The Miskatonic River is a fictional New England river in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. It is also the name of a river system, the Miskatonic Valley. The equally fictitious Miskatonic University in Arkham is named after this river. The Miskatonic was first mentioned (as "Miskatonic Valley") in Lovecraft's "The Picture in the House" (1920).
The fictional communities of Arkham and Dunwich, Massachusetts are said to be located along the Miskatonic. In "The Colour Out of Space" (1927), the narrator claims that there is a "small island in the Miskatonic where the devil held court beside a curious stone altar older than the Indians."
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“It is from quiet places like this all over the world that the forces accumulate which presently will overbear any attempt to accomplish evil on a large scale. Like the rivulets gathering into the river, and the river into the seas, there come from communities like this streams that fertilize the consciences of men, and it is the conscience of the world that we are trying to place upon the throne which others would usurp.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)