Eldritch News From Around the World

Analysis and Commentary from a Lovecraftian Perspective

First let me I apologize profusely for the lateness of this dispatch.  (I only hope that I am not too late.)

Alert readers may recall that in early April of this year there was report of an enormous stone structure found deep beneath the Sea of Galilee.  Originally discovered in 2003 during a sonar study of the southwest section of the sea bed, scientists are now at the site with an exploratory team of divers.   Much larger than Stonehenge, it appears to be a cone shaped cairn assembled from countless unhewn boulders of black volcanic basalt.  One expert commented, "The boulders have natural faces with no signs of cutting or chiseling. Similarly, we did not find any sign of arrangement or walls that delineate this structure."  Scientists are unable to determine the original purpose of the mysterious ruins, which are estimated to be thousands of years old.  Was it not mentioned that one of the divers has recently gone missing?  Was there not a co-incidental uptick in seismic activity in the region?

(No, not really.)

Late in April, there came a disturbing report from the Associated Press.  Apparently in Iceland, where the population is only about 320,000 souls, citizens are fearful of accidental incest, and are now relying more on a new smartphone app that can prevent this. The tiny nation is perched on a volcanic outcropping surrounded on all sides by the North Atlantic.  Iceland is completely isolated from the larger land masses where most of civilized humanity resides.  Most Icelanders have descended from a small group of ninth century Viking settlers who arrived on the remote island in A.D. 874. 

To prevent inadvertent sexual intercourse with close relatives, the smartphone app sounds an alarm when ‘bumped’ with the smartphone of a prospective paramour. The app connects the user with the ancient Islendingabok, or “Book of Icelanders”, which contains family histories going back 1200 years.  This allows couples to make informed choices about intimate relationships.  Imagine the calamity the world might have avoided if this technology were available to the people of Leffert’s Corner, Dunwich, or Innsmouth.  Was there not more recent news of unusual excitement and unrest among inbred squatters at a camp just 30 miles northwest of Reykjavik, where cell phone reception is poor?

(No, not really.)

And finally, Egyptologists at the University Manchester have determined, through careful electron microscope and X-ray CT scanner analysis, that a piece of ancient jewelry, thought to be 5,000 years old, was fashioned from a meteorite.  Scientists involved in the research report that the item displays a Widmanstten pattern when tested by their instruments.  This is a unique type of crystalline structure found only in meteorites that cooled very slowly within asteroids during the dawn of the solar system.  Seeing that the material fell from the sky in a blinding streak of light, ancient Egyptians considered the stone to be precious, beautiful, and full of mysterious magical and religious properties.  

It is both noteworthy and unsettling that members of the original archeological team, who found the strange Egyptian meteorite jewelry back in 1911, can no longer be found, and are presumed to be missing or dead.

Vigilant readers may remember that only last fall, scientists in Germany discovered that a statue of the Buddha, brought to Europe by Nazis some time during the Second World War, was carved from a meteorite over eight centuries ago.  It was made of virtually the same mysterious material as the ancient Egyptian jewelry.  The statue of the Buddha was fashioned from a piece of the Chinga meteorite, which scientists believe struck the Earth 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, near the Siberian and Mongolian border.  Were the Nazis seeking to use the awesome power of the carved meteorite for their own evil ends?

(Probably not.)

Lovecraft wrote:  “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”  Still, it seems we must continue to try and do so.  Admittedly, these seem like random news reports of little significance considered in isolation.  And yet, a definite and disturbing pattern seems to emerge from these apparently disparate occurrences.  No one is reporting on the implications, but that does not mean that terrifying, world shattering events are not already in progress!

(Could very well be true.)

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Here are the answers to the quiz provided in the last post.

1.    D  The Horror at Martin’s Beach

2.    C  The Dunwich Horror

3.    D  The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

4.    B  The Outsider

5.    C  The Rats in the Walls

6.    B  The Call of Cthulu

7.    A  At the Mountains of Madness

8.    B  The Haunter of the Dark

9.    D  The Thing on the Doorstep

10.  C  The Shadow Out of Time