“The Dogs of Tindalos”: Frank Belknap Long; story and analysis

“The Dogs of Tindalos”: Frank Belknap Long; story and analysis.

The dogs of Tindalos (The Hounds of Tindalos)—also published as The Hounds of Tindalos— is a horror story by American writer Frank Belknap Long (1901-1994), originally published in the March 1929 issue of Weird Tales magazine, and later republished by Arkham House in the 1946 anthology: The Hounds of Tindalos ( The Hounds of Tindalos).

The dogs of Tindalosone of Frank Belknap Long’s best short stories, belongs to HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and tells the story of a man who experiments with time travel using psychedelic substances and mysterious esoteric devices (HP Lovecraft and Time Travel). time: the technology of the Ancients).

In this way the protagonist meets the Dogs of Tindalos, beings before humanity, who live in the angles of time, while organic beings, like human beings, exist only in its curves. The problem is that when one detects these interdimensional beings they also look back at us (see: If you see them, They see you).

No one knows exactly what the Dogs of Tindalos are. Only that they exist in the corners of the Fourth Dimension, as if time were a physical dimension for them. In any case, they pursue all forms of organic life that catch their attention, generally for moving through time in an abnormal way. In a way we can think of the Dogs of Tyndalos as a scarier version of the larvae, worms and parasites of the astral plane.

The true appearance of the Tindalos Dogs is unknown. No one who has had an encounter with them has survived to tell of that experience; However, they are frequently depicted as canine, wolfish figures with long, hollow, proboscis-like tongues with which they drain the bodily fluids of their victims (Black Goo and other amorphous monstrosities in fiction).

The Dogs of Tindalos can manifest themselves on our physical plane, but with some conditions. Their relationship with the angles of time forces them to materialize at any physical angle, for example, a corner, as long as it is closed enough. Only in this way can they open an interdimensional portal through time, literally stalking us from any corner (see: The Dogs of Tindalos and the angles of time)

The Dogs of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long, is one of the best stories of the Cthulhu Mythos, and the creatures that inhabit it also happen to be some of the most interesting. In fact, HP Lovecraft refers to the Hounds of Tyndalos in the story: The Whisperer in Darkness. It is also interesting to note some similarities in this story with Algernon Blackwood’s classic: The Wolves of God.

The dogs of Tindalos.
The Hounds of Tindalos, Frank Belknap Long (1901-1994)

“I’m glad you came,” said Chalmers.

He was sitting by the window, very pale. Next to one of his arms two almost melted candles were burning, projecting a sickly amber light on his long nose and short chin. There was absolutely nothing modern in Chalmers’s apartment. Its owner had a medieval soul and preferred illuminated manuscripts to automobiles, and stone gargoyles to radio sets and calculating machines. He removed, in my gift, the books and papers that were piled up on a couch and, as I crossed the room to sit down, I was surprised to see on his table the mathematical formulas of a famous contemporary physicist along with some strange geometric figures that Chalmers had drawn in some thin yellow papers.

“I’m surprised by this coexistence of Einstein with John Dee,” I said as I looked away from the mathematical equations and discovered the strange volumes that made up my friend’s small library.

On the ebony shelves lived Plotinus and Emmanuel Mascópoulos, Saint Thomas of Aquinas and Frenicle de Bessy. The armchairs, the table, the desk were covered with books and pamphlets on medieval witchcraft and black magic, as well as texts on all the beautiful and bold things that our modern world rejects. Chalmers smilingly offered me a Russian cigarette and said:

—We are now coming to the conclusion that the ancient alchemists and sorcerers were seventy-five percent right, and the modern biologists and materialists are ninety percent wrong.

“You have always taken today’s science a little as a joke,” I replied, with a slight gesture of impatience.

-I do not answer-. I’ve only made fun of his dogmatism. I have always been a rebel, a champion of originality and lost causes. Do not be surprised, then, that he has decided to repudiate the conclusions of contemporary biologists.

—And what do you tell me about Einstein? -I asked for.

—A priest of transcendent mathematics! —He murmured respectfully—. A profound mystic, an explorer of immense kingdoms whose very existence is only now beginning to be suspected.

—Then you don’t completely despise science.

-Of course not! What does not inspire confidence in me is the positivism of the last fifty years, nor the ideas of Haeckel or Darwin or Bertrand Russell. I believe that biology has unfortunately failed when it has attempted to explain the origin and destiny of man.

—Give them some time.

Chalmers’s eyes sparkled.

“My friend,” he murmured, “you just made a truly sublime play on words.” Give them some time! I would be happy to give it to them, but precisely when you talk to them about time, modern biologists start laughing. They have the key, but they refuse to use it. What do we know about time? Einstein considers it relative and believes that it can be interpreted in terms of space, a curved space. But you don’t have to stop there. When mathematics stops supporting us, can’t we move forward based on… intuition?

—That is a very slippery slope. The true researcher always avoids falling into that trap. That is why modern science advances so slowly. It only admits what can be demonstrated. But you…

—Yo, do you know what I would do? Taking hashish, opium, all drugs. I would imitate the oriental wise men and perhaps in this way I would achieve…

—I would get what?

—Know the fourth dimension.

—That is pure theosophy, stupidity!

—Maybe so, but I am convinced that drugs can increase the range of human consciousness. William James agrees on this point. Plus, I’ve discovered a new one.

—A new drug?

—It was used centuries ago by Chinese alchemists, but it is barely known in the West. It has certain truly amazing hidden properties. Thanks to this drug and my mathematical knowledge, I believe I can trace the course of time.

—I don’t understand what you mean.

—Time is nothing more than our imperfect perception of a new spatial dimension. Time and movement are so many illusions. Everything that has existed since the origin of the universe exists now as well. What happened millennia ago continues to happen in another dimension of space. What will happen millennia from now is happening now. If we cannot perceive it, it is because we cannot penetrate the spatial dimension where it happens. Human beings, as we know them, are but infinitesimal parts of an immense whole. Each of us is united to all life that has preceded us on our planet. All our ancestors are part of us. Only time separates us from them, and time is an illusion.

“I think I’m beginning to understand,” I murmured.

—It is enough that you have a vague idea of ​​the matter to be able to help me. What I intend is to tear from my eyes the veil of illusion that covers them and see the beginning and the end.

—And do you think this new drug would be of any use to you?

—I am convinced of it. And I want you to help me. I want to take it immediately. I can not wait. “I have to see.” Her eyes flashed strangely. I’m going to travel back in time. I’m going back in time.

Chalmers rose and took a small square box from the mantelpiece.

—Here I have five granules of the Liao drug. It was used by the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tse and, under his influence, he managed to contemplate the Tao. Tao is the most mysterious force in the world. It surrounds and penetrates all things and contains within itself the entire visible universe and everything we call reality. He who manages to contemplate the mystery of the Tao will know everything that was and everything that will be.

“Fantasies,” I commented.

—Tao is like a huge reclining and motionless animal that contains within itself all the worlds, the past, the present, the future. Through a gap we call time we perceive sectors of that terrible monster. Through this drug I will widen the cleft. Thus I will contemplate the very face of life; I will see the entire beast, immense and crouching.

—And what will be my mission?

—Listen, my friend. Listen and write down what you hear. And if I stray too far into the past, you’ll have to shake me violently to bring me back to reality. If you saw that I was suffering from intense physical pain, you should make me come back instantly.

“Chalmers,” I said, “I don’t like this experiment at all.” You are going to be in terrible danger. I do not believe in the fourth dimension and much less in the Tao. I also do not approve of the use of unknown drugs.

“It’s not unknown to me,” he replied. I know its effects on the human animal and also its dangers. The drug itself is not dangerous. The only thing I fear is getting lost in the abyss of time, because you have to know that my intention is to actively collaborate with drugs. Before taking it, I will concentrate on the geometric and algebraic symbols that I have traced on this paper – he showed me the diagram that he had on his knees – and in this way I will prepare my spirit for the transtemporal journey. First I will get as close as possible to the fourth dimension through the sole effort of my own ego, and then I will take the drug that will give me the occult power of perception.

»Before entering the dream world of Eastern mysticism I will have all the mathematical help that science can offer me. The drug will open the doors of perception and mathematics will allow me to intellectually understand what I thus perceive. Thus my mathematical knowledge and my conscious approach to the fourth dimension will complement the pure action of the drug. In my dreams I have already managed to capture the fourth dimension many times in an intuitive and emotional way, but in a waking state I have never been able to remember the hidden radiance that was momentarily revealed to me in dreams. I believe, however, that with your help I will be able to do it this time. You will write down everything I say during my trance, no matter how strange and incoherent it may seem to you. Upon my return I hope to be able to provide you with the key to everything you have not understood. I’m not sure of my success, but if I have it—his eyes…