sul•len

(sŭl′ən)

adj. sul•len•er, sul•len•est

1. Showing a brooding ill humor or silent resentment; morose or sulky.

2. Gloomy or somber in tone, color, or portent: sullen, gray skies.

3. Sluggish; slow: the sullen current of a canal.

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[Middle English solein, from Anglo-Norman solein, alone, from sol, single, from Latin sōlus, by oneself alone; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots.]

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sul′len•ly adv.

sul′len•ness n.

“The crag he had just mounted jutted out from the rest of the heights like a sullen promontory, looming above the sea of waving foliage below…’

-The Moon of Skulls

Howard tends to use the word sullen to indicate the resentment of slaves and of people of the Negro race in particular. When applied to the natural world and the main-made anti-wonders of his mythos, the adjective is quite effective in coloring the menace that cloaked his imagination in such peril-fraught shadow.