421. TO ROBERT E. HOWARD
ro Barnes St.
Providence, R. I.
August 14, 1930
Dear Mr. Howard:
Regarding the solemnly cited myth-cycle of Cthulhu, YogSothoth, R'lyeh, Nyarlathotep, Nug, Yeb, Shub-Nigguroth, etc., 网页链接 me confess that this is all a synthetic concoction of my own, like the populous and varied pantheon of Lord Dunsany's Pegāna. The reason for its echoes in Dr. de Castro's work is that the latter gentleman is a revisionclient of mine-into whose tales I have stuck these glancing references for sheer fun, If any other clients of mine get work placed in W. T., you will perhaps find a still-wider spread of the cult of Azathoth, Cthulhu, and the Great Old Ones! The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred is likewise something which must yet be written in order to possess objective reality. Abdul is a favourite dream-character of mine— indeed that is what I used to call myself when I was five years old and a transported devotee of Andrew Lang's version of the Arabian Nights. A few years ago I prepared a mock-erudite synopsis of Abdul's life, and of the posthumous vicissitudes and translations of his hideous and unmentionable work Al Azif (called Το Nεκρονόμικον by the Byzantine Monk Theodoras Philetas, who translated it into late Greek in A. D, 9oo!)-a synopsis which I shall follow in future references to the dark and accursed thing. Long has alluded to the Necronomicon in some things of his-ind fact, I think it is rather good fun to have this artificial mythology given an air of verisimilitude by wide citation. I ought, though, to write Mr.d O'Neail and disabuse him of the idea that there is a large blind spot in his mythological erudition! Clark Ashton Smith is launching another mock mythology revolving around the black, furry toad-god Tsathoggua, whose name had variant forms amongst the Atlanteans, Lemurians, and Hyperboreans who worshipped him after he emerged from inner Earth (whither he came from Outer Space, with Saturn as a stepping-stone). I am usi
ro Barnes St.
Providence, R. I.
August 14, 1930
Dear Mr. Howard:
Regarding the solemnly cited myth-cycle of Cthulhu, YogSothoth, R'lyeh, Nyarlathotep, Nug, Yeb, Shub-Nigguroth, etc., 网页链接 me confess that this is all a synthetic concoction of my own, like the populous and varied pantheon of Lord Dunsany's Pegāna. The reason for its echoes in Dr. de Castro's work is that the latter gentleman is a revisionclient of mine-into whose tales I have stuck these glancing references for sheer fun, If any other clients of mine get work placed in W. T., you will perhaps find a still-wider spread of the cult of Azathoth, Cthulhu, and the Great Old Ones! The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred is likewise something which must yet be written in order to possess objective reality. Abdul is a favourite dream-character of mine— indeed that is what I used to call myself when I was five years old and a transported devotee of Andrew Lang's version of the Arabian Nights. A few years ago I prepared a mock-erudite synopsis of Abdul's life, and of the posthumous vicissitudes and translations of his hideous and unmentionable work Al Azif (called Το Nεκρονόμικον by the Byzantine Monk Theodoras Philetas, who translated it into late Greek in A. D, 9oo!)-a synopsis which I shall follow in future references to the dark and accursed thing. Long has alluded to the Necronomicon in some things of his-ind fact, I think it is rather good fun to have this artificial mythology given an air of verisimilitude by wide citation. I ought, though, to write Mr.d O'Neail and disabuse him of the idea that there is a large blind spot in his mythological erudition! Clark Ashton Smith is launching another mock mythology revolving around the black, furry toad-god Tsathoggua, whose name had variant forms amongst the Atlanteans, Lemurians, and Hyperboreans who worshipped him after he emerged from inner Earth (whither he came from Outer Space, with Saturn as a stepping-stone). I am usi
