Friday 16 October 2009

Lovecraft in Trondheim


Lord Bassington-Bassington has been invited to give a lecture about H.P. Lovecraft in Trondheim next month. The date is November 20th, more details will follow as this unravels.

In the meantime, His Lordship has taken up his Lovecraftian studies again.

As is his habit, he'd like to commemorate the occasion by delving into some Lovecraftian poetry. And the first part of Lovecraft's sonnet The Fungi from Yuggoth must surely be evocative of the areas near the harbor in Trondheim?

The place was dark and dusty and half-lost
In tangles of old alleys near the quays,
Reeking of strange things brought in from the seas,
And with queer curls of fog that west winds tossed.
Small lozenge panes, obscured by smoke and frost,
Just shewed the books, in piles like twisted trees,
Rotting from floor to roof - congeries
Of crumbling elder lore at little cost.

I entered, charmed, and from a cobwebbed heap
Took up the nearest tome and thumbed it through,
Trembling at curious words that seemed to keep
Some secret, monstrous if one only knew.
Then, looking for some seller old in craft,
I could find nothing but a voice that laughed.


If anyone could help set Lord Bassington-Bassington's paws on course for such a bookshop, he would be very grateful.

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