Trumpets From Oblivion is a historical action/adventure series by H. Bedford-Jones that appeared in Blue Book Magazine.
This thirteen-part series ran from November 1938 to November 1939 and was cover-featured four times. The cover from the second story was used for the collection by Steeger Books, which is part of its H. Bedford-Jones Library. This series presents the “real world” explanation of various myths and legends, thanks to a science-fictional device.
In the first story, we “meet” our nameless narrator, a member of the Inventor’s Club. A dozen club members are invited to a dinner hosted by Norman Fletcher, an electronic genius. After dinner, he shows them his invention: a device that can show sights and sounds from hundreds of years in the past. And through this, we can see the origin of myths and legends.
The first story looks at the legend of the “Sargasso Sea.” We get an adventure centered around a Spaniard, Don Balthasar de Soto, being returned to Spain as a prisoner. But they encounter a galleon stuck in the Sargasso Sea, where he meets a young countess, Conchita. He further works to rescue her from the horrors of the sea, and thus ends our “trumpet from oblivion” on the origins of the Sargasso Sea. A later story explains that these are “glimpses of the past, messages from departed ages.”
Fletcher promises to allow the Club to return for further such explorations of the past, with members of the club picking what legend they will investigate.
The next one is about the “Scythian lamb,” which I had never heard of. I had to look it up. It’s a legend that is of different things: lambs who emerged from the sea, or lambs who come from a tree like berries. But we get a story set in Sicily when it was controlled by the Arabs, and a noble woman, with only twin children remaining of her family, whose business is based on a mysterious and valuable cloth. To protect her and her family, she sends away her children before she plans on leaving, fearing the actions of the local emir. And well she should be concerned. Along the way, we learn the secret of this special cloth.
Further stories look at a variety of legends. The next one is about dragons, but we get a tale set in the prehistoric Southwest and see early Native Americans deal with the “thunderbird,” which turns out to be a pteranodon. Further stories look at the legends of Prester John, the Amazons, the Fountain of Youth, Yggdrasil, unicorns, the evil eye, werewolves, the phoenix, mermen and mermaids, and finally serpent people.
Each story is action-packed, usually centering around a couple whose fate at the end may or may not be known. Maybe they will live “happily ever after,” or not. The framing story is also changed. It’s not always the Club showing up. Sometimes it’s our unnamed narrator and a special guest or two seeing the echoes from the past. Or maybe it’s just the narrator and Fletcher. Sometimes there are strange problems with Fletcher’s equipment. All of these give us a great series of stories.
As always, this is another great series from Bedford-Jones. I have never been disappointed by anything I’ve read by him, and this is yet another winner.
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