When reports of the so-called ‘Abominable Snowman’ first filtered from the peaks of the Himalayas to Western Europe during the golden age of mountaineering, English writer of classic ghost stories E. F. Benson took the trendy new idea of the mysterious hairy mountain-dwelling apemen and wondered what might happen if they existed not only in remotest Asia, but in the Alps too. ‘The Horror-Horn,’ written in 1922, tells the tale of daring, winter sport-loving Englishmen who inadvertently come into contact with the European version of the Yeti.
From deep within the library of the Wide Atlantic Bunker, your host Cian explores what these initial Yeti reports were like, what Benson might have known about the Abominable Snowman at this time, and why even a ‘fate worse than death’ at the hands of a female Alps Yeti might not have been the scariest thing about this oddly Lovecraftian tale. So grab yourself a beverage, snuggle into a comfy armchair while the wind whips outside your window, and enjoy this reading of Cryptids in Classic Fiction.
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