The Sound of His Horn by Sarban
"The Sound of His Horn" is a narrative exploring the psychological and physical aftermath of war through the experiences of Alan Querdilion, a former prisoner of war. Set in 1949, the story unfolds as Querdilion recounts a harrowing escape from a POW camp in 1943. His escape leads him to a bizarre and dystopian estate governed by Count Hans von Hackelnberg, where he inadvertently becomes part of a grotesque hunting spectacle involving both humans and animals. Querdilion's account describes a surreal and horrifying world, where medieval elements and perverse entertainment coexist in a dark vision of a future shaped by totalitarian rule.
The narrative delves into themes of madness, survival, and the psychological scars left by war, as Querdilion grapples with his traumatic experiences. The dramatic contrast between his harrowing past and his present life highlights the struggle to reconcile one's sanity with the absurdities of the world. Ultimately, Querdilion's reluctance to share his story with others reflects a complex relationship with trauma and the difficulty of finding solace in a world forever altered by conflict. This tale serves as a stark reminder of the dehumanizing effects of war and the haunting memories that persist long after the physical battles have ended.
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The Sound of His Horn
First published: 1952
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—alternate history
Time of work: 1943 and the mid-twenty-first century
Locale: Germany
The Plot
The unnamed narrator is invited in 1949 to visit his friend Alan Querdilion, whom he has not seen since before the war. He finds Querdilion oddly different as a result of his experience as a prisoner of war (POW). Querdilion is withdrawn, distracted, and even apparently afraid of his fiancée. Eventually, Querdilion tells the following story, while asserting that it is evidence only that he had been mad; to believe otherwise would be to doubt the sanity of the world itself.
In 1943, after two years in a POW camp in eastern Germany, Querdilion manages to escape. Weakened by his imprisonment, under stress, and without water, he quickly becomes fatigued and confused. Stumbling through the dark forest, hopelessly lost, he crashes into some sort of an energy fence and passes out. He awakes in what appears to be a prosperous private hospital in the midst of a forest. At night, he hears the melancholy and wild notes of a hunting horn in the distance. He learns that he is on the estate of Count Hans von Hackelnberg, the Reich Master Forester, who hunts at night.
Querdilion receives excellent medical care and recovers from his exposure to the Bohlen Rays that energized the fence. The doctor is amused by Querdilion’s delusion that he is living in a past time; it is, the doctor informs him, the 102d year of the First German Millennium founded by the first führer, Adolf Hitler. The doctor treats Querdilion as a guest but advises him not to be seen by the count.
On a tour of the estate, Querdilion sees packs of boar-hounds, deer pens, specially bred slaves, and medieval weapons. He observes a hunt staged for visiting dignitaries, in which game animals are driven by foresters into the guns of the guests; seminaked baboon-boys put on lewd displays; and exotically costumed bird-girls pursued by hounds and shot with darts and net-guns by the hunting party. In the evening, Querdilion watches in the count’s dining hall, illuminated by nude female torchbearers, as the guests are served great platters on which the naked bird-girls they have “shot” are presented, bound hand and foot for their further pleasure. To whet his guests’ appetites, the count insists that first they witness a spectacle. In an arena, tame deer are torn to shreds and eaten raw by specially bred cat-women armed with steel claws. The count notices Querdilion and has him sent into the forest to become the prey of a future hunt.
Querdilion is supplied with carefully fitted clothing, a hut, and ample food, but he is warned that he is fair game if he is spotted. As he reconnoiters the woods, he encounters an escaped bird-girl named Kit who also is English. After spending a nearly idyllic day together, they are hunted that night by the count and his cat-women. Kit sacrifices herself by leaping onto the Bohlen Ray fence, disarming it so that Querdilion can escape. He gets away and wanders through the night until he is picked up by German police. He is sent to another POW camp, where he remains until the Russians liberate it in 1945. He concludes his story by telling the narrator that if he suffers no further spells of madness for a year, he will marry, but he will tell no one else his story, not even his fiancée. The narrator tries to persuade him otherwise, but already Querdilion seems distracted, more concerned with finding his cat.