Hmmm- the womans quote on the moors about taking a short time to go in and a long time to go out sounds almost exactly like what Agia said to Severian in the botanical gardens. Also the Autarch wore yellow
Philip knows falconry terms because he is a european hunting tradition enthusiast, it is what brings him out to the moors to begin with. So there is a symmetry at the beginning with him exploring these ancient hunting grounds and being seduced into the mysteries of the moors. Wikipedia also calls it a time travel tale, but for me this was a kind of ghost story and the lady herself is the ghost of the moors that he has been seduced by. This is why instead of a bustling medieval palance, she has only these two attendants. I took her offense at his jest to be because he has accidentally guessed her true identity: the personification of the moors... and because she isnt actually a woman at all. The animals also seem to embody the characters. He (like Geneveive) is the rabbit, she is the falcon, and Raoul and Hastur are the snakes. We also have a symmetry here with these characters and the names of Severn (the seafarer) and Sylvia (of the forest). Philip is a seafaring traveller from America and our lady D'Ys is a personification of the wild places beyond time. This is another story that IMO links the idea of the King in Yellow with Pan in his role as god of dangerous wild places, of possession and seduction... the lady D'Ys here acting in that role: hunter, possesser, enchanter.
Wonderful journey this was, it was also unexpectedly Synchronistic with my reading of the King in Yellow. If you're ever interested in continuing down the Robert W. Chambers rabbit hole check out another collection of his short stories "The Mystery of Choice." While I myself have just begun to analyze its contents, I find it to be another compelling series of stories and poems masterfully written by Chambers. In any regard, I really appreciate this passionate analysis and your insight on the intricacies of Chambers' "The King in Yellow." (Edit: As well as the two short stories written by Ambrose Bierce which inspired Chambers)
From your description of this story, my comment doesn't seem relevant, put when I saw the title my First thought was of Dante's "City of Dis." And since the title pretty much means: young woman of Ys. . . But I'm just overthinking it. 😅 I share your desire and enthusiasm for looking into the "Weird/Strange/Eerie" foundations of SF, especially at its Gothic roots. As long as you're being so foundational, you should be on the lookout for Bison Books from the University of Nebraska press. They have a great selection of old foundational SF and pre-pulp adventure. Rock on
Another great video! When I read The King in Yellow, my library only had the full collection and I was so surprised when I found out D’Ys wasn’t in the short collection. I think you’re right on the money about the homage to Bierce at the end.
Ys is a legendary city in French Brittany folklore, the legend has that the city was built in the sea with great walls keeping the sea out, built by the King Gralon, for his wicked daughter who took up a new lover each night and killed him before sunrise. She was the daughter of a witch and sang her true love to the Sea. One night, the Sea/Devil came to her in form of a young man, agreeing to share her couch with the Princess on the condition that she gave him the key to the great doors who barred out the waters around, accepting the deal, the Sea/Devil used the key to drown the city. Gralon is then saved by Saint Guénolé riding a horse on the condition he leaves his wicked daughter behind, he relents and leave her behind
I know you are reading from the book, but for the rest of us, who read this ten or so years ago. Do we have The Gutenburg Project and Amazon eBooks to thank for this rebirth renaissance of these great old classics, that without eBooks we never would have stumbled upon? Our libraries in Virigina are great but in the last 20 years there has been a hard trend of taking books that are not checked out often, off the shelves. Back in the 70's and 80's I could wander through the stacks and find old books like this. No longer.
My understanding, which is amateur level at best, is that the hawk:falcon relation is like rectangle:square. As in all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares, we have falcons are hawks, but not all hawks are falcons.
I think, and a lot of this isn't my idea, as much of it was inspired by material in the 1st edition of the TTRPG "Delta Green" (specifically the sourcebook "Delta Green: Countdown) but Hastur, isn't a cosmic entity, certainly not a god, but not even a separate thing from the rest of the universe in the way a distinct being is. Hastur, is simply the name we give to the phenomena of entropy. I'm so glad you included this story because, in a weird way, it's almost the most obvious at employing this idea of Hastur as entropy. Especially if we note the similarities between it and "an inhabitant of Carcosa" for in both cases there is a longing for a past which couldn't have existed, and yet certainly did... The lady d'Ys almost certainly existed, but given the tendency within this collection of stories for the narrator to be untrustworthy, I don't suppose I believe the narrator actually met her, at least not in the apparent way of traveling through time; those who are afflicted by the madness of the King in Yellow begin to see what they want to see, if he is so well versed on medieval falconer lingo, then this would indicate to me a broadly study of that region of France during the same time period, (which also helps to explain his having known medieval French) as well as his interests in wandering about in the moors there in the first place. It's very easy for a person to begin romanticizing life in a particular period of history, particularly if they are focused on a particular region that piques their interests, so Phillip has an encounter with a venomous snake, while lost in the moors, but due to having had some prior (and unmentioned) exposure to the King in Yellow, experiences a strange fantasy which is based heavily upon his confirmation bias seeking behavior, and the peculiar supernatural effects of the KiY induced madness, which blurs the lines between real and unreal, just as entropy blurs the lines existence and non-existence. The theme of a distant past interacting with the present, in ways that are usually harmful (at least from a human perspective) is the one comsitency between all of the stories, and I believe that we can make the (perhaps bold) suggestion that Carcosa, and it's fall are not real things at all, but when someone reads the play, they see the "universal truths" of it and apply their angst and horror about Carcosa to something in their real life. In Repairer of Reputations the concept of the "imperial dynasty of America" is the glorious yet impossible past, and this story is the companion piece to repairer of Reputations (imo) because, if I didn't know his name was Phillip, I would swear he was the Castaigne who narrates so unreliably in that story. It would help explain how he was so easily convinced that he was part of some ancient dynasty after all, but I've drifted a bit on a hypothetical. Back to Phillip, and what we know about him, how likely is it that he has ever fantasized about courting a French Noblewoman from the time period he is clearly well versed upon, and interested in? I would guess, pretty damn likely, the influence of the KiY, at that point, interacted with his delirium induced by the snake bite, and wasn't that snake yellow? Didn't it have a distinct V marking on it which he was unfamiliar with, and which distinguishes it from an almost identical, but non-venomous snake? Has Phillip seen the yellow sign? Seeing the sign takes each person who has seen it (and is already afflicted by the KiY) from any sort of recent happiness wrought by change, and transforms that happiness into tragedy instead. Phillip gets to make out with his hot noble GF, then the yellow sign bites him, both characters in the yellow sign are finally admitting they are in love, which has dramatic changes to both of their lives immediately, then they see the sign. Entropy is change, but with all change comes destruction. Entropy does not have a will, nor personified manifestation, or at least it didn't until someone wrote the idea into existence in such a compelling way that it causes each person who reads it (and,.presumably, understands the implications of what they're reading) to become an unwitting "agent of entropy" a process which results in destruction, either by oneself or through a more direct manifestation of entropy, such as the snake, such as the nightwatchman, etc, etc. This is long so I'll quit yapping, but yeah, it's a very thought provoking series of stories that has both horrified and delighted me since I was 18 and first read them.
Generally speaking, a "hawk" circles and strikes prey on the ground, while a "falcon" dives and attacks other birds. Hawking is hunting things like rabbits with a bird of prey, falconry is going after pigeons. In practical terms, this is very loose, however, and birds who do one or the other will get either word applied to them, and then from an actual zoological POV the terms lose even more meaning in the ground attack/air to air sort of way. That won't stop falconry geeks from debating the matter just like kids playing Warthunder will fight over the difference between a tank and a mobile gun or whatever. Both hawking or falconry has generally been considered a noble sport for a long time, so there's a lot of elaboration on the sport and it's social significance. There have been medieval writings about the various "levels" or "ranks" of birds with nobles of various ranks supposedly limited to particular types of birds of prey per their place in the hierarchy. Early on a "falcon" was only a female peregrine falcon (females are larger) and that may only be allowed to the king. Again, kind of hard to actually stop someone from capturing and training a bird over time and everywhere, and such limitations would make it hard for someone to catch/train a falcon to gift to the king, so probably not the sort of thing that was strictly enforced. I do recall a story of a king having a noble's hawk executed for regicide when it killed his falcon. Power is still power.... However, I'd compare this to sumptuary laws/rules, which might be taken seriously for a few years here and there, discarded by a later period, picked up again but altered a bit, etc. A merlin, for instance, is a falcon in this sense, but also called a pigeon hawk, so take that as you will. Incidentally, Mary Stewart has a bit at the beginning of The Crystal Cave in which Merlin's mother is derided for naming her bastard son that as a merlin is a noble bird, albeit a relatively modest one in the hierarchy. The name Merlin, however, mostly likely comes from the Welsh, and has nothing to do with falconry. Still, cute bit as she makes her version of Merlin a noble's bastard child. All that said, if you want some interesting reading, falconry texts tend to be very literary in their language, even poetic. Hunting with a bird seems to make people wax lyric. I recall reading one book on hawking in which the writer outlines the process of catching a hawk. You set up a lure, hide in the bushes, it strikes the lure, and gets caught, you throw a net over it. When this actually happens, however, he described the sensation of catching a bird as having "called thunder from the sky." Gorgeous.
If you are bored with Chambers then I cannot help you. A romantic fiction author who came up with 'The Repairer of Reputations, 'The Yellow Sign', 'The Mask' and 'The Harbor Master' - what's not to love??
I'm not bored with Chambers at all, I think that I spent so much time on his stories that some of my viewers might have gotten bored, which is understandable!
Have loved these "King in Yellow" story discussions. Never knew of these until you covered them.
Hmmm- the womans quote on the moors about taking a short time to go in and a long time to go out sounds almost exactly like what Agia said to Severian in the botanical gardens. Also the Autarch wore yellow
Philip knows falconry terms because he is a european hunting tradition enthusiast, it is what brings him out to the moors to begin with. So there is a symmetry at the beginning with him exploring these ancient hunting grounds and being seduced into the mysteries of the moors.
Wikipedia also calls it a time travel tale, but for me this was a kind of ghost story and the lady herself is the ghost of the moors that he has been seduced by. This is why instead of a bustling medieval palance, she has only these two attendants. I took her offense at his jest to be because he has accidentally guessed her true identity: the personification of the moors... and because she isnt actually a woman at all. The animals also seem to embody the characters. He (like Geneveive) is the rabbit, she is the falcon, and Raoul and Hastur are the snakes.
We also have a symmetry here with these characters and the names of Severn (the seafarer) and Sylvia (of the forest). Philip is a seafaring traveller from America and our lady D'Ys is a personification of the wild places beyond time. This is another story that IMO links the idea of the King in Yellow with Pan in his role as god of dangerous wild places, of possession and seduction... the lady D'Ys here acting in that role: hunter, possesser, enchanter.
Wonderful journey this was, it was also unexpectedly Synchronistic with my reading of the King in Yellow. If you're ever interested in continuing down the Robert W. Chambers rabbit hole check out another collection of his short stories "The Mystery of Choice." While I myself have just begun to analyze its contents, I find it to be another compelling series of stories and poems masterfully written by Chambers.
In any regard, I really appreciate this passionate analysis and your insight on the intricacies of Chambers' "The King in Yellow."
(Edit: As well as the two short stories written by Ambrose Bierce which inspired Chambers)
From your description of this story, my comment doesn't seem relevant, put when I saw the title my First thought was of Dante's "City of Dis." And since the title pretty much means: young woman of Ys. . .
But I'm just overthinking it. 😅
I share your desire and enthusiasm for looking into the "Weird/Strange/Eerie" foundations of SF, especially at its Gothic roots.
As long as you're being so foundational, you should be on the lookout for Bison Books from the University of Nebraska press. They have a great selection of old foundational SF and pre-pulp adventure.
Rock on
Another great video! When I read The King in Yellow, my library only had the full collection and I was so surprised when I found out D’Ys wasn’t in the short collection. I think you’re right on the money about the homage to Bierce at the end.
i wish this was in the king in yellow book … which i am halfway through. it sure sounds like it fits right in. 🎉
I really have been digging these King In yellow stories.
yes 🎉
Subscribed to watch this series. Would love a follow up into Carcosa in Lovecraft.
Ys is a legendary city in French Brittany folklore, the legend has that the city was built in the sea with great walls keeping the sea out, built by the King Gralon, for his wicked daughter who took up a new lover each night and killed him before sunrise.
She was the daughter of a witch and sang her true love to the Sea. One night, the Sea/Devil came to her in form of a young man, agreeing to share her couch with the Princess on the condition that she gave him the key to the great doors who barred out the waters around, accepting the deal, the Sea/Devil used the key to drown the city. Gralon is then saved by Saint Guénolé riding a horse on the condition he leaves his wicked daughter behind, he relents and leave her behind
Saint Guenole sounds like a true christian role model.
I know you are reading from the book, but for the rest of us, who read this ten or so years ago. Do we have The Gutenburg Project and Amazon eBooks to thank for this rebirth renaissance of these great old classics, that without eBooks we never would have stumbled upon? Our libraries in Virigina are great but in the last 20 years there has been a hard trend of taking books that are not checked out often, off the shelves. Back in the 70's and 80's I could wander through the stacks and find old books like this. No longer.
My understanding, which is amateur level at best, is that the hawk:falcon relation is like rectangle:square. As in all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares, we have falcons are hawks, but not all hawks are falcons.
I think, and a lot of this isn't my idea, as much of it was inspired by material in the 1st edition of the TTRPG "Delta Green" (specifically the sourcebook "Delta Green: Countdown) but Hastur, isn't a cosmic entity, certainly not a god, but not even a separate thing from the rest of the universe in the way a distinct being is. Hastur, is simply the name we give to the phenomena of entropy. I'm so glad you included this story because, in a weird way, it's almost the most obvious at employing this idea of Hastur as entropy. Especially if we note the similarities between it and "an inhabitant of Carcosa" for in both cases there is a longing for a past which couldn't have existed, and yet certainly did... The lady d'Ys almost certainly existed, but given the tendency within this collection of stories for the narrator to be untrustworthy, I don't suppose I believe the narrator actually met her, at least not in the apparent way of traveling through time; those who are afflicted by the madness of the King in Yellow begin to see what they want to see, if he is so well versed on medieval falconer lingo, then this would indicate to me a broadly study of that region of France during the same time period, (which also helps to explain his having known medieval French) as well as his interests in wandering about in the moors there in the first place. It's very easy for a person to begin romanticizing life in a particular period of history, particularly if they are focused on a particular region that piques their interests, so Phillip has an encounter with a venomous snake, while lost in the moors, but due to having had some prior (and unmentioned) exposure to the King in Yellow, experiences a strange fantasy which is based heavily upon his confirmation bias seeking behavior, and the peculiar supernatural effects of the KiY induced madness, which blurs the lines between real and unreal, just as entropy blurs the lines existence and non-existence. The theme of a distant past interacting with the present, in ways that are usually harmful (at least from a human perspective) is the one comsitency between all of the stories, and I believe that we can make the (perhaps bold) suggestion that Carcosa, and it's fall are not real things at all, but when someone reads the play, they see the "universal truths" of it and apply their angst and horror about Carcosa to something in their real life. In Repairer of Reputations the concept of the "imperial dynasty of America" is the glorious yet impossible past, and this story is the companion piece to repairer of Reputations (imo) because, if I didn't know his name was Phillip, I would swear he was the Castaigne who narrates so unreliably in that story. It would help explain how he was so easily convinced that he was part of some ancient dynasty after all, but I've drifted a bit on a hypothetical.
Back to Phillip, and what we know about him, how likely is it that he has ever fantasized about courting a French Noblewoman from the time period he is clearly well versed upon, and interested in? I would guess, pretty damn likely, the influence of the KiY, at that point, interacted with his delirium induced by the snake bite, and wasn't that snake yellow? Didn't it have a distinct V marking on it which he was unfamiliar with, and which distinguishes it from an almost identical, but non-venomous snake? Has Phillip seen the yellow sign? Seeing the sign takes each person who has seen it (and is already afflicted by the KiY) from any sort of recent happiness wrought by change, and transforms that happiness into tragedy instead. Phillip gets to make out with his hot noble GF, then the yellow sign bites him, both characters in the yellow sign are finally admitting they are in love, which has dramatic changes to both of their lives immediately, then they see the sign. Entropy is change, but with all change comes destruction. Entropy does not have a will, nor personified manifestation, or at least it didn't until someone wrote the idea into existence in such a compelling way that it causes each person who reads it (and,.presumably, understands the implications of what they're reading) to become an unwitting "agent of entropy" a process which results in destruction, either by oneself or through a more direct manifestation of entropy, such as the snake, such as the nightwatchman, etc, etc.
This is long so I'll quit yapping, but yeah, it's a very thought provoking series of stories that has both horrified and delighted me since I was 18 and first read them.
Generally speaking, a "hawk" circles and strikes prey on the ground, while a "falcon" dives and attacks other birds. Hawking is hunting things like rabbits with a bird of prey, falconry is going after pigeons. In practical terms, this is very loose, however, and birds who do one or the other will get either word applied to them, and then from an actual zoological POV the terms lose even more meaning in the ground attack/air to air sort of way. That won't stop falconry geeks from debating the matter just like kids playing Warthunder will fight over the difference between a tank and a mobile gun or whatever.
Both hawking or falconry has generally been considered a noble sport for a long time, so there's a lot of elaboration on the sport and it's social significance. There have been medieval writings about the various "levels" or "ranks" of birds with nobles of various ranks supposedly limited to particular types of birds of prey per their place in the hierarchy. Early on a "falcon" was only a female peregrine falcon (females are larger) and that may only be allowed to the king. Again, kind of hard to actually stop someone from capturing and training a bird over time and everywhere, and such limitations would make it hard for someone to catch/train a falcon to gift to the king, so probably not the sort of thing that was strictly enforced. I do recall a story of a king having a noble's hawk executed for regicide when it killed his falcon. Power is still power.... However, I'd compare this to sumptuary laws/rules, which might be taken seriously for a few years here and there, discarded by a later period, picked up again but altered a bit, etc.
A merlin, for instance, is a falcon in this sense, but also called a pigeon hawk, so take that as you will. Incidentally, Mary Stewart has a bit at the beginning of The Crystal Cave in which Merlin's mother is derided for naming her bastard son that as a merlin is a noble bird, albeit a relatively modest one in the hierarchy. The name Merlin, however, mostly likely comes from the Welsh, and has nothing to do with falconry. Still, cute bit as she makes her version of Merlin a noble's bastard child.
All that said, if you want some interesting reading, falconry texts tend to be very literary in their language, even poetic. Hunting with a bird seems to make people wax lyric. I recall reading one book on hawking in which the writer outlines the process of catching a hawk. You set up a lure, hide in the bushes, it strikes the lure, and gets caught, you throw a net over it. When this actually happens, however, he described the sensation of catching a bird as having "called thunder from the sky." Gorgeous.
I asked and you delivered! Thanks so much for the information!
If you are bored with Chambers then I cannot help you. A romantic fiction author who came up with 'The Repairer of Reputations, 'The Yellow Sign', 'The Mask' and 'The Harbor Master' - what's not to love??
I'm not bored with Chambers at all, I think that I spent so much time on his stories that some of my viewers might have gotten bored, which is understandable!
Cthulhu fhtagn!!
🩷
Nope. The inclusion of a name . Other than the time jumping it is a simple romance.
you can look up pronunciations online, y'know
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys