Dale Nelson Wrote:
> 6.Machen's "The Black Seal" (1895)

This is one of Machen's "little people" stories, that, for instance, influenced the work of R.E.Howard and HP Lovecraft. I think there are 3 of them, unless I missed one. They are: "The Black Seal", "The Red Hand" and "The Shining Pyramid." I like them all, and they complement each other. But for me "The Shining Pyramid" stands out as a standalone story.

Machen might have got the idea for the folkloric Little People as being primitive troglodytes from something in Andrew Lang’s edition of Kirk’s “Secret Commonwealth,” which is or was available online.

In “Black Seal” I always am engaged by the opening with the desperate situation of Miss Lally (whose name might derive from the Greek verb lalagein, meaning “to babble”). Then I love her initial descriptions of the West, i.e.the border of England and Wales, with those wooded hills, the river, etc. The Stone Ixaxar stuff and the references to Solinus (real Classical author) etc. are antiquarian details that never fails to please me. The moving of the bust of Pitt is vivid even though we don’t see it

Platypus Wrote:
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> > Dale Nelson Wrote:
> > 6.Machen's "The Black Seal" (1895)
>
> This is one of Machen's "little people" stories,
> ... I think there are 3 of them, unless I missed one.
> They are: "The Black Seal", "The Red Hand" and "The Shining
> Pyramid." .... .


Also "Out of the Earth", and possibly "Out of the Picture" which I have not read.

There are even two or three others, I think, depending on how one defines “a Machen Little People story.” What about the dwarfish follower in The Green Round?