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The Gods of Pegāna
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The Gods of Pegāna is the first book by Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany,
published on a commission basis in 1905.[1] The book was reviewed favourably but as
an unusual piece. One of the more influential reviews was by Edward Thomas in the
London Daily Chronicle.[2]
The Gods of Pegāna
Gods of pegana.jpg
Cover of The Gods of Pegāna
Author
Lord Dunsany
Illustrator
Sidney Sime
Cover artist
Sidney Sime
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genre
Fantasy
Publisher
Elkin Mathews, 1905, Pegana Press, 1911
Publication date
1905
Media type
Print (hardback)
Pages
94
Followed by
Time and the Gods
ContentsEdit

The book is a series of short stories linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of

deities who dwell in Pegāna. It was followed by a further collection, Time and the
Gods, and by some stories in The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories and possibly
in Tales of Three Hemispheres.

The book contains a range of illustrations by Sidney Sime, the originals of all of
which can be seen at Dunsany Castle.

In 1919 Dunsany told an American interviewer, "In The Gods of Pegāna I tried to
account for the ocean and the moon. I don't know whether anyone else has ever tried
that before."[3]

Aside from its various stand-alone editions, the complete text of the collection is
included in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy collection Beyond the Fields We Know
(1972), in The Complete Pegāna (1998), and in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks
omnibus Time and the Gods (2000).[4]
StoriesEdit
 "Preface"
"The Gods of Pegāna"
"Of Skarl the Drummer"
"Of the Making of the Worlds"
"Of the Game of the Gods"
"The Chaunt of the Gods"
"The Sayings of Kib"
"Concerning Sish"
"The Sayings of Slid"
"The Deeds of Mung"
"The Chaunt of the Priests"
"The Sayings of Limpang-Tung"
"Of Yoharneth-Lahai"
"Of Roon, the God of Going"
"The Revolt of the Home Gods"
"Of Dorozhand"
"The Eye in the Waste"
"Of the Thing That Is Neither God Nor Beast"
"Yonath the Prophet"
"Yug the Prophet"
"Alhireth-Hotep the Prophet"
"Kabok the Prophet"
"Of the Calamity That Befel Yūn-Ilāra by the Sea, and of the Building of
the Tower of the Ending of Days"
"Of How the Gods Whelmed Sidith"
"Of How Imbaun Became High Prophet in Aradec of All the Gods Save One"
"Of How Imbaun Met Zodrak"
"Pegāna"
"The Sayings of Imbaun"
"Of How Imbaun Spake of Death to the King"
"Of Ood"
"The River"
"The Bird of Doom and the End"

Reception
The pantheonEdit
Mana-Yood-SushaiEdit
Illustration from the London, 1911 edition, by S. H. Sime

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.
Skarl the DrummerEdit

After Mana-Yood-Sushai "made the gods and Skarl", Skarl made a drum and 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?

The small godsEdit

Besides Mana-Yood-Sushai, there are numerous other gods in Pegāna's pantheon, known
as the small gods:

Kib, the Sender of Life in all the Worlds. The god of beasts and men.[9]
Sish, the Destroyer of Hours. The god of time.[10]
Mung, Lord of all Deaths between Pegāna and the Rim. The god of death.[11]
Slid, whose Soul is by the Sea. The god of waters.[12]
Limpang-Tung, the God of Mirth and of Melodious Minstrels.[13]
Yoharneth-Lahai, the God of Little Dreams and Fancies.[14]
Roon, the God of Going and the Thousand Home Gods.[15]
Dorozhand, whose Eyes Regard the End. The god of destiny.[16]
Hoodrazai, the Eye in the Waste. The mirthless god who knows the secret of
MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.[17]
Sirami, the Lord of All Forgetting[18]
Mosahn, the Bird of Doom[19]
Grimbol, Zeebol and Trehagobol, the three goddesses of the tallest mountains,
mothers of the three (once) rebellious river gods.

The thousand home godsEdit

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."[20] These
home gods include:

Pitsu, who strokes the cat

Hobith, who calms the dog
Habaniah, the lord of glowing embers
little Zumbiboo, the lord of dust
old Gribaun, who sits in the heart of the fire to turn the wood to ash
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
Eimes, Zanes, and Segastrion, the (once) rebellious lords of the three rivers
of the plain
Umbool, the Lord of the Drought
Araxes, Zadres, and Hyraglion, stars in the south
Ingazi, Yo, and Mindo, stars to the north

Trogool, neither god nor beastEdit

Trogool is the mysterious thing set at the very south pole of the cosmos, whose
duty is to turn over the pages of a great book, in which history writes itself
every day until the end of the world. The fully written pages are "black", meaning
the night, and when each one is turned, then the white page symbolizes a new day.
Trogool never answers prayer, and the pages that have been turned shall never be
turned back, neither by him nor by anyone else.

"Trogool is the Thing that men in many countries have called by many names, It is
the Thing that sits behind the gods, whose book is the Scheme of Things."
References
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Last edited 2 months ago by 71.94.235.196
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