We’re back and we’re examining these strange bite marks, boarding up the windows and trying to work out where that damnable smell is coming from. This is the start of our look at Lovecraft’s classic weird tale, The Dunwich Horror. Make yourself comfortable — this mystery is going to take us a few episodes to investigate.
Main Topic: The Dunwich Horror
As well as being one of the foundational works of the Cthulhu Mythos, The Dunwich Horror set the template for a thousand Call of Cthulhu scenarios. More than any other Lovecraft story, it presents the kind of actions we might expect to see investigators perform. All right, maybe The Lurking Fear is a better model for the Tommy guns and dynamite school of play, but the point stands.
In this first episode, we look at the setting of Dunwich as described by Lovecraft, digging into some of the history, geography
News
Filled with enthusiasm for the wonders of the year ahead, we mention a few things that we are looking forward to in 2019. The two that we can link to are Necronomicon 2019 and Contingency, two major conventions that will see at least some of the Good Friends in attendance. Only Matt will be at Contingency, but all three of us are planning the pilgrimage to Providence for Necronomicon. After our wonderful experiences in 2017, all the elder signs in the world couldn’t keep us away.
Speaking of live events, Scott will be appearing at the
Other Stuff
We spend some time thanking new Patreon backers, although, mercifully, there are no songs in this episode. Before you relax too much, there are songs coming soon. So many songs.
As usual, we share some hand-picked social media feedback and comment on it. Since the inception of the podcast, our main online home has been Google+. Unfortunately, in April, G+ is due to vanish in a puff of poor management. We have been exploring alternatives such as MeWe and Reddit, but we are very open to suggestions. If you know of a suitable platform for searchable, threaded discussions, we would love to hear from you.
We also share a new iTunes review. If you fancy writing one of your own, you will earn our undying gratitude. And when we say undying, we mean it. Our essential
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Just a note for clarification, speaking as a Native American of one of the Algonquin peoples. “Algonquin” is a blanket term for several peoples, under a set of related languages. Cheers!
Aha! Thank you for the clarification.
Okay, so this isn’t great, but one of you started a limerick about “There once was a man from Dunwich . . .” I was inspired.
There was a young lad from Dunn’ich,
Who grew like a sunna’va bitch,
His ma was Lavinny,
Who bore him at dark,
Accompan’d by many’a dog’s bark,
Lavinny bore seed,
From a Great One indeed,
Come from quite far and quite near,
Her son, tasked from birth,
Was to call his pa from there to here,
The boy’s name was Wilbur, grandson of W’zard,
Who’s knowledge caused his mind denude,
Together they learned, dark lore from tomes,
But since the most needed elude,
They tried steal it from library Orne,
Then Wilbur’s brother,
A creature quite foul,
Unleashed, was a hellava beast,
Tentacles, eyes, enormous in truth,
Half a hillside, the very least,
But then there came men,
With some occult ken,
Though led by librarian meek,
Armitage stated, “Nay, not today!”
And sent Wilbur’s brother away.
That’s amazing!
According to the ‘Dictionary of American Family Names’, Armitage comes from “hermitage” – specifically Hermitage Bridge in Yorkshire. Kind of a coincidental covergent etymology with “arms” and “armor” rather than an shared origin.
I wonder if Lovecraft did that deliberately. It seems too perfect.