The word 'Croatoan' is found in multiple of [[Laird Barron]]'s stories. --- ### __History__ Croatoan is a reference to an old, American colonist mystery. According to [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony), a group of English colonists tried to start settlement on the Roanoke Island in 1587. This group came to be known as the Lost Colony due to the complete disappearance of its entire population. The only clue was the fact that the word 'CROATOAN' had been carved into the palisade. It was assumed this meant that the colonists had relocated to the nearby Croatoan Island, but to this day there's been no evidence to support this theory. --- ### __Old Virginia: Croatoan as Mother__ The mystery is described in the story [[Old Virginia]]. The story's protagonist Roger reads about the events in an old book and later has a dream where the word 'CROATOAN' is written on the wall. Later in the story, [[Laird Barron]] gives us a different explanation for the mystery when the clairvoyant woman Virginia explains who her Mother is: "You know who Mother is — a colonist wrote Her name on the palisade, didn't he? A name given by white explorers to certain natives who worshipped Her. Idiots! The English are possibly the stupidest people that ever lived." She tittered. "I was the first Christian birth in the New World. I was special. The rest were meat. Poor mama, poor daddy. Poor everyone else. Mother is quite simple, actually. She has basic needs . . .She birthed me anew, made me better than crude flesh and now I help Her conduct the grand old game." (The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, p. ) Further descriptions of Mother (or Croatoan) seem to be somewhat in line with the descriptions and workings of [[Old Leech]] found in Barron's other works: "The mountain is nicer, the shafts go so deep. She hates the light. All of Her kind are like that. [...] When mankind will manage to blacken the sky with bombs and cool the earth so that Mother and Her brothers, Her sisters and children may emerge once more! Is there any other purpose? Oh, what splendid revelries there shall be on that day!" (The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, p. ) I don't think Old Leech is described anywhere else as 'Mother' or as female in general, but the mention of brothers, sisters and most of all [[Children of Old Leech|Children]] makes one wonder. Mother lives in the mountain, hates the light and is waiting for the skies to blacken and the earth cool down before she emerges. [[The Croning]] features similar imagery regarding Old Leech. On the other hand, the above sentence _"all of Her kind are like that"_ could also mean that Mother or Croatoan isn't Old Leech itself but a similar entity. At the end of the story, the main protagonist manages to carve 'CRO' into the floorboards before being taken away by Virginia. When I read the story for the first time I thought Roger meant to write 'CRONE', because Virginia is on multiple occassions referred to as such and because crones are a recurring theme in Barron's work (like the group of crones in [[Hand of Glory (Story)]], the women in [[Procession of the Black Sloth]] and obviously the title of The Croning). But Roger carving 'CROATOAN' into the floorboards makes a bit more sense. --- ### __Black Mountain: the Croatoan as a serial killer__ A mob hitman-for-hire and serial killer only known as 'the Croatoan' is the main antagonist of the [[Isaiah Coleridge Series]]' second book, [[Black Mountain]]: "The Croatoan represented a bogeyman, especially among East Coast mobsters. A mysterious freelancer, true identity known by a select few, who conducted wholesale slaughter on behalf of the Family (and other nefarious bidders) since the latter 1970s." (Black Mountain, p. ) The hitman is known as the Croatoan because he has a knack for making heaps of people disappear, not unlike the events surrounding the mystery of the Lost Colony. It's unlikely that the Croatoan of Black Mountain is connected to Old Virginia's Mother, but at the very least it's an interesting recurring theme. One thing of note is the fact that the Croatoan in Black Mountain possesses some some kind of device that enables the user to knock people unconscious by emitting a terrible, whistling sound. --- ### __Uncoiling: the Croatoan as the Whistling Lady__ The story [[Uncoiling]] features yet another appearance of the Croatoan. In Uncoiling, the [[Antiquity]] alter egos of [[Isaiah Coleridge]] and Robard come across an abandoned campsite where they notice the letters 'CRO' carved into a tree. This is a similar occurance to the one described at the end of the story [[Old Virginia]] and is not unlike the actual real world events of the Lost Colony. The Croatoan in Uncoiling is an evil entity in the form of a woman who whistles and punishes people trespassing on sacred burial grounds: "[...] a sinister “woman” who massacred caravans, [recognizable by] strange whistling on the mountain trails. [...] The Croatoan. [...] Hill Creeper. Emasculator. She Who Whistles. Guardian of the Cairns. [...] She punishes trespassers and those who profane olden laws." (Cosmic Horror Monthly, January 2022, p. ) The Croatoan as described in Old Virginia, or the character Virginia herself at least, shows some definite similarities to the Croatoan as she appears in Uncoiling. The punishing of trespassers might be the main characteristic of the entity in Old Virginia as well, seeing as her first noticable act on Earth is killing an entire settlement of colonists. The Croatoan as described in Black Mountain, a mob hitman-for-hire and serial killer, shows no apparent similarities to the Croatoan of Uncoiling, except for the fact that they share a common interest in whistling. In Black Mountain, the Croatoan is said to be able to whistle his victims to sleep. He later appears to be in possession of some device or musical instrument able to emit a whistling sound that makes Isaiah lose consciousness. The fact that Uncoiling's Croatoan shares some similarities with both other Croatoans and the fact that this is the second time _a_ Coleridge encounters _a_ Croatoan is worthy of mention. --- ### __Other Mentions__ In The Croning, protagonist Don [[Miller]] compares the abandonment of the [[Slango Camp]] following the events of [[The Men from Porlock]] to the Lost Colony mystery. #Character #Imago #Coleridge #Croning #Antiquity