Polaris - H.P. Lovecraft

"Polaris" is a fantasy short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1918 and first published in the December 1920 issue of the amateur journal The Philosopher. It is the story that introduces Lovecraft's fictional Pnakotic Manuscripts, the first of his arcane tomes.

View our entire collection of podcasts at www.solgood.org or on our YouTube channel:
www.solgood.org/subscribe

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Polaris by HP. Lovecraft. Intothe north window of my chamber glows the
Pole Star with uncanny light all throughthe long, hellish hours of blackness.
It shines there, and in theautumn of the year, when the winds
from the north curse and wine,and the red leaved trees of the swamp

(00:20):
mutter things to one another. Inthe small hours of the morning under the
horned, waning moon, I sitby the easement and watch that star down
from the heights, reels the glitteringCassiopeia as the hours wear on, while
Charles's wine lumbers up from behind thevapor soaked swamp trees that sway in the
night wind. Just before dawn ourtourists winks ruddily from above the cemetery on

(00:45):
the low hillock and Coma Baroneses shimmersweirdly afar off in the mysterious east.
But still the Pole Star leers downfrom the same place in the black vault,
winking hideously, like an insane watchingeye which strives to convey some strange
message, yet recalls nothing save thatat once had a message to convey.

(01:07):
Sometimes when it is cloudy, Ican sleep well. Do I remember the
night of the great Aurora, whenover the swamp played the shocking coruscations of
the Dame, and light after thebeams came clouds. And then I slept.
And it was under a horned,waning moon that I saw the city
for the first time. Still andsomnolent. Did it lie on a strange

(01:32):
plateau, in a hollow Betwixt strangepeaks of ghastly marble. Were its walls,
and its towers, its columns,domes, and pavements. In the
marble streets were marble pillars, theupper parts of which were carven into the
images of grave bearded men. Theair was warm and stirred not and overhead,

(01:53):
scarce ten degrees from the zenith glowedthat watching pole star long did I
gaze on the city. But theday came not when the red aldebarn,
which blinked low in the sky butnever set, had crawled a quarter of
the way around the horizon. Isaw light and motion in the houses and
the streets. Forms strangely robed,but at once noble and familiar, walked

(02:17):
abroad, and under the horned,waning moon, men talked wisdom in a
tongue which I understood though it wasunlike any language I had ever known.
And when the red Aldebaran had crawledmore than halfway around the horizon, there
were again darkness and silence. WhenI awaked, I was not as I

(02:37):
had been upon. My memory wasgraven. The vision of the city and
within my soul had arisen another andvaguer recollection, of whose nature I was
not then certain. Thereafter, onthe cloudy nights, when I could sleep,
I saw the city, often sometimesunder that horned, waning moon,
and sometimes under the hot yellow raysof a sun which did not set,

(03:00):
which wheeled low around the horizon.And on the clear nights the pole star
leered as never before. Gradually Icame to wonder what might be my place
in that city on the strange plateaubetwixt strange peaks. At first content to
view the scene as in all observant, uncorporeal presence, I now desired to

(03:21):
define my relation to it, andto speak my mind amongst the grave men
who conversed each day in the publicsquares. I said to myself, this
is no dream, For by whatmeans can I prove the greater reality of
that other life? In the houseof stone and brick south of the sinister
swamp, and the cemetery on thelow hillock, where the pole star peers

(03:42):
into my north window each night.One night, as I listened to the
discourse in the large square containing manystatues, I felt a change and perceived
that I had at last a bodilyform. Nor was I a stranger in
the streets of Olathoay, which lieson the plateau of Sarkas, betwixt the
peak's noon and kadifonek. It wasmy friend Alos who spoke, and his

(04:05):
speech was one that pleased my soul, for it was the speech of a
true man and patriot. That nighthad the news come of Dichos's fall and
of the advance of the Inutos Squathellish yellow fiends, who five years ago
appeared out of the unknown West toravage the confines of our kingdom and finally

(04:27):
to besiege our towns. Having takenthe fortified places at the foot of the
mountains, their way now lay opento the plateau unless every citizen could resist
with the strength of ten men.For the squat creatures were mighty in the
arts of war, and knew notthe scruples of honor which held back our
tall, gray eyed men of Lomarfrom ruthless conquest. Alos, my friend,

(04:49):
was commander of all the forces ofthe plateau, and in him lay
the last hope of our country.On this occasion he spoke of the perils
to be faced, and exhorted themen of olathaway bravest of the Lomarians,
to sustain the traditions of their ancestors, who enforced to move southward from Zubna
before the advance of the great icesheet, even as our descendants must some

(05:11):
day flee from the land of Lomar, valiantly and victoriously swept aside the hairy,
long armed cannibal gnupkes that stood intheir way. To me, Alos
denied a warrior's part, for Iwas feeble and given to strange faintings when
subjected to stress and hardships. Butmy eyes were the keenest in the city,
despite the long hours I gave eachday to the study of the narcotic

(05:33):
manuscripts and the wisdom of the Zubnarianfathers. So my friend, desiring not
to doom me to inaction, rewardedme with that duty which was second to
nothing in importance. To the watchtowerof Thapnin. He sent me there to
serve as the eyes of our armyshould the Anutos attempt to gain the citadel

(05:56):
by the narrow pass behind the peakNoon, and thereby surprise as the garrison.
I was to give the signal offire, which would warn the waiting
soldiers and save the town from immediatedisaster. Alone, I mounted the tower,
for every man of stout body wasneeded in the passes below. My
brain was sore, dazed with excitementand fatigue, for I had not slept

(06:18):
in many days. Yet my purposewas firm, for I loved my native
land of Lomar and the marble cityof Olathaway that lies betwixt the peaks of
Noon and Catifonac. But as Istood in the tower's topmost chamber, I
beheld the horned, waning moon,red and sinister, quivering through the vapors

(06:38):
that hovered over the distant valley ofBanoff, and through an opening in the
roof glittered the pale pole Star,fluttering as if alive and leering like a
fiend, and tempter methought its spiritwhispered evil counsel, soothing me to traitorous
somnolence with a damnable rhythmical promise,which it repeated over and over, slumber

(07:01):
Watcher, till the spheres six andtwenty thousand years have revolved, and I
returned to the spot where now Iburn. Other stars Anon shall rise to
the axis of the skies, starsthat soothe, and stars that bless with
a sweet forgetfulness. Only when myround is ore shall the past disturb thy

(07:26):
door. Vainly did I struggle withmy drowsiness, seeking to connect these strange
words with some lore of the skies, which I had learned from the narcotic
manuscripts. My head, heavy andreeling, drooped to my breast, and
when next I looked up, itwas in a dream, with a pole
star grinning at me through a windowfrom over the horrible swaying trees of a

(07:48):
dream swamp. And I am stilldreaming. In my shame and despair,
I sometimes scream frantically, begging thedream creatures around me to waken me.
Ere the toe, steal up thepass behind the peak noon, and take
the citadel by surprise. But thesecreatures are damons, for they laugh at
me and tell me I am notdreaming. They mock me whilst I sleep,

(08:11):
and whilst the squat yellow foe maybe creeping silently upon us. I
have failed in my duty and betrayedthe marble city of Alathaway. I have
proven false to Alos, my friendand commander. But still these shadows of
my dream deride me. They saythere is no land of Lomar save in
my nocturnal imaginings. Then in thoserealms where the pole star shines high,

(08:33):
and red Aldebaran crawls low around thehorizon, there has been naught save ice
and snow for thousands of years,and never a man, save squat yellow
creatures blighted by the cold, whomthey call Esquimau. And as I writhe
in my guilty agony, frantic tosave the city whose peril every moment grows,
and vainly striving to shake off thisunnatural dream of a house of stone

(08:56):
and brick, south of a sinisterswamp and on a terry on a low
hillock. The pole star, evenand monstrous, leers down from the black
vault, winking hideously, like aninsane watching eye, which strives to convey
some strange message, yet recalls nothingsave that at once had a message to

(09:16):
convey this is the end of Polarisby HP Lovecraft