The Hanging Stones by Manly Wade Wellman

Berkely Books 1984

Originally published by Double Day 1982

Cover artist: Carl Lundgren

Manly Wade Wellman is most well known for being a pulp writer in the peak of the Weird Tales run. He was born in 1903 in Kamundongo, Portuguese West Africa (Angola) and died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1986. He was married to fellow Weird Tales author Frances Obrist. Along with selling stories Wellman had odd jobs such as farming, working in cotton gins and being a bouncer. He occasionally wrote for the comic books including Captain Marvel and The Spirit. He once beat out William Faulkner for the best story in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Which really pissed off Faulkner. Manly is indeed his real name.

Basic premise: Local folk musician John the Balladeer or Silver John, which I prefer, is headed up to Teatray Mountain to check out this replica Stonehenge they are a-building. He encounters bossy rich guys, a clan of werewolves, a Stonehenge historian hermit and is pulled into a supernatural battle between ghosts of the past and greed of the present.

Not an any easy book to lay down a basic premise! This is such an original book that I wasn’t even sure what notes I should be taking for the review. I had zero idea where the plot was going, who was going to be important and what parts would be played. We’re just going to go ahead and give a standing ovation right here at the beginning and hope to do this thing justice.

I usually like to start with the characters but let’s start with the North Carolina setting here as I believe it is truly the heart of the novel. I wouldn’t call this world building because Appalachia is a world that exists, but Manly Wade brings it to life with such enthusiasm and romanticism that it almost feels like a fantasy world. Something like this would seem difficult to write and not be offensive or cartoonish.

The speech in this is written in Appalachian slang. I’ve seen some reviews from people who live around the area where the story takes place, and they mention that even the regional dialect accent is on point. It is a-written like this, but air think you will get ah used to it quick.

The main character’s name is simply John. He is also known throughout the hills as John the Balladeer or Silver John because of the pure silver strings strung on his guitar. He is a traveling folk singer, fighting the evil entities who creep into his mountain world. He reminds me of a mix between real world travelin’ man Woody Guthrie, fighting for the little man, and Robert E Howard’s character Solomon Kane, a devout Christian with one foot in the world of the occult, battling folklorish mythical evil entities. Silver John may be my favorite fictional character. He has such a logical simple nature, which to an outsider might make him seem like a dumb yokel, but he is incredibly witty and intelligent. His logic is genius in its simplicity. I also love how manly he is. He’s always ready to throw down with his fists. He’s macho without the standard extravagant characteristics.

If this is your first Silver John novel, it has a wonderful introduction to the character. He is heading up Teatrade Mountain to see this new Stone Henge replica someone is building. There is a car stuck in the mud. John runs up and helps by pushing the car, he says, “I had to put all of my man into it.” The guy takes off without so much as a thank you wave. John shrugs and heads on. He comes upon a security guard with a gun who tells him to scram. John doesn’t appreciate the way the man is talking to him and tells him he wouldn’t be much without that firearm. Even though it sounds like John is a macho tough guy, his demeanor isn’t violent. He’s actually very cool, calm and collected but he definitely doesn’t like being disrespected. The security guard is more than happy to throw down his pistol and punch it out. Before the two men start throwing fists the stuck-in-the-mud guy, Noel Kottler comes running down the hill. He is the owner of new Stonehenge and wants to give John a job. There are some “fuzzy headed pointy ear characters” sneaking around the build site and John is tasked with finding out about them and getting rid of them. Even though John doesn’t really like Kottler he takes the job because he’s a curious sort of fellow and there seems to be strange goings on at the top of Teatrade Mountain.

He meets a man who lives on the mountain named Esdras who says his name comes from the two books in the apocrypha…which I had to look up. It means biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture. He also says that he is the seventh son of a seventh son. I only know of the saying because of Iron Maiden so once I again I had to look it up. Seventh son of a seventh son is an ever-changing concept from folklore throughout the world. In Romania it means that the son will be a vampire. In Latin America they will be a werewolf. In Italy he would have power over snakes. In England and Ireland they were healers.

“To qualify as "the seventh son of a seventh son" one must be the seventh male child born in an unbroken line with no female siblings born between, and to a father who himself is the seventh male child born in an unbroken line with no female siblings born between.”- from Wikipedia.

There are two new-age spiritual leaders who want to invest in new Stonehenge. They only care about money as does Kottler. There is a subtle anti-commercialism thread going on. When talking about how much money they will make, John and Esdras comment on how wrong it seems but then in the same breath John remembers that he heard they charge money for the real Stonehenge. To that Esdras replies, the money goes to the nature conservatory. Wellman’s viewpoints and values are smoothly woven into the story. You are never spoken down to or preached at.

There is so much more to say but I don’t won’t to let too much out. It’s such a joy to read a book where you really have no idea where the plot is headed or how the climax will play out.

I am afraid I made it out to be too serious though, which it’s not. It has werewolves. Fist fights with werewolves!! Silver John is a fist fighting fool. At one point he’s about to travel into danger and someone hands him a gun. He refuses it. All he needs are his fists. Now that’s fucking MANLY. He sings lots of folk songs. He has crazy occult knowledge essentially making him an Appalachian occult detective.

We got a little book conspiracy here also. The Kottler character talks about shooting a major motion picture at new Stonehenge and suggests getting a really talented writer like Dennis Etchinson. So, is this a sarcastic jab at Etchinson or did Manly Wade Wellman actually like his writing?? The “really talented” part makes me lean more toward sarcastic jab but it’s up for interpretation.

Silver John is a character who should be well known and celebrated at least as much as Solomon Kane. Every vintage genre fiction fan should have well worn John the Balladeer books on their shelves.

Bonus: I just found out while writing this review that there was a Silver John movie made in 1972 called The Legend of Hillbilly John and some wonderful person put it up on youtube.