gold chevron on a green background. Scotland Yard was founded in 1829. There doesn't appear to be a "Mackinlay Stuart", at least not one that is sufficiently notable to appear in an internet search. Stuart Mackinlay, but not Mackinlay Stuart. But same thing with Halliday Stuart. Stuart Halliday yields quite a few results, but Hallidy Stuart not a one. So it seems Machen is doing some name reversals here. antinomy: a contradiction between two beliefs or conclusions that are in themselves reasonable The picture used is: A view of Copped (or Copt) Hall from the north-east as a wood engraved print by Forsyth for an 1888 book by Edward Walford, published by Cassell & Co Ltd in "Greater London a narrative of its history, its people and its places". The history of this manor house goes back to King Richard I at the end of teh 12th century! But the building shown here was an 18th century rebuild of the house in the Georgian style. So it's a Georgian style manor house with a long enough history that there would be some far older buildings or structures on the property. Just as is described in the story for Morton Grange. And for bonus points, this is located in Essex! And extremely close to the location described in the story, being 14 miles northeast of Charing Cross!

Book 6: Supersition Deserting Faith Ου γαρ χρη κεινους σε βλεπεις Aριν σωμα τελεσθεις; Οτι τας ψυχας θελγοντες αει τελετων απο νους. Oracl. Chald. ap. Procl. ---- 0:00:00 Chapter I 0:08:46 Chapter II 0:12:05 Chapter III 0:18:06 Chapter IV 0:25:02 Chapter V 0:33:04 Chapter VI 0:41:26 Chapter VII 0:49:19 Chapter VIII 0:55:06 Chapter IX ---- The picture used are: Chapter 1: the Villa Foscari (Malcontenta) bei Mira (VE) von der Wasserseite by Peter Geymayer Chapter 2: "Simeon with the Infant Jesus", a painting by Petr Jan Brandl, some time after 1725 Chapter 3: "A View of the Bay of Naples, Looking Southwest from the Pizzofalcone Toward Capo di Posilippo" (1791) by Giovanni Battista Lusieri. Parthenope was built atop Pizzofalcone. And look at that, the picture was painted in exact the temporal setting for this chapter! Perfection! Chapter 4: Venice in the 18th century, view of the Grand canal towards the Rialto Bridge from the North, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi to the left, painted by Apollonio Domenichini Chapter 5: one of the rooms in Villa Foscari - it is a crazy opulent interior! If you like this kind of stuff, it's worth an image search to see just how amazing this place really is. Chapter 6: La Confessione (circa 1838) by Giuseppe Molteni Chapter 7: (I was going for the imagery of an astral traveler) Chapter 8: King Louis Philippe fleeing from Paris after his abdication, Paris 24 February 1848. So, everything about this picture is wrong for our scene, it's 55 years later than our story, it's a couple fleeing Paris, not Venice, and it's royalty, not ordinary people. But it is a couple taking to flight to escape an evil fate, which is what I was looking for, and I couldn't find anything else even remotely approaching this theme, so this is what we are left with. Chapter 9: (meant to represent two mystics, Mejnor the blue, Zanoni the orange) To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2664/2664-h/2664-h.htm#link2H_4_0065

Book 5: The Effects of the Elixir, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton Frommt's, den Schleier aufzuheben, Wo das nahe Schreckniss droht? Nur das Irrthum ist das Leben, Und das Wissen ist der Tod. -Schiller, Kassandro. ---- 0:00:00 Chapter I 0:22:16 Chapter II 0:35:03 Chapter III 0:41:45 Chapter IV 1:00:29 Chapter V 1:07:48 Chapter VI ---- The picture used are: Chapter 1: the judgment of the dead from the Papyrus of Hunefer. It is, unfortunately, the judgment by Osiris, not by the living, but it's what I could find. Chapter 2: a Drawing Room of Hampton & Sons. Probably more Victorian Era, so a few decades too late for our setting here, but still probably not too far off from what it could have looked like for someone of modest success and a rich wife like Mervale. Chapter 3: "New Stock Exchange", i.e. the London Stock Exchange in 1810 Chapter 4: "Carnival Scene (The Minuet)" by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, pained in the 1750s. A few decades too early, but at least generally in the ballpark. Chapter 5: "Baba Yaga - Russia" by Pabbit-da-rabbit, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). An evil, old hag, eh? There you go. Chapter 6: "The Entrance to the Harbor of Marseilles" by William Callow, circa 1838. Sure, that's post-Revolution, but it's probably close enough for our purposes. I suspect given the look it has here that it didn't change overly much, at least here at the harbor entrance, since the Revolution. In another 50 years it would probably have changed a lot, but probably not much difference between 1838 and 1788. I could be wrong, but just my ignorant guess. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2664/2664-h/2664-h.htm#link2H_4_0058

Book 2: Art, Love, and Wonder Diversi aspetti in un confusi e misti. "Ger. Lib," cant. iv. 7. ---- 0:00:00 Chapter I 0:16:33 Chapter II 0:41:30 Chapter III 0:52:21 Chapter IV 0:57:51 Chapter V 1:08:09 Chapter VI 1:18:51 Chapter VII 1:37:52 Chapter VIII 1:44:40 Chapter IX 1:50:03 Chapter X ---- The pictures used are: Chapter 1: The source for this image is unknown - if you recognize it, please let me know! Chapter 2: "Route de Naples" by Vernet, circa 1820. About 30 years after the time of this story, but it is highwaymen in Naples, so close enough. Chapter 3: "Jealousy" by Jules Davis, 1834 (I cropped out a third person coming through a door). A few decades later than our setting, and fashion probably did change a lot from pre-revolution to post, so not a great depiction. Meh. Chapter 4: "Palais à Naples regardant le Soleil Levant" (Naples palace watching the sun rise), print by Johann Wilhelm Bauer, published in Amsterdam circa 1636. So a good 150 years too early for this story, but I would be willing to be it didn't change too much in that time. Chapter 5: the Salone delle feste in Villa dei Mulini, Portoferraio by Derek91, used here under the Creative Commons Attribuzione 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.it). Finding an Italian palace's saloon was no easy task, at least for having to search in English on English search engines. And this one is on Elba, so not Naples, but it's as close as I can get. Chapter 6: the Rosy Cross as used by Rosicrucianism, by RootOfAllLight Chapter 7: copper plate etching of the botanical garden of Naples by Giuseppe Orlandini (a.k.a. Attilio Zuccagni-Orlandini), circa 1840. Chapter 8: "Two gentlemen strolling and talking, circa 1800". Chapter 9: "Boors drinking and smoking in an inn" by David Teniers the Younger, done in 1645. Chapter 10: Washington's Courtship by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. George married Martha in 1759, which is quite a bit earlier than the timeframe of this story, but George would have been dressing in the peak English fashion of the day, so it's at least some form of 18th century English style. And the setting in this picture, while obviously not southern Italy, is still in the right ballpark of look and feel for what we expect in this scene. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2664/2664-h/2664-h.htm#link2H_4_0016

Book 1: The Musician Due Fontane Chi di diverso effeto hanno liquore! "Ariosto, Orland. Fur." Canto 1.7. ---- 0:00:00 Chapter I 0:23:17 Chapter II 0:34:52 Chapter III 0:47:05 Chapter IV 1:01:22 Chapter V 1:09:44 Chapter VI 1:21:13 Chapter VII 1:32:20 Chapter VIII 1:41:12 Chapter IX 1:55:30 Chapter X ---- The pictures used are: Chapter 1: a paining of The violinist Niccolò Paganini by Georg Friedrich Kersting. Gaetano Pisani is a fictional character, but Niccolò Paganini seems to have about the right look to serve as a stand-in. Paganini is early 19th century instead of late, but close enough. Chapter 2: Teatro San Carlo - View of stage from Royal Box by Viva-Verdi, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). Chapter 3: Napoli, the Piazza Vittoria e Riviera di Chiaia Chapter 4: "The Poet" by Giuseppe Bonito. It was painted in 1742, so a few decades too early for our purposes, but it was irritatingly difficult to find a picture for this chapter at all. Meant to represent Count Cetoxa and his associates. Chapter 5: "Two old men disputing" by Rembrandt (1628). In this case, Zanoni and his associate. Chapter 6: "Un petit souper, a la Parisienne; - or - a family of sans-culotts refreshing, after the fatigues of the day" by James Gillray, published by Hannah Humphrey, hand-coloured etching, published 20 September 1792 Chapter 7: Théodore Géricault on His Deathbed (1824) by Charles Emile Callande de Champmartin. Sure, the old man in this chapter didn't actually die, but he almost did, and his would-be assassin mistook him for dead, so... Chapter 8: "Conversation Piece: Three Men in Eighteenth-Century Costume" (1890) by Carl Wilhelm Anton Seiler, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Chapter 9: "Death of a musician" (1859) by Octave Tassaert Chapter 10: the Angel of Grief by William Wetmore Story, which is actually from a cemetary in Rome for Protestants, so not the best fit for a Neapolitan Roman Catholic, but I still feel like it is a fitting image to capture the mood of this chapter. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2664/2664-h/2664-h.htm#link2HCH0001

It appears this was Sonia's work, with Lovecraft providing the idea for it, and Greene doing the actual writing. An example of the uncommon short story style that is primarily about mood or atmosphere rather than plot or action. And it does a pretty good job of it, IMO. 'Mould' here is a British word for soft loose earth. Apparently it may have been an American word a hundred years ago? But certainly not any more. The pictures used is "Temple Hill Graveyard, Cork, Ireland". Taken at night under sodium street light with (somewhat) long exposure by Guliolopez, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). To follow along: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Four_O%27Clock

"The Thing in the Moonlight" is based on a letter that Lovecraft wrote to Donald Wandrei on 24 November 1927. The story surrounding Lovecraft's description of his dream was written by J. Chapman Miske and published in the January 1941 issue of Bizarre. The pictures used is "Trolley Graveyard" by Forsake Fotos, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/). Surprisingly good amount of artwork based on this story fragment, but none of it with a copyright status that made it useable by me. Oh well. So you get this abandonded trolley car instead. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tm.aspx

0:00:00 Chapter 1 0:10:17 Chapter 2 0:20:03 Chapter 3 "Single". What kind of a given name is "Single"? Bizarre. Ah well, as a certain Lieutenant in Catch-22 would say, "It's Single's name, sir." Another story that's a bit hard to place. The Bitterroot Mountains are in Montana and Idaho, and there is a Salmon River at the south end of the Bitterroot Mountains. The Blue Mountain Forest Reserve is (or was, I'm unclear if it still exists) in eastern Oregon, and the Blue Mountains generally are in Oregon and a little bit of Washington. There's a Hampden in Colorado (now part of Denver), and a Croydon in Utah. Now we know Theunis has to travel to get to Croydon, so it is possible they are referring to the city in Utah. But clearly Hampden, CO cannot be the Hampden referenced, as they say the Salmon River is southeast of Hampden, but that is impossible given the various locations listed above. The Salmon River does connect to the Snake River, which runs through the Blue Mountains. As it happens, there is a Hells Canyon along the course of the Snake River, and the Nez Perce were the first inhabitants of the area. It is relatively close to the Salmon River, and is very likely what the text calls "Hell's Acres". That said, there's no place nearby called Hampden that I can find. Maybe such a town existed a hundred years ago and died off some time since. It was pretty common in those western states back in the day for towns to spring up and die away as gold rushes started up and ended. There was a Hells Canyon gold rush in the 1880s, and maybe a small town of stragglers hung on for another 50 years or so before the town faded away, but that seems unlikely. Most likely, just a place they made up for the story that never really existed. Just like there was never a pirate "Exer Jones", that is a completely made up name for the story. It is odd that a pirate would build a house in Montana or Idaho or eastern Oregon, which makes me wonder if perhaps the original setting was someplace very different and it was changed during editing. And "Beacon Hill" is obviously a name out of Boston, no doubt transplanted into this story by Lovecraft, who loves to use Beacon Hill in his stories that are set in Boston. It's certainly not a commonly used name anywhere else. As best I can tell, greaseweed goes by the scientific name of eriodictyon tomentosum, a.k.a. woolly yerba santa. A bit out of place in Oregon or Montana or Idaho - it normally occurs in central to southern California and northern Mexico. Of course, it is entirely possible the authors may have had some other plant in mind that they thought was called that name, or maybe they were just unaware of the range of the plant, being familiar with California, but not the states to its north, so they just assumed. That seems pretty likely. The pictures used is a photo taken by Rickmouser45 at Hells Canyon National Recreation area, near Heaven's Gate Park. This photo was taken on the Idaho side of the Hells Canyon, looking to the Oregon side of the canyon. This photo is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en). The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/th.aspx Isn't it amazing that we finally, FINALLY, have a Lovecraft story where the character follows instructions and destroys the Thing (pictures, in this case) without looking at it or otherwise engaging with it. So many of his stories, the characters can't help themselves and do what they are instructed not to do. It's nice to finally have someone willing to play along and not screw things up :)

This story is largely Barlow's work, which seems pretty evident from the content of the story, with Lovecraft contributing some edits here and there. Unlike some of Lovecraft's other "edits", where Lovecraft basically rewrote the entire story, this one he left largely intact. This is a fairly rare example of a purely atmospheric weird tale, there's very little in the way of action or plot. I do very much love the atmosphere and the mood of the story, but I could have done with a little bit more action. I can't figure out where Ellston Beach is supposed to be. Apparently this was first published in "The Californian", which would tend to suggest a California setting. But there is no Ellston in California. Indeed, the only Ellston I can identify is in Iowa. Which means you can imagine Ellston being pretty much on any ocean coast anywhere. Well, anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, since August is still summer in the story. The fact that the ocean doesn't get too cold for swimming until September could probably narrow it down some, but I'm not familiar enough with ocean temperature variations by locale to say. The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/no.aspx Now tell me the following sentence, copied exactly from the text, is valid syntax: "The shadows were draining from the beach, and I felt that they took with were all which might have been a harbour for my thoughts when the hinted thing should come." I checked it against several sources, and they all have the same wording. It seems obviously an error, where the word 'were' should be 'them': "...took with them all which might...". But, that's not what is actually in the text. I couldn't really figure out how to say the sentence as written, but obviously I stumbled through it somehow. After about a dozen takes and much head-scratching. Ugh.

Well this is a rather silly little story fragment. Not sure if it is meant as a parody, or what. At least it's short, so we aren't subjected to very much of this inanity :-P Seriously though, it sounds like a 10 year old kid wrote this. Or that it was written with 10 year old kids as the target audience. Presumably this was Barlow's idea and Lovecraft was trying to help him out with it, but there isn't much info to be found on this story, so that's just my guess. The picture used is "Space War" by Vanessa28, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/clc.aspx

These Dutch names always confound me, so I probably got them wrong. Sleght in particular. Oh well. While the atmosphere is adequately developed in this story, there are many missed opportunities to make it even creepier or more sinister. It was already kind of a long-ish story, for a short story, so I guess that wasn't done in order to keep the word count manageable? Although it is not like Lovecraft was particularly shy about writing stories much longer than this, so who knows. 6 inches = 15.25 cm 3.5 inches = 8.9 cm Cochin-China is an old European name for Vietnam. frore = frosty or frozen The picture used is "OLD FARM HOUSE" by shabear1000, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/). The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/dat.aspx

This might have been novel enough when it was written, in the 1930s, but these days it feels a bit too predictable. Or maybe it's just me... 1 rod = 16.5 feet = 5 meters The picture used is of Father Damien on his deathbed, presumably taken by Dr. Sydney B. Swift on Palm Sunday, April 14, 1889. Cause of death? Leprosy :( The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/di.aspx

"The Challenge from Beyond" by C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long Now this was a fun collaboration! 0:00:00 C.L. Moore 0:06:01 A. Merritt 0:11:15 H.P. Lovecraft 0:30:35 Robert E. Howard 0:37:50 Frank Belknap Long The pictures used are: Chapters 1 and 2 are public domain pictures Chapter 3 is "Cthulhu Project - Great Race of Yith" by Serathus, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) Lovecraft reused one of his own mind-swapping alien races here from "A Shadow Out of Time" as a foil to these mind-swapping aliens of this story. Chapter 4 is "Spinal Centipede" by Zezhou, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Chapter 5 is "Fire Orb" by Eric Tastad, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/). The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cb.aspx

This story feels like this could have been an episode of The Twilight Zone! Indeed, I am reminded specifically of the episode "Time Enough at Last", except darker. The author contemplates the earth moving closer in to the sun, but this was written a century ago - today we can reframe this story in the context of the sun, having reached it red giant stage, expanding out towards the earth. The result is the same, but it would better match up with current scientific understanding. The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tas.aspx