Stregoicavar and Xuthltan ("The Black Stone")
Mar 8, 2017 0:49:03 GMT -5
Post by elegos7 on Mar 8, 2017 0:49:03 GMT -5
Another interesting question is why the original name of the village would be Xuthltan.
Xuthltan is a word that has no connection to any language in Central Europe. But of course cities starting with "Xu-" come up often in REH tales, like Xuthal and Xuchotl. REH has called his Muvian ape-god Xultha or Xulthar in "The Isle of the Eons", and the parrot cries "xuthalla" in "Iron Shadows in the moon". It looks like places starting with "Xu-" have to do something with ancient, perhaps Muvian people, that have built those mysterious green-stone cities all over the Hyborian world.
Of course the name Xuthltan also appears in “The Fire of Asshurbanipal”:
"Thus came the stone to the city: there dwelt a magician at the court of Asshurbanipal, and the black wisdom of ages was not denied to him. To gain honor and power for himself, he dared the horrors of a nameless vast cavern in a dark, untraveled land, and from those fiend-haunted depths he brought that blazing gem, which is carved of the frozen flames of Hell! By reason of his fearful power in black magic, he put a spell on the demon which guarded the ancient gem, and so stole away the stone. And the demon slept in the cavern unknowing.
"So this magician – Xuthltan by name – dwelt in the court of the sultan Asshurbanipal and did magic and forecast events by scanning the lurid deeps of the stone, into which no eyes but his could look unblinded. And men called the stone the Fire of Asshurbanipal, in honor of the king.
"But evil came upon the kingdom and men cried out that it was the curse of the djinn, and the sultan in great fear bade Xuthltan take the gem and cast it into the cavern from which he had taken it, lest worse ill befall them.
The demon is described as follows.
"It was gigantic and black and shadowy; it was a hulking monstrosity that walked upright like a man, but it was like a toad, too, and it was winged and tentacled. I saw only its back; if I'd seen the front of it – its face – I'd have undoubtedly lost my mind. The old Arab was right; God help us, it was the monster that Xuthltan called up out of the dark blind caverns of the earth to guard the Fire of Asshurbanipal!"
Probably the demon and the cavern is the same as the one in “The Black Stone”:
“I opened my mouth to scream my horror and loathing, but only a dry rattle sounded; a huge monstrous toad-like thing squatted on the top of the monolith!
I saw its bloated, repulsive and unstable outline against the moonlight and set in what would have been the face of a natural creature, its huge, blinking eyes which reflected all the lust, abysmal greed, obscene cruelty and monstrous evil that has stalked the sons of men since their ancestors moved blind and hairless in the treetops.
And later:
“I read, too, of the lost, grim black cavern high in the hills where the horrified Turks hemmed a monstrous, bloated, wallowing toad-like being and slew it with flame and ancient steel blessed in old times by Muhammad, and with incantations that were old when Arabia was young.”
Unfortunately, it is not certain in what order REH has written the two stories. Both were written in the second half of 1930, but the Del Rey editions do not mention any surviving typescripts/carbons from these stories, the available texts were taken from the Weird Tales appearances. Patrice Louinet dates “TBS” to November 1930. Hopefully additional draft pages will be unearthed in the Glenn Lords papers that could help in the dating of these stories.
In my theory REH has written the adventure version of “The Fire of Asshurbanipal” around June 1930 (without the demon and Xuthltan) for the new Oriental Stories. It probably failed to sell, but this was the time when REH has started his correspondence with HPL. REH then (in a few weeks time according to Patrice) prepared the final version of “TFoA”, that was probably first rejected, then posthumously published in Weird Tales in 1936. No submission records survive, and even in the French edition Patrice reprinted the story from Weird Tales.
Concerning the Fire and Xuthltan, it is highly probable REH used them as prototypes of the “Heart of Ahriman” and Xaltotun from “The Hour of the Dragon”.
A quote from HotD:
"Those same thieves--or rather those of them who still lived after their frightful quest--stole the Heart of Ahriman from its haunted cavern below the temple of Mitra, and all the skill of men and the spells of sorcerers nearly failed. One man of them lived long enough to reach me and give the jewel into my hands, before he died slavering and gibbering of what he had seen in that accursed crypt. The thieves of Zamora are the most faithful of men to their trust. Even with my conjurements, none but them could have stolen the Heart from where it has lain in demon-guarded darkness since the fall of Acheron, three thousand years ago."
And “The Blood of Belshazzar” (dated by Patrice to October 1930) also features a similar precious stone, found in the hand of a dead king (although in this case underwater). As both versions of "The Fire of Asshurbanipal" seem to have been rejected, while “The Blood of Belshazzar” was published, it looks as if REH has salvaged this idea (precious stone, found in the hand of a dead king) from "The Fire of Asshurbanipal" (already present in the straight adventure version), which points to an earlier composition than “The Blood of Belshazzar”.
Xuthltan is a word that has no connection to any language in Central Europe. But of course cities starting with "Xu-" come up often in REH tales, like Xuthal and Xuchotl. REH has called his Muvian ape-god Xultha or Xulthar in "The Isle of the Eons", and the parrot cries "xuthalla" in "Iron Shadows in the moon". It looks like places starting with "Xu-" have to do something with ancient, perhaps Muvian people, that have built those mysterious green-stone cities all over the Hyborian world.
Of course the name Xuthltan also appears in “The Fire of Asshurbanipal”:
"Thus came the stone to the city: there dwelt a magician at the court of Asshurbanipal, and the black wisdom of ages was not denied to him. To gain honor and power for himself, he dared the horrors of a nameless vast cavern in a dark, untraveled land, and from those fiend-haunted depths he brought that blazing gem, which is carved of the frozen flames of Hell! By reason of his fearful power in black magic, he put a spell on the demon which guarded the ancient gem, and so stole away the stone. And the demon slept in the cavern unknowing.
"So this magician – Xuthltan by name – dwelt in the court of the sultan Asshurbanipal and did magic and forecast events by scanning the lurid deeps of the stone, into which no eyes but his could look unblinded. And men called the stone the Fire of Asshurbanipal, in honor of the king.
"But evil came upon the kingdom and men cried out that it was the curse of the djinn, and the sultan in great fear bade Xuthltan take the gem and cast it into the cavern from which he had taken it, lest worse ill befall them.
The demon is described as follows.
"It was gigantic and black and shadowy; it was a hulking monstrosity that walked upright like a man, but it was like a toad, too, and it was winged and tentacled. I saw only its back; if I'd seen the front of it – its face – I'd have undoubtedly lost my mind. The old Arab was right; God help us, it was the monster that Xuthltan called up out of the dark blind caverns of the earth to guard the Fire of Asshurbanipal!"
Probably the demon and the cavern is the same as the one in “The Black Stone”:
“I opened my mouth to scream my horror and loathing, but only a dry rattle sounded; a huge monstrous toad-like thing squatted on the top of the monolith!
I saw its bloated, repulsive and unstable outline against the moonlight and set in what would have been the face of a natural creature, its huge, blinking eyes which reflected all the lust, abysmal greed, obscene cruelty and monstrous evil that has stalked the sons of men since their ancestors moved blind and hairless in the treetops.
And later:
“I read, too, of the lost, grim black cavern high in the hills where the horrified Turks hemmed a monstrous, bloated, wallowing toad-like being and slew it with flame and ancient steel blessed in old times by Muhammad, and with incantations that were old when Arabia was young.”
Unfortunately, it is not certain in what order REH has written the two stories. Both were written in the second half of 1930, but the Del Rey editions do not mention any surviving typescripts/carbons from these stories, the available texts were taken from the Weird Tales appearances. Patrice Louinet dates “TBS” to November 1930. Hopefully additional draft pages will be unearthed in the Glenn Lords papers that could help in the dating of these stories.
In my theory REH has written the adventure version of “The Fire of Asshurbanipal” around June 1930 (without the demon and Xuthltan) for the new Oriental Stories. It probably failed to sell, but this was the time when REH has started his correspondence with HPL. REH then (in a few weeks time according to Patrice) prepared the final version of “TFoA”, that was probably first rejected, then posthumously published in Weird Tales in 1936. No submission records survive, and even in the French edition Patrice reprinted the story from Weird Tales.
Concerning the Fire and Xuthltan, it is highly probable REH used them as prototypes of the “Heart of Ahriman” and Xaltotun from “The Hour of the Dragon”.
A quote from HotD:
"Those same thieves--or rather those of them who still lived after their frightful quest--stole the Heart of Ahriman from its haunted cavern below the temple of Mitra, and all the skill of men and the spells of sorcerers nearly failed. One man of them lived long enough to reach me and give the jewel into my hands, before he died slavering and gibbering of what he had seen in that accursed crypt. The thieves of Zamora are the most faithful of men to their trust. Even with my conjurements, none but them could have stolen the Heart from where it has lain in demon-guarded darkness since the fall of Acheron, three thousand years ago."
And “The Blood of Belshazzar” (dated by Patrice to October 1930) also features a similar precious stone, found in the hand of a dead king (although in this case underwater). As both versions of "The Fire of Asshurbanipal" seem to have been rejected, while “The Blood of Belshazzar” was published, it looks as if REH has salvaged this idea (precious stone, found in the hand of a dead king) from "The Fire of Asshurbanipal" (already present in the straight adventure version), which points to an earlier composition than “The Blood of Belshazzar”.