This week’s mostly announcements and excerpts from some of CAS’s letters! The delay is caused because, excitingly, we were nominated for the Parsec awards for speculative fiction podcasting! The three of us had to listen to most of the old episodes to discover what clip or clips we wanted to submit. In the end, we sent in a long clip from the first half of “The Door the Saturn,” along with an ending teaser clip. It’ll be put up on the podcast site a bit later.

We’re also excited to announce that we’ve started a project to transcribe all the episodes. This will open the podcast up to people with hearing loss or other reasons for not being able to listen to podcasts, should they be interested. We’ve got a handful of the first episodes transcribed and more on the way. We’re also looking for volunteers to transcribe even one episode—let us know if you’re interested.

We’ve got “The Seven Geases” coming up with special guest Jason Thompson.

From the Eldritch Dark.

Our reader this week is @CrowGirl42.

Join us next time as we discuss “The Seven Geases” with Jason Thompson.

Music credits:
Int.Elect – Last Day on Earth
Int.Elect – Call Me Back
Int.Elect – On an Edge
Int.Elect – When Day Becomes Night
Int.Elect – Epiphany

In exciting news, we’ve been nominated for a Parsec award. Thank you, listeners!

Next time, we’ll be tackling “The White Sybil” with guest reader @CrowGirl42.

Music for this episode: David G. Bonacho – Vertices en el Tiempo; Mister M – Darkness; Stefano Giardiniere – Lost at Nowhere

Because we were behind, the Pseudopod episode we mentioned is already out. They’ve recorded Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Ninth Skeleton.”

We’ve also recorded the next two episodes, so we’re hoping not to end up with a gap like that again. Our next episode will be “Ubbo-Sathla.”

Music for this episode was: Flanicx – Meat N Bones, Flanicx – Funesto, Flanicx – Xperiment N, AlienAqtor – Tense Parte 01.

Mike has done hundreds of creatures by this point and put out three hard-to-snag volumes, which he periodically reprints. There are plenty of Smith characters on the site as well as your more classic Lovecraftian ones. Plus, he’s tackled things one doesn’t often see illustrated in Lovecraft. You may want to consider viewing them from home, however, as there’s a great deal of nudity.

The tale concludes with the abandonment of Commoriom after it has been overrun by a single, growing monster-human hybrid. Perhaps this tale could be called “if Wilbur Whately hadn’t had that little dog problem.”

Next time, we’ll be doing The Ice-Demon.

Music by Erdenstern.

Mike has done hundreds of creatures by this point and put out three hard-to-snag volumes, which he periodically reprints. There are plenty of Smith characters on the site as well as your more classic Lovecraftian ones. Plus, he’s tackled things one doesn’t often see illustrated in Lovecraft. You may want to consider viewing them from home, however, as there’s a great deal of nudity.

The story takes us back to Commoriom before it was abandoned and tells of the horrifying circumstances that led its residents to flee and re-establish the city a day’s journey away…although none of us are sure we would’ve stopped after just one day.

Next week, we’ll be back with part 2 of the story!

Music by Erdenstern.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Tsathoggua drawing! Excluding people who said they weren’t interested in the book and duplicate submissions (i.e. if you submitted 2, you got 1), we did a random drawing from among the submissions and many congrats to forum member Boneworm for his win.

I’ve put together a gallery of all the others below. I think this marks a significant contribution to the number of drawings of Tsathoggua online.

UPDATE: We’ve had a wonderful illustration contributed by Robert A Neri Jr, of both Avoosl and the monster.

There is still one more week to get in The Testament of Athammaus,” with a special guest!

Music by Erdenstern.

As a reminder, we’re giving away a copy of The Weird and you can win it. Just draw Tsathoggua, as you see him, and send it to us. You can use our contact page, Twitter, Facebook, or our forums to submit your entry. We’ll be posting them, but we’ll choose randomly, so make a valiant effort! To help those of you with less artistic talent feel better, here are ours:

Ruth’s Tsathoggua

Phil’s Tsathoggua

Tim’s Tsathoggua

The contest ends March 20th!

Join us next time for “The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan”

Music by Erdenstern.

We’re doing a giveaway of The Weird, a fantastic compendium of Weird tales. It’s huge and we’ve all enjoyed it, although none of us has finished it. This copy was given to us by a publisher to give away.

What we’re asking you to do to enter to win is just to draw Tsathoggua, as you see him, and send it to us. You can use our contact page, Twitter, Facebook, or our forums to submit your entry. We’ll be posting them, but we’ll choose randomly, so make a valiant effort! To help those of you with less artistic talent feel better, here are ours:

Ruth’s Tsathoggua

Phil’s Tsathoggua

Tim’s Tsathoggua

The contest ends March 20th!

Music by Erdenstern. Next week, we’ll continue with the second half of “A Door to Saturn.”

We have our first guest in this episode, Jason Thompson, a.k.a Mockman or @khyungbird. Jason is the author of Manga: The Complete Guide and the author and artist of various comics, including King of RPGs (with Victor Hao), H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, and The Stiff. He is currently working on a comic with Shaenon Garrity. One of the reasons we asked Jason to be a guest on this episode, in particular, is because he’s done a great comic of today’s story. You can buy the comic in his store and I (Ruth) really recommend it.

Jason mentioned learning about Hyperborea in the Inventorum Natura by Una Woodruff. Tim was able to find the Clark Ashton Smith illustrations for The Lurking Fear, thanks for W.H. Pugmire’s blog.

This is the family tree we mentioned, which Lovecraft created to bind his world to Smith’s:

The next two episodes will cover the amazingly trippy adventures in “The Door to Saturn.”

Music by Erdenstern.

• “Atlantis“
• “Bond“
• “The Muse of Atlantis”“
• “Tolometh“

Next time, we start Hyperborea with “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros” and a special guest!

Music by Erdenstern.

The story was originally rejected from Weird Tales because it (or that draft) too-closely resembled a prose poem, but it was accepted and published in April 1934.

Tim found this awesome track called “The Death of Malygris” by Aperion Project.

Next time, we’ll have readings of several Poseidonian poems by Smith.

Thanks to Erdenstern for the music and to Robert A Neri Jr for the Malygris art.

This week, we have a more modern pirate story in which a merry band encounter “A Vintage from Atlantis.”

This story originally appeared in the September 1933 issue of good ole Weird Tales, alongside stories by authors including: Robert E. Howard, Hugh B. Cave, and (we kid you not) Hung Long Tom.

Ager Falernus and Cecuba were known for Roman wines. Valdepeñas is a Spanish town with excellent soil for wine. We’ve learned in a note from a letter that this ending is a third rewrite, as requested by Farnsworth Wright.

In our next episode, we’ll wrap up the Poseidonis stories with “The Death of Malygris.”

Music by: Erdenstern

This story was first accepted by Strange Tales, which then folded before publishing. Smith published it himself in 1933 in a volume titled The Double Shadow with “The Maze of the Enchanter,” “The Voyage of King Euvoran,” “A Night in Malnéant,” “The Devotee of Evil,” and “The Willow Landscape.”

Definitions from the first paragraph, as collected by Phil:

• orichalchum – a type of Roman brass made of 80% copper and 20% zinc.
• triremes – a ship with three rows of oars on each side.
• seine – a fishing net.
• byssus – a type of filament secreted from mollusks, sometimes used to make fabrics.
• Lephara is a port city on Poseidonis mentioned in Sfanamoë.

(Ruth: Yes, I sent Phil his copy of The Double Shadow.)

For Phil, a history of Duncan Idaho. And, speaking of that, 42:00-44:00 contains some specific Dune spoilers re: Duncan Idaho.

Join us next time for “A Vintage from Atlantis.”

Music by: Erdenstern

Voyage is the second of Smith’s Poseidonis stories and the first we’ve had so far in the podcast with scientists instead of magicians or necromancers. It was published in the August 1931 issue of Weird Tales, just over a year after “The Last Incantation.” Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer in Darkness” was published in the same volume.

Join us next time, as we release our self-titled(????) episode, “The Double Shadow!”

Music by: Erdenstern

Unicorn head by Robert A Neri Jr. or Ranger Games

We’ve jumped back in time to June of 1930, when this story was published in Weird Tales and to an era after the glory of Atlantis, but before Averoigne. The series is bookended with stories about Malygris, possibly the greatest sorcerer/necromancer we’ve run across so far.

Next time, join us on “A Voyage to Sfanomoët;.”

Music by: Erdenstern

The essay Phil referenced is “Into the Woods: The Human Geography of Averoigne” by Stefan Dziemianowicz, in The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith ed. by Scott Connors. Tim quoted from “Eblis in Bakelite” by James Blish, “James Blish versus Ashton Smith; to Wit, the Young Turk Syndrome” by Donald Sidney-Fryer, and “Who Discovered Clark Ashton Smith?” by Scott Connors, all published in the Lost Worlds journal.

So–what did we have in Averoigne?

• 1 cathedral
• 1 convent
• 2 monasteries
• 14 Necromancers
• 1 demon
• 1 alien
• 1 evil statue
• 11 mentions of werewolves
• 1 actual werewolf
• 2 sorceresses, unaligned
• 1 witch, batrachian
• 2 vampires, lazy
• 1 staff of household vampire servants
• 2 lamias, unconfirmed
• 1 art-loving archbishop
• 7 gargoyles
• 1 corpse giant
• 2 epidemics of murder
• 16 dead monks

Next week, we’ll be doing our first Poseidonis story: “The Last Incantation.”

Music thanks to: Kevin MacLeod.

The poet referenced in the story was Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), who was a member of the group of French poets known as La Pléiade.

The phrase we were looking for from the Podcast to the Curious was the “Jamesian whallop,” an especially good phrase when said in a British accent.

In next week’s episode, we’ll wrap up Averoigne with a discussion of the setting and a look at three synopses/outlines CAS wrote for potential Averoigne stories. The synopses we’ll be covering are “Queen of the Sabbat,” “The Werewolf of Averoigne,” “The Sorceress of Averoigne | The Tower of Istarelle.”

Thanks again to Kevin MacLeod for the music.

Eldritch Dark by Clark Ashton Smith on Vimeo.

This is the first in a series of short poems, both by Smith and others, which we’ve recorded and will be releasing periodically over the next year.

Illustration from Weird Tales most likely by Clark Ashton Smith.

The Wikipedia entry for Cromlech has an illustration of a basic one, as well as more complex outlines.

A few links here for those interested in illustrations of monsters carrying women and the “carry phenomenon.”

Next time, we’ll be doing the last of the Averoigne stories, “The Satyr.” You may also want to read read its variant conclusion, which we’ll be discussing on the show.

Thanks again to Kevin MacLeod for the music.

IMDB page for The Theatre Bizarre in which the “Mother of Toads” adaptation Phil mentioned appears (and picture of Richard Stanley). A trailer for the horror compilation in which the “Mother of Toads” film appears The Theatre of the Bizarre. A clip in which the wife buys the Elder Sign earring.

The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft, in which an illustrated (but not graphic novel/comic) version of “Mother of Toads” appears.

Next time, we will be reading “The Enchantress of Sylaire.”

Thanks again to Kevin MacLeod for the music.

The goddess Smith had originally intended to conflate with this Venus was
Kotys (or “Cotys”, “Cotto”, “Cottyto”, “Cottytus” depending on the spelling). According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, her priests were called “Baptes”

[their] midnight orgies were so obscene that they disgusted even the even the goddess herself. (p.73)

Our next episode will be “Mother of Toads.” This one will carry a warning for sexual violence.

Music by: Kevin MacLeod, Illustration by Mike Mucci.

You can hear H.P. Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith discussing the history of Averoigne as used in this story in our two interludes: Lovecraft’s letter to CAS and Smith’s letter to HPL.

If you missed the allusions in the text, Iog-Sotôt is Yog-Sothoth of HPL fame and Sodagui is Tsathoggua of CAS’s pantheon/pandemonium. Both are undoubtedly CAS’s attempts to mimic the evolution of pronunciations through the centuries. Lilit is Lilith, first wife of Adam who is thought to be perhaps a demon or a monster.

Our next episode will be “The Disinterment of Venus.”

Special thanks to the Hay Library for being so friendly on our visit and to Mike Mucci for the Azédarac drawing!

Music by: Kevin MacLeod

Beast of Averoigne illustration created by Mike Mucci.

The French Wikipedia entry on Chaudronnier (translated by Ruth) describes one was:

Chaudronnier is a trade originally describing pot-makers, which by extension came to describe anyone who makes hollow containers of metal or plastic of all kinds.

And as a reminder, we now have forums where you can talk about the episodes, Smithiana, weird gaming, and weird fiction in general!

Music by: Kevin MacLeod

The movie Phil referenced about a woman whose feelings flow into her cooking was Like Water for Chocolate (1992). The Japanese horror film was Cure (1997).

Information about Gilles de Rais can be found here. De Rais was also hanged, but the article does not mention whether or not his corpse was then burned.

The Winners of our Giveaway

Many congrats to the winners of our giveaway, whose “lost or unwritten Averoigne story” ideas were read on the podcast today:

From Jason:

In the decaying ruins of an unnamed abbey, a young woman finds a manuscript purporting to be a true and accurate account of the habits and deeds of the wild loup-garou. She returns to her village and becomes obsessed with proving the validity of the document (and the veracity of the existence of the feral beasts) to the disbelieving townsfolk, going so far as to maul an old woman in a manner consistent with the manuscript to provide “evidence.” She is caught and cast out of the village, wandering in madness through the primeval forest until, joyously vindicated at last, she meets her death on the claws and teeth of a loup-garou.

Guido:

In modern day Averoigne two friends embark on a road trip to sight see the horror haunted historical sights of the Averoignian countryside. Their adventure turns perilous when they realize that their journey is closely tailed by a stalking, flesh-hungry werebeast and they have to keep moving to survive.

Janey:

A highwayman is hiding out in the woods of Averoigne at night when he comes upon a young woman; she tells him a disturbing story about a village whose inhabitants were picked off one by one by a loup-garou. At the end of the story the girl reveals that she herself was the loup-garou, and devours him.

Pete:

The body of a sorcerer washes up on the shore of the Isoile River; whispers of his death begin surfacing around Averoigne and of the binding spell that died with him. Now free from the sorceries that imprisoned their shapeshifting abilities, an ancient family attempt to reclaim their wolfen birthright.

Thanks to all the listeners who submitted and promoted the contest!

Next time, we’ll be doing the published version of “The Beast of Averoigne.” For extra credit, though, read the original version of the story to understand the style he first intended and get a little more background than we’re given in the final version.

Music by: Kevin MacLeod and T.H. Larsen/Gracehoper (with permission) Egypt-style soundscape and Southern Gothic.

David E. Schultz and I are working hard on two large projects for Hippocampus Press: the Complete Poetry of George Sterling in 3 volumes, and the joint correspondence of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith in 2 volumes. We are also wrestling with getting a paperback edition of Smith’s Complete Poetry and Translations ready for publication; we may be including one or two poems by Smith that escaped us when we prepared the hardcover edition.

I’m excited for this on multiple fronts. The HPL/CAS letters should be great. Since we all own various volumes of their letters, we’ve enjoyed discovering the playful back-and-forth, which we demonstrated in our two interludes. I can’t wait to have that spelled out in front of me.

I don’t know how much Sterling’s poetry will cost, but it could give us an insight into CAS’s writings and his admiration for the man. And a new CAS volume is always exciting, even if it’s the poetry…which I’m less interested in than the fiction.

We’ve set registration to require moderator approval, which we’re hoping will keep out the bots, etc. But if you sign up, we’ll get you approved as soon as possible!

In this week’s episode, we finish “The Colossus of Ylourgne,” sections 5-8. Our site’s moved hosting, but we’re in the same spot on iTunes and our feed hasn’t changed. If you’re experiencing redownloaded episodes, that may occur because of the feed change.

Merriam-Webster defines an “oubliette” as a dungeon with a hole only at the top. Prisoners go in, they don’t come out. Unless it’s an ill-maintained oubliette. One example of an oubliette.

The phrase “Saracenic,” which was used several times to refer to Nathaire and to his surroundings, generally has an Arabic and Muslim connotation. The meaning, however, varies widely and could refer to Muslims at the time of the crusades, to Muslim art and architecture in Spain, to Muslim art and architecture in India, etc. In art and architecture (and furniture), it often contained intricate geometric designs that didn’t generally represent persons or even animals (as forbidden by strict Islamic practice). We couldn’t find an image of a Saracenic cushion, but one might imagine ornate and colorful designs.

Edited to add: Thanks to the reader who set us this pic of a saracenic cushion!

The story of two human-formed colossi, mentioned by Phil, is “In the Hills, the Cities” from Clive Barker’s Books of Blood. The Hellboy story which was inspired by Colossus, called “Almost Colossus,” can be found in Hellboy collection #3: The Chained Coffin and Others. Lots of good stories in both those collections.

Next week, we’ll be talking about “The Mandrakes.”

Music by: Kevin MacLeod

Your iTunes or Feedburner subscription should update automatically. However, it’s possible that iTunes may decide to re-download the episodes for everyone, in which case we apologize. We’re also going to be putting the episodes up one by one on Blubrry’s website so that we can have guaranteed hosting vs. our free hosting on archive.org. I’m hoping that won’t cause any redownloads in iTunes. The fortunate thing about all this happening so early in the podcast’s history is that, if it does redownload, it will only be a few episodes.

This week’s episode covers the first half of “The Colossus of Ylourgne,” sections 1-4. You can subscribe in iTunes or via RSS.

The illustration above was commissioned by Farnsworth Wright to go along with the story’s publication. According to his correspondence, Smith was dissatisfied with the piece as a whole, but liked the two torturing demons.

For our casting of Gaspard, do you prefer Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, or someone else? Let us know in the comments, otherwise Ruth and Tim will never settle this.

You still have the rest of today (6/13/12) to enter our weird fiction book giveaway. We’ll be posting and contacting winners sometime on Thursday or Friday.

Our next episode will be the second half (sections 5-8) of “The Colossus of Ylourgne.”

Music by: Kevin MacLeod

Winners will be determined in 2 ways. First, as a group, we’ll pick our favorite synopsis. That person will win a copy of Miscellaneous Writings and one other book of their choice. The other three books will be given away randomly to participants. So even if you’re not sure your idea is the absolute best, give it a shot! If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out the Averoigne story links in our intro post and read ahead a bit.

This week’s show is about “The Maker of Gargoyles,” the third story in the Averoigne cycle. It was first published in August of 1932, by Weird Tales. You can download the episode here, or subscribe in iTunes, by RSS, or on Stitcher. This week, we’ve had to issue our first of a (thankfully) few warnings for sexually violent stories. Each podcast containing sexual violence will begin (or begin after something like the contest announcement) with a warning that contains further info on the situation.

Since it’s come up enough, the difference between aspergillus, which Smith keeps saying, and an actual aspergillum. Fun fact, Ruth was sprinkled by an aspergillum just a couple days ago and did not burst into flame, disappear, etc. She is probably not a lamia. Probably. Ruth tries to avoid aspergillus, because that’s disgusting.

Stories mentioned in the podcast were Guy Davis’s “The Marquis” and China Mielville’s Perdido Street Station.

Thanks to Kevin MacLeod for the music in this week’s episode. Also, apologies for Ruth’s mic. It switched from her good one to the basic internal one without anyone noticing until after the podcast was recorded.

Our next episode will be the first half (sections 1-4) of “The Colossus of Ylourgne.”

This week covers “A Rendezvous in Averoigne,” the second story in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne Cycle. Rendezvous was first published in the April/May 1931 issue of Weird Tales, alongside Robert E. Howard’s “The Children of the Night” and H.P. Lovecraft’s poem “Alienation” (#32 from Fungi from Yuggoth).

The Ray Bradbury quote was from the intro to Arkham House’s 1988 collection A Rendezvous in Averoigne: The Best Fantastic Tales of Clark Ashton Smith. The title is a trifle misleading, as this contains stories from throughout Smith’s career, not just his Averoigne works (nor all of them).

The film The Fearless Vampire Killers was released in 1967 and was written by and co-stars a young Roman Polanski.

And shout out to the Podcast to the Curious, about the works of M.R. James. We’re fans of more than their accents.

Join us again on May 30th as we read “The Maker of Gargoyles.”

You can subscribe in iTunes or via RSS.

Music by: Kevin MacLeod

Transcription of this letter excerpt

H.P. Lovecraft’s letter to Clark Ashton Smith, Dec. 13 1933

Here is Lovecraft’s response to Smith’s previous letter. Perhaps by way of apology for correcting his friend’s mistake, Lovecraft delves into the fictional Roman history of Averoigne. This letter truly highlights HPL’s talent for verisimilitude and world-building.

Read by Tim.

Enjoy!

Transcription of the episode

Clark Ashton Smith’s letter to H.P. Lovecraft, Dec. 4 1933

While doing research for the show—picture us hunched over dusty books in an old library, a single desk lamp lighting a cavernous room filled with tomes and an aged librarian hovering in the darkness—we stumbled upon a set of letters from Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft. The two are discussing Roman history, and apparently Lovecraft, good-naturely, criticized his friends’ misrepresentation of the time period in his Averoigne stories.

Here is Ruth reading a selection from CAS’ response to HPL. These were formal letters of the time period, note the author’s playful subversion of the form by adding fantastic addresses.

 ”The End of the Story” was first published in Weird Tales in May of 1930.

(picture from Dark in the Dark)

If you’re looking for more lamia, “Lamia” by John Keats.

The novel Phil mentioned was The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. This is a novel that concerns lamia and vampires and amounts to in-depth re-working of the lamia/vampire myth using Keats and historical accounts and all kinds of stuff. The title was taken from a CAS poem. (Ruth’s note–looks fascinating!)

Listener @GenusUnknown also pointed out to us when reading for this week that the “the almost vanished and evilly famous ruins of Château Faussesflammes” are mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft’s collaboration with Hazel Heald, “Out of the Aeons.”

Join us in 2 weeks (May 16th) for “A Rendezvous in Averoigne.”

Music by: Kevin MacLeod

(Subscribe in iTunes or via RSS.)

Updated: And thanks to Jason for the reminder that for those who don’t want to subscribe in iTunes, you can use our Feedburner feed for your podcasting program/RSS reader!

(and now available on iTunes!)

The very first episode of The Double Shadow, a podcast that will explore the life and works of 20th Century weird fiction author Clark Ashton Smith. Episode One talks about Ashton Smith’s importance as a Weird Fiction author, his place in history and an overview of what the show will cover.

Show Notes:

Intro & Outro music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod.

The Averoigne stories in the order in which we’ll cover them (publication order) (revised 6/17/12 because of an ordering issue):

• The End of the Story
• A Rendezvous in Averoigne
• The Maker of Gargoyles
• The Colossus of Ylourgne (published after Azédarac but we accidentally got it out of order)
• The Mandrakes
• The Beast of Averoigne (published) and the original version rejected by Weird Tales
• The Holiness of Azédarac
• The Disinterment of Venus
• Mother of Toads
• The Enchantress of Sylaire
• The Satyr (written in 1931 but published in 1948)

A map of Averoigne (click to expand):

The map was created by Tim Kirk and posted on the Eldritch Dark website.

Phil’s quoted interview with Clark Ashton Smith came from Conversations with the Weird Tales Circle. The interviewer was George Haas. Phil notes:

Haas seems to have been kind of an interesting figure, very involved in Fortean activities throughout CA and San Francisco in particular.   He wrote two accounts of meeting CAS, in one of them he notes that they got together with Anton Szandor LaVey for a cook out.  I find that idea amazing. 

The book Ruth mentioned is Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith, published by Arkham House, 2003.

More biographical information about Clark Ashton Smith is available on the Eldritch Dark website and on Wikipedia.

Join us next time for The End of the Story!

Music by: Kevin MacLeod