“Pigeons From Hell”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Originally published in Weird Tales, May 1938

And so we come to what is arguably the greatest horror story of Robert E. Howard.  Although it wasn’t published until nearly two years after his death, “Pigeons From Hell” has remained one of Howard’s most popular nonseries stories.

It’s a Southern Gothic that contains some truly chilling scenes. I’ve read it at least twice before, but it’s been probably a decade since the last time. It had lost none of its power when I reread it earlier this evening.

The story opens with two New Englanders, Griswell and Branner, finding an old manor house in the piney woods of appears to be East Texas. When they come up tot he house, a flock of pigeons takes wing from the roof. It’s getting dark, so they decide to spend the night. Griswell awakens from a dream of bodies hanging in a windowless room. He hears movement upstairs, and then a strange whistling begins. Branner gets up, goes upstairs, screams, and comes groping his way back down the stairs. In his hand is a bloody hatchet, and his head is split open to the point that his brains are hanging out. My summary doesn’t do the creepiness of the scene justice. Howard paints a terrifying scene.

Griswell leaps out a window and runs down the road. Following him is a canine with glowing green eyes. He goes around a bend in the road and runs into the sheriff, a man named Buckner, who is returning from taking a prisoner to the next county. Buckner is riding a horse. He takes some shots at the thing following Griswell.

The men return to the house. Branner is lying on Griswell’s blankets, the hatchet in his hand buried where Griswell’s head had been lying shortly before. Buckner and Griswell follow Branner’s footprints upstairs. The tracks stop at a pool of blood and then return down the stairs. Meeting Branner’s tracks and retreating into the darkness are those of a bare-footed woman.

The flashlight Buckner is carrying starts to go out, even though the batteries are fresh. They sense something coming towards them in the darkness.  The men quickly head back downstairs and outside. When the sun comes up, Buckner returns upstairs to find all the woman’s prints swept away.

Buckner tells Griswell the story of the house and the family that lived there. Part of the legend is that the pigeons are the souls of the family members released from Hell for a night. Buckner leads Griswell on a quest to discover the source of the footsteps upstairs that will involve sordid family history and voodoo. And snakes. The final scene has a nice twist, where you find out that Howard has slipped a red herring into his tale. I’ll let you read the story. I wouldn’t want to spoil your enjoyment of it by telling you any more about it.

We know the Howard family had an African American servant when Robert was a boy, one who told him tales. I have to wonder how much of the voodoo in “Pigeons From Hell” is incorporated from what she told him.

The thing that struck me about “Pigeons From Hell” with this rereading is the contrast between Buckner and Griswell. Branner and Griswell are explicitly stated as being from New England. At one point Griswell makes the following comment:

To me witchcraft was always associated with old crooked streets in waterfront towns, overhung by gabled roofs that were old when they were hanging witches in Salem; dark, musty alleys where black cats and other things might steal at night. Witchcraft always meant the  old towns of New England, to me – but all this is more terrible than any New England legend – these somber pines, old deserted houses, lost plantations, mysterious black people, old tales of madness and horror-

If that description reminds you of H. P. Lovecraft, it should. Lovecraft and Howard had a running correspondence that often spilled over into their fiction. Could Howard be taking a not so subtle dig at his friend here? Is Howard saying that the horrors of New England are nothing compared to the horrors of the South? He certainly seems to be.

If you’ve read the story, or when you do, notice the contrast between Griswell and Buckner. Griswell is a typical Lovecraftian protagonist. He’s easily terrified, and he faints more than once. Buckner is cut from the mold of Howard’s heroes. Tough, manly, bold in the face of danger, even when he’s scared. It’s Buckner who defeats the evil. Griswell nearly falls victim to it. Could this be another dig at Lovecraft? Maybe. Better Howard scholars than I am will need answer that question.

“Pigeons From Hell” was filmed as an episode of the TV series Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff. Sadly, it’s still the best film adaptation of one of Howard’s works. Take a look.