The Very Old Folk
Encyclopedia
"The Very Old Folk" is a short story by American
horror fiction
writer H. P. Lovecraft
. It is reportedly a recording of a dream, where the main protagonist is a Roman military official in Hispania. The countryside is, every year, ravaged by terrible hill people who kidnap citizens and perform cruel rituals at a Sabath. The narrator wishes to lead a military expedition to crush these hill folk, as a feeling of approaching evil has enveloped the countryside, due to a riot between the citizens and the hill people. These hill folk came to trade, yet some of these are killed and later, no disappearances occur before the time of the Sabath. The incursion is guided by a local-born son of Roman parents. As the Romans approach the seat of the Sabath rituals, something terrible attacks them and in an instant, horrible things come to pass:
"He had killed himself when the horses screamed... He, who had been born and lived all his life in that region, and knew what men whispered about the hills. All the torches now began to dim, and the cries of frightened legionaries mingled with the unceasing screams of the tethered horses. The air grew perceptibly colder, more suddenly so than is usual at November's brink, and seemed stirred by terrible undulations which I could not help connecting with the beating of huge wings."
The story ends with the narrator waking up, offering one final word of mystery:
"Of the fate of that cohort no record exists, but the town at least was saved - for encyclopædias tell of the survival of Pompelo to this day, under the modern Spanish name of Pompelona..." .
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
writer H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. It is reportedly a recording of a dream, where the main protagonist is a Roman military official in Hispania. The countryside is, every year, ravaged by terrible hill people who kidnap citizens and perform cruel rituals at a Sabath. The narrator wishes to lead a military expedition to crush these hill folk, as a feeling of approaching evil has enveloped the countryside, due to a riot between the citizens and the hill people. These hill folk came to trade, yet some of these are killed and later, no disappearances occur before the time of the Sabath. The incursion is guided by a local-born son of Roman parents. As the Romans approach the seat of the Sabath rituals, something terrible attacks them and in an instant, horrible things come to pass:
"He had killed himself when the horses screamed... He, who had been born and lived all his life in that region, and knew what men whispered about the hills. All the torches now began to dim, and the cries of frightened legionaries mingled with the unceasing screams of the tethered horses. The air grew perceptibly colder, more suddenly so than is usual at November's brink, and seemed stirred by terrible undulations which I could not help connecting with the beating of huge wings."
The story ends with the narrator waking up, offering one final word of mystery:
"Of the fate of that cohort no record exists, but the town at least was saved - for encyclopædias tell of the survival of Pompelo to this day, under the modern Spanish name of Pompelona..." .