"Pigeons from Hell" is a
horror short story by American writer
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp magazine, pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sor ...
, written in late 1934 and published posthumously by ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
'' in
1938
Events
January
* January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS).
* January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...
. The title comes from an image of the ghost stories told by Howard's grandmother, especially one about a deserted plantation mansion haunted by pigeons. It was re-written and adapted by
Joe R. Lansdale with art by Nathan Fox and published in four issues by
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...
, starting in April 2008.
Plot summary
Two New Englanders, John Branner and his friend Griswell, travel across the
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
and spend the night in a deserted
plantation manor. Griswell awakens from a dream about a yellow-faced creature looking at him. He then sees Branner walk up the stairs in a trance. He is horrified when Branner returns as an animated corpse, gripping the bloody axe that had split his skull. Griswell flees into the woods.
In his flight, he meets the county's sheriff, Buckner, who investigates the house and finds Branner motionless on the floor. Griswell is implicated in his friend's murder, but the sheriff gives him the benefit of a doubt and tries to clear his name. Buckner gives some credence towards Griswell's bizarre tale due to the manor's ominous reputation. It was formerly the Blassenvilles' residence, a family from the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
who were known for their cruelty.
After the American Civil War, the Blassenvilles fell into poverty, with all their male members dead and only four sisters remaining, shortly to be joined by their Aunt Celia from the West Indies and her mulatto maid Joan. Celia mistreated Joan, and when the latter disappeared, it was thought she had run away. Soon after, Celia vanished as well, and it was thought that she had returned to the West Indies. Over the next months, three of the Blassenville sisters also vanished one by one. One night in 1890, the last of the Blassenvilles, Elizabeth, fled the house, claiming she had found her sisters' corpses inside a secret room and was attacked by something in the shape of a woman with a yellow face. Afterwards, Elizabeth left for California and never returned. The manor has lain deserted since, and the local black folk shun it. The eponymous pigeons sometimes flock about the decaying manor. Legend has it that they are the souls of past Blassenvilles' members.
The following evening, Buckner and Griswell visit the hut of an ancient
voodoo
Voodoo may refer to:
Religions
* West African Vodún, a religion practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups
* African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo
** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...
practitioner, Jacob, seeking information about the house and the Blassenvilles. Jacob tells of the extinct family and of Celia Blassenville, who mistreated her
mulatto
( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...
maid Joan. He claims to be a creator of "zuvembies", although he insists he cannot talk about them to a white man without Damballah sending a snake with a white crescent moon on its head to kill him. Still, he drifts into senility before rambling about voodoo, the god
Damballah
Damballa, also spelled Damballah, Dambala, Dambalah, among other variations (), is one of the most important of all loa, spirits in West African Vodun, Haitian Voodoo and other African diaspora religious traditions such as Obeah. He is traditio ...
, and
zombies
A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore ...
along with their female counterparts,
zuvembies: who live only to kill, have no sense of time, possess hypnotic powers, and can live indefinitely unless wounded by either "steel or lead". Finally, he tells how "she" participated in voodoo rites and that "the other" came to Jacob for the "Black Brew", which transforms a woman into a zuvembie. Reaching for some firewood, Jacob is bitten by a venomous snake, meeting the fate he feared. Buckner and Griswell conclude that Joan transformed herself into a
zuvembie, so she could exact her vengeance on Celia Blassenville and her nieces. They resolve on spending the night in Blassenville Manor to learn the truth. There, they find Elizabeth Blassenville's diary, which tells of her fear that something is in the house with her, has killed her sisters, and will kill her too.
That night, while lying awake in complete darkness, Griswell hears the same whistling as the previous night, which Elizabeth's diary had also mentioned. Thinking he is fleeing the house, Griswell finds himself climbing the manor stairs against his own will. He is confronted by a female apparition with a yellow face and welding a knife. Griswell is powerless to resist, but Bruckner, who has followed him up the stairs, shoots the creature, which flees, mortally wounded. They track its dying noises into the secret room, where they discover the hanging bodies of the three missing Blassenville sisters as well as the corpse of the zuvembie, which is still dressed in a ball gown.
Suddenly, Bruckner recognizes the face of the zuvembie from a portrait he has seen. It's none other than Celia Blassenville. The maid Joan, in revenge, gave the Black Brew she received from Jacob to her mistress and fled. Celia Blassenville, transformed into a zuvembie, killed three of her nieces and had been living in the abandoned manor, killing anyone who entered it at night.
Bruckner says that the case can be closed by saying that a madwoman had killed Griswell's friend John Branner, since nobody will believe the truth of the matter.
Comments
"Pigeons from Hell" is one of several regional horror stories by Howard set in the
Piney Woods of the
ArkLaTex
The Ark-La-Tex (a portmanteau of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas; also stylized as Arklatex or ArkLaTex) is a socio-economic region where the Southern U.S. states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas join together. The region contains por ...
region of the
Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
. Other stories include "The Shadow of the Beast", "Moon of Zimbabwe", "Black Hound of Death", and "
Black Canaan".
In 1983,
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
, writing in
''Danse Macabre'', calls "Pigeons from Hell" to be "one of the finest horror stories of our century". Horror historian R. S. Hadji includes "Pigeons from Hell" on his
list
A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...
of the most frightening horror stories.
Adaptations
The story is the basis for an
eponym
An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
ous episode of
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...
's ''
Thriller'' television series, airing in June
1961
Events January
* January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union.
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...
.
In
1988
1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...
, the story was adapted into a
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...
by
Scott Hampton
Scott Hampton (born April 10, 1959) is an American comic book artist known for his painted artwork. He is the brother of fellow comics-creator Bo Hampton. Andelman, Bob"Scott Hampton & Bo Hampton Interview,"''A Spirited Life'' (July 17, 2006). ...
for
Eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...
(). More recently, it has been turned into a four-issue
comic book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
mini-series
In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
and
trade paperback. It was also adapted as an episode in the first season of Blues Hours Productions' revival of the ''
Suspense
Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...
'' radio drama.
The Pretenders song Back on the Chain Gang references this story.
References
External links
*
Publication history(including early draft)
Joe R. Lansdale's Official website
{{Robert E. Howard
1938 short stories
Short stories about ghosts
Horror comics
Horror short stories
Short stories by Robert E. Howard
Works originally published in Weird Tales
Works by Joe R. Lansdale
Short stories published posthumously
Southern Gothic short stories
Short stories about zombies