Crossover of the Week

October 31, 1921

THE GOTTERDAMMERUNG GAVOTTE

Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass team up with a group of occult detectives to prevent the Great Old Ones from being unleashed upon the world. Appearing or mentioned are: Semi Dual; No. 472 Cheyne Walk; Harley Warren; John Silence; Ravenwood; Sar Dubnotal; de Grandin; Thunstone; Pursuivant; Ms. Crerar; Kirowan; Zarnak; Thomas Carnacki; the Nameless One; a Tibetan lama with an unhealthy fascination for the color green; the Third Ritual of Hloh; Tserpchikopf; the Great Detective; the Hog; the Shambler; the Walker; the Lurker; the Yimghaz Sign; fire vampires; the dust of Ibn Gazi; Naacal; Thorne; openers and closers; the Drones Club; and Captain Drummond.

Story by Josh Reynolds in The Lovecraft eZine #18, Mike Davis, ed., October 2012. Semi Dual is an occult detective created for the pulps by J. U. Giesy. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Carnacki lives at No. 472 Cheyne Walk. The Hog is from the Carnacki story of the same name. Harley Warren appears in H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and is mentioned in “The Silver Key” and “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” The Naacal language is also from “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” John Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection of the same name. Ravenwood was the hero of a series of stories by Frederick C. Davis in the pulp magazine Secret Agent X; the Nameless One is Ravenwood’s Tibetan mystic mentor. The Sar Dubnotal was the subject of a French pulp series by an anonymous author who may have been Norbert Sevestre. Tserpchikopf is one of the mystic’s foes. Jules de Grandin is an occult detective created by Seabury Quinn. John Thunstone is the hero of a series of stories by Manly Wade Wellman, as is Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. Rowley Thorne is Thunstone’s archenemy. Ms. Crerar is Sheila Crerar, an occult detective appearing in stories by Ella Scrymsour. John Kirowan is a recurring character in the works of Robert E. Howard. Anton Zarnak is an occult investigator created by Lin Carter; his adventures have been continued by a number of other authors. The Tibetan lama is Kendell Crossen’s pulp hero the Green Lama. The Ritual of Hloh and the Yimghaz Sign are from “The Case of the Bronze Door,” one of Margery Lawrence’s stories about psychic detective Miles Pennoyer. The Great Detective is Sherlock Holmes, of course. The Shambler is a reference to Robert Bloch’s “The Shambler from the Stars.” The Walker is Ithaqua (aka the Wind-Walker), from August Derleth’s story of the same name. The Lurker is Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep; the Lurker appellation is an allusion to Derleth’s The Lurker at the Threshold. Fire vampires are from Donald Wandrei’s story “The Fire Vampires.” The Dust of Ibn Gazi is from Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The openers and closers are from Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October; although the events of that novel have been placed in an alternate universe, there is nothing to prevent the Crossover Universe from having openers and closers of its own. The Drones Club is a recurring London gentlemen’s club in the interconnected works of P. G. Wodehouse. Captain Drummond is H. C. McNeile’s hero Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond.