The Gods of Pegana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gods of Pegāna is the first book by Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, published (with Dunsany's subsidy) in 1905. It is considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula LeGuin and others.

The book is a series of short stories linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of deities who dwell in Pegāna.

1 The pantheon
2 External link

[edit] The pantheon

[edit] MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI

The chief of the gods of Pegāna is MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, who created the other gods and then fell asleep; when he wakes, he "will make again new gods and other worlds, and will destroy the gods whom he hath made." Men may pray to "all the gods but one"; only the gods themselves may pray to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.[1]

[edit] Skarl the Drummer

After MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI "made the gods and Skarl", Skarl made a drum and began to beat on it in order to lull his creator to sleep; he keeps drumming eternally, for "if he cease for an instant then MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI will start awake, and there will be worlds nor gods no more." Dunsany writes that

Some say that the Worlds and the Suns are but the echoes of the drumming of Skarl, and others say that they be dreams that arise in the mind of MANA because of the drumming of Skarl, as one may dream whose rest is troubled by sound of song, but none knoweth, for who hath heard the voice of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, or who hath seen his drummer?[2]

[edit] The small gods

Besides MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, there are numerous other gods in Pegāna's pantheon, known as the small gods:

Kib, The Sender of Life. The creator of beasts and Men.[3]
Mung, Lord of all Deaths[4]
Sish, the Destroyer of Hours. The god of time.[5]
Dorozhand, Whose Eyes Regard the End. The god of Destiny.[6]
Slid, Whose Soul is the Sea. The lord of all waters. [7]
Limpang-Tung, the God of Mirth and of Melodious Minstrels[8]
Yoharneth-Lahai, the God of Little Dreams and Fancies[9]
Roon, the God of Going[10]
Hoodrazai, the Eye in the Waste. The mirthless god who knows the secret of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.[11]
Sirami, the Lord of All Forgetting[12]
Mosahn, the bird of doom[13]

[edit] The thousand home gods

According to Roon, the God of Going, "There are a thousand home gods, the little gods that sit before the hearth and mind the fire--there is one Roon."[14] These home gods include:

Pitsu, who stroketh the cat
Hobith who calms the dog
Habaniah, the lord of glowing embers
Zumbiboo, the lord of dust (described as "little")
Gribaun, who sits in the heart of the fire to turn the wood to ash (called "old")
Kilooloogung, the lord of arising smoke
Jabim, the Lord of broken things
Triboogie, the Lord of Dusk
Hish, the Lord of Silence
Wohoon, the Lord of Noises in the Night