Dunwich (Lovecraft)
Encyclopedia
Dunwich is a fictional town that appeared in the H. P. Lovecraft
short story
"The Dunwich Horror
" (1929
). Dunwich is found in the fictional Miskatonic River
Valley of Massachusetts
, part of the imaginary region sometimes called Lovecraft Country
. The inhabitants are depicted as inbred, uneducated, and very superstitious, while the town itself is described as economically poor with many decrepit and abandoned buildings.
in Suffolk
, England
. This town was the subject (though not mentioned by name) of Algernon Charles Swinburne
's poem "By the North Sea", which was in an anthology owned by Lovecraft. This Dunwich also appears in Arthur Machen
's novella
The Terror (1917
), which Lovecraft is known to have read.
Lovecraft also could have been inspired by other New England
towns with names ending in -wich, such as Ipswich
near Salem, Massachusetts
, East and West Greenwich in Rhode Island
, and Greenwich, Massachusetts
, a decaying rural village that has since been flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir
. Although the English town is pronounced "DUN-nich" (similar to the New England Greenwiches), Lovecraft never specified how he preferred his Dunwich be pronounced.
Lovecraft is said to have based Dunwich on Athol, Massachusetts
, and other towns in Western Massachusetts. S. T. Joshi
has also seen Dunwich as being influenced by East Haddam
, Connecticut
, location of the "Devil's Hopyard
," the "Moodus Noises
," and a witch tradition.
"The Dunwich Horror" describes the region around Dunwich as "a lonely and curious country," broken up with "ravines of problematical depth" and "stretches of marshland that one instinctively dislikes". There is dense natural growth and abundant wildlife such as whippoorwills, fireflies and bullfrogs, though "the planted fields appear singularly few and barren." The "sparsely scattered houses wear a surprisingly uniform aspect of age, squalor, and dilapidation," while the "gnarled, solitary" inhabitants are "silent and furtive".
Lovecraft describes the village of Dunwich itself:
The town was used as a setting by August Derleth
in his posthumous "collaborations" with Lovecraft, notably in "The Shuttered Room" (1959).
Many Cthulhu Mythos
stories by other writers have also been set in Dunwich, some of which are collected in The Dunwich Cycle.
, starring Dean Stockwell
and Sandra Dee
. The town is also the setting of the 1999 direct-to-video movie Witchouse
, although the town itself is never seen, as the entire movie takes place in a mansion in Dunwich.
The horror film
City of the Living Dead
, directed by the late Lucio Fulci
, features a town called Dunwich, named as a tribute
to Lovecraft.
Chaosium
's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game
uses Dunwich as a setting, notably in H.P. Lovecraft's Dunwich: Return to the Forgotten Village.
The video game The Bard's Tale features a town named Dunwich in which many occult events occur.
"The Sun Dog
", a novella by Stephen King
that appears in the 1990 collection Four Past Midnight
, gives passing mention to "a fellow in Dunwich, Massachusetts, to whom Pop [Merrill] had once sold a so-called spirit trumpet for ninety dollars; the fellow had taken the trumpet to the Dunwich Cemetery and must have heard something exceedingly unpleasant, because he had been raving in a padded cell in Arkham
for almost six years now, totally insane."
The town of Dunwych, spelled with a "y", is featured in season 3 of Seven Days as a fishing town in new England, in which the inhabitants are driven insane by a bioweapon dredged up from the bottom of the sea.
In Charles Stross
' novel The Jennifer Morgue
, a British spy (implied to be antithetical to the James Bond
archetype of a spy) mentions that Dunwich is a "treaty zone" between human and alien forces.
In the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
's audio drama adaptation, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror
, a map of Dunwich (supposedly taken from the Miskatonic University
archives by Henry Armitage's secretary, Edith) is included among the CD's supplemental materials.
The video game Fallout 3
features the Dunwich Building, the headquarters for a pre-war drill company. The drill site under the building has become the site of an occult ritual meant to raise a dead god.
Doom metal
band Electric Wizard
included a song called Dunwich on its album Witchcult Today
The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, a group whose works are heavily inspired by Lovecraft's writings, includes a song referencing the town, 'Going Down to Dunwich'.
The town and the events of 'The Dunwich Horror' feature in an expansion for the Lovecraftian boardgame, 'Arkham Horror'.
Spanish author Alberto López Aroca's short story "Al otro lado de Dunwich" (The Other Side of Dunwich) in his collection Los Espectros Conjurados is a prequel to The Dunwich Horror and August Derleth
's The Lurker at the Threshold
.
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"The Dunwich Horror
The Dunwich Horror
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales . It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts...
" (1929
1929 in literature
The year 1929 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Candide by Voltaire is declared obscene by the United States Customs and seized in 1930....
). Dunwich is found in the fictional Miskatonic River
Miskatonic River
The Miskatonic River is a fictional New England river in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. It is also the name of a river system, the Miskatonic Valley. The equally fictitious Miskatonic University in Arkham is named after this river...
Valley of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, part of the imaginary region sometimes called Lovecraft Country
Lovecraft Country
Lovecraft Country is a term coined by Keith Herber for the New England setting, combining real and fictitious locations, used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, and later elaborated by other writers working in the Cthulhu Mythos. The term was popularized by Chaosium, the...
. The inhabitants are depicted as inbred, uneducated, and very superstitious, while the town itself is described as economically poor with many decrepit and abandoned buildings.
Origin
Lovecraft may have named the town after the lost port of DunwichDunwich
Dunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago but the harbour and most of the town have since disappeared due to coastal erosion. Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast, and...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. This town was the subject (though not mentioned by name) of Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
's poem "By the North Sea", which was in an anthology owned by Lovecraft. This Dunwich also appears in Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
's novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
The Terror (1917
1917 in literature
The year 1917 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* January - Francis Picabia produces the first issue of the Dada periodical 391 in Barcelona....
), which Lovecraft is known to have read.
Lovecraft also could have been inspired by other New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
towns with names ending in -wich, such as Ipswich
Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island...
near Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
, East and West Greenwich in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, and Greenwich, Massachusetts
Greenwich, Massachusetts
Greenwich was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts.It was established in 1739 as Quabbin, incorporated as Quabbin Parish in 1754 and became the town of Greenwich in 1754. It was located along the East and Middle branches of the Swift River...
, a decaying rural village that has since been flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir
Quabbin Reservoir
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was built between 1930 and 1939. Today along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, some to the east, as well as 40 other communities in Greater Boston...
. Although the English town is pronounced "DUN-nich" (similar to the New England Greenwiches), Lovecraft never specified how he preferred his Dunwich be pronounced.
Lovecraft is said to have based Dunwich on Athol, Massachusetts
Athol, Massachusetts
Athol is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,584 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally called Pequoiag, the area was first settled by five families in September 1735. When the township was incorporated in 1762, the name was changed to Athol...
, and other towns in Western Massachusetts. S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
has also seen Dunwich as being influenced by East Haddam
East Haddam, Connecticut
East Haddam is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,333 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, location of the "Devil's Hopyard
Devil's Hopyard State Park
Devil's Hopyard State Park is located in East Haddam, Connecticut at a scenic waterfall on the Eightmile River.-History:In 1919, the former State Park and Forest Commission obtained an parcel located in the Millington section of East Haddam. The principal feature of the park, Chapman Falls, drops...
," the "Moodus Noises
Moodus (village)
Moodus is a census-designated place in East Haddam, a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,263 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
," and a witch tradition.
Description
Lovecraft locates Dunwich in "north central Massachusetts", found by travellers "tak[ing] the wrong fork at the junction of the Aylesbury pike just beyond Dean's Corners." Aylesbury and Dean's Corners are both Lovecraft creations, neither of which appears in any other of his stories, though Aylesbury is mentioned in his poem sequence Fungi From Yuggoth."The Dunwich Horror" describes the region around Dunwich as "a lonely and curious country," broken up with "ravines of problematical depth" and "stretches of marshland that one instinctively dislikes". There is dense natural growth and abundant wildlife such as whippoorwills, fireflies and bullfrogs, though "the planted fields appear singularly few and barren." The "sparsely scattered houses wear a surprisingly uniform aspect of age, squalor, and dilapidation," while the "gnarled, solitary" inhabitants are "silent and furtive".
Lovecraft describes the village of Dunwich itself:
- Across a covered bridge one sees a small village huddled between the stream and the vertical slope of Round Mountain, and wonders at the cluster of rotting gambrel roofsGambrelA gambrel is a usually-symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maximizing headroom on the building's upper level...
bespeaking an earlier architectural period than that of the neighbouring region. It is not reassuring to see, on a closer glance, that most of the houses are deserted and falling to ruin, and that the broken-steepled church now harbours the one slovenly mercantile establishment of the hamlet. One dreads to trust the tenebrous tunnel of the bridge, yet there is no way to avoid it. Once across, it is hard to prevent the impression of a faint, malign odour about the village street, as of the massed mould and decay of centuries. It is always a relief to get clear of the place, and to follow the narrow road around the base of the hills and across the level country beyond till it rejoins the Aylesbury pike. Afterward one sometimes learns that one has been through Dunwich.
Connections
After "The Dunwich Horror", Lovecraft did not mention Dunwich in his fiction again, though the town does appear in his poem "The Ancient Track" (1929).The town was used as a setting by August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
in his posthumous "collaborations" with Lovecraft, notably in "The Shuttered Room" (1959).
Many Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
stories by other writers have also been set in Dunwich, some of which are collected in The Dunwich Cycle.
Other appearances
The town is also the setting of the loose film adaptation of Lovecraft's story, also called The Dunwich HorrorThe Dunwich Horror (film)
The Dunwich Horror is a 1970 B-movie from American International Pictures directed by Daniel Haller and produced by Roger Corman. The film was based on the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft with a script co-written by future Academy Award winning director Curtis Hanson. This was the...
, starring Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
and Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...
. The town is also the setting of the 1999 direct-to-video movie Witchouse
Witchouse
Witchouse is a horror film released in 1999 by Full Moon Features. The film was rated R for violence, sexual situations, gore, language, and drug content. The movie has received mainly negative reviews...
, although the town itself is never seen, as the entire movie takes place in a mansion in Dunwich.
The horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
City of the Living Dead
City of the Living Dead
City of the Living Dead is an Italian horror film from director Lucio Fulci. It has numerous alternate titles, such as Gates of Hell. It is the first installment of the unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy which also includes The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. Fulci makes an uncredited cameo...
, directed by the late Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
, features a town called Dunwich, named as a tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
to Lovecraft.
Chaosium
Chaosium
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence. Founded by Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame, White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into Dragon Pass and its sequel, Nomad Gods...
's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
uses Dunwich as a setting, notably in H.P. Lovecraft's Dunwich: Return to the Forgotten Village.
The video game The Bard's Tale features a town named Dunwich in which many occult events occur.
"The Sun Dog
The Sun Dog
The Sun Dog is one of four novellas by Stephen King appearing in the book Four Past Midnight, published September 1990.- Plot :Kevin Delevan receives a Sun 660 Polaroid camera for his fifteenth birthday...
", a novella by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
that appears in the 1990 collection Four Past Midnight
Four Past Midnight
Four Past Midnight is a collection of four novellas by Stephen King, published in 1990. The four stories are "The Langoliers"; "Secret Window, Secret Garden"; "The Library Policeman"; and "The Sun Dog".- The Langoliers :...
, gives passing mention to "a fellow in Dunwich, Massachusetts, to whom Pop [Merrill] had once sold a so-called spirit trumpet for ninety dollars; the fellow had taken the trumpet to the Dunwich Cemetery and must have heard something exceedingly unpleasant, because he had been raving in a padded cell in Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
for almost six years now, totally insane."
The town of Dunwych, spelled with a "y", is featured in season 3 of Seven Days as a fishing town in new England, in which the inhabitants are driven insane by a bioweapon dredged up from the bottom of the sea.
In Charles Stross
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
' novel The Jennifer Morgue
The Jennifer Morgue
The Jennifer Morgue is the second collection of stories by Charles Stross featuring Bob Howard, containing the title novel The Jennifer Morgue, the short story "Pimpf", and an essay titled "The Golden Age of Spying"...
, a British spy (implied to be antithetical to the James Bond
James Bond (character)
Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is a fictional character created by journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the main protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics and video games...
archetype of a spy) mentions that Dunwich is a "treaty zone" between human and alien forces.
In the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society or HPLHS is the organization that hosts Cthulhu Lives!, a group of live-action roleplayers for the Cthulhu Live version of Call of Cthulhu. Founded in Colorado in 1984, it is now based in Glendale, California...
's audio drama adaptation, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror is a 2008 radio drama performed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and based on the short story "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft...
, a map of Dunwich (supposedly taken from the Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
archives by Henry Armitage's secretary, Edith) is included among the CD's supplemental materials.
The video game Fallout 3
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
features the Dunwich Building, the headquarters for a pre-war drill company. The drill site under the building has become the site of an occult ritual meant to raise a dead god.
Doom metal
Doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...
band Electric Wizard
Electric Wizard
Electric Wizard are a stoner metal band from Dorset, England that formed in 1993. The band have since recorded seven albums, at least three of which are now considered to be landmarks of their genre: their self-title debut, Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics..., and Dopethrone...
included a song called Dunwich on its album Witchcult Today
Witchcult Today
Witchcult Today is the sixth album by the doom metal band Electric Wizard. It was recorded entirely on vintage 1970s equipment at Toe Rag Studios and was released in November 2007. The sound of Witchcult Today was less harsh than preceding albums and Jus Oborn's vocals are much more prominent...
The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, a group whose works are heavily inspired by Lovecraft's writings, includes a song referencing the town, 'Going Down to Dunwich'.
The town and the events of 'The Dunwich Horror' feature in an expansion for the Lovecraftian boardgame, 'Arkham Horror'.
Spanish author Alberto López Aroca's short story "Al otro lado de Dunwich" (The Other Side of Dunwich) in his collection Los Espectros Conjurados is a prequel to The Dunwich Horror and August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
's The Lurker at the Threshold
The Lurker at the Threshold
The Lurker at the Threshold is a short novel in the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror. It was written in 1945 by August Derleth, based on two short fragments written by H. P. Lovecraft, who died in 1937, and published as a collaboration between the two authors. According to S. T...
.
See also
Other fictional settings from the stories of H. P. Lovecraft:- ArkhamArkhamArkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
, Massachusetts - InnsmouthInnsmouthInnsmouth is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Lovecraft Country setting of the Cthulhu Mythos.Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story "Celephaïs" , where it refers to a fictional town in New England...
, Massachusetts - KingsportKingsport (Lovecraft)Kingsport is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. The town first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Terrible Old Man"...
, Massachusetts
External links
- "The Dunwich Horror," by H. P. Lovecraft. The original story featuring the first appearance of Dunwich.