š¦š
"The Eater Of Souls" is a horror science fiction short story by Henry Kuttner.
Synopsis[]
The story tells of Sindara of Bel Yarnak who sets off to face the Eater of Souls, a creature whose calls have been dragging his people to their deaths in the Gray Gulf of Yarnak. Forsaking the tools given to him by his necromancers and hydromancers he calls on the god Vorvadoss for help. Getting nothing but a cryptic message, he reaches the Gray Gulf of Yarnak and faces the Eater of Souls in battle. After "a timeless interval of eternity" he is badly wounded while his demonic opponent is unharmed. After another message from Vorvadoss he realises that he has to merge with the creature and sacrifices himself by hurling them both into the abyss.
Characters[]
- The Sindara: The benevolent ruler of Bel Yarnak and a devoted follower of Vorvadoss. He, his people and the son he left behind are not anthropoids and aside from having "bone and flesh" are nothing like humans.
- Vorvadoss: An Elder God who watches over the Sindara but is also willing to sacrifice him knowing that the Sindara's son will remain a worshipper.
- The Eater of Souls: According to the hydromancers the titular Eater of Souls is a half demon half god, created by the Ancients and a Black Shining One in the dark sun, with the ability to lure victims in with a hypnotic call to be killed and kept in eternal servitude. It is described as being "appallingly hideous" with a white, hairy body, a misshapen head, black eyes and huge spidery limbs. The trapped souls he keeps trail behind him lamenting.
Settings[]
Bel Yarnak[]
A city of Towers and silver minarets that sits on a "green and joyous world" "beyond Betelgeuse, beyond the Giant Stars". As well as temples and taverns it is home to the throne of chalcedony and two feuding schools of mages: the powerful hydromancers and the less favoured Necromancers.
The Gray Gulf of Yarnak[]
A vast rocky canyon west of Bel Yarnak where the Eater of Souls lives and the nearer of the planets 3 moons is said to have come from. The cliff face curves into a dim grey haze and eventually total darkness.
Publication History[]
"The Eater of Souls" was first published in the January 1937 edition of pulp magazine Weird Tales. It has since been reprinted in Crypt of Cthulhu #41 (August 1986), The Book of Iod (May 1995), and Terror in the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume 1 (November 2010).