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"The Dark Eidolon" is a short story by Clark Ashton Smith, set in Zothique, "the last continent on Earth." It was first published in Weird Tales in January 1935.
Synopsis[]
Namirrha, an arrogant sorcerer, is destroyed by his own hubris. He makes war on the Emperor Zotulla and his Empire of Xylac. At a feast, he first summons female Ghoul dancing "girls", before summoning horse-like monstrosities from beyond, called the Coursers of Thamogorgos, to destroy the empire. Namirrha then mind-swaps with the Emperor. However, all does not go as planned for the prideful spellcaster....
Behind the Mythos[]
The story begins with a passage that links Smith's Zothique stories--which take place on "the last continent" at the end of time--to his other stories set in prehistoric times, some of which have direct connections to the Cthulhu Mythos:
[O]ut of the shadows, the older gods had returned to man: the gods forgotten since Hyperborea, since Mu and Poseidonis, bearing other names but the same attributes. And the elder demons had also returned, battening on the fumes of evil sacrifice, and fostering again the primordial sorceries.
The passage suggests that in Smith's mind, his Zothique series belonged to the same continuity with his Mythos tales. It also implies that the gods of Zothique may be identified with the Mythos entities.
The "eidolon" of the title references both the ghostly form of the emperor after he is driven from his body and exists disembodied as a phantom over the dead body of the sorcerer, and of course the dark desires of Namirrha himself.
Publication History[]
After its initial appearance in Weird Tales, "The Dark Eidolon" was first reprinted in Smith's collection Out of Space and Time (Arkham House, 1942). It has since appeared in numerous collections of Smith's work, including Zothique (Ballantine Books, 1970), The City of the Singing Flame (Timescape/Pocket Books, 1981), Ubbo-Sathla (Neo, 1985), A Rendezvous in Averoigne: The Best Fantastic Tales of Clark Ashton Smith (Arkham House, 1988), Tales of Zothique (Necronomicon Press, 1995), The Emperor of Dreams (Gollancz / Orion, 2002), The Maze of the Enchanter: Volume Four of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (Night Shade Books, 2009), The Return of the Sorcerer (Prime Books, 2012), and The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies (Penguin Books, 2014).[1]
It has also been included in multi-author anthologies, including The Spell of Seven (Pyramid Books, 1965), edited by L. Sprague de Camp; The Century's Best Horror Fiction 1901-1950 (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2012), edited by John Pelan; and Swords Against Darkness (Prime Books, 2017), edited by Paula Guran.[1]
The story has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.[1]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Internet Speculative Fiction Database, "Title: The Dark Eidolon."