Solomon Kane's "The Moon of Skulls"
Oct 7, 2018 22:18:13 GMT -5
Post by nadler on Oct 7, 2018 22:18:13 GMT -5
I am interested by renowned REH Scholar, Dale Rippke's, suggestion that Negari was not a colony of Thurian Atlantis.
When Solomon Kane finds the Negari priest in a cell, "shackled wrist and ankle", he initially "thought him to be a negro", but the "hair was too straight, the features too regular. Negroid, yes, but some alien blood in his veins had sharpened those features and given the man that high magnificent forehead, and those hard vibrant eyes... The skin was dark, but not black" (p.142). The priest said to Kane, "who are you? You are no black man - at first I thought you one of the Old Race, but now I see you are not as they." The priest then asked SK if he had seen "the golden spires of Atlantis and the crimson walls of Mu". (p.143).
The priest then goes on to tell: "Long eons ago -- ages, ages ago" the empire of which Negari was a remnant arose "in a great land to the west". Their "purple-prowed galleys"* sailed over the earth and "none could stand before" their legions. They subdued "all savages, red, white or black" and enslaved them. "All over the world the brown people of Atlantis reigned supreme." (p.144) "Sons of the sea", the Atlanteans "exalted him above all others". They "worshipped Valka and Hotah, Honen and Golgor". Many sacrifices "died on their (the gods') altars and the smoke of the shrines blotted out the sun." "Then the sea rose and shook himself. (...) New lands rose from the deep and Atlantis and Mu were swallowed up by the gulf." The "colony cities in barbaric lands, cut off from their mother kingdom, perished. The black savages and the white savages rose and burned and destroyed until in all the world only the colony city of Negari remained..." (p.145)
So from the above wouldn't the priest's reference to "Valka and Hota(t)h, Honen and Golgor" suggest Negari was a remaining colony of Thurian Atlantis given the reference to these Thurian deities (and the ancestors of the folk of Bal-Sagoth)?
"Years passed, stretching into centuries. The empire of Negari dwindled. Tribe after tribe rose and flung off the chains..." Retreating into the city, the sons of Atlantis "held those tribes at bay for a thousand years" (p.145), which would seem to suggest the retreat into Negari happened around the same time as the rise of the Greeks and Persians!? Within the city, the population of black slaves "increased while the brown people dwindled". They mixed with each other more and more until at last only the priestcraft was free of "black blood" and even the kings were "nearly pure negro".
"Then came a day when" the slaves revolted and "slew all who bore a trace of brown blood, except the priests..." For a thousand years, black kings ruled in Negari, guided by the brown Atlantean priests. That would place the fall of the "Atlantean" dynasty around the time of the fall of Rome!? One of the "black kings", "a tiger" (?!?) conquered an empire from "sea to sea", but it fell apart (p.146). Thoughts?
Finally, "in the last century" before the coming of Kane, the Atlantean priests "mixed with their rulers and slaves". The last brown priest (the narrator), was imprisoned by Nakari when she usurped the throne from the old dynasty (p.148).
Nakari mentions that her "nation is still lord of central Africa" and recalls "the days when the realm of ancient Negari spanned the land from sea to sea!" She also mentions "the tribes of the river" (p.135). The "river-tribes" are mentioned several times. Do you think "the river" has to be the Congo? Might this suggest Negari lied in the foothills of the Mitumba Mountains, west of Lake Tanganyika?
According to the priest Nakari (who SK refers to as Lilith), "was the daughter of one of the lesser priests… and as a young girl was one of the 'Star-maidens'." Didn't Howard also mention "Star-maidens" in his unfinished story, "The Isle of the Eons" (which referred back to the Thurian Age, mentioning Valusia, etc…. and implying that Atlantis became civilised)?
Nakari and her Star-maidens prepared Marilyn to be the "Bride-of-the-Master" (Nakura). They clothed her "in the white robe of sacrifice" and carried her "into a great black chamber filled with horrid statues" where they "performed various strange and shameful rites according to their grim religion" (p.166). Since the Star-maidens definitely date back to the Thurian Age, might these rites echo those to Golgor, since Nakura supplanted his worship?
*The mention of "purple" for some reason reminds me of the cities of ancient Acheron and Khitai, or Valusia!?
REH also has Solomon Kane describe Nakari "as beautiful and terrible as Purgatory" which is a strange reference for a Puritan given they didn't have any use for the concept of "Purgatory"!
When Solomon Kane finds the Negari priest in a cell, "shackled wrist and ankle", he initially "thought him to be a negro", but the "hair was too straight, the features too regular. Negroid, yes, but some alien blood in his veins had sharpened those features and given the man that high magnificent forehead, and those hard vibrant eyes... The skin was dark, but not black" (p.142). The priest said to Kane, "who are you? You are no black man - at first I thought you one of the Old Race, but now I see you are not as they." The priest then asked SK if he had seen "the golden spires of Atlantis and the crimson walls of Mu". (p.143).
The priest then goes on to tell: "Long eons ago -- ages, ages ago" the empire of which Negari was a remnant arose "in a great land to the west". Their "purple-prowed galleys"* sailed over the earth and "none could stand before" their legions. They subdued "all savages, red, white or black" and enslaved them. "All over the world the brown people of Atlantis reigned supreme." (p.144) "Sons of the sea", the Atlanteans "exalted him above all others". They "worshipped Valka and Hotah, Honen and Golgor". Many sacrifices "died on their (the gods') altars and the smoke of the shrines blotted out the sun." "Then the sea rose and shook himself. (...) New lands rose from the deep and Atlantis and Mu were swallowed up by the gulf." The "colony cities in barbaric lands, cut off from their mother kingdom, perished. The black savages and the white savages rose and burned and destroyed until in all the world only the colony city of Negari remained..." (p.145)
So from the above wouldn't the priest's reference to "Valka and Hota(t)h, Honen and Golgor" suggest Negari was a remaining colony of Thurian Atlantis given the reference to these Thurian deities (and the ancestors of the folk of Bal-Sagoth)?
"Years passed, stretching into centuries. The empire of Negari dwindled. Tribe after tribe rose and flung off the chains..." Retreating into the city, the sons of Atlantis "held those tribes at bay for a thousand years" (p.145), which would seem to suggest the retreat into Negari happened around the same time as the rise of the Greeks and Persians!? Within the city, the population of black slaves "increased while the brown people dwindled". They mixed with each other more and more until at last only the priestcraft was free of "black blood" and even the kings were "nearly pure negro".
"Then came a day when" the slaves revolted and "slew all who bore a trace of brown blood, except the priests..." For a thousand years, black kings ruled in Negari, guided by the brown Atlantean priests. That would place the fall of the "Atlantean" dynasty around the time of the fall of Rome!? One of the "black kings", "a tiger" (?!?) conquered an empire from "sea to sea", but it fell apart (p.146). Thoughts?
Finally, "in the last century" before the coming of Kane, the Atlantean priests "mixed with their rulers and slaves". The last brown priest (the narrator), was imprisoned by Nakari when she usurped the throne from the old dynasty (p.148).
Nakari mentions that her "nation is still lord of central Africa" and recalls "the days when the realm of ancient Negari spanned the land from sea to sea!" She also mentions "the tribes of the river" (p.135). The "river-tribes" are mentioned several times. Do you think "the river" has to be the Congo? Might this suggest Negari lied in the foothills of the Mitumba Mountains, west of Lake Tanganyika?
According to the priest Nakari (who SK refers to as Lilith), "was the daughter of one of the lesser priests… and as a young girl was one of the 'Star-maidens'." Didn't Howard also mention "Star-maidens" in his unfinished story, "The Isle of the Eons" (which referred back to the Thurian Age, mentioning Valusia, etc…. and implying that Atlantis became civilised)?
Nakari and her Star-maidens prepared Marilyn to be the "Bride-of-the-Master" (Nakura). They clothed her "in the white robe of sacrifice" and carried her "into a great black chamber filled with horrid statues" where they "performed various strange and shameful rites according to their grim religion" (p.166). Since the Star-maidens definitely date back to the Thurian Age, might these rites echo those to Golgor, since Nakura supplanted his worship?
*The mention of "purple" for some reason reminds me of the cities of ancient Acheron and Khitai, or Valusia!?
REH also has Solomon Kane describe Nakari "as beautiful and terrible as Purgatory" which is a strange reference for a Puritan given they didn't have any use for the concept of "Purgatory"!
