The Tree on the Hill By H.P. Lovecraft

The story is written in first person. It depicts the main character going outside Hampden and finding a special tree. The tree makes him day dream about a big temple in a land with three suns. The temple was half-violet, half-blue. Some shadows attracted him into the inside. He thought he saw three flaming eyes watching him and he shouted twice and the vision was gone. The Tree on the Hill

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3.5

by H. P. Lovecraft and D. W. Rimel

A man stumbles upon a sinister looking tree in a place where nothing else seems to grow. He falls asleep and dreams of another world. He wakes up miles away, bloody and with clothes torn. Since he took a couple of pictures of the place, he decides to show them to his friend.

Lovecraft had read Rimel's The Tree on the Hill and told him that it truly captures the essence of the weird, although a bit anticlimactic in the end. The title of the old tome and the extract from it is one of Lovecraft's contributions to the story.

11 Сінґл і Константін живуть у Гемпдені. За містом є така собі проклята місцина, якої остерігаються індіанці. Одного дня Сінґл блукає собі, аж незчувається, що потрапляє туди. На багато кілометрів тут немає ані тварин, ані рослин. Нарешті він потрапляє на одиноке дерево на схилі. Він вирішує зберегти цей краєвид для свого друга і робить багато фотографій. Щоб трохи відпочити, він лягає під деревом. В своїх снах він потрапляє в інший світ, який його лякає. Коли він розплющує очі, бачить, що знаходиться далеко від дерева, його одяг розірваний, а він весь подертий, ніби він біг уві сні і не раз падав.
Він повертається додому, розповідає Константіну про свою пригоду, і той проявляє знімки. Побачивши їх, Константін ледь не помирає. Він доручає Сінґлу їх знищити, що той і робить. Та потім Сінґл помічає замальовку, яку робив ого друг під час проявки. На ескізі на місці дерева знаходиться істота з іншого виміру, який снився Сінґлу. 11 Another otherworldly tale! 11 Selvom historien har nogle interessante ideer, så ender det ud i noget ret latterligt hvor vi skal være bange for et træ og et billede af et træ, fordi det ser mærkeligt ud. Og det at se på et billede af et træ kan rede jorden... Det er for dumt og overfladisk og udtryk for Lovecrafts typiske idé om at mennesker ikke kan tåle at se, og finder skræmmende, fremmede og mærkelige ting, hvilket er absurd. Der findes gode gyser historier om fotografier, men de har mere fylde og langsom uhygge end den her historie. 11 Lovecraft #94 of 104: The Tree on the Hill (1934, with Duane W. Rimel)

“There is something damnably out of place in this landscape; something I can’t understand. The tree seems to suggest a thought—beyond my grasp. . . . It is too misty; too uncertain; too unreal to be natural!”


[Evil Tree by Kirill Volkov]

“The Tree on the Hill,” arguably the 94th oldest extant story worked on by American weird fiction author Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937), simply strikes me as forgettable. I read it on 5/13/22 and I find writing this review on 5/15/22 that it has left little to no impression on my memory. It isn’t a bad story per say, of course, just very mediocre. I would suggest reading it only if you are Lovecraft completist such as myself; I am reading all of his 104 surviving stories this year in the order that he wrote them.

HPL collaborated on “The Tree on the Hill” for his much younger friend and correspondent Duane W. Rimel (1916-1996), with the latter doing the majority of the work. According to Joshi & Schultz (2001), it is clear from evidence in letters that “HPL revised the tale from a draft by Rimel” (p. 278). While no manuscript survives, it appears that the final third section of the story is by Lovecraft, along with the quote from the fictional ancient tome Chronicle of Nath in the second section. Rimel probably invented the title Chronicle of Nath, as he refers to it in several of his other stories.

Joshi & Schultz (2001) write that Rimel and HPL corresponded for the last three years of Lovecraft’s life, with the older author “offering constant assistance in matters of literary technique” (p. 227). Lovecraft read many of Rimel’s stories and revised several of them, including “The Disinterment” (1935). “Rimel briefly spearheaded the HPL fan movement in the 1940s” (p. 227) and in later life went on to earn a living writing weird fiction, westerns, and erotica under a variety of names. He wrote a memoir called “H.P. Lovecraft as I Knew Him” that was first published in 1983.

Title: “The Tree on the Hill”
Authors: Duane W. Rimel & H.P. Lovecraft
Dates: May 1934 (written), September 1940 (first published)
Genre: Fiction - Short story, science fiction, horror
Word count: 4,280 words
Date(s) read: 5/12/22-5/13/22
Reading journal entry #154 in 2022

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

First publication citation: Polaris vol. 1, no. 4 (September 1940): 4–11.

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

Link to the image:
https://images.fineartamerica.com/ima...

Written on 5/15/22 11

I'd be a terrible Lovecraftian protagonist. My response to the supposedly horrific ending of this was to want to explore further, make first (or renewed?) contact, and so on. A gate to another world that opens at predictable intervals? Awesome! Let's go! Let's find more of these! So, yeah, I'd be the first eaten, or institutionalized, or whatever, in a Lovecraftian story.

The idea for this one is interesting, but I find the whole things wot man was not meant to know bit tiresome. 11 Narrated this as an audio book. Lovecraft's character stumbles into another world that haunts his dreams and waking hours. As always evil lurks in the world of H.P Lovecraft. 11 There is a invisible barrier between what we know and what we don't. Do we really want to know what we don't. A fear of knowing the unknown is depicted in this story. Let us keep some unknown, unknowable. It is better this way. 11 A really creepy story to give goosebumps... I was really thrilled and chilled while enjoying this story 11 It is the first short story I read from Lovecraft, even if it is interesting it is not remotely frightening or satisfying. 11