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Acolyte, v. 2, issue 3, whole no. 7, Summer 1944
Page 28
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and Drums of Death, The Haunted House, and Satan's Hole will all appear in it." ----oo0oo---- E. HOFFMAN PRICE, leading magazine author, drope[[?]] a poetal[[?]]: See Walter Duranty's autobiographical novel, Search For A Key (Simon & Schuster, 1943), p. 80 "Nodens, the God of Chaos, and the Dweller in the Threshold". Query is this entity (or these entities, the content does not make clear whether Nodens is God of Chaos and also Dweller on the Threshold, or whether the author means: Nodens, and the Dweller on the Threshold.)--so, is this entity an HPL creation which Walter Duranty picked as a bit of color for an (auto)biographical reminiscence, or did WD and HPL draw on a common source? That is, are we right in the assumption that Nodens originated with HPL? Also, on p. 148, Duranty says: "Nodens and the Chaos, the power of the Abyss." HPL says Lord of the Great Abyss, and implies that It is benevolent. WD, on the other hand, states that It is malignant. I've read nothing else of Duranty's. His first book, 1935; 2nd, 1937; 3rd, 1938. Maybe you'd care to trace this Nodens business? ----oo0oo---- BASIL DAVENPORT, well-known literary critic and authority on weird fiction, airmails from "c/o Postmaster, New York": In connection with Lovecraft, I have just come across a reference which may interest you. It is in Far-Off Things, by Arthur Machen --a book of reminiscences, not fiction. In writing of the landscape of his childhood, he says (p. 19 of the English edition) "Caerwent, also a Roman city, was buried in the earth, and gave up now and again strange relics--fragments of the temple of 'Nodens, god of the depths'." Machen seems to make Nodens a genuine deity of ancient Rome, though in fairly wide Latin reading I don't remember to have met him. If I were within the reach of a library, I should look up the word in Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. It is possible that you may have this reference already; naturally, I have not your glossary with me--if not, you may find this worth exploring, even if it leads no farther than to Machen himself. ----oo0oo----- (Search in several dictionaries of classical antiquities and encyclopedias of Roman mythology has failed to reveal any mention of Nodens, so we must appeal to our readers for further clues to the origin of this mystery deity. SDR-FTL. ) ----oo0oo---- MILTON RAOUL MILLS, a critical reader as yet untainted by fandom, gives with criticism from (of all places!) Hamilton, Montana: ...I was disappointed with Lovecraft's Shadow; you labeled it a "version", but when I read it, it turned out to be only a fragment. How can you be so deceitful? Now I shall never know who made those exotic jeweled ornaments...CASmith's Amor seems by far the best poem in this number; the other verse lamentably lacks technique...Mimeographing does not lend itself to the fine arts very well, so one can not say much for the pictures reproduced in that medium; the cover litho was very attractive, and the WSmith insert would undoubtedly be first-class anywhere and at any time...I don't know why Nanek's 5th Column was worth printing; but I thought the critical review of John Metcalfe was well done, and perhaps the most intellectual bit in the issue. I was surprised to learn that Metcalfe is the husband of Evelyn Scott, as she is one of my favorite novelists; indeed, I just finished reading her Background in Tennessee..... All in all, it's an interesting magazine, with values that are probably beyond the ken of a practical person like myself. -- 28 --
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and Drums of Death, The Haunted House, and Satan's Hole will all appear in it." ----oo0oo---- E. HOFFMAN PRICE, leading magazine author, drope[[?]] a poetal[[?]]: See Walter Duranty's autobiographical novel, Search For A Key (Simon & Schuster, 1943), p. 80 "Nodens, the God of Chaos, and the Dweller in the Threshold". Query is this entity (or these entities, the content does not make clear whether Nodens is God of Chaos and also Dweller on the Threshold, or whether the author means: Nodens, and the Dweller on the Threshold.)--so, is this entity an HPL creation which Walter Duranty picked as a bit of color for an (auto)biographical reminiscence, or did WD and HPL draw on a common source? That is, are we right in the assumption that Nodens originated with HPL? Also, on p. 148, Duranty says: "Nodens and the Chaos, the power of the Abyss." HPL says Lord of the Great Abyss, and implies that It is benevolent. WD, on the other hand, states that It is malignant. I've read nothing else of Duranty's. His first book, 1935; 2nd, 1937; 3rd, 1938. Maybe you'd care to trace this Nodens business? ----oo0oo---- BASIL DAVENPORT, well-known literary critic and authority on weird fiction, airmails from "c/o Postmaster, New York": In connection with Lovecraft, I have just come across a reference which may interest you. It is in Far-Off Things, by Arthur Machen --a book of reminiscences, not fiction. In writing of the landscape of his childhood, he says (p. 19 of the English edition) "Caerwent, also a Roman city, was buried in the earth, and gave up now and again strange relics--fragments of the temple of 'Nodens, god of the depths'." Machen seems to make Nodens a genuine deity of ancient Rome, though in fairly wide Latin reading I don't remember to have met him. If I were within the reach of a library, I should look up the word in Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. It is possible that you may have this reference already; naturally, I have not your glossary with me--if not, you may find this worth exploring, even if it leads no farther than to Machen himself. ----oo0oo----- (Search in several dictionaries of classical antiquities and encyclopedias of Roman mythology has failed to reveal any mention of Nodens, so we must appeal to our readers for further clues to the origin of this mystery deity. SDR-FTL. ) ----oo0oo---- MILTON RAOUL MILLS, a critical reader as yet untainted by fandom, gives with criticism from (of all places!) Hamilton, Montana: ...I was disappointed with Lovecraft's Shadow; you labeled it a "version", but when I read it, it turned out to be only a fragment. How can you be so deceitful? Now I shall never know who made those exotic jeweled ornaments...CASmith's Amor seems by far the best poem in this number; the other verse lamentably lacks technique...Mimeographing does not lend itself to the fine arts very well, so one can not say much for the pictures reproduced in that medium; the cover litho was very attractive, and the WSmith insert would undoubtedly be first-class anywhere and at any time...I don't know why Nanek's 5th Column was worth printing; but I thought the critical review of John Metcalfe was well done, and perhaps the most intellectual bit in the issue. I was surprised to learn that Metcalfe is the husband of Evelyn Scott, as she is one of my favorite novelists; indeed, I just finished reading her Background in Tennessee..... All in all, it's an interesting magazine, with values that are probably beyond the ken of a practical person like myself. -- 28 --
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