Can anyone tell me what the thirteen poems included in THE AVEROIGNE CHRONICLES are supposed to be? The only poem I am aware of by CAS involving Averoigne is "Averoigne" in THE DARK CHATEAU.

Also, in the projected Chaosium KLARKASH-TON CYCLE, is "The Werewolf of Averoigne" a re-title of something else, or a new story based on CAS's miniscule synopsis?

Many thanks.

Charles Grey
(greywho@yahoo.com)

Ron Hilger can provide a listing of the poems reprinted (if the past tense may be permitted for a book which has yet to see print beyond the proof stage!). In regards to "The Werewolf of Averoigne," this is Bob's retitling of the original (and superior) version of "The Beast of Averoigne" that was first published in STRANGE SHADOWS. Likewise, "A Rendering from the Arabic" is an earlier title for "The Return of the Sorcerer," used here because Bob is using an earlier ending that Steve Behrends published in THE DARK EIDOLON.
Best,
Scott

The poems all contain strong mediaeval themes and were carefully chosen to reflect favorably on the stories in whose proximity they appear. Thirteen poems allows for a poem between every tale and ending with Lovecraft's fine tribute to Smith "Lord of Averoigne."
Off-hand, some of the poems are "Amithaine", "The Dark Chateau", "O Golden-Tongued Romance", "Song of the Necromancer" and also the prose poems "In Cocaigne" and "The Broken Lute."
-Ron

Sounds like a fine selection. Several of these poems were not included in THE LAST OBLIVION, so their inclusion here is doubly welcome. Best, Scott

That's the most frustrating part of having to wait so long to see this book published; it IS a great collection. All the Averoigne tales, great selection of poems and prose poems, map, a great intro by Gahan Wilson and an afterword by DSF, it's all there. In retrospect I think the only thing I would change would be to substitute the original version of "The Beast of Averoigne" for the Arkham version, but believe me, I'm not about to attempt such a major change at this point! Oh well, I'm convinced that this is the final delay and that early next year the book will finally make it to the printer. (jinx!)
-Ron

I really hope you are right. The Averoigne stories should have been collected a long time ago, & I am really sorry that Lin Carter could not assemble them for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Oh, well. The anticipation will make the reward that much greater when the book finally does appear.

On a sort-of related topic, I had an e-mail from Fergie, the Shipping Shoggoth, at Chaosium, informing me that their Call of Cthulhu fiction line plans to have THE TERROR AND OTHER TALES (their third Arthur Machen collection, edited by S. T. Joshi) and THE TSATHOGGUA CYCLE out by the end of the year, and they are furthest along on preparing THE KLARKASH-TON CYCLE for publication than any of the other titles they have announced (THE TINDALOS CYCLE, THE YIG CYCLE, CELAENO FRAGMENTS, THE EXHAM CYCLE, etc.) I'm looking forward to that one almost as much as THE AVEROIGNE CHRONICLES.

In fact, it was the Adult Fantasy series that suggested the Averoigne collection. In the 80's I was obsessed with collecting this series (not only did I collect them all, I also read every one!) And like you I wished that Lin Carter had been able to include the projected Averoigne series with the other CAS titles Ballantine published; THE AVEROIGNE CHRONICLES is dedicated to Lin Carter for this reason.

Thanks for pointing out that Robert Price and Chaosium are finally going to publish THE TSATHOGGUA CYCLE. This book has also been shelved for many years. Looks like it will be a decent collection as there are many CAS tales included along with the new stuff.
-Ron