Post by GRWelsh on Apr 28, 2020 7:59:18 GMT -5
In another thread I mentioned how Joe Pulver's interest prompted me to dig into the Carcosa Mythos, and a logical point to start is with the original appearance of Carcosa in fiction. "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" is a short story written by Ambrose Bierce and first published in 1886 and later in a collection of Bierce's short stories published as CAN SUCH THINGS BE? in 1893. The short story "Haïta the Shepherd," first published in 1891, is also included in this collection. It has the original appearance of Hastur. Robert W. Chambers published a collection of his own short stories under the title THE KING IN YELLOW in 1895 and borrowed the names Carcosa, Hali and Hastur from Bierce but seems to have used them differently and as inspirations for his own ideas. In the Bierce stories Carcosa is a ruined city presumably on earth, Hali is a person who is quoted as an authority, and Hastur is a god of shepherds. In Chambers Carcosa is a mysterious city presumably on another planet or dimension since it has twin suns and strange moons and black stars in its sky, Hali is a lake, and Hastur implied to be a place since it listed along with the Hyades and Aldebaran.
Carcosa may have been inspired by Carcassonne, in Latin Carcaso, a fortified city in southern France. It had the old Celtic place-name of Carsac, and then a fortified hill-top by the Romans of the colonia of Julia Carsaco, and later Carcasum. It was restored in 1853.
CAN SUCH THINGS BE? is easily accessible and a free Kindle book. The story "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" is very short, only a few pages, but very atmospheric. Some say Chambers didn't borrow anything more than the names Carcosa and Hali from this story, but I think the Carcosa Mythos begins here and that Chambers may have also taken inspiration from the disoriented, dreamlike state the narrator finds himself in. The story starts with the narrator pondering the words of Hali, becoming aware of his surroundings which are unfamiliar. He finds himself on a bleak plain of sere grass with a few blasted trees under low, lead-colored clouds, and no sound or movement at all. It is a completely dead landscape, and "in the herbage, a number of weather-worn stones, evidently shaped with tools" could be seen, which turn out to be tombstones. The narrator thinks it like being "the discoverer of the burial-ground of a prehistoric race of men whose very name was long extinct." He wonders "How came I hither?"
Carcosa may have been inspired by Carcassonne, in Latin Carcaso, a fortified city in southern France. It had the old Celtic place-name of Carsac, and then a fortified hill-top by the Romans of the colonia of Julia Carsaco, and later Carcasum. It was restored in 1853.
CAN SUCH THINGS BE? is easily accessible and a free Kindle book. The story "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" is very short, only a few pages, but very atmospheric. Some say Chambers didn't borrow anything more than the names Carcosa and Hali from this story, but I think the Carcosa Mythos begins here and that Chambers may have also taken inspiration from the disoriented, dreamlike state the narrator finds himself in. The story starts with the narrator pondering the words of Hali, becoming aware of his surroundings which are unfamiliar. He finds himself on a bleak plain of sere grass with a few blasted trees under low, lead-colored clouds, and no sound or movement at all. It is a completely dead landscape, and "in the herbage, a number of weather-worn stones, evidently shaped with tools" could be seen, which turn out to be tombstones. The narrator thinks it like being "the discoverer of the burial-ground of a prehistoric race of men whose very name was long extinct." He wonders "How came I hither?"
