The Lurker at the Threshold
Encyclopedia
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. Joshi
, of the novel's 50,000 words, 1,200 were written by Lovecraft.
The book was originally published by Arkham House
in an edition of 3,041 copies. The story was included in the Arkham hardcover omnibus The Watchers Out of Time and Others
, though excluded from the paperback edition.
(1621–1657), Billington set up "a great Ring of Stones" where he said "Prayers to ye Devil" and "sung certain Rites of Magick abominable by Scripture". After a series of mysterious deaths were linked to him, he disappeared, and was said by the Wampanaug Indians to have been "eat up by what he had call'd out of ye Sky."
, in a ring of stones. The same character later reappears in the early 19th century as Quamis, a servant of Alijah Billington and the guardian of his son Laban. Quamis, described as a Narragansett
Indian, is a worshipper of Nyarlathotep
.
The character Misquamacus is also the villain of the 1976 novel The Manitou (which was made into a film starring Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith and Michael Ansara in 1978) and the 1979 novel Return of the Manitou, by Graham Masterton.
. The feud culminated with the disappearance of John Druven, one of Phillips' supporters. Afterwards, Billington leaves for England
with his son Laban and his servant Quamis, remaining there until his death.
. In 1805, he became the librarian at Miskatonic University. He is chiefly known for his book Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan. When Alijah Billington found out that the book accused his ancestor of practicing sorcery, he started a feud with Phillips, which lasted several months. Shortly after one of his proponents, John Druven, disappeared, Phillips seemingly had a change of heart and began buying and burning every copy of his book that he could lay his hands on.
The name is an homage to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. A character of the same name appears in Lovecraft's "Through the Gates of the Silver Key
".
A descendant of Laban Billington who comes to Arkham in 1921 to reclaim his family's property which had been abandoned for roughly a century. He is described as "a hawk-faced man of medium height, chiefly distinguished for a flare of red hair which gave him a tonsure
d appearance, keen of eye and tight of lip, exceedingly correct and possessed of a dry sort of humor... a man of some fifty years of age, brown-skinned, who had lost his only son in the great war
."
Locals blame him for a subsequent series of unexplainable disappearances in the area. He disappeared in 1924.
His name seems to be an Amalgamation of the names of the title character in " The strange case of Charles Dexter Ward, with the first name of horror writer Ambrose Bierce
.
and a graduate of the same institution (class of 1879). He investigated the events of Billington's Wood and procured several of the family's books for the University library. He also appears in Lin Carter
's "The Horror in the Gallery".
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...
genre of horror. It was written in 1945
1945 in literature
The year 1945 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 1 - The magazine Ebony is published for the first time.*Noel Coward's short play, Still Life, is adapted to become the film, Brief Encounter....
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...
, based on two short fragments written by H. P. Lovecraft
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....
, who died in 1937, and published as a collaboration between the two authors. According to 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...
, of the novel's 50,000 words, 1,200 were written by Lovecraft.
The book was originally published by Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
in an edition of 3,041 copies. The story was included in the Arkham hardcover omnibus The Watchers Out of Time and Others
The Watchers Out of Time and Others
The Watchers Out of Time and Others is an omnibus collection of stories by August Derleth inspired in part by notes left by H. P. Lovecraft after his death and presented as a "posthumous collaboration" between the two writers. It was published in an edition of 5,070 copies...
, though excluded from the paperback edition.
The Theme
One's curiosity at past, hidden lineage and greater status than that of our current lives weaves a complex tale of attempting to carry on forbidden tradition. A longing for fulfilling family destiny apart from conventional wisdom and acceptance leads the reader into a tale of tapping into forces beyond our ability to comprehend. The story unfolds methodically to present an eternal battle between temptation and control.Richard Billington
The first Billington to lay claim to Billington's Wood. According to the fictional book Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Daemons in No Humane Shape, in the early years of the Plymouth Colony, during the governorship of William BradfordWilliam Bradford (1590-1657)
William Bradford was an English leader of the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and served as governor for over 30 years after John Carver died. His journal was published as Of Plymouth Plantation...
(1621–1657), Billington set up "a great Ring of Stones" where he said "Prayers to ye Devil" and "sung certain Rites of Magick abominable by Scripture". After a series of mysterious deaths were linked to him, he disappeared, and was said by the Wampanaug Indians to have been "eat up by what he had call'd out of ye Sky."
Misquamacus
An "antient Wonder-Worker" of the Wampanaug tribe. According to the fictional book Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Daemons in No Humane Shape, Misquamacus teaches "Sorceries" to Richard Billington and imprisons Ossadagowah, a spawn of TsathogguaTsathoggua
Tsathoggua is a fictional supernatural entity in the Cthulhu Mythos shared fictional universe. He is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith and is part of his Hyperborean cycle....
, in a ring of stones. The same character later reappears in the early 19th century as Quamis, a servant of Alijah Billington and the guardian of his son Laban. Quamis, described as a Narragansett
Narragansett (tribe)
The Narragansett tribe are an Algonquian Native American tribe from Rhode Island. In 1983 they regained federal recognition as the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled against their request that the Department of Interior take land into trust...
Indian, is a worshipper of Nyarlathotep
Nyarlathotep
Nyarlathotep, also known as the Crawling Chaos, is a malign deity in the Cthulhu Mythos fictional universe created by H. P. Lovecraft. First appearing in Lovecraft's 1920 prose poem of the same name, he was later mentioned in other works by Lovecraft and by other writers and in the tabletop...
.
The character Misquamacus is also the villain of the 1976 novel The Manitou (which was made into a film starring Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith and Michael Ansara in 1978) and the 1979 novel Return of the Manitou, by Graham Masterton.
Alijah Billington
Billington inherits Richard Billington's estate in the early 19th century. He enters into a rivalry with Reverend Ward Phillips, who accused Billington and his forebear of practicing sorceryMagic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
. The feud culminated with the disappearance of John Druven, one of Phillips' supporters. Afterwards, Billington leaves for 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...
with his son Laban and his servant Quamis, remaining there until his death.
Ward Phillips
Reverend of the Second Church (later First Baptist Church) of ArkhamArkham
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....
. In 1805, he became the librarian at Miskatonic University. He is chiefly known for his book Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan. When Alijah Billington found out that the book accused his ancestor of practicing sorcery, he started a feud with Phillips, which lasted several months. Shortly after one of his proponents, John Druven, disappeared, Phillips seemingly had a change of heart and began buying and burning every copy of his book that he could lay his hands on.
The name is an homage to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. A character of the same name appears in Lovecraft's "Through the Gates of the Silver Key
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
"Through the Gates of the Silver Key" is a short story co-written by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price between October 1932 and April 1933. A sequel to Lovecraft's "The Silver Key", and part of a sequence of stories focusing on Randolph Carter, it was first published in the July 1934 issue of...
".
John Druven
An occasional correspondent for the Arkham Gazette and a friend of Ward Phillips. He disappeared after accepting an invitation from Alijah Billington to investigate strange noises emanating from Billington's Wood.Ambrose Dewart
(approximately 1870–1924)A descendant of Laban Billington who comes to Arkham in 1921 to reclaim his family's property which had been abandoned for roughly a century. He is described as "a hawk-faced man of medium height, chiefly distinguished for a flare of red hair which gave him a tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
d appearance, keen of eye and tight of lip, exceedingly correct and possessed of a dry sort of humor... a man of some fifty years of age, brown-skinned, who had lost his only son in the great war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
."
Locals blame him for a subsequent series of unexplainable disappearances in the area. He disappeared in 1924.
His name seems to be an Amalgamation of the names of the title character in " The strange case of Charles Dexter Ward, with the first name of horror writer Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
.
Seneca Lapham
A professor of Anthropology at Miskatonic UniversityMiskatonic 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...
and a graduate of the same institution (class of 1879). He investigated the events of Billington's Wood and procured several of the family's books for the University library. He also appears in Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
's "The Horror in the Gallery".