The Gamers Arms

This was, I believe, my second HPL story. It scared the crap out of me when I was 21!

This time through I looked up Wikipedia at least a dozen times to research all the references to various historical characters, places and objects that are mentioned in the tale.

There seems to be a lot of the same vibes that were covered in The Lurking Fear; i.e. a noble family with a crumbling estate concealing questionable activities taking place beneath the ground, including abduction, murder and mass cannibalism. The house even gets blown up at the end! Nothing like a good explosion to put an end to eldritch evil!

However, it takes on a far, far more sinister dimension than the previous story, as this is not merely humanity regressing into ape-like monstrosities due to the lack of exposure or influence of ENGLISH COLONIALISM (the only bastion against the universe falling into total chaos!) but instead the outworkings of a sinister, hidden cult concealed within the very heart of English civilisation! A cult which not only worshiped strange (and most importantly, FOREIGN gods) but systematically farmed humans for meat, perhaps as a part of their religious ceremonies. What's important to note is that the cult was not invented by the De La Poer family, nor is there anything inherently wrong with the De La Poer family, biologically speaking, before they take up residence at Exham Priory in the 13th century. After that, it's a different story.

This is the first time that Lovecraft brings the being known as Nyarlathotep into a proper prose tale. Nyarlathotep has a slightly bizarre introduction in a prose-poem which we may cover at a later date. The mention of his name firmly anchors this story into the wider "Cthuhlu Mythos", which is a bit of a misnomer, really. Cthulhu, a character we will deal with in due course, is quite important in the grand scheme of things, but he is by no means the mastermind behind it all. That is firmly Nyarlathotep's role. There is only the briefest and vaguest mention of his name here, and virtually nothing is said other than a cryptic phrase about being a "mad faceless god" who "howls" and dwells in great abyssal depths. At this stage, it really is not clear who he is or what he does, though I have a theory as to why he belongs in this story, which I will touch on later.

Fun facts:

1. "Nigger-man" was the name of Lovecraft's own boyhood black cat.

2. When the narrator begins speaking in different languages at the end, gradually descending down the centuries, at one point he begins speaking in Gaelic instead of Cymric, as he said earlier that the local inhabitants were. He borrowed the Gaelic quotes straight out of a novel called The Sin Eater by Scottish author William Sharp. He didn't think anyone would notice or care. Somebody did, though! It was all-things-Irish-enthusiast, fellow pulp writer (and fellow racist) ROBERT E. HOWARD, who would go on to write the Conan the Barbarian tales. REH wrote a letter to the publisher complaining about this inappropriate use of Gaelic and it started a long-lasting literary friendship between HPL and REH which would continue for six years until REH's suicide.

3. The De La Poer's Virginia home is called 'Carfax' -- this is the name of the Abbey where Dracula lives during his temporary stay in England in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel.

4. The title 'The Rats in the Walls' may come from a quote from Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Knowing HPL, this is highly probable.

5. Most modern audio book versions of this story change the cat's name to something else so it doesn't have to be read out loud by a modern voice actor to a modern audience. "Black Tom" is one such example.


Questions:

1. Why do you think the narrator hears the rats? Why are they leading him downwards?

2. What do his nightly dreams signify?

3. What happens to the narrator at the end and why?

4. Why is his own cat found tearing at the narrator's throat?

5. Did you find this one scary?