The Curse of Yig

by H.P. Lovecraft

"The Curse of Yig" tells the eerie story of a man named Walker Davis, who, in the early 20th century, becomes obsessed with Native American legends while living in Oklahoma. Particularly haunted by the tale of Yig, a snake god believed to curse anyone who kills a snake, Walker's fear grows into paranoia. He becomes so terrified of Yig's supposed curse that he falls into a series of disturbing events that spiral toward madness, revealing the terrifying power of belief in curses and folklore.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Lovecraftian, Fiction, Fantasy, Classics, Weird Fiction

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different Lovecraft

This has been one of my favorite horror stories since high school. It would be effective even if the source of horror was just the snakes. Scary creatures in of themselves to most people. Unlike the caterpillars in an E. F. Benson story I just read, snakes are fearsome creatures.

I have always thought that this story could be the basis for a fine horror movie. In the right hands, better than Lovecraft's story.

If published today this piece would probably be classed as a weird western.

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't have ophidiophobia, but this story might have brought me a bit closer to it. I shouldn't have read it before bed.



Yig is a snake god. The narrator is trying to make a connection between the Quetzalcoatl and Yig, so he travels to an asylum to find out more about the belief.
There are two unexpected things he finds there. One is a creature living in one of the rooms there. The doctor and two attendants take care of it. The other is a story of how it came to be there.

Even now I have a feeling something is crawling around me.

[Karl]

Contents:

ix - Introduction by S. T. Joshi
005 - "The Curse of Yig" by H.P. Lovecraft with Zealia Bishop
027 - "Medusa's Coil" by H.P. Lovecraft with Zealia Bishop
079 - "The Horror In the Museum" by H.P. Lovecraft with Hazel Heald
117 - "Out Of the Aeons" by H.P. Lovecraft with Hazel Heald
155 - "The Diary Of Alonzo Typer" by H.P. Lovecraft with William Lumley
179 - "The Shadows Out Of Madness of the Horrors in the Texts" by Pete Von Shelly
181 - "Smother'd by Night Gaunts" by W. H. Pugmire
185 - "Did Lovecraft Write Lovecraft Pastiches ?" by Robert M. Price

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story the doctor tells about what actually happened to the pioneer couple was pretty creepy, but the lead-up was too long and boring.

Also, tons of people kill snakes without suffering any hideous supernatural curses, so I found the mechanism here a little unconvincing.

[Erin the Avid Reader ⚜BFF's with the Cheshire Cat⚜ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is truly amazing. Yes, it's campy. Yes, some scenes sounded like something out of a B-movie script. Yes, the Southern accents made me chuckle. However...

This story is truly a masterpiece of Weird Tales Horror. H.P Lovecraft basically ghost-wrote most of this story, himself, with Zealia Bishop sending him notes and letters on what she wanted in the yarn. While this tale doesn't follow the usually verbose prose Lovecraft was known for, it's still eloquent and very, very unusual.

This story has some different elements from Lovecraft's other tales that makes it stand out:

-The Curse of Yig is set in the Southwest (specifically Oklahoma) instead of an East Coast sea town. It's also set in a desert instead of having Lovecraft's aquatic theme (Lovecraft hated the ocean).

-While the story is told in first-person (well, only from a first-person perspective in the beginning and the very end), the character being affected by strange visuals and nightmarish imagery is not the main character, and is spoken of by another individual in the story. Again, unusual for a Lovecraft story.

-Here's the twist: The character (or one of them) this story surrounds, as well as the one who's going insane, is not an Anglo-Saxon, white male like Lovecraft's most famous stories (and least-famous as well), but a Southern, mulatto woman of white and Native American and/or Indian ethnicity. I know Lovecraft ghost-wrote this, but it still stood out to me. Lovecraft was VERY xenophobic, and this might just be his only story where the kinda-main character is of mixed descent.

-This story is surprisingly more violent and...sexual than others he has written. I won't spoil anything big, but by the time I finished this story I was kind of astonished by how descriptive it got.

This is really a great story. I read this at a camping trip around a campfire and it scared the crap out of everybody, especially with my friend making an occasional hissing noise and an oh-so brilliant voice for every character.

The plot is rather simple: A researcher heads to Guthrie, Oklahoma to study a snake God named Yig, whom he surmises has affiliations with the Aztec feathered-serpent god Quetzalcoatl. Upon learning and witnessing a bizarre snake/human hybrid at the Guthrie asylum, a doctor tells our main character the story of a man and a woman who immigrated in Guthrie in 1889, in which the woman kills a horde of rattlesnakes in a nest as to not frighten her husband, who had severe ophidiophobia. This one event ends up making them fearful, and it changes their lives for the worse later on.

I must admit, there was a scene in this story that made me feel extremely tense and creeped-out. Unfortunately I want to keep this a spoiler-free review so I cannot give it away, but despite its campiness, there was something about this story that really scared me.

Part of me believes it's the themes of the desert at night, which is a cold, empty, foreboding place when the sky turns black and deadly night-creatures awaken from their slumber. Combine that with the sound of Native America tribes beating on drums day to night as an Autumn Rite as they sit around s great fire and sing songs and tales of dread in their native language. The sound of their drums drives you to near madness., yet when they stop the silence of the desert envelopes you, and you are now terrified and driven mad by its eerie stillness. That's the vibe I got from this story.

I always had a fear of the desert more than I did for the ocean. I'm not sure why, but I get spooked out more reading horror set in the desert than I do on one set on the ocean.

I have no fear of snakes, however. Yet reading this made me feel kind of queasy about them.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very unique tale from Lovecraft that stands out from the rest of his works. Lovecraft is known for horrific stories revolving around the ocean, dream cycles and the cosmos as a whole, but here we delve into the superstitious fear of the desert at night.

The freezing cold silence, the beating of tribal drums, the rattling of snakes and other deadly creatures that lurk behind stones and beneath the sand.

The way the protagonist is driven mad from secondhand accounts of mysterious lore and vengeful curses revolving around snake demons in the desert has a much more realistically scary vibe to it than even some of his most famous tales revolving around his more traditional themes.

***

If you're looking for some dark ambient music for reading horror, dark fantasy and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOOKTOBER CONTINUES!

fulfilling my shortie Spooktober challenge to read one spooky short story a day.

Day one: The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells
Day two: Everything's Fine by Matthew Pridham
Day three: It Came From Hell and Smashed the Angels by Gregor Xane
Day four: Sometimes They Come Back by Stephen King

I need to admit something. This is my very very first time reading ANYTHING by Lovecraft.

Though I have read Lovecraftian inspired stories and love me some creature features, I have yet to actually read anything yet by the master of the creature.

Until now.

I enjoyed this short story of a minor Lovecraftian creature named Yig, also known as Father of Serpents.

Because I have never read Lovecraft before, I only have a very fringe knowledge of his universe, which I know is incredibly vast and detailed, and I am judging this story based only on its standalone effectiveness as a story. And I thought it was pretty great. And definitely macabre and creepy, particularly to those with aversion to serpentine creatures.


It takes place in Oklahoma in the mid 1920s and is from the point of view of a Native American ethnologist hunting for ancient snake lore who comes across many folks from tribes that speak of Yig, the ancient snake god, a darker version of the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, feared by many tribes and leaders who won't even speak of him. The people lead him to an old asylum, where the fearless leader, a small older man named Dr. McNeill, reveals the dark story of one of the residents, a story about superstition, and ancient curses, and of course, snakes.

It definitely has a creep factor for sure, and I enjoyed the telling of the tale. My criticism is that Lovecraft definitely likes words. The wordiness of the story itself was a little off-putting, as was the southern dialect of the characters in the story. And as they are characters in the story within a story, I felt the dialect was unnecessary and made the whole thing cheesier than it needed to be. It is a story about a young pioneer couple named Walker and Audrey making their mark upon the west. Walker has an irrational fear of snakes and becomes superstitious due to the Native Americans talk of Yig, the great serpent king who is fiercely protective of his offspring, the snakes, and will curse anyone who does them harm. Audrey finds a nest of baby rattlers one evening and takes no time in killing all of them in order to prevent her husband from being afraid. When he finds out what she's done, he becomes even more irrational, yelling out about curses and serpent gods, and truly unnerving Audrey in the process. And then, one Halloween evening, they leave a party to find their home overrun with snakes of all sizes, and what happens afterward is a chilling tale of fear and superstition, madness and macabre, laced with only a bit of magic. It has a great ending which was one of the high points, and I enjoyed the creature horror of it all. I definitely enjoyed my first romp with Lovecraft, and look forward to reading more.
4 stars.

Booksource: This story is free on the interwebz right here:
https://hplovecraft.com/writings/text...

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most terrifying of Lovecraft I've read, a visceral, consuming terror, like Clive Barker, Candyman, Hellbent Heart stuff, or in the tradition of Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan.

"Yig was a great god. He was bad medicine. He did not forget things. In the autumn his children were hungry and wild, and Yig was hungry and wild too."

I'm not into horrifying tales, and this horrified me, in a deep, unsettling way. From a critical standpoint, I thought it written with expertise. The characters make the story terrifying, as you share empathy with the man, who has a phobia of snakes and a deep belief in Yig, a man-snake god who avenges his children. Things get intense for this terror-stricken man when the lady kills a batch of baby snakes under a rock.

The end rings of disgusting, gory, ironic, and evil horror.

I recommend this if that's your thing. I'm a bit shaken up here. :)

I haven't seen this yet but if you want to watch an "award-winning" short film, I found this on YouTube. I haven't seen it yet because I wanted to write this now and watch it later.

Here you go:
https://youtu.be/A_GAgMY3WM0

[Suki St Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

31 Classic Horror Stories Every Fan Should Read in October: A Literary Advent Calender for Halloween: Day 9:
https://www.oldstyletales.com/single-...

[Forked Radish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snakes alive. People not. Snakes good. No stripmall.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Slytherin I have an affinity to snakes and reptiles. This is a lesser known story that needs to be read.

[Sayan Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

A creepy short story ghostwritten by H.P. Lovecraft. The twist in the ending was truly awesome.... Not only Yig's curse destroy you but your everything😈...

[Sara]

The snake of yig take the color of tree
and left just cold and waite and empty
even from half human creuture
at the end of desert
many tals tell that hapen under eyes of sun
and hidden light of moon
kill many names who tired to name it
even that was just tals
many memory had hapened
in cold murdered
just kill and dare
the course will come true
even green of name
even black of kohl
its there home
and our name just lift without tomp
thee win
over our fear
cold and empty womp
the night sad
and we cold count many name
and course
and poem
to be free
from that fog
from our name who coursed

[Netanella · Rating 2 out of 5]

And beyond it all, waking a hideous thought, the monotonous beating of the distant tom-toms came incessantly across the black plains on which a cloudy half-moon had set.

The Curse of Yig is a creepy little Western tale of horror featuring a vengeful snake-god and a few good ol' rednecks in Oklahoma. This one's not too elevated, for Howie anyway. As my mom would say, "nothing to write home about." It's a solid story, but not spectacular.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mostly successful - certainly one of the most horrific concepts of classical horror. Lovecraft did not think much of his cowriter's writing ability: He was a paid ghostwriter. However, both this tale and Horror at the Museum (another collaboration with Bishop) are excellent. One quibble - the Arkansas accents are laughable. 4 1/2 pts rounded up.

[Jon Ureña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half.

This one is about American pioneers learning about an ancient myth regarding an intelligent "Father of Serpents", who gets really mad when his progeny are harmed. The climax of the story was particularly interesting.

I chose to read this one because Yig and his progeny are front and center in the "Forgotten Age" cycle of the Arkham Horror LCG.

[Marcos Ibáñez Gordillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pues la verdad es que salvo por el hecho de que una mujer es el personaje principal (soplo de aire fresco en las historiasde Lovecraft) tiene todo el estilo del propio Lovecraft y eso no es un punto a favor bajo ningún concepto xd

La historia es original, pero si ella hubiese sido tmb la narradora creo que habría quedado mejor.

[Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yig el personaje principal de este pequeño relato me recordó bastante físicamente (o por lo menos así lo imaginé) a una criatura de una leyenda de mi pueblo, aunque su origen e historia es bastante diferente.
Es como una buena historia de terror para contarle a los niños antes de dormir. Las serpientes han sido utilizadas desde hace mucho como imagen o representación del mal y en este cuento las utilizaron bastante bien.

[Rose Prickett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those last lines almost bumped it up to a four-star because the implications are truly horrific. However, the rest of the story didn't quite justify it. There wasn't enough of the uneasy ambience of other works and felt too long to get to the good stuff.

[Jessy Goat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 80

When reading I was starting to think this story would be basic but it actually had a rather clever and interesting ending. You can take this story in two ways. The first being that Yig is real and there really is a curse. This would be the most logical considering it's Lovecraft. But the second and arguably more interesting take is that Yig in this story might not exist and what happens was just a weird twist of faith. But then you still could not explain the weird snake/human thing, so probably it is just option 1. But still interesting to think about the possibility Yig doesn't actually exist in this story.

[Daniel Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snakes, why did it have to be Snakes?

[Tihana · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fine throughout, I was a bit "meh" at some places, but then the ending had chills run up my spine. God that was so creepy and just.. ew. I love it.

[Tony Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

H.P. Lovecraft remains one of the most influential yet controversial figures in horror fiction. His visionary ability to tap into cosmic dread and psychological fear is undeniable, but so too are the personal flaws that mar his legacy. Lovecraft’s xenophobia and racial prejudices often seeped into his work, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. While The Curse of Yig is less cosmically oriented and more rooted in American folklore, readers should approach it with an awareness of these tensions — understanding both the brilliance of his atmosphere and the limitations of his worldview.

The Curse of Yig draws readers into the eerie, wide-open loneliness of early American frontier life, where ancient fears linger just beneath the surface of the new world. Set in the rugged Oklahoma territory, the story unfolds against a backdrop of isolation and superstition, exploring how fear itself can become a kind of living curse.

The tale is framed through a doctor’s account, slowly unveiling the mystery of a settler couple who fell victim to Yig, a serpent god feared by the local Native American tribes. Lovecraft (working from a concept by Zealia Bishop) uses this layered storytelling style to heighten suspense, forcing readers to question what is real, what is imagined, and whether it matters when terror takes root in the mind.

The protagonist, though only glimpsed through second-hand narration, feels tragically human. His paranoia and slow unraveling are understandable, even relatable, given the wild, untamed environment he inhabits. His wife’s role adds an extra layer of tragedy the question of guilt, protection, and sacrifice lingers long after the story ends. Lovecraft captures the emotional decay caused by isolation and dread, and he does so without the grand cosmic scale he’s more famous for; this is horror on an intimate, painfully human level.

The setting itself becomes a character. Lovecraft’s version of Oklahoma is not a place of opportunity but one of lurking menace. The blending of frontier myth, Native American lore, and pure psychological terror creates a uniquely heavy atmosphere. You can almost hear the rattling of unseen snakes in the tall grass, feel the oppressive heat, and taste the fear creeping into every shadowed corner.

If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s that the story leans heavily on now-dated cultural depictions. Some elements of Native American belief are used more as exotic horror decorations than respectfully explored traditions. This weakens the otherwise potent effect, and modern readers may find those moments jarring.

Overall, The Curse of Yig is a slow-burn story that explores how belief and fear can transform reality. It asks uncomfortable questions: How much of what we fear do we bring upon ourselves? Can superstition, when nurtured by isolation and guilt, create monsters more terrible than anything supernatural?

[Ⰰⱃⰿⰰⱀⰴ Ⱆⰾⰴⰵⱃⰻⰽⱁ Ⱅⰵⱄⰾⰰ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wordsworth Editions
2010.
The language is very engaging not in a sense that it is difficult but in a sense that is very reaching. It covers your mind and keeps your eyes at bay from any other thing in the world but the pages.
You will read this short story with a paramount concentration.
This short story has two diegetic levels, the first level is that of an autodiegetic narrator who listens to the story of another character. The story of the other character is the second diegetic level, the character who tells the story did not himself partake in it, thus he is a heterodiegetic narrator. His narration has a metadiegetic nature because it is a story inside another story.
This type of narration is kinda oldschool, reminds of the romantistic period, Potocki and others, but also of any other maniristic (in a macrosense meaning of that word) period, like the renaissance (Boccaccio) and the concrete maniristic period (in a microsense, direct meaning of that word, a concrete arist period at the beginning of the 17. century); Shakespeare and Cervantes.
The language is vivid and strong. The vernacular is very present in the direct dialogues of the metadiegetic story told by the heterodiegetic narrator.
The vernacular is ubiquitous in Lovecraft s and M.R. James work.
The content is very, very interesting. Davidickean in its nature.
An ancient snake god Yig of the Oklahoma Indians haunts the characters of the short story (that is actually in our story at a lower/metadiegetical level).
The content takes part in the 19. century in the time of the conquest of The Wild West.
The text mentions "snake-god legends" of a "half human father of seprents", Yig.
Half human, half snake? David Icke? But also this very cool film; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060893/. Watch this film, Vatroslavia orders you!
Yig has sex with the character s woman (the character of the metadiagetical level of the story) and she has children. The autodiegetic narrator sees those children that have a snakelike head and a humanlike body...
Yig, a snake god who has offspring with women, David Icke would loved this one.
Probably it is taken from a true folk legend, did not research it.
So, David Icke does not make up his thoughts from his mind.
That is a topos of woman-man dichotomy, woman is Nature/ a snake/ sleeps with snake gods, while the man is a proper human, civilization, does not mingle with the, how we would in Udbaland say; "ljuskavi Jugoslaveni".
What injustice against women... Never considered true humans...
Because of that I am starting to cry so I will end my review here.
¡Hasta luego!

[Shuggy L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depicts the American frontier life with the travels of a pioneer couple, Walker and Audrey Davies from Arkansas to Oklahoma, in 1889 to settle in the newly opened public land.

Conveys a sense of the primal connections between people (and other animals) from all the ages and of all ethnic backgrounds from the development of life on earth.

The human bonds depicted in the story are especially ironic given the encroachment onto tribal lands by European settlers and friendly links are vividly depicted through the locals' mutual fear of the area's rattle snakes (Indian tribes and pioneers).

Snake fears were especially strong in Walker; Audrey kills a nests of snakes for him, and the local tribes beat their drums incessantly. We are told that the local snake god is called Yig and that he found other outlets in prior cultures of the Americas - Aztecs and Mayas with their god Quetzalcoatl. There is also, of course, a biblical snake in the Adam and Eve story in the Garden of Eden.

Common interactions are brought out with the conversational dialogues between the couple and with Chief Grey Eagle. Unfortunately, it can certainly seem that something untoward is working against you, whether you are an Indian or settler, when lives are lived so close t0 the earth - in roughly constructed log cabins and wigwams - with the rocks, sand, soil and trees all around.

The animals therein are very aware of what must often seem to them to be a threatening presence. What subsequently occurs seems weird and unnatural.

Reminiscent of many American pioneering stories - Little House on the Prairie...

[Oleksandr Fediienko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Коли фольклорист приїжджає в Оклахому зібрати історії про змій, йому радять завітати до психіатричної лікарні Ґатрі. Ні, не тому, що його вважають несповна розуму. Просто там є дещо, що може його зацікавити.
Спершу доктор Мак-Нілл відводить його до віддаленої палати, де через очко в темряві помітна якась страхітлива істота, яка лише нагадує людину. А потім він розповідає про прокляття Їґа.
В 1889 році в пошуках вільної землі в штат прибув Вокер Девіс з дружиною Одрі. Вокер з невідомих причин панічно боявся змій і розмовах з місцевими дізнався, що тутешні індіанці вірять в Їґа, "батька всіх змій", який карає всіх, хто заподіє їм шкоду. Для власного захисту вони проводять церемонії, і Вокер невдовзі дізнався найпростіші заклинання.
Так трапилось, що, знаючи про страх чоловіка перед зміями, але не надто зважаючи на забобони, Одрі трощить зміїне кубло. Розплата за це приходить в день, коли індіанці припиняють свій ритуальний барабанний бій. Просте пояснення трагедії: Одрі врешті доконали розмови про прокляття і вона зарубала свого чоловіка, в темряві сприйнявши його як Їґа. Єдине, що неможливо пояснити - трьох дітей, подібних до плазунів, яких вона згодом народила і одна з яких досі перебуває в лікарні.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovecraft #73 The Curse of Yig (with Zealia Bishop) [1928]

“Then Hallowe’en drew near, and the settlers planned another frolic—this time, had they but known it, of a lineage older than even agriculture; the dread Witch-Sabbath of the primal pre-Aryans, kept alive through ages in the midnight blackness of secret woods, and still hinting at vague terrors under its latter-day mask of comedy and lightness. Hallowe’en was to fall on a Thursday, and the neighbours agreed to gather for their first revel at the Davis cabin.”

“The Curse of Yig” is arguably the 73rd oldest extant story by American weird fiction author Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937), and his first of three collaborations with Zealia Bishop. In 1928 when the tale was written, she was known as Zealia Brown Reed. I am reading all of Lovecraft’s fictional works in chronological order. While many of his collaborations and revisions are terrible, I would argue that “The Curse of Yig” is an excellent horror story. The Oklahoma setting is very interesting and quite novel for the usually New England-center Lovecraft. The use of snakes and folklore is legitimately scary. Even the twist ending is effectively done and thankfully does not make use of melodramatic italics in the final sentence.

In the book Essential Solitude (Lovecraft et al., 2013), we find an excerpt from a October 6, 1929 letter by Lovecraft to his friend August Derleth that touches on “The Curse of Yig”:

... this story is about 75% mine. All I had to work on was a synopsis describing a couple of pioneers in a cabin with a nest of rattlesnakes beneath, the killing of the husband by snakes, the bursting of the corpse, & the madness of the wife, who was an eye-witness to the horror. There was no plot or motivation—no prologue or aftermath to the incident—so that one might say the story, as a story, is wholly my own. I invented the snake-god & the curse, the tragic wielding of the ace by the wife, the matter of the snake-victim’s identity, & the asylum epilogue. Also, I worked up the geographic & other incidental colour—getting some data from the alleged authroress, who knows Oklahoma, but more from books. (p. 222).

From this text we can assume that “The Curse of Yig” is largely an HPL story, even if Bishop got sole credit when it was published in the November 1929 issue of Weird Tales. This is somewhat debatable, though. Lovecraft scholar Bobby Derie (2020) writes

While the prose of the resulting story is all Lovecraft’s, the conception and ideas are a peculiar mix. It has the nameless protagonist and artificial mythology of a typical Lovecraft story—but nothing else is quite typical; the setting of Oklahoma is far away from his Lovecraft country, and two women feature prominently in the plot, both taken directly from Zealia’s original conception: Audrey Davis, the main subject for the story-within-the-story, and Sally (later Grandma) Compton, who would re-appear in Zealia and Lovecraft’s next collaboration, “The Mound.” Much of the story concerns a kind of naturalistic and psychological horror, with the only overt supernatural element appearing at the very end, the aforementioned “twist” providing a very Lovecraftian climactic revelation as a flourish.

I would argue that Bishop did add elements to the stories that she collaborated on with HPL, creating some interesting work that included aspects that Lovecraft would never have included if he was writing on his own.



In 2015, a book titled The Spirit of Revision: Lovecraft’s Letters to Zealia Brown Reed Bishop, was published by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, detailing their collaboration process on “The Curse of Yig,” “The Mound,” and “Medusa’s Coil.” I bet it would make for good reading. The only thing stopping me is my poor eyesight. I have found many of these books provide text that is too small and closely bunched together for me to read easily. If it would were to be published in ebook format, I would buy it in a heartbeat. The book can be found here: https://store.hplhs.org/collections/b...

Title: “The Curse of Yig”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop
Dates: 1928 (written), November 1929 (first published)
Genre: Fiction - Short story, horror
Word count: 6,926 words
Date(s) read: 4/8/22-4/9/22
Reading journal entry #121 in 2022

Sources:
Link to the story: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/fict...

First publication citation: Weird Tales vol. 14, no. 5 (November 1929): 625–636.

Derie, B. (2020, January 4). “The Curse of Yig” (1929) by Zealia Bishop & H. P. Lovecraft [web log]. Retrieved April 8, 2022, from https://deepcuts.blog/2020/01/04/the-...

Joshi, S. T., & Schultz, D. E. (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press.

Lovecraft, H. P., & Derleth, A. (2013). Essential solitude: The letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August derleth. (S. T. Joshi & D. E. Schultz, Eds.). Hippocampus Press.

Links to the images:
https://www.deviantart.com/trxpics/ar...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

[Amy Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than at the very beginning, this actually treats Native Americans mostly respectfully (though I rather doubt it is based on any of their actual legends or stories), particularly when compared to other Lovecraft efforts, so I conclude that Bishop did more of the writing than Lovecraft. This is supported by the lack of constant insult to the rural settlers, as well.

I found myself enjoying this one much more than I have several other Lovecraft tales that I've read recently. For the most part, this felt like real people running into a horrible obstacle. The framing device of the psychologist telling the story is pure Lovecraft, and only sort of works (the level of detail he supposedly inferred from a near-catatonic survivor is ... questionable, at best).

So, yeah. More Lovecraft tales with a help-writer keeping him off his more questionable tangents and obsessions would be nice...

[Luana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovecraft collaborating with a... a WOMAN??? Yes, tons of direct speech in this one; almost as if one of the authors thought individual humans were worth being heard.

TWO female characters??? WITH AGENCY??? This is diluted Lovecraft get out of here... even the classic racism is (somewhat) dialed down.

The twist ending is great, and Bishop actually manages to build a very, very suspenseful scene of the main settler lady trying to live through a night where the serpent god Yig has chosen to unleash his wrath on her cabin.

It's on WikiSource, go check it out!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well that was awesome. I had never even heard of this story before and decided to give it a chance. Though clearly not typical of Lovecraft (and I suppose that's because the story was basically written by someone else) it was still a great story: the dread that built throughout and that ending! Yeah didn't expect that.

Very quick read. Definitely recommend if you want to gross yourself out or all of a sudden become terrified of snakes.