Weird Tales (Canadian, 2nd series)/1946/January
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| Adventure Awaits You in the Pages of |
| Short Stories |
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| Read "Short Stories" for inviting, invigorating relaxation. In its thrill-packed pages you'll find a collection of novelettes, short stories and novel-length yarns of high adventure, vivid action, daring exploits ... tales from every part of the world where men rub shoulders with the dangerous, from the great frontiers of the early West to the rolling, mysterious East—from the frozen North to languid, magnolia-scented South! |
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| NOVELETTES | ||
| LOST ELYSIUM | Edmond Hamilton | 4 |
| There is a world congruent with earth but existing on a different plane of vibration, a world of unearthly beauty—and horror! | ||
| THE MURDEROUS STEAM SHOVEL | Allison V. Harding | 44 |
| A big steam shovel is stronger than any bull elephant, got a better memory—and more killer in 'im! | ||
| THE MAD DANCERS | Roger S. Vreeland | 58 |
| ....Some were prone to delegate the new plague to one of the sub-sciences beneath the dignity of medicine. | ||
| SHORT STORIES | ||
| MRS. LANNISFREE | August Derleth | 26 |
| By and by you'll see a figure, white in the moonlight, walking relentlessly toward the sea. | ||
| THE CRANBERRY GOBLET | Harold Lawlor | 33 |
| There are all kinds of macabre secrets in this world—goblins and goblets! | ||
| THE FANGS OF TSAN-LO | Jim Kjelgaard | 76 |
| The air was charged with hate and viciousness in its most primitive and elemental form. | ||
| SOUL PROPRIETOR | Robert Bloch | 87 |
| "One human soul, in reasonable condition, to highest bidder.... Owner must dispose of same at once!" | ||
| THE MIRROR | Charles King | 95 |
| See, it was quite evident! The mirror was actually defying him! | ||
| RIDE THE EL TO DOOM | Alice B. Harcraft | 101 |
| They said the iron horse on stilts had to come down—but there are singular forces beyond our ken that must be reckoned with first! | ||
| VERSE | ||
| MIDNIGHT MOON | Stanton A. Coblentz | 43 |
| HOMECOMING | H. P. Lovecraft | 56 |
WEIRD TALES—Issued bi-monthly by The American News Company, Limited, 474 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ontario, by arrangement with Weird Tales. Inc., 9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York. Copyrighted 1944, by Weird Tales, Inc. Authorized by the Postoffice Department, Ottawa, at second class matter. Manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by self-addressed stamped envelopes and are submitted at the author's risk. Names of all characters used in story and semi-fiction articles are fictitious. If the name of any real person or existing institution is used, it is a coincidence. This magazine was produced in Canada, on Canadian paper, by Canadians, Vol. 38, No. 3.
The Shining Land Found Again
Although "Lost Elysium" in this number is a sequel to "The Shining Land" (Weird Tales, July, 1945) author Edmond Hamilton writes us that he had no thought of a follow-up yarn when he wrote that first novelette.
"But after it appeared," Hamilton says, "I began to realise how many interesting possibilities there were for a second yarn."
Herewith are some further notes on the story, forwarded by Edmond Hamilton:
"Lost Elysium," like "The Shining Land," had its source in my long interest in Celtic mythology. Years ago I stumbled on Roleston's "Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race," in my estimation still the best popular account, and ever since then have read everything I could find on this fascinating subject.
It has always seemed to me that the Celtic tales have more imaginative splendor than any other mythology. They do not have the graceful perfection of the Greek legends, nor the dark, grim power of the great Norse saga of the doomed Aesir, but in sheer, magic beauty they are incomparable.
Perhaps the most remarkable and distinctive feature of Celtic mythology is the predominance of their strange conception of an Otherworld or Elysium, distinct from the ordinary Earth. It was called Tir Sorcha, or the Shining Land, but was also called Tir nan Og, the Land of Youth, or Tir n'Aill, the Other World.
It was not primarily, like the Greek Elysium, an abode of the dead. Rather it was conceived as a realm of wondrous, golden beauty that existed somewhere in the Western Ocean but could not be seen by ordinary eyes because it was detached magically from our Earth. It was persistently pictured as consisting of many islands, and the Celts believed that more than one adventurer had managed to enter it and wander through the enchanted archipelago. "The Voyage of Bran" and the "Voyage of Maledune" are accounts of such adventures, the latter having been turned into a fine poem by Tennyson.
The great Cuchulain, hero of the later Ultonian myths, also entered this Elysium and there met and loved Fand, one of the great figures of the superhuman Tuatha race. But the Tuatha, more correctly the Tuatha de Dannan, had themselves previously invaded Earth in the fourth of the five great invasions listed by Celtic chronology, and had here fought and defeated the dark and evil Fomorians who were the most hated and dreaded of prehuman races.
From all this dramatic material, which I must emphasize is here only briefly summarized and has many variant versions, I tried to select those incidents and characters which could be woven into a story that would illustrate the richness of the old Celtic lore without doing too much violence to its traditions.
It may be of interest to note that one of the most famous of 20th Century British composers, Arnold Bax, composed a beautiful symphonic tone-poem which pictures the golden Elysium of the Celts. It is called "The Garden of Fand."
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I should also add, perhaps, for those who may wish to explore this fascinating subject further, that beside Rolleston's fine popular book there are standard works by Rhys, Leahy, Joyce and many others. There is also a vast deal of material on every aspect of this subject in the standard encyclopediae of religion and folk-lore.
Word from Stanton Coblentz
We were interested to receive an announcement from Stanton A. Coblentz the other day concerning a new book of his scheduled for publication this fall. The title is "When The Birds Fly South" and it is put out by The Wings Press. Stanton Coblentz, well-known as a poet, critic and author whose work has appeared both here and in England, is an old friend of ours and of Weird Tales readers. He was kind enough to give us this little peck into his forthcoming book.
This novel, "When The Birds Fly South." scheduled for publication in September, is one for the reader who has tired of modern realism, and wishes a story of romance, mystery and wonder, a story that only a poet could have written. It is a tale of love and adventure among the mountains of Afghanistan, a tale dominated by the weird and inscrutable forces of the east, and by an overtowering destiny personified in Yulada. the great stone woman on the peak. It is also the tale of Dan Prescott, a lost member of an American geological expedition, who crosses "The Mountain of Vanished Men" to pass his days among the Ibandru, a quaint mountain people that disappear mysteriously each year "when the birds fly south." And it is likewise the tale of the love of Prescott and dark-eyed, auburn-haired Yasma, an impetuous young daughter of the tribe.
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