Colors and Lovecraft

Our Google Group member, David, has this insight:


"'Moodus Noises are, according to Joshi, the inspiration for the noiseswithin Sentinel Hill in "The Dunwich Horror." Joshi, in his "AnnotatedLovecraft" hypothesizes that Lovecraft's source material on Moodus wasCharles Skinner's multi-volume "Myths and Legends of Our Own Land"(available through the Gutenberg Project website).


"'The great carbuncle is also in a Hawthorne story of the same name, setin the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I've always considered thecarbuncle (An archaic name for a deep red cabachon cut gemstone, usuallya garnet) to be a form of the "treasure protected by supernaturalforces" motif that was widespread in the New England regional folklore.Taylor's "The Early Republic's Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking inthe American Northeast, 1780-1830." (American Quarterly 38, 6-34, 1986)hypothesizes that that the legends were a sociological reaction to theshift from agrarian communities toward the Industrial Revolution. Thisis the same time period where the Dighton Rock is nearly destroyed touncover the alleged treasure buried beneath it and Joseph Smithdiscovers the golden tablets of LDS fame.'"