The Lost Race

Introduction

The Lost Race is a story in the Bran Mak Morn series, though it does not feature Bran himself. Written in 1924, it was first published in Weird Tales in January 1927 after being returned for revision. The story takes place in an imagined ancient Britain and follows a Briton as he encounters a mysterious Pictish people hidden in an underground settlement. It was sold for $30, but it took several years before it was finally published.

In a letter (#017) to Tevis Clyde Smith dated January 7 1925 he writes:

P.S. I sold two more stories to Weird Tales one for $25 and the other for $30. However, they sent back what I consider my masterpiece thus far, with sarcastic remarks. Write when you get time.

The first of these are ‘The Hyena’ and the latter is ‘The Lost Race’.

In a letter (#131) to Farnsworth Wright, circa June 1930, just before he gets introduced to H.P. Lovecraft he mentions the story:

And I note from the fact that Mr. Lovecraft has his character speaking Gaelic instead of Cymric, in denoting the Age of the Druids, that he holds to Lhuyd’s theory as to the settling of Britain by the Celts.
This theory is not generally agreed to, but I scarcely think that it has ever been disproved, and it was upon this that my story “The Lost Race” was based — that the Gaelic tribes preceded the Cymric peoples into Britain, by way of Ireland, and were later driven out by them.

A couple of months later in a letter (#137) to H.P. Lovecraft he refers to the story:

I had supposed, without inquiring very deeply into the matter, that these legends were based on contact with the earlier Mediterraneans, and indeed, wrote a story on that assumption which appeared some years ago in Weird Tales — “The Lost Race.” I readily see the truth of your remarks that a Mongoloid race must have been responsible for the myths of the Little People, and sincerely thank you for the information.

He also mentions the story in a letter (#144) to Harold Preece, cirka October or early November 1930:

But to return to the Mediterraneans of the Isles, where these tribes remained a race apart longer than anywhere else. These aborigines are popularly known as Picts, and by this name I have designated them in all my stories — and I have written a number in which I mentioned or referred to them — “The Lost Race,” “The Shadow Kingdom,” “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune,” “The Dark Man,” “Kings of the Night,” to say nothing of several which I have not marketed.

Howard answers H.P. Lovecraft in a letter (#252d), cirka July 1933 where he mentions that he was only 18 when he wrote the story:

Thanks very much for the kind things you said about “Wolfshead” and other early attempts. I was eighteen when I wrote “Spear and Fang”, “The Lost Race”, “The Hyena”; nineteen when I wrote “In the Forest of Villefere” and “Wolfshead.” And after that it was two solid years before I sold another line of fiction. I don’t like to think about those two years. I wrote my first story when I was fifteen, and sent it — to Adventure, I believe. Three years later I managed to break into Weird Tales. Three years of writing without selling a blasted line. (I never have been able to sell to Adventure; guess my first attempt cooked me with them forever!)

Summary

The story follows Cororuc, a young Briton returning alone from a secret mission to the Cornish tribesmen. Travelling through a forbidding forest near the mountains of Cornwall, he comes upon a wolf at bay before a panther. He draws his sword and leaps to the wolf’s defence, frightening the great cat away. The wolf departs with a strange, shambling gait; following its tracks, Cororuc discovers that it has walked on two legs before its trail vanishes beneath a tree.

Cororuc next encounters Buruc the Cruel, the feared bandit chief, and two of his followers. After falling from his hiding place in a tree, he fights for his life, killing the one-eyed outlaw and beheading Buruc. The third bandit escapes and rouses the others. Hunted through the forest, Cororuc flees eastward until he enters a defile where his pursuers halt. He trips and is struck unconscious.

He awakens bound and being carried by small, dark-complexioned men with black eyes, armed with finely worked flint and obsidian weapons. They take him through a concealed entrance into an immense cavern, where an underground river flows through a settlement of caves arranged in tiers. Before two fires sits an ancient, white-bearded chief, who speaks Cororuc’s language and identifies his people as Picts.

The unnamed chief recounts the history of his people. In his account, they migrated from the south, crossed the Inland Sea and mountains, and eventually reached Britain, where they cultivated the land and drove an earlier population of red-haired giants into the mountains. Later, bronze-armed Celts arriving by way of the western isles conquered and enslaved the Picts. Some fled north and mingled with the earlier inhabitants; others remained in hiding in caves, taking vengeance by night. The narrative connects distorted memories of these hidden people with legends of elves, dwarfs and fairies. This is the story’s imagined history of Britain.

Cororuc protests that his Briton ancestors came from Gallia only a hundred years earlier and displaced the Gaels who had persecuted the Picts. The chief refuses to distinguish between the Celtic peoples and orders him bound to a post to be burned, then killed with a dagger. Claiming to remember the first Celtic invasions more than five hundred years before, the ancient tells of a witch’s curse condemning him to outlive his people. He also speaks of mastering time through the mind and of a secret draught that renews his body.

Before the firewood is lit, the wolf Cororuc rescued appears. It rises upright and a Pict steps out of the wolfskin. He reminds the chief that the Briton risked his life to save him from the panther and argues that a Pict must repay a friendly deed. The ancient agrees and orders Cororuc released.

The rescued Pict leads Cororuc out beneath the stars, points him towards a village of his own people, and gives him cloth and deerskin garments, beaded belts, food, and a fine horn bow with obsidian-tipped arrows. Cororuc’s own weapons are returned. His guide explains that the tracks vanished because he leaped into the tree’s branches, and names himself Berula, chief among the Alban Picts. With Berula’s friendship assured, Cororuc walks through the moonlight towards the Celtic village.

Characters

  • Cororuc – A young Briton warrior returning from a mission to Cornwall. He kills Buruc, escapes the bandits, and is captured by the cave-dwelling Picts.
  • Buruc the Cruel – The red-haired bandit chief known as the scourge of Cornwall, beheaded by Cororuc in combat.
  • Buruc’s companions – A one-eyed outlaw whom Cororuc kills, and a small, squinting bandit who escapes and raises the pursuit.
  • The ancient Pictish chief – The unnamed, white-bearded ruler of the cavern settlement. He recounts his people’s history and his extraordinary longevity, orders Cororuc’s burning, then grants his release in repayment of a friendly deed.
  • Berula – Chief among the Alban Picts. Disguised in a wolfskin, he is saved from a panther by Cororuc and later secures the Briton’s release, guides him out, and gives him gifts.
  • The Picts – Small, dark-complexioned, black-eyed people living in a hidden cavern settlement, preserving skilled crafts and a bitter memory of Celtic conquest.

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