Samuel Peterson’s Reviews > The Haunter of the Ring and Other Stories > Status Update

This ritual is spooooooooooo-ky. I love it.

And we get a call-back to Howard's previous story, "The Valley of the Worm," with the mentioning of the Great Serpent, although he has given him a few other names.

"'The directions herein seem fantastic and may be the whims of a disordered mind, but I gave my word. They are, briefly, that I place his corpse on the great black ebony table in his library, with seven black candles burning about him. The doors and windows are to be firmly close and fastened. Then, in the darkness which precedes dawn, I am to read the formula, charm or spell which is contained in a...envelope.'"

So, we have reports that this man has appeared to be 50 years of age for decades now, implying that he is either frozen in age or has been immortal. I'm curious now to see if this sudden "death" was really a death.

I didn't realize that "sith" (lowercase) was an established word back in the Middle Ages. I'm more used to the capital "Sith" from Star Wars.

Lovecraftian references again! Now you know you're going to be dealing with some misshapen, tentacled thing in the end. Some nameless aberration that could not be described.

Shintoism? Looks like Howard is basing his knowledge of that religion off of a biased perspective, and had not looked into it himself. Of course, this is the 20s-30s we're talking about, so I doubt the ability to travel to Japan for first-hand knowledge would've been very difficult to accomplish.

I like how we are starting this story with the discussion of the sudden death of a man, and in this discussion we are getting bits and pieces of his eccentricity and nature.

Last story: "Dig Me No Grave."

Just like how the past keeps returning to the lives of Man, so too do the monsters of the past. Only this time, they have to deal with modern weapons!