The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories (75 page)

5
While in Wilbraham in the summer of 1928, HPL saw an “absolutely marvellous
firefly
display . . . All agree that it was unprecedented, even for Wilbraham. Level fields & woodland aisles were alive with dancing lights, till all the night seemed one restless constellation of nervous witch-fire. They leaped in the meadows, & under the spectral old oaks at the bend of the road. They danced tumultuously in the swampy hollow, & held witches' sabbaths beneath the gnarled, ancient trees of the orchard” (HPL to Lillian D. Clark, July 1, 1928; ms., JHL).

6
The name was first invented by HPL in “The Picture in the House” (1920); it became the name of the river that proceeds eastward from central Massachusetts through Arkham on the coast, and also the name of Arkham's university. The term is probably an adaptation of Housa tonic (a river in western Massachusetts and Connecticut) and other Indian names.

7
Mythical.

8
There has been much speculation as to the origin of this name. It is thought that HPL was aware of the now-vanished English town of Dunwich in East Anglia (now Suffolk) on the shore of the North Sea; it is the subject of Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem “By the North Sea,” which is included in the edition of his
Poems
(New York: Modern Library, 1919) owned by HPL, although the name Dunwich never appears in the poem. This Dunwich is also mentioned in Arthur Machen's short novel,
The Terror
(1917), which HPL is known to have read. (For the history of this town see Rowland Parker's
Men of Dunwich
[1979].) But the English Dunwich—a coastal city that slowly sank into the sea because of the erosion of the shoreline—seems more reminiscent of HPL's decaying seaport Innsmouth (featured in “The Shadow over Innsmouth” [1931]). If the English Dunwich is not the source of the name, then there are any number of New England towns with the -
wich
ending, notably East and West Greenwich, Rhode Island.

9
Cf. “The Ancient Track”: “There was the milestone that I knew—/ ‘Two miles to Dunwich'—now the view / Of distant spire and roofs would dawn / With ten more upward paces gone. . . .” (AT 63).

10
HPL has picked the date by design to indicate that Dunwich was founded by those individuals who fled from the witchcraft trials in Salem. For HPL's views on the witch trials, see n. 11 to “Pickman's Model.”

11
Cf. HPL's comment on the people of Wilbraham: “The population is quite sharply divided—the good families are maintaining their old standards whilst the common folk are going downhill” (HPL to Lillian D. Clark, July 1, 1928; ms., JHL).

12
Bishop is (as Burleson, “Humour Beneath Horror” [see Further Reading] has pointed out) a prominent name in the history of Athol, as are Wheeler, Farr, Frye, and Sawyer. Bishops and Fryes also figure in the early history of Salem.

13
Both Hoadly and his sermon are imaginary.

14
Azazel is a demon variously mentioned in the Old Testament (Leviti cus 16:8, 10, 26). In the King James Version the name is mistranslated as “scapegoat.” Buzrael is a name invented here by HPL. Beelzebub is a name used interchangeably with Satan in the New Testament (e.g., Matthew 12:24-27). The term probably means “lord of the flies” in Hebrew. Belial is mentioned only once in the New Testament (2 Corinthi ans 6:15) as a synonym for Satan. Azazel, Beelzebub, and Belial are all cited in the first book of Milton's
Paradise Lost
, although they do not appear together in any single passage.

15
Archaic spelling of “Devil.”

16
The reference is to the “Moodus noises,” named after the town of Moodus, Connecticut, where they have been particularly common, although other localities have reported similar phenomena. HPL derived his information on this matter from a chapter entitled “Moodus Noises” in Charles M. Skinner's
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1896), Vol. 2, pp. 43-46. The book was in HPL's library. Skinner writes: “As early as 1700, and for thirty years after, there were crackings and rumblings that were variously compared to fusillades, to thunder, to roaring in the air, to the breaking of rocks, to reports of cannon. . . . Houses shook and people feared.”

17
The term Devil's Hop Yard was derived by HPL from the very next chapter of Skinner's
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
following that on “Moodus Noises.” In “Haddam Enchantments,” Skinner tells of supposed gatherings of witches in the town of Haddam, Connecticut. “. . . there were dances of old crones at Devils' Hop Yard, Witch Woods, Witch Meadows, Giant's Chair, Devil's Footprint, and Dragon's Rock. . . . In Devils' Hop Yard was a massive oak that never bears leaves or acorns, for it has been enchanted since the time that one of the witches, in the form of a crow, perched on the topmost branch, looked to the four points of the compass, and flew away. That night the leaves fell off, the twigs shrivelled, sap ceased to run, and moss began to beard its skeleton limbs” (pp. 47-48). The description is clearly reminiscent of the “blasted heath” in “The Colour out of Space” (CC 171-72).

18
This is an actual legend in the Wilbraham area and was told to HPL either by Edith Miniter or her friend Evanore Beebe. Cf. his essay, “Mrs. Miniter: Estimates and Recollections” (1934): “I saw the ruinous, deserted old Randolph Beebe house where the whippoorwills cluster abnormally, and learned that these birds are feared by the rustics as evil psychopomps. It is whispered that they linger and flutter around houses where death is approaching, hoping to catch the soul of the departed as it leaves. If the soul eludes them, they disperse in quiet disappointment; but sometimes they set up a chorused clamour which makes the watchers turn pale and mutter—with that air of hushed, awestruck portentousness which only a backwoods Yankee can assume—‘They got 'im!' ” (MW 477). The word psychopomp is adapted from the Greek
psychopompos
(“conductor of souls” [i.e., to the underworld]), applied variously to Charon or Hermes in Greek myth. In 1918 HPL wrote a long poem entitled “Psychopompos,” but it is an adaptation of the conventional werewolf legend.

19
Although W. Paul Cook (
In Memoriam: Howard Phillips Lovecraft
[1941; LR 129]) claimed that HPL derived the name Sentinel Hill from a landmark in Athol, Massachusetts, there does not seem to be an actual place of this name in Athol; but there is a farm called Sentinel Elm Farm, and this is probably the source of the name. The topographical source for Sentinel Hill is probably Wilbraham Mountain near Wilbraham, Massachusetts.

20
The Pocumtucs are one of the seven aboriginal Indian tribes of Massachusetts. They settled the entire Connecticut River Valley, and their chief settlement was near the present-day town of Deerfield in north-central Massachusetts.

21
It is not certain where HPL got the name Whateley. There is a small town in northwestern Massachusetts named Whately, and it is not far from the Mohawk Trail, which HPL traversed on a number of occasions, including the summer of 1928.

22
February 2. In Christian theology, Candlemas commemorates the presentation of Christ in the Temple. This is the first of many mentions of Christian feast days in this story, but some of these also correspond to the four important celebrations of the Witches' Sabbath: Candlemas, May-Eve (April 30), Lammas (August 1), and Hallowe'en (October 31). The most significant of these were May-Eve and Hallowe'en. These latter two festivals have their origin in primitive times, specifically in certain rituals of the Celtic tribes.

23
Perhaps an echo of Salem Village (now Danvers), where the Salem witch trials actually took place. See n. 12 to “Pickman's Model.”

24
A term formerly used for two distinct breeds of dairy cattle, Jersey and Guernsey, originally raised on the Channel Islands off the southeast coast of England. Guernseys were first imported to the United States in 1830, Jerseys in 1850.

25
Cf. Anthony M. Rud, “Ooze” (
Weird Tales
, March 1923; rpt. January 1952): “. . . Rori had furnished certain indispensables in way of food to the Cranmer household. At first, these salable articles had been exclusively vegetable—white and yellow turnip, sweet potatoes, corn and beans—but later,
meat!
Yes, meat especially—whole lambs, slaughtered and quartered, the coarsest variety of piney-woods pork and beef, all in immense quantity!” (p. 255).

26
October 31; sometimes referred to as All Hallow's Eve, the evening preceding the Feast of All Saints (Hallowmass). As noted earlier (n. 22), Hal lowe'en and May-Eve are the two great festivals of the Witches' Sabbath.

27
HPL had himself engaged in this activity when staying with his friend Vrest Orton in Vermont in June 1928: “I have learned how to build a wood fire, & have helped the neighbours' boys round up a straying cow” (HPL to Lillian D. Clark, [June 12, 1928]; ms., JHL).

28
See n. 115 to
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
. This tale is the only one in HPL's oeuvre in which Yog-Sothoth figures prominently; in other tales he is only mentioned in passing.

29
April 30, the evening before May Day. The day was also known in Germany as
Walpurgisnacht
(“the night of St. Walpurga”), and is so mentioned by HPL in “The Horror at Red Hook” (1925), “The Dreams in the Witch House” (1932), and other stories.

30
In the summer of 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, development camps were established across the country to train soldiers for war duty. Recall HPL's own rejection for army service during World War I (n. 12 to “The Thing on the Doorstep”).

31
Mythical newspaper; first cited here, then in “The Whisperer in Darkness” (1930) and
At the Mountains of Madness
(p. 248). In “The Colour Out of Space” an
Arkham Gazette
is cited, evidently a newspaper of earlier date.

32
Properly, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; founded in 1866. The first such society was founded in England in 1824.

33
Mythical. The name seems derived from Coldbrook Springs, a small town in central Massachusetts, or perhaps from Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, the site of a celebrated laboratory devoted to genetics and eugenics.

34
August 1. Its origin and significance in Christian theology are debated: it refers either to the consecration of bread made from first-ripe grain at Mass or to the tribute of lambs at Mass.

35
A common New England name, as in the Houghton Library at Harvard (see n. 36) and the Boston publishing firm Houghton Mifflin. Burleson points out that there was a Houghton's Block in Athol.

36
HPL has cited several of the most important libraries in the world in this list. The Widener Library (built 1913-15) was in 1928 both the main and the rare book library of Harvard University (the Houghton Library now houses rare books and manuscripts). The Bibliothèque Nationale is the national library of France, as the British Museum in London (now called the British Library) is one of the national libraries of England, where all books published in France and England, respectively, must be sent for registration of copyright. It is not clear why HPL selected the University of Buenos Ayres (archaic spelling of
Aires
), whose exact name is the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. Its library was not notable at the time, even among South American countries; however, the Biblioteca Nacional de Argentina, the country's national library, was a noteworthy institution.

37
The
Necronomicon
is the most celebrated mythical book invented by HPL. It was first cited by name in “The Hound” (1922); Abdul Alhazred was first mentioned in “The Nameless City” (1921). In “History of the
Necronomicon
” (1927; MW) HPL provides a tongue-in-cheek history of the volume. In that essay he makes the mistake of dating Olaus Wormius's Latin translation to 1228, when in fact Wormius (Ole Worm, 1588-1654) was a Danish doctor and scientist who lived in the seventeenth century and wrote treatises on Danish antiquities, medicine, and the philosopher's stone. HPL's error derives from an erroneous interpretation of a discussion of Wormius in Hugh Blair's
Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian
(1763)
.
See S. T. Joshi, “Lovecraft, Regner Lodbrog, and Olaus Wormius,”
Crypt of Cthulhu
No. 89 (Eastertide 1995): 3-7.

38
Dee's English translation of the
Necronomicon
had been invented by Frank Belknap Long in “The Space-Eaters” (
Weird Tales
, July 1928), where it was cited as an epigraph (omitted in many reprints of the story). Long was working on the tale around September 1927 (see SL 2.171-72), and HPL had read the story in manuscript no later than January 1928 (SL 2.217). John Dee (1527-1608) was an English mathematician and astrologer who for a time was physician to Queen Elizabeth I. In later life he engaged extensively in necromancy, claiming to have discovered the philosopher's stone and to have raised spirits from the dead.

39
The following passage is the most extensive excerpt from the
Necronomicon
to be found in HPL's work. Indeed, aside from the “unexplainable couplet” (“That is not dead which can eternal lie, / And with strange aeons even death may die”) first cited in “The Nameless City” and a prose passage cited at the end of “The Festival” (1923), HPL provides no actual quotations from the
Necronomicon.

40
This conception goes back to Greco-Roman and other early mytholo gies. Cf.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
: “It is known that in disguise the younger among the Great Ones often espouse the daughters of men, so that around the borders of the cold waste wherein stands Kadath the peasants must all bear their blood. This being so, the way to find that waste must be to see the stone face on Ngranek and mark the features; then, having noted them with care, to search for such features among living men” (MM 313).