Out of the Aeons

"Out of the Aeons" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald. It focuses around a Boston museum that has found an ancient mummy from a past-sunken island to be put on display.

Plot summary

The story is told from the point of view of the curator of the Cabot Museum in Boston. In 1879, a freighter captain sighted an uncharted island, presumably risen from its sunken state due to volcanic activity. From it, they recover both a strange mummy and a metal cylinder with a scroll with it. A year later, the mummy is put on display in the museum, though the island once again vanishes without a trace.

Over the years, the mummy garners a reputation as a possible link to an ancient tale from the Black Book by von Juntz of a man named T'yog, who challenged Ghatanothoa, one of the gods of Yuggoth, using the power of a magical scroll. In his sleep, however, one of the cultists stole the true magical scroll and replaced it with a fake one, and T'yog was never seen again. When the possible link to the Black Book and T'yog reaches the general public, the narrator begins to notice more and more suspicious foreigners coming to the museum.

Soon, several incidents occur when suspicious foreigners attempt to steal the mummy itself. These incidents come to a head when two men die as the mummy seemingly springs to life, opening its eyes before them and revealing the last images imprinted upon its eyes, the approaching form of Ghatanothoa. Though the curator does not know at the time what he has seen, it shakes him horribly and he orders an opening of the mummy's braincase, to dispel once and for all the notion of the Existence of the petrified high priest. As the braincase is opened, the curator and all present are shocked and horrified: The mummy's brain is still alive. With this revelation, the reader comes to understand that the mummy is actually the living-yet-petrified and still aware remains of T'yog.

Media Adaptations

Robert Bloch wrote a screen adaptation of the story for the 1971 TV series Night Gallery; however, it was unproduced. Bloch wrote the teleplay but it was never filmed; it was rewritten by Alvin T. Sapinsley, filmed, and broadcast as "Last Rites of a Dead Druid." Sapinsley's screenplay bore little or no relation to the original Lovecraft tale which Bloch had adapted.

Connections

• Several members of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos are mentioned in this story, including Shub-Niggurath and Yig.

• The first curator of the Cabot Museum was named "Pickman", sharing a name with the titular character of Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model".

• One of the visitors to the museum is a strange man who calls himself "Swami Chandraputra." This is actually Randolph Carter, who, as described in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," uses that alias after his mind is trapped in an alien body.

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