The Double Shadow

A transcription of this episode is available.

This week, we’ll be doing our first Hyperborean episode, “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros.” To see the rest of the Hyperborean stories, check out the list on our about page.

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.

We’re ending this cycle with a little of Clark Ashton Smith’s poetry, read by Jordan Smith.

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

Music by Erdenstern.

This week, we conclude the stories of Poseidonis with “The Death of Malygris.”

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.

A transcription of this episode is available.

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 week, The Double Shadow does…”The Double Shadow“!

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:

(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