Arthur Machen and his story The Great God Pan went on to influence writers and artists in distinct fields such as literature, music and art
Arthur Machen
A Welsh writer whose stories were championed by Oscar Wilde and HP Lovecraft was described by author Stephen King as producing “one of the best horror stories ever written”. His work went on to inspire Oscar-winning films and still sends chills running up the spines of modern-day readers.
Arthur Machen was born in Caerleon in 1863, in what was then Monmouthshire, and grew up in the small village of Llanddewi Fach, at The Rectory where his father served as a Church of England clergyman. He took his inspiration for his most famous story The Great God Pan from his childhood visits to the ruined Roman temple at Caerwent.
The story went on to to become his first major success but it caused controversy due to its perceived sexual undertones and its relation to the aesthetic and decadent movements which were prevalent in literary circles at the time. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter here.
Machen himself became interested in the occult and paganism, and he went on to join Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society and “magical order”, following the death of his first wife.
Caerwent is home to some of Europe’s best kept Roman ruins (Image: Richard Swingler)
In the 1920s, his work found a resurgence after a number of American writers highlighted his influence on the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres.
He died in 1947 in relative comfort to the poverty in which he had spent the majority of his life, thanks to a literary appeal including signatories including Nobel prize winners TS Eliot and George Bernard Shaw.
The Great God Pan is set in a small Welsh town and begins with a doctor performing a strange experiment on a local girl named Mary in order to “open her mind” to the spiritual world in order to see the Ancient Greek god Pan, a faun described as the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks.
The experiment is unsuccessful and Mary becomes a “hopeless idiot” having undergone brain surgery.
Years later, another young girl named Helen Vaughan arrives at the Welsh village and a number of strange occurrences take place where children are taken to the woods and are left terrified, and in some cases disappear for good.
After entering adulthood, Helen travels to the Americas and marries before settling in London, where a number of men die suddenly in strange circumstances.
Welsh author Arthur Machen
She is later confronted and undergoes various transformations before turning into a “jelly-like substance and dying”. The conclusion of the plot reveals she is the daughter of Mary and the god Pan, and an incarnation of the devil.
The story has had a wide reaching influence on writers and artists in a broad range of disciplines, including literature, film and music.
Stephen King, the author of IT and The Shining, said: “(The Great God Pan) is one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language.”
Mark E Smith, the frontman of post-punk band The Fall, also expressed admiration for Machen. He said: “I used to be in the Machen society. Been a fan since I was 16. Fanatical and all. He’s one of the best horror writers ever. MR James is good, but Machen’s f****** brilliant. Wrote the first drug story, The Novel of the White Powder. Before Crowley, all of them. Have you read The Great God Pan? Terrifying.”
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro took inspiration from Machen for his Oscar-winning film Pan’s Labyrinth and wrote the foreword to a Penguin edition to Machen’s works.
He wrote: “Machen knew that to accept our cosmic insignificance is to achieve a spiritual perspective and ultimately realise that, yes, all is permitted. And that no matter how wicked or how perverse we can be, somewhere in a long forgotten realm a mad God awaits, leering – and ready to embrace us all.”