Hello everyone and welcome to Week Nine of our Dream Cycle Book Club. This week's thread is for the discussion of the three stories from last week: The Outsider, The Silver Key, and The Strange High House in the Mist.
Our reading for this week is a single story, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. It is Lovecraft's first novella-length Dreamlands story and ties together many of the disconnected stories that we've read in previous weeks. The PDF is available via the Arkham Archivist here. Audio is provided once again by the talented HorrorBabble here.
The Silver Key used in the OP was created by the Rhode Island based sculptor Gage Prentiss
The Strange High House in the Mist seems to me like a second, more mature stab at The Other Gods which we saw in a previous week. Indeed, The Other Gods gets a nod in this tale as Hatheg-Kla is namedropped and the return of the gods from Unknown Kadath is speculated upon. We're in for a real treat with this week's reading, where we see a pay off to these mentions of earthly gods and Unknown Kadath.
There is a particularly tall crag over the fictional Lovecraftian city of Kingsport, which bears a stout grey cottage at its peak. The citizens of Kingsport share rumours about this cottage, for they believe that inhabitant of the cottage engages in strange communications when the morning mists of the sea bathe the peak.
One day a philosopher comes to town. He is weary of the same old sights, and wishes to experience something novel. Thus he attempts the dangerous climb to the cottage. He eventually makes the climb, helped over the threshold by the inhabitant of the cottage, and sits in wait of the mists. The philosopher August Orley and the man in the cottage speak of ancient times, of Atlantis and the reign of the Titans. The man grows timid when talking of the first age of chaos, when only the other gods came to dance on Hatheg-Kla.
Immediately after this topic of conversation, there comes a knocking at the door, and Orley and the cottager sit still and in silence as a dark figure inspects around the cottage and then leaves. Shortly thereafter, there is another knocking at the door and the man in the cottage changes in his disposition. He immediately opens the door, revealing pagan gods of old. Up from the abyss has come the Greek god Poseidon and the Celtic god Nodens to bear the two men on a journey.
The next morning Orley returns to Kingsport, ostensibly now content with his boring life. The Terrible Old Man (the namesake of another tale not in the Dream Cycle) hints that Orley left a portion of his spirit on the crag, that part which seeks adventure. The people of Kingsport note that on the next night, the light of the cottage seems just a little brighter.
Before long, many of the youths of Kingsport make the dangerous journey to the peaks. They inevitably return to the town the next morning, changed in the same fashion as Orley. At night, the light in the cottage grows ever brighter, the sounds of revelry grow louder, and the mists bear the sounds of bells not solely attributable to the buoys. Learned folk worry that the increased jollity on the crag may tempt the gods from Unknown Kadath.
It's easy to see plenty of parallels between this tale and The Other Gods. A learned man, in search of new thrills, climbs a perilous peak into deep mists. There he meets with the images of gods, and forever loses a part of himself on top of the peak.
As I said at the start, I see this as a more mature go at the story of The Other Gods. Personally, I prefer the idea of the philosopher returning from the peak forever changed in some fundamental way. It's a more intriguing form of horror than forever disappearing into the mists.
I'm interested in the identity of the dark entity that tries the door before the gods of Earth. I think it's uncontroversial to guess that it's one of these "other gods" which seem to protect the gods of Earth from unwanted visitors. Having read the cycle before, I believe the most likely culprit is Nyarlathotep, who seems to take a more active role in the affairs of humans and earthly gods throughout the Dream Cycle.