The Haunter of the Dark

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"The Haunter of the Dark" is a horror story by H.P. Lovecraft. The story was written in November 1935, and published December 1936 in Weird Tales, Vol. 28, No. 5, p. 538–53.

The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island and revolves around the Starry Wisdom Cult. The cult uses an ancient artifact known as the Shining Trapezohedron to summon a terrible being from the depths of time and space.

Synopsis

Shining Trapezohedron

The Shining Trapezohedron was discovered in Egyptian ruins, in a box of alien construction, by Professor Enoch Bowen before he returned to Providence, Rhode Island in 1844. Members of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an aspect of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal. Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area.

The Shining Trapezohedron is a window on all space and time. Described as a "crazily angled stone", it is unlikely to be a true trapezohedron because of the Old Ones' penchant for bizarre non-Euclidean angles. It was created on dark Yuggoth and brought to Earth by the Old Ones, where it was placed in its box aeons before the first human beings appeared. It has further history in Atlantis and with the Pharaohs of Egypt, until it was finally unearthed and brought to New England.

After the death of Robert Blake, who came to grief after discovering the Shining Trapezohedron and deciphering texts about it from ancient evil cults, the artifact was removed from the black windowless temple where it was found and thrown into the deepest channel of Narragansett Bay. Presumably it will stay in the depths until it is once again discovered and brought forth to curse humankind.

Trivia

• Lovecraft wrote this tale as a sequel and reply to "The Shambler from the Stars" (1935) by Robert Bloch, in which Bloch kills the Lovecraft-inspired character. Lovecraft returned the favor in this tale, killing off Robert Blake (aka Robert Bloch)Carter, Lin. Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos, pp. 116–7, New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1972.. Bloch later wrote a third story, "The Shadow from the Steeple" (1950), to create a trilogy.Ibid, pp. 123.

References

• Lovecraft, Howard P. "The Haunter of the Dark" (1936) in The Dunwich Horror and Others, S. T. Joshi (ed.), Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1984. ISBN 0-870-54037-8. Definitive version.

Notes