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A Map of Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness
Map published in the 'Arkham Advertiser' showing the route taken by the Miskatonic University expedition to Antartica in 1931. On a recent visit to the Orne Library I came across this clipping from the...
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Map of Clarke Ashton Smith’s ‘Zothique’ by Tim Kirk
Map of Clarke Ashton Smith's Zothique by Tim Kirk
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Lyonesse and ‘The Foundered Town’ in Romance and Fantasy of the Nineteenth...
Lyonesse--Down-A-Down-Derry---Dorothy P. Lathrop ‘In sea-cold Lyonesse, When the Sabbath eve shafts down On the roofs, walls, belfries Of the foundered town…’ ‘Sunk Lyonesse’ by Walter de la Mare...
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‘The Somewhat Freudian Gug’
Paul Carrick's Illustration of a Gug from Lovecraft's Dreamlands The somewhat Freudian Gug with its vertical mouth is a denizen of Lovecraft’s ‘Dreamlands.’ I find the name resonant of the biblical...
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Map of Demonland from “The Worm Ouroboros” by E.R. Eddison
Map of Demonland from "The Worm Ouroboros" by E.R. Eddison (Artist: David Bedell 1978)
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Conan the Existentialist…
The Destroyer by Frank Frazetta By Crom Jean-Paul Sartre! Make way for Conan the Existentialist! “Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate,...
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‘The Eidola And The Angeli’
The Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius ‘The Place of the Lion’ (1933) by Charles Williams concerns the fate of a group of friends when Platonic forms erupt into the mundane world in the shape of...
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Florimel the Vampire in James Branch Cabell’s ‘Jurgen: A Comedy Of Justice’
Illustration by Ray Coyle of Florimel the Vampire from a 1929 Edition of ‘Jurgen: A Comedy Of Justice’ by James Branch Cabell Florimel in James Branch Cabell’s ‘Jurgen: A Comedy Of Justice’ (1919) is...
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Arthur Machen and the ‘Beautiful Symbolism of Alchemy’
Photograph of Arthur Machen from the 'South Wales Argus' Arthur Machen (1863–1947) is one of a number of writers of fantastic fiction such as Charles Williams (1886-1945) whose spirituality permeates...
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The Oliphaunt
Oliphaunt by Inger Edelfeldt One of my favourite passages from the Lord of the Rings is this sympathetic description of a slain Southron warrior flung from the ‘Oliphaunt’. ‘His scarlet robes were...
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‘A Dream Of An Ancient Wood’
In ‘A fragment of Life’ (1922) Athur Machen expounds one of his major themes- the transmutation of the mundane world into a place of wonder through the perception of a spiritually aware observer. The...
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Sauron, Saruman and Owen Barfield
I have sometimes wondered why Tolkien chose to represent two poles of evil in Lord of the Rings that of Sauron and Saruman, an unusual structure both in fantastic fiction and in the epic myths from...
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‘The Coughing Gutturals of Ghasts…’
Mortal enemy of the Somewhat Freudian Gug ghasts haunt the subterranean caverns of Lovecraft’s Dreamworld.. ‘Presently three other ghasts hopped out to join their fellow…It was very unpleasant to see...
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What is the Secret of the Elephant Tower?
An illustration by Stephen E. Fabian for ‘The Tower of the Elephant’ by Robert E.Howard I find ‘The Tower of the Elephant’ (1933) to be the most spiritual of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. There is...
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The Nine Walkers And The Nine Worthies
One of the major themes of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is that of unity and division. The forces of Mordor spend most of their time quarrelling amongst themselves; such as in the episode of the Tower of...
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The Fable of Eros And Psyche
Giulio Bonasone ‘Triumph of Cupid and Psyche’ I particularly like the fable of ‘Eros and Psyche’ which I read in part as an allegory of the attachment of the soul to the material world. In Greek...
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‘the One is not being but the Generator of being’
“the One is not being but the Generator of being. This, we may say, is the first act of generation. The One, perfect because It seeks nothing, has nothing, and needs nothing overflows, as it were, and...
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‘The Good Is Gentle And Kindly And Gracious’
“The Good is gentle and kindly and gracious and present to anyone when he wishes. Beauty brings wonder and shock and pleasure mingled with pain, and even draws those who do not know what is happening...
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