"The Weaver in the Vault" | |
---|---|
Short story by Clark Ashton Smith | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Dark Fantasy |
Publication | |
Published in | Weird Tales |
Publication type | Pulp magazine |
Publisher | Popular Fiction Publishing Co. |
Media type | |
Publication date | January 1934 |
Series | Zothique |
This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary .(August 2023) |
"The Weaver in the Vault" is a short story by American author Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Zothique cycle, and first published in the January 1934 issue of Weird Tales .
According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Weaver in the Vault" was first published in the January 1934 issue of Weird Tales . It was included in the books Genius Loci and Other Tales (1948) and Zothique (1970). [1]
The king of Tasuun, Famorgh, sends three henchmen (Yanur, Grotara, Thirlain Ludoch) from Miraab to Chaon Gacca to deliver the remains of King Tnepreez. As they journey from the city in a caravan of camels, they note that a similar task had occurred in the past; Yanur notes two centuries ago King Mandis asked two of his men for the golden mirror of Queen Avaina as a gift for his favorite leman. However, those two never returned and the king offered a different gift instead. The three remark that Chaon Gacca is occupied by shadows from the desert Dloth. Thirlain Ludoch points out that the shadows would appear in palaces and, when touched, would wither the skin upon contact - King Ameni had injured his hand due to these same shadows. Additionally, Yanur remarks that Chaon Gacca was also besieged by earthquakes. The three find their task before them arduous as Famorgh is requested by his queen Lunalia, a princess of the desert Xylac; when other mummies would do [ non sequitur ]. One night they camp within the shrine of Yuckla, the god of laughter. Later, as they approach the tomb, they drink a vintage which renders them unafraid amid the gloom. In the tombs, they find that the mummies are missing while, concurrently, the tomb is wreaked by earthquakes. One tremor kills Yanur and Thirlain Ludoch. Despite surviving the tremors, Grotara's condition rapidly deteriorates. Weak and unable to escape, he discovers an orb that draws power from the dead floating from the chasms. It waits for Grotara to die as it weaves a web before death befalls him.
In the 1981 book Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers , Will Murray noted the story as "the weird doom of two individuals who desecrate the tomb." [2]
Clark Ashton Smith was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne. As a poet, Smith is grouped with the West Coast Romantics alongside Joaquin Miller, Sterling, and Nora May French and remembered as "The Last of the Great Romantics" and "The Bard of Auburn". Smith's work was praised by his contemporaries. H. P. Lovecraft stated that "in sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, Clark Ashton Smith is perhaps unexcelled", and Ray Bradbury said that Smith "filled my mind with incredible worlds, impossibly beautiful cities, and still more fantastic creatures".
Averoigne is a fictional counterpart of a historical province in France, detailed in a series of short stories by the American writer Clark Ashton Smith. Smith may have based Averoigne on the actual province of Auvergne, but its name was probably influenced by the French department of Aveyron, immediately south of Auvergne, due to the similarity in pronunciation. Sixteen of Smith's stories take place in Averoigne. In Smith's fiction, the Southern French province is considered "the most witch-ridden in the entire country." The most well-known citizen is Gaspard du Nord of Vyones, a wizard who translated The Book of Eibon into Norman French.
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Zothique is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the sixteenth volume of its Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in June 1970. It was the first themed collection of Smith's works assembled by Carter for the series. The stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines in the 1930s, notably Weird Tales.
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