From: Jesús Lázaro <sdfwees @ yahoo.es>
Date: Tues 20 Mar 2007
Subject: about "astrophobos", of H.P. Lovecraft

Hi!

I work as an editor of literature in Spain, and I am preparing a book with a sellection of poems of the Providence writer (all the poems haven't been published in my country before). One of these poem will be "astrophobos". The fact is, that during the translation into Spanish we are not able to find the definition of "Arctic car" given in the 6th verse (ed. 6th line of the 1st verse). Would you be so kind to tell me what is that? There is no mention of it in Internet. Is it a constellation? Is it the Great Bear also called Ursa Major in Latin? Please, I need your help, I'm in dire straits!

Thanks for your attention, Iä, Cthulhu ftagh!-----

-----

ANSWER

Lovecraft’s reference to the “Arctic Car” in the poem “Astrophobos” is to the constellation Ursa Major (or the Great Bear). According to the “De Astronomia” (attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus) the ancients saw the Ursa Major as a wagon (Greeks call it amaza “coming, and going, to and fro, Gen 8:7"): “Those who, at the beginning, observed the stars and supposed the number of stars into the several constellations, called this group no “Bear” but “Wain,” because two of the seven stars which seemed of equal size and closest together were considered oxen, and the other five were like the figure of a wagon. And so the sign which is nearest to this they wished to be called Boötes. ... because the Bear seems, wagon-like, to wheel around the pole which is called North, and Boötes, is said to drive her. ... And so the one that followed the wagon ... was now called Arctophylax [Bear Watcher].”

Lovecraft probably found the source of the phrase in a translation of the work of Aratus (Greek Aratos) (ca. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC), a Macedonian Greek didactic poet from Tarsus, known for his technical poetry. Eudoxos, an astronomer of Cnidus (403 to 350 BC), wrote a work on Astronomy which he called Phainomena. Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia (273-239 BC), requested the Poet Aratus to put the work of Eudoxus into the form of a poem, which he did about the year 270 BC. Aratus called his work Diosemeia (the Divine Signs). These are the lines Lovecraft probably found his inspiration from:

"Behind, and seeming to urge on the Bear,
Arctophylax, on earth Bootes named,
Sheds o'er the Arctic car his silver light."

The word “Car” first came into Middle English as carre, from French and earlier from Latin carrus 'wheeled vehicle', and it first meant a carriage, chariot, cart, wagon, truck, or other conveyance.

Read "Astrophobos" by H. P. Lovecraft

-------

I found the page 'A Lovecraft Filmography' recently, and I like to point out a movie that is not officially "based on", but seems to be somewhat inspired of "The Temple". The name of the movie is "Below" and the story spans around mystical events on a submarine. At least it would be an nice ad to the Questionable Inclusions page.

Anyway, keep up the good work. Love the page. It have helped me to find many movies to fill my Lovecraft needs.

Best Regards
Staffan Bengtsson
....

I have a couple of books all of the Servents of the Ancient Ones should have 

#1 - The Necronomian - Guidebook to the Necronomicon. It has the Location of the Island of RYLEH, home of Great Cthulhu. If I had the Money I would go right now. In case you would like to know there is a island there. 

# 2 - Ancient  Conjurations and Invocations - It has simple Spirit and Demon Summoning Spells. All you need is an oak branch, silver ring and a place with open ground where you and one or more people can not be disturbed. I can't do any yet because I or any of my friends don't have a basement with open ground . The ground in my state is frozen right now outside but it won't be for much longer, maybe you or some of your friends would like to join me when it is time. 

In the name of the Ancient Ones 
Mark 
...

Can any of the students of Miskatonic Uni. help me go to the center of Eternity to speak with Azagthoth?
... 

My father Professor James Thatcher, head of the Preservation Council in the Aimsworth District of Kenya recommended me to you. While doing  Post-Doctoral work at the Durham Site (the "Locals" refer to it as "F'ang Toth "), we came upon a collection of skulls, some clearly human-like, others of an unknown origin.They are humanoid,but do not appear to be pre-human in the usual anthropocentric meaning. Through carbon dating it would seem that the unusual skulls are much older than the humanoid skulls.What is strange is that some of the more recent humanoid skulls , although in appearance suggesting Homo Sapiens, also suggest the older skulls , as if the humanoid skulls were a corruption of the older, and ,if you wish, a bridge from the oldest to the most recent skulls.(My uncle Sir Geoffrey Thatcher O.M.B.,S.S.N., The Naval Observatory, jokingly refers to it as a kind of "reverse Darwinian process").

The site is taboo and off limits to the native people here, and is subject to some pretty harsh meteorological disturbances (probably related to its nearness to Kilimanjarro, and Lake Zura-the "death" lake known for its high concentration of sulphur and carbon dioxide).It also is contiguous to a " green depression", that unusual phenomenon where carbon dioxide is produced in a natural depression and does not diffuse , so that the little valley  becomes a death zone to oxygen breathing organisms and a lush environment for plants and carbon dioxide dependant organisms. 

Do you have any thoughts on this?  Recently there have been some unusual psychological aberrations amongst the local people and, I must confess, amongst the scientists, as well. But that's another story I suppose.

Sincerely,
Banquith Mills Thatcher
.... 

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am begining editorial work on a volume for the edition of the complete works of the composer Sir Edward Elgar of his incidental music for the play 'The Starlight Express' (1915).  The play is an adaption by the playwrite Violet Pearn of Algernon Blackwood's novel 'A prisoner in fairyland'.  Many years ago now the correspondance between Pearn and Blackwood was sold to an American university or library and Pearn's estate is unable to say where.  I am wondering if you can shed any light on the whereabouts of this correspondence.  I see from the description of your holdings that this may fall within your remit.  Even if you can't yourselves help in my search I would appreciate your advice as to where you believe I should concentrate my enquiries.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,
Roger Dubois
...

Hello,

incidently I visited the site of Miskatonik University and I was very impressed by the information I saw there:The Alhazrad Dig Site!
I thought that it is some kind of joke,because I investigated for a few years the history of this manuscript called "Necronomicon" or the "Book of Dead Names."

But let me intoduce myself:I'am a member of Institute of Eastern Stady in Ukraine.I visited Egypt and Asia,I was in Mesopotamy in the city of Ur with a French archeological expedition,I organized a team to investigate this manuscript...We did some researches but there were not enough money to make a new expedition.The last few years I worked alone,I tried to found the original Sumerian version of the "Necronomicon" or "Al Azif" and I visited a lot of libraries museums and archives abroad,but unfortunately.

So I was very impressed by the information I saw here....I understand that the information is confidential,but we could make some type of colaboration,the archives of our Institut are also quite interesting.
I would be greatful if you could send me some additional information about Al Azif and where your dig site took place.  And I would be also very thankful if you send me some of the original manuscript, translated or not, it does not matter.

Respectfully,
dr. Grantovsky
 ....

I have come across something that you may be able to help me with as far as information on its value or lack thereof.  I found a book published by de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO i believe in 1936 called Raphael's Ancient Manuscript of Talismanic Magic-Recondite Wisdom.  If you have the time would you be kind enough to send me some information on if this book is rare, in demand, or even valuable.  I thank you for your time and be well.

David Cruse
...

I am a fan of H.P. Lovecraft and do some amateur literary analysis for my own amusement.  Lately I have been comparing Lovecraft's The Beast In The Cave with other literature that might have influenced it.  Some published notes show that it was started just before Easter 1904, before his grandfather's death, and then revised April 1905.

I see the influence of Poe's A Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (chapter 2,3) and perhaps some influence by the Brown University scientist Alphaeus Spring Packard, Jr., a noted researcher of Mammoth Cave flora and fauna.  It also appears to have biblical references to the resurrection story in Matthew which may relate to Whipple Phillips' eulogy that week - who knows?

My analysis indicates that there may be two stories superimposed, the first a story of the brave and resourceful protagonist (Lovecraft) who faces down a cave wildcat.  The updated version changes the plot to "a missing link" story and has a sadder tone, probably in response to the relocation after grandfather's death and drying up of household finances.

Sorry to be so long winded, but my question is, are there any articles that you know of (pre-1904) that discuss cave stories with "wild cats".  Or running into a living "missing link" in a cave.

Certainly not anything I can find specifically about Mammoth Cave!  Lots of Mammoth Cave stories, but none about a wildcat encounter in the cave.  Unless Lovecraft spontaneously created the connection (which is possible), I have been unable to find other connections with contemporary (pre-1904) literature.  There does seem to be a lot of dime novel references to caves, but I cannot find many on-line references to these texts.  There is an intriguing note about A Legend of Barlegh Cave by Fitz-James O'Brien, but I am unfamiliar with this story..  Also, Lovecraft is known to have read some Kirk Munroe fiction, but I see no close match to his fiction and this story.
Lovecraft's references to "the missing link" seem to have been derived, second hand from Eugene DuBois' researches for Java Man.

Richard Spiers
...

    This concerns my pending application for graduate studies.
    A recent observation has spiked my already great interest  in your study of the Necromomicon to the point of obsession.I live in a suburb of Boston that has over the past several years seen an influx of immigrants from  Eastern Europe and parts of Africa.
    As an anthropologist , I look for "folk legends", mystery tales and epigrams within the communities of newcomers as a practical means of integrating them into the community.In fact, the City in which I live has a program designed to bring forth the poets and historians within these communities to present their absolutely fascinating oral histories and art forms at public forums.
    Recently, there has been an increase in a type of , let us call  it ,"convergent artistic evolutionary forms" that cannot be explained by cross-fertilization of ideas through contact by one group with another.My colleagues have concluded that the strange similarities in the "occult" art forms of very disparate groups indicates that the concepts are "hard wired" into the unconscious minds of these groups.(I am , as I explained to you before, investigating certain anthropological "digs" in New England that may shed some light  on this.)
    Of immediate interest, and the reason I am writing, is that I have recently witnessed the celebrated dance of the Dagon people that Carl Sagan said was the only proof  of alien contact, and a very similar dance by a group of Bulgarian gypsies, who are from the ancient town of Kopritznisye, Bulgaria.I was able to translate the accompanying chants and it was obvious that the words, harmonic and cadence variations within each were very similar to each other.Each speaks of what can be translated only as "those  slippery sharp-headed ones- who fill the air with their horror the Slow-goths". 
    My uncle, the preeminent cultural anthropologist Vincent Delaroar told me (he dismissed the stories as utterly fantastic ravings of primitive peoples) that there had been ancient tales of a once fertile area now located at the site of the Sahara Desert that was altered by the infusion of what he called "Sudge-orth" beasts , whose descendants , now extinct,had heads in the shape of trapezoids .The mention in the Arabian scholar's book of "Suggoths" and the possibility of a connection to the Pre-Clovis sites mentioned in my last mail, has piqued my curiosity to the point of obsession.
    I hope that you will expedite the process of application. 
Thank you for your courtesy and cooperation.

Sincerely, 
Prompt Delaroar
...

The October 2002 issue of FORTEAN BUREAU (#3) is now online, and we're celebrating Halloween with a tribute to that legendary master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft.
     This month's feature article, "The Lovecraftian Art of John Coulthart," focuses on the ground-breaking work of one of the world's most exciting young artists. And don't forget to click the accompanying images to view larger versions with captions.
     Four Lovecraft-inspired short stories are also offered for your enjoyment:

"Rite of the Fire Demon" by J.V. Sanders
"Nachtjager" by Derek Paterson
"The Thing Under the Rug" by Greg Beatty
"Warmth" by Lee Thomas

Sincerely,
J.V. (John Vincent) Sanders
Assistant Editor
FORTEAN BUREAU
...

I just want to congratulate this site.  Your work is excellent.  I'm French and I'm studying HPL.  I think this site, is one of the best I have ever seen about HPL.  Thank you.
...

I have a pad of paper from Richard Upton Pickman Hall....
Who is Pickman?
And what is the hall? Classrooms? A dorm? Offices? A department? Which one?
Thxs!
Michelle

REPLY: Richard Pickman was an artist who worked from a brownstone in the North End of Boston across from the cemetery.  He, unfortunately, had a hole in his basement which ran under the cemetery.  His paintings were of the creatures that lived in there.  He disappeared into a strange world with a character called Randolph Carter.  Upon his death, which was declared seven years after his disappearance, his estate was donated to the University.  His horrific paintings were of great value and the University named a dormitory hall after him. Unfortunately, it too was too close to a cemetery...     Albert Wilmarth

From: shekhina @ earthlink.net 
Subject: Re: help! 
To: Albert Wilmarth
thanks!!!
...

Something about semitic roots of Lovcraftian monsters. 

Name of main hero of Lovecraft is Cthulhu. We know about connections between 
Sumerian and Semitic culture. What of word "Cthulhu" in semitic languages? 

Cthulhu - "Catel Hu" (He is kill). 

Yog Sotot - Semitic root of this name - "asata" (jog, rub). "Yog Sotot" - that, who is balk.  In Hebrew (and from Hebrew - in European languages) we are have name "Satan". 

Shubb Niggurat - Shubb - from word "shuv" (in semitic languages "b" and "v" is one letter). "Shuv" is mean "go back". Niggurat - from word "gur", live, house. "Niggurat" is passive form of prowerb, mean "be house". Shubb Niggurat - somebody, who already go back to his house. 

Hastur - Hastur - from semitic root "seter", to hide. Hastur - is "hidden". 

Alexandr Rybalka
  ...

Dear Concerned:

After researching and compiling information on various folkloric and mythological figures, I have begun writing poetical pills meant to accompany original artwork (of various mediums), all to be included in a traveling international exhibition that is intended to educate and entertain attendees of the show.

My aim at this point (well over 220 poetical pills completed) is to try to drum up some support or interest in the project.  Noted (or at least experienced) curators, enthused sponsors, acclaimed international artists and regarded endorsements are what is needed.

If you happen to possess any knowledge that may lead me directly or indirectly to the attainment of any of these needs, then I shall be exceedingly grateful and shall list all those integral in the formation and successful launch of the exhibit.

Thank you in advance for considering any of these matters or for passing this information along to any who may be of assistance.

Life's Force,

Scott M. Potter, MM

Art beautifies existence as mythology shapes it.
 ...

Greetings! In doing some research on the lost play "The King in Yellow", I discovered that you worked on a screenplay based off of the short stories by Robert W. Chambers. I am looking for a script of the actual play "The King in Yellow" mentioned in those stories. I would like to produce a staging of it. In your writing you didn't happen to come across it did you? Rumors of this lost Marlowe play are said to exist...   Thank you!  J. J.
-----
To: J. J.

The play The King in Yellow is a fictional play used as a device to tie a number of short stories together with a common "McGuffin."  The play is rumored, within the short stories, to have been performed only once and with disastrous results.  Chambers claims that the performance ended with the audience and the actors tearing out each other's throats with resulting maimings and deaths.  This is why the fictional play is considered so dangerous.  It looks into a fictional world, which may actually be real, and reveals something about humanity or the universe which we do not want to know. 
    Chambers created the idea of the play based on the works of Ambrose Bierce, the novel Vathek by William Beckford, and poem Lalla Roohk by Thomas Moore.  I believe that the last had the strongest influence as to the shape of what little Chambers reveals of the play.  But in reading the works of Chambers, you begin to see that at different times the play meant different things and was changed as needed by the author.
   The importance of fictional King in Yellow is its influence as a literary device.  Most notably, H.P. Lovecraft, a fan of both Chambers and Bierce, copied the device in his own stories as The Necronomicon. 
     I hope this helps.  JPO
-----
To: JPO

It is interesting that you believe that, especially if you enjoy the works of the author enough to make a screenplay. Has it ever occured to you that these brilliant men present no mere works of fiction, but instead attempt to slide in a bit of unknown truth to the populace under thier noses? From studying these arcane literary figures, I am under the impression that they were chosen specifically and their minds prepared to present otherworldy concepts to our culture in a digestable form. Powerful Kings like Hastur and Old Gods like Shub-Niggurath do not appreciate being dead concepts. If the only way for them to remain alive and active in our cosmology is through the mad ramblings of genius authors, so beit. An existance of that sort is all the more insidious. Don't you agree?  J. J. 
-----
To: J. J.

Precisely Chambers's point:  The play The King in Yellow was obviously written as a work of fiction by an unknown author who accidentally saw into a reality which crossed our own.  It drove him mad, just as The Necronomicon drove its author Abdul Alhazerd mad.  Might Bierce (who invented Hastur), Chambers, and Lovecraft all have done what they claimed their fictional authors did?  Perhaps.  JPO
-----

The following is a press release for Rogue Cthulhu, a Call of Cthulhu Role-Playing Gamers organization being showcased at the Origins '99 gaming convention. Please consider this information for publication on your web site. 
----Begin Press Release----
Hey Cthulhu Gamers !!! 
          Has this ever happened to you? You go to your favorite convention and notice that they'll be running some Call of Cthulhu games, so you sign up for the events only to find that when you get there it has been canceled. Or that the GM has never ran, or even PLAYED Cthulhu before and isn't familliar with the rules. Don't let this happen to you!! Go Rogue!! The new standard in Cthulhu gaming. What is Rogue, you ask yourself? Rogue Cthulhu is an organization/movement that's committed to running quality Call of Cthulhu games!! Our GMs and adventures must pass a quality control process to ensure that you won't have to put up with the same old disorganized, disinterested, disappointing schlock you've been getting from some other gaming organizations (we won't mention any acronyms). No more of this crap where the GM sits down at the table and informs the players that the event organizers have just handed him the material for this adventure, and he hasn't gotten to read it yet. Our GMs will KNOW their scenarios BEFORE they sit down to run them. We want to bring you only the finest in Cthulhu gaming. After all, isn't it about time someone stepped forward to make gaming great again for ALL the players (not just their members)? That's just what we intend to do!! Look for us at Origins'99 and Go Rogue!! Rogue Cthulhu!! To find out more about us or on info about how to submitt scenarios or join us and become part of the Rogue movement, visit us on our web page at www.bigfoot.com/~roguecthulhu 
----End Press Release----
Thank you for your consideration.
-Rogue One 
GO ROGUE !!   ROGUE RULES !!   GO ROGUE !!   ROGUE RULES !!
http://www.bigfoot.com/~roguecthulhu
...

This site is a Great Service, my life has been enriched by the stories of Robert Chambers. I just wanted to say a quick thank you, for this great site.
...

The names metraton, saboath, adonia, gorgo, mormo, and sepheroth are not inventions of lovecraft.  Metraton should be spelled as Metatron (Lovecraft spelled it wrong) and is an angel, the angelic name for the prophet enoch and is an arch-angel.  Saboath is hebrew and is the name for the hebrew god when he is in his war aspect.  Adonia is also a name for the hebrew god in his rulership aspect.  Gorgo and Mormo are latin, I believe, and i think they were thought of as demons in the middle ages, but i'm not sure.  Sepheroth is also hebrew and is a type of angel in some context, but most of the time it is in referance to a Kabbalistic diagram known as the tree of life or the tree of the ten sepheroth.  Kabbalah (or Cabala, or Qabalah) is hebrew mystisism.  Joseph Curwen in the Case of Charles Dexter Ward is supposed to be casting a Kabbalistic spell when he chants the hebrew words above mentioned.  Thought ya might like to know.

-Max Machen
...

Hi. I just visited Miskatonic University online and thought you and some of your students might be interested in knowing that Beekman Publishers, Inc. has just reprinted, in a beautiful new paperback edition, C.L. Kervran's "Biological Transmutations" (translated by Crosby Lockwook; ISBN 0-8464-0195 -9; Retail $24.95).
     "Biological Transmutations" is a hard to find classic post-1800 work in the field of "organic alchemy." The book deals in a scholarly but controversial way with low-energy elemental transformations occurring in nature.
     We would like to have information about this title available to your students and those who visit your site. Attached is a Word file describing the book (text included below in case you encounter difficulty with the attachment). The book is also featured on our home page at http://www.beekman.net and has its own page at http://www.beekman.net/naturalsciencebooks/biologicaltransmutations.htm
    We appreciate your making information about "Biological Transmutations" available to others through a listing or link.
     Thank you.
     Kathy

Kathy Nolan, Manager
Beekman Publishers, Inc.
PO Box 888/2626 Route 212
Woodstock, NY 12498  USA
Phone (914) 679-2300
Fax (914) 679-2301
Email manager@beekman.net
http://www.beekman.net

Announcing a beautiful new paperback edition of
Biological Transmutations
by C.L. Kervran, translated by Crosby Lockwood
Biological Transmutations opens up new fields of inquiry based on the discovery of regularly occurring low-energy transformations in the elementary compositions of nature. Professor Kervran challenges the narrow mindedness of those who ignore data that fails to conform to pre-existing scientific paradigms. In Biological Transmutations he demands - and provides - a new explanatory framework for a wide range of mysterious natural phenomena related to the environment and human health.
        Biological Transmutations illuminates the metabolism of dietary salts and minerals in health and disease, providing an explanation for the failure of standard medical treatments and the benefits of "activated water," dietary changes, and other alternative forms of therapy. Biological Transmutations also provides a scientific basis for the "organic alchemy" by which plants create the nutrients that healthy soil requires, without the use of chemical fertilizers. 
        Offering new paradigms for physics, biology, chemistry, and biochemistry, Biological Transmutations has immediate and extensive practical implications for the fields of medicine, natural healing, nutrition, agriculture, geology , and environmental science. 

Publisher's Comments: This exciting book was first translated into English in 1971 by Crosby Lockwood and published in a now out of print hardcover edition by Beekman Publishers, Inc. in 1980. Reprinted this year in a beautiful new paperback edition, Biological Transmutations offers insight into current controversies including the treatment of osteoporosis with dietary calcium, the management of "incurable" diseases such as arthritis and atherosclerosis, the fluorination of water, organic gardening versus the use of chemical fertilizers, experiments with "cold fusion," safety in the workplace, and potential military applications. The insights in Biological Transmutations are provocative and visionary. Highly recommended reading
...

I, David Edmalm, a sub at the esteemed school of Soulwell in the outskirts of more famous Gothenburg in Sweden, along with four of my seventh grade students in Social Science, discovered a disturbance in the weather last week (19-01).  The happening will be described as soon as I get a verification that this forum is up and running. 

Yours, David Edmalm.
...