The Lay of Old Hex: Spectral Ballads and Weird Jack Tales

The ballad is one of the most ancient forms of poetic expression, and it has been used for the expression of weirdness and terror at least since the days of Sir Walter Scott. In recent years, the accomplished weird poet Adam Bolivar has lent new vitality and piquancy to this venerable literary mode.

The present volume, a masterpiece of folk horror, assembles a wealth of Bolivar's spectral balladry, prose tales, and vignettes, telling the story of Jack Drake, whose mother gives him a Silver Key that triggers his subsequent journeys and adventures. It becomes evident that many of these adventures echo the work of H. P. Lovecraft, a dominant influence on Bolivar's poetry, flawlessly conveying terror and strangeness in a manner that evokes both old-time legendry and contemporary cosmic horror. In one of the most powerful of his ballads, "The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner," he fuses Lovecraft and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in reinterpreting "The Call of Cthulhu" by means of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Deftly interweaving English and Appalachian traditions, Adam Bolivar's mastery of the diction and atmosphere of the weird ballad allows him to tap into haunted undercurrents of ancestral memory, producing phantasmal effects seldom found in other forms of weird literature.

Weird poetry is thriving in our time, but it is safe to say that few poets today can match the achievement of Adam Bolivar in fashioning this rich conglomeration of hypnotic verse.

A thoroughly different look at the Appalachian take on English folktales, The Lay of Old Hex meanders through fantasy literature from nursery rhymes to Stephen King. Always interesting and intelligent, and occasionally brilliantly effective.—David Drake, Author of Old Nathan

Adam Bolivar emanates invocatory chants that summon us to dark worlds just the other side of the existential page. Go with him. If you don't come back alive, you'll at least be somewhere quite interesting indeed. —John Shirley, Author of Lovecraft Alive

Adam Bolivar’s ballads are doorways to worlds of light and darkness steeped in tradition and folklore and yet infused with a freshness and life all their own. To read his work is to journey to realms where the sunlight ever lies in pools of honey, Old Scratch lurks in every shadow and dreams and nightmares walk the ways of Ye Yellow'd Reed.... —D. L. Myers

To read the work of Adam Bolivar is to enter an enchanted realm of pure poetry, where skill is combined with a brilliant imagination. Superb!—W. H. Pugmire

The spectral balladry of Adam Bolivar is a refreshing adaptation of the ballads of Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, and other Romantic poets who found in them an ideal vehicle for the powerful expression of weird moods and imagery. Bolivar’s flawless metre and smooth-flowing stanzas create a sense of cumulative terror and strangeness easily rivaling the best work of contemporary weird fiction writers.—S. T. Joshi