Dreams in the House of Weir

"Dreams in the House of Weir" is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Lin Carter, first published in the licensed Weird Tales anthology Weird Tales #1.
== Synopsis==
The story is set in 1931 and consists of extracts from the diary of a linguist named Hareton Paine. To be able to concentrate on his translation work, Paine rents a house on the British countryside. The place is called Delaware House after its builder, a 13th century nobleman named Ranulf de la Weir, so Paine refers to it as the "House of Weir".
In spite of the complete silence, Paine still finds himself unable to concentrate. His wife, Elaine, is similarly agitated, particularly after seeing some kind of white animal in the woods outside their window. To make things worse, Paine starts to experience strange dreams of being Kzoora, an insectoid alien living on a world named Yaddith, with metallic high towers and five suns in the sky. In his dreams, Paine is aware that Kzoora is a wizard trying to find ways to combat the burrowing Dholes, which are enemies of the insectoid Yaddithians, even though both species are followers of the same goddess, Shub-Niggurath.
One day, Paine finds Elaine reading a manuscript called Visions from Yaddith, which catches his attention, as he thought the word "Yaddith" had originated from his dreams. The book turns out to be a collection of poetry from an author named Ariel Prescott, who died interred in an asylum, and Paine is shocked to find several terms and descriptions that perfectly match his dreams. Elaine reveals that she saw a huge white creature with a porcine snout outside the window, which Paine dismisses as probably just a boar, but recalls that Prescott's poems also describe the Dholes as "swine-snouted worms".
Following another nightmare of Yaddith, in which Kzoora and the others debate about whether to abandon the planet and settle in some other world, Paine reads from Prescott's verses that even that wouldn't be a guarantee of safety, as the Dholes could track them through their dreams and follow them. Paine then visits the local vicar, Dr. Minge, who confirms that Ariel Prescott did live in the Delaware House before she went mad. On his way back, Paine sees something that looks like a giant white worm with a porcine snout moving through the woods, and reasons that his dreams must be affecting him. Two days later, he sees another one, this time very clearly, and faints.
The last entry reveals that the Dholes are now trying to get into the house. Paine has barricaded himself and killed Elaine to spare her of being devoured by the creatures. He plans to kill himself when they break in, but not before finishing the narrative and urging that the house and its psychic link to Yaddith must be destroyed somehow.
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Lin Carter works