The Tree (short story)

"The Tree"
Author	H.P. Lovecraft
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Publication date	1921

"The Tree" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1920 and first published in October 1921.

Background

This story came early in Lovecraft's writing career, and is generally considered to be within his "Macabre" phase.

Publication history

"The Tree" was first published in The Tryout, 7, No. 7 (October 1921), [3-10].^[1]

Synopsis

Olive tree on Ithaca, Greece, that is claimed to be over 1500 years old.

"The Tree" is told in past tense, in third person objective. The location of the story is Mount Maenalus, in Arcadia, Greece, a mountain which was a "chosen haunt" for the Greek God Pan. The story opens with a vivid description of the olive grove, and a fearful, human-like olive tree within it.

The story then recounts a story from centuries ago, recalling the famous sculptors Kalos and Musides, whose works were praised throughout the known world. One day, the Tyrant of Syracuse invited Kalos and Musides to compete in the creation of "a wonder of nations and a goal of travelers". While working on their sculptures, Kalos fell ill, much to the dismay of Musides.

Musides proposed to erect an elaborate marble tomb for his friend, while Kalos asked only for the planting of olive twigs near his head. After the death of Kalos, Musides buried the olive twigs, in addition to constructing a tomb.

Over time, Musides felt haunted by the gnarled olive tree that grew over Kalos' grave. The tree's roots grew as if nourished by the unfinished sculpture of Kalos, while above Musides' labors a large branch had grown. The night before the statue was to be taken to the Tyrant of Syracuse, a tremendous storm came. With the fall of that one overhanging branch, both Musides and his statue were gone forever.

Reception

S. T. Joshi wrote that the tale "may be a trifle obvious, but it is an effective display of Lovecraft's skill in handling a historical setting.". Lovecraft himself dismissed "The Tree" in a 1936 letter, writing that the story, along with several others "if typed on good stock make excellent shelf-paper, but little else."^[2]

Notes

↑ "Dagon and Other Macabre Tales" (WWW). HP Lovecraft.com. June 19, 2005. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
↑ Joshi, S. T. (2013). "Lovecraft's 'Dunsanian Studies'". In S. T. Joshi (ed.). Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-81089-234-0.

References

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1986) [1921]. "The Tree". In S. T. Joshi (ed.). Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (9th corrected printing ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-039-4. Definitive version.

External links

Works related to The Tree (Lovecraft) at Wikisource
The Tree public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Works by H. P. Lovecraft

Cthulhu Mythos Dream Cycle

Novellas	The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath The Case of Charles Dexter Ward The Whisperer in Darkness At the Mountains of Madness The Shadow over Innsmouth The Shadow Out of Time

Short stories	"The Tomb" "Dagon" "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson" "Polaris" "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" "Memory" "Old Bugs" "The Transition of Juan Romero" "The White Ship" "The Street" "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" "The Statement of Randolph Carter" "The Terrible Old Man" "The Tree" "The Cats of Ulthar" "The Temple" "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" "Celephaïs" "From Beyond" "Nyarlathotep" "The Picture in the House" "Ex Oblivione" "Sweet Ermengarde" "The Nameless City" "The Quest of Iranon" "The Moon-Bog" "The Outsider" "The Other Gods" "The Music of Erich Zann" "Herbert West–Reanimator" "Hypnos" "What the Moon Brings" "Azathoth" "The Hound" "The Lurking Fear" "The Rats in the Walls" "The Unnamable" "The Festival" "The Shunned House" "The Horror at Red Hook" "He" "In the Vault" "Cool Air" "The Call of Cthulhu" "Pickman's Model" "The Silver Key" "The Strange High House in the Mist" "The Colour Out of Space" "The Descendant" "History of the Necronomicon" "The Very Old Folk" "Ibid" "The Dunwich Horror" "The Dreams in the Witch House" "The Thing on the Doorstep" "The Evil Clergyman" "The Book" "The Haunter of the Dark"

Collaborations	"The Green Meadow" "The Crawling Chaos" "The Horror at Martin's Beach" "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" "The Curse of Yig" "The Mound" "Medusa's Coil" "The Horror in the Museum" "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" "Out of the Aeons" "The Tree on the Hill" "Till A’the Seas" "In the Walls of Eryx" "The Thing in the Moonlight"

Juvenilia	"The Mystery of the Grave-Yard" "The Beast in the Cave" "The Alchemist"

Poetry	Fungi from Yuggoth

Essays	"Supernatural Horror in Literature" To Quebec and the Stars The Cancer of Superstition Autobiography: Some Notes on a Nonentity

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