Who is Brown Jenkin?

[@DBoyTommie]

Brown Jenkin is easily the most disturbing mythos creature, he's small but makes a big impact.

[@andersschmich8600]

I agree, its wonderfully creepy.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

I concur. I even made an entire video just about him.

[@RagabashBinBash]

Brown Jenkin is Bastet's unhappy meal.

[@Flegetanis]

I found this video because I'm calling my kitten "Grey Jenkin." But Bast has a prominent place on my altar.

[@gollum5964]

Dreams in the Witch House is pretty underrated, contains much interesting imagery of the 4th dimension

[@SandyofCthulhu]

IKR? Can't figure out why it's one of the more obscure tales, because it is solidly full of what makes HPL mind blowing.

[@Flegetanis]

This is an important point. I've been trying to say that HPL is really Science Fiction; and the more we learn about science, the more we understand Lovecraft. It's just true.

[@Flegetanis]

@@SandyofCthulhu FWIW, this, and "The Whisperer In Darkness" are my favorite HPL stories. Not the more "obvious" ones, but these really creeped me out.

[@NefariousKoel]

Brown Jenkin: A prank experiment Mi-Go played on someone.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Agreed.

[@arempy5836]

I had a thought that Brown Jenkin is in some way related to Kaziah, though not her child. Like, if you sign Azathoth's book with your blood the blood will be used to make a familiar the obeys you and acts as your connection to Azathoth and higher dimensions. That a familiar like BJ is a hyperspace entity that is bound by its blood doner and functions a portal or vehicle and its small, degenerate human shape is just the tether to its master, engineered from their DNA.

[@erichinkle7347]

Another alternate origin I've seen for Brown Jenkin is his being a transformed corrupt Roman from one of Richard Tierney's Simon of Gitta stories.

[@boris2342]

Stewart Gordon's movie version of the witch house was one of the best HPL films

[@SandyofCthulhu]

I quite liked it. It was also my second-favorite of the Masters of Horror series (got to give top marks to Argento's Jenifer).

[@Enriqueguiones]

Can't agree with you. He left out Nyarlathotep that is, by far, the best part of the story.

[@Enriqueguiones]

@@SandyofCthulhu The best Master of Horror was, in my opinion, Cigarrette burns. Lot of "yellow king" vibes from that one...

[@rodneykelly8768]

Brown Jenkin does resemble the Chupacabra.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

I guess I didn't of Chupacabras as having a human face. Also Jenkin has no spines. But on the other hand, maybe old Chupie has the same origin story.

[@JaJDoo]

oh man i loved this weirdo

[@BNK2442]

I didn't know that Sandy Petersen had a channel.

[@verticalflats2816]

I agree with your though on the Stand with the first part where King was describing what happened almost got me to not continue on with it.

[@unperson5713]

Stephen King is an overrated windbag who is drunk with power and in love with his own voice. He cries all the way to bank every time I say such things, but we all know its true!

[@arthurpetersen1783]

One of the best videos yet

[@josephshriner2850]

Prince of Darkness is worth it. Very unique. Listen to this man.

[@Skullkan6]

I thought Brown Jenkins was the silliest and least scary of Lovecraft's monsters until I saw BluWorm's "Concerning Brown Jenkins" and... OH DEAR LORD THE FACE THE HORRIBLE TINY VIBRATING FACE! I even included a rat thing when running "The Haunting" as it had been taking care of corbitt during his transformation into something less than human.

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

Yo Sandy, I solved your mystery. Brown Jenkin is a polyhedron in interdimensional space, so he is clearly a cursed d12. Why d12? Because any more sides than that would just be silly.

[@ORLY911]

Your point about genetic engineering made me think of the race of advanced humans called who live deep in a netherrealm under the earth in "The Mound" who subjugated & engineered other races to be servants, who were often very heinous and mutated looking, with some modifications done purely out of sadistic entertainment. It's possible she traveled there and acquired their knowledge and engineered her own servant to work as a familiar. This can actually line up even further, with many of the humans reengineered by the underground people being decapitated, instead of throwing away that body part, give it another use!

[@shrpbluntobject]

I had an interesting idea from this video and thinking slightly on it. So when Jenkin and the Witch travel through dimensions we see Jenkin as a defined being of geometry where the Witch is a roiling mass of bubbles. You could view this as Jenkin being more "defined" in interdimensional space and the witch is not. Maybe the witch discovered Jenkin within her geometry, and just like the Witch lacking definition in interdiminsional space, Jenkin's form in our realm is twisted and vague. He's doesn't appear to make sense to us cause his form in our world is warped and lacks any true definition. I think this also helps explain Jenkin's ability to use the geometry to travel more precisely and even being able to kill with it, its natural for him. Just an idea. Great video, I know very few people who could make an entertaining video on a side character.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

That makes sense too.

[@NefariousKoel]

Agree on the Stephen King. He can tell a good story, but his writing style slogs and isn't very good. I always thought his most enjoyable reads were the short stories in his 'Night Shift' compilation. He actually got to the point in those short stories, and without too much needless sexual creepiness included, too. I guess the nose candy was better in the earlier days. Also: Bonus awarded for the John Carpenter mention. Even more for future mentions of 'In The Mouth Of Madness'!

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Heck, I'm sure everyone subscribed to this channel has seen In the Mouth of Madness.

[@Skullkan6]

You are right Sandy

[@bruggeman672]

To be fair Nyarlathotep has countless forms. No reason it couldn't be both the Black Man and an Egyptian-like human....

[@ArkhamReporter]

Prey by Masterton was the book that introduced Lovecraft to me. Jenkin was such a bizarre character. My theory always was that Jenkin was somehow like Jeff Goldblum's fly character... all the travelling through time and space and somehow he got fused or mutated with something rat-like.

[@faolini]

Thanks great wizard for your help

[@AaronLitz]

Brown Jenkin has always freaked me out; the illustration in the CoC rulebook especially.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Which one?

[@toddellner5283]

Not everything has to have an explanation. It is good to have mysteries.

[@unperson5713]

I have three stories which compete for my actual HPL favorites. This story is among that list. Brown Jenkin is among my favorite literary characters, right up there with Wizard Whateley. I could compose an entire TL:DR essay regarding the nature of Brown Jenkin or non-Euclidian geometry, but my ideas are beyond the wall of sleep. Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Trying to figure out WHY Wizard Whateley did what he did is a source of most dire speculation.

[@elamigoreptiliano3316]

I thinks he is a homonculus, created by sheer alchemy and the black arts. He always reminds me of Castlevania's fleaman, and the sonority of the name is hypnotic!

[@mrc8308]

Brilliant!

[@BNK2442]

This video was really cool, thank you for making it.

[@sirguy6678]

Great video! Brown Jenkins is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wearing a rat 🐀 fur coat ....

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Plus he asks you a riddle, and if you get it wrong ...

[@Mossygoblin333]

This is a big stretch, but I wonder if Brown Jenkin is some sort of sub species of ghouls, even know ghouls are more canine looking and don’t have tails, it could explain why it looks similar to humans, though I know that is a stretch. Or maybe Brown Jenkin is a native of the Dream Lands.

[@rolandkatsuragi]

3:07 I always knew maths were evil!

[@mandilarator]

Besides being a really fun and interesting video on Brown Jenkins, what l shall keep from it is that certain things should remain a mystery! After all that what's really great about horror stories!

[@Incrediblefatslug]

It's me. Im Brown Jenkin

[@SandyofCthulhu]

What?! Well ... your last name seems possibly Polish, and we know that Brown Jenkin was Polish in Dreams in the Witch House (played by Yevgen Veronin). So makes sense.

[@osoewert6439]

I also highly recommend Prince of Darkness. I think it's one of Carpenter's best films, and certainly one of the creepiest. I never made the connection between that and Dreams in the Witch House, though. I can definitely see it. Makes a lot of sense.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

I really liked it particularly Dennis Dun whom I dearly wish was in more movies.

[@Wright805]

I agree. Prince of Darkness is one of my favourite horror movies. I've written two stories based on it.

[@juddgoswick2024]

Sandy asks "Who is Brown Jenkin?" but no one asks "How is Brown Jenkin?". 🐭

[@SandyofCthulhu]

okay that rules. You are now on the short list of people I officially owe a drink if we ever meet face-to-face.

[@juddgoswick2024]

@@SandyofCthulhu I will take it!

[@ozzoldoshadda2993]

Love the outfit! Great video as usual, Mr. Petersen!

[@richardtseng9535]

You mentioned Brown Jenkin as being a mockery of humanity. I can definitely see that. Brown is an alternate evolutionary path of our mutual mammalian rodent ancestors but embodying even more of our worst traits in order to get to sentience. I don't think Brown is an evolution of us in the future as he is furrier than us. I doubt we would be evolving more hair after we have spent eons evolving into hairless beings. Instead, if you start with a mammalian rodent from paleolithic times, but allowed it to acquire the intelligence to comprehend high mathematics, then it could bypass a lot of the material evolution that humans went through just to survive. It might still develop expressive, human-like facial features to communicate intelligently with its kind, but it wouldn't need other features that humans find biologically attractive (i.e., bipedal mobility, size and strength, erect spines, etc.). In the same way that "the greys" are conceived of as "humans with extreme brain + space tech development", Brown Jenkin is a "rat with extreme brain + dimensional math development". Just a theory. Fun video!

[@psikodelriot6754]

The species of Brown Jenkin is also part of the Conan Exile Lore, known as "Rat Things" Not much known about them, except they are summoners of Azathoth and that themselves can get summoned with the summoners blood.

[@briankito1655]

Being a Lovecraft and Brian Lumley fan, I can't believe I never made the "math for travel" connection when reading Dreams in the Witch House. Lumley did a trilogy of Lovecraftian books and the protagonist in his Necroscope books maths all over the place.

[@vladimir8891]

"We're all various shades of beige" -Sandy ends racism 2020

[@drjones8176]

I had a dream of this thing with no previous knowledge untill now holy smokes it was the size of a medium dog and in my dream I kept slamming his head in the door frame as it chased me into the fruit cellar I was scared it was all quick I never felt terror like that in a dream since it was after me hard like a wild chimp that had rabies it's back legs was short and it's face was long it was literally brown with dirt or sand all over it it was gross I broke it's neck I'm the door frame alot like alot Mr Sandy if u can give me any insight to why it was in my dream I would be happy to hear cause it scared me it was about 8 years ago I had the dream

[@BaldotheDon]

After reading _The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,_ I always thought Brown Jenkin was a zoog. Did I misunderstand the way Lovecraft described the zoogs?

[@alexanderchippel]

Zoogs are more like opossums or ferrets. Really noodlely like. Rat-Things (which Brown Jenkin is) look very much like big rats with distinctly human faces. So they're similar, but not the same.

[@user-gj7lp5iz6k]

In The Dreaming Stone, zoogs are described as being "otter-like" two or three times, which ruined any chance of zoogs being anything but adorable to me

[@alexanderchippel]

@@user-gj7lp5iz6k This is exactly why Sandy needs to make a Zoog episode. Ideally a three part series with a follow-up video.

[@user-gj7lp5iz6k]

@@alexanderchippel I hope we get more Dreamlands content from Sandy

[@lukewalker1092]

Ruminate upon this, Sandy. The internet is an avatar of Nyarlathotep. That's some horror there, it permeates every part of our lives and influences people to do their worst. P.S. Just one more Doom map, please. I trust you could put the Archvile to good use ;)

[@Yig_al_Gaib4242]

‘The Stand’ is good, but yeah, it’s a slog. Nearly put the book down, but it’s connection to ‘The Dark Tower’ kept me reading.

[@tssteelx]

MATH!

[@Crumble23]

But Sandy Chaosium's own CoC Malleus Monstrorm (pages 185-186), which I read cover to cover, explicitly states that the Black Man is an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Dude I wrote that like 30 years ago. Must I be held to those old beliefs?

[@Johnconno]

Brown Jenkin is uncle Monty's repressed youth.

[@gollum5964]

You should do a video about the scope/cosmology of the mythos, it's infinite universes (mentioned in Whisperer in Darkness), infinite higher dimensions etc.

[@Spellfork]

When I read the story for the first time my mind directly saw Brown Jenkin as a malformed or mutated small monkey, something between a pygmy marmoset and capuchin. I wouldn't describe them as hideous, in fact I think most people think of them as kind of cute and adorable little creatures but think about what the corrupting witch science would do to a poor little creature like that or what some kind of dimensional entity would do to the creature by inhabiting it to use it's physical form. The "rat with a human face" description is probably more natural of a description for a 1900's New Englander than a small, exotic monkey. Also it's a lot scarier and most people see rats as filthy pests while small monkeys are considered cute and funny.

[@adinocc2042]

I think if Brown Jenkin was alive today he'd be considered a lolcow and get trolled online a lot.

[@SunSheepOfLight]

This would actually explain why the police never found the witch in the attic after Walter killed her, if he killed her at all. I don’t believe he did despite his best efforts. And she later sent Brown Jenkin to kill Walter to get revenge on him for betraying her. I’m talking about the Masters of Horror version of the story.

[@PurpleBraveGiraffe]

Oh men please ! would you give us a new aoe 2 video soon ?

[@PostHuman80]

Wait... the "bubbles" Gillman sees is human? I always assumed it was Yog-Sothoth as that's kind of how Yog-Sothoth is described (spheres, right?). Seeing how Gillman was between worlds, I figured that'd be the most likely place you'd see the Opener of the Way itself.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

I am sure it was Keziah. Yog-Sothoth is described by Lovecraft as spheres only in Horror In The Museum (a revision). It's also spheres in Lurker at the Threshold, but this isn't Lovecraft's text. In Dunwich Horror and The Silver Key Lovecraft is clear that Yog is not spheres. Junior Whateley is described as "looking ... like his father". In Silver Key, Yog wears a blanket to conceal his awful shape lest it smite Randolph Carter. So the spheres, while his most annotated form, is not necessarily canonical. On the other hand, my own figure of Yog-Sothoth made for Cthulhu Wars is a sort of congeries of spheres, though very much organic rather than astral.

[@PostHuman80]

@@SandyofCthulhu Ah, that does clear it up a bit. Thanks!

[@cinderheart2720]

@@SandyofCthulhu I assumed the bubbles were another unrelated entity, a random passer by in the alternate dimension. To convey that horror of monsters that mean you no harm because they don't even recognize you as alive.

[@bullethead1953]

can you do some Age of Empires 2 stuff, like react to a video or even collab with T90 Official?

[@arthurpetersen1783]

We've been trying to get him to do that (and Quake)

[@Flegetanis]

I was looking for an explanation to my ex for why I call my new kitten "Grey Jenkin"; this is the video I sent her -- and the best part is that she'll GET IT. She's not a HPL fan (she IS into Kenneth Grant; I don't know how), but she knows THIS story. Did my dreams bring on the fever, or did the fever bring on the dreams? Am I a butterfly dreaming I'm Eric? Am I an interdimensional being from beyond time dreaming I'm Eric?

[@MickeyD2012]

Leeroy Jenkem?

[@joseystrife8780]

I'm sorry but just because the devil is described as literally being entirely black does not mean it doesn't have some racist connotation whether Lovecraft intended it or not

[@BoredWithNelly]

Sandy, is there a way you can be contacted? Would love to have you on as a podcast guest. Please shot me message if you see this.

[@arthurpetersen1783]

email: Marketing at PetersenGames dot com

[@BoredWithNelly]

@@arthurpetersen1783 Thanks Arthur I sent you an email. - Nelly

[@markhill3858]

scientific literacy leadinto moral degeneration is a "fair cop"? maybe you could explain that a little old chap :)