The Doom that Came to Sarnath
The first Lovecraft story to be not only published, but also written in the nineteen-twenties. This one appeared in a magazine called The Scot which I can't seem to find any information about, except that Lovecraft only ever published this one story with them.
I have no idea what this story is about. I haven't read it or even heard anything about it. I can infer from the name that it probably isn't set on Earth, which could mean its in psychedelic White Ship land, or in some more conventional fantasy world.
“There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no more.
It is told that in the immemorial years when the world was young, before ever the men of Sarnath came to the land of Mnar, another city stood beside the lake; the grey stone city of Ib, which was old as the lake itself, and peopled with beings not pleasing to behold. Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned. It is written on the brick cylinders of Kadatheron that the beings of Ib were in hue as green as the lake and the mists that rise above it; that they had bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious ears, and were without voice. It is also written that they descended one night from the moon in a mist; they and the vast still lake and grey stone city Ib. However this may be, it is certain that they worshipped a sea-green stone idol chiselled in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard; before which they danced horribly when the moon was gibbous. And it is written in the papyrus of Ilarnek, that they one day discovered fire, and thereafter kindled flames on many ceremonial occasions. But not much is written of these beings, because they lived in very ancient times, and man is young, and knows little of the very ancient living things.”
A lake with no rivers in or out, eh? Assuming there isn't some magic fantasy hydrology going on here, that leaves two possibilities. One is that its connected to an underground aquifer or river system. The other is that its entirely rain-fed, and highly saline (think along the lines of the Dead Sea) due to evaporation without drainage.
The brick cylinders of Kadatheron mean nothing to me. Is Kadatheron an ancient archive or library of some kind? Why should I care what it says on its cylinders? These things beg explanation, Howie.
Long before Sarnath was built, the shore of the lake hosted another city back when humanity was either primitive or nonexistent. The inhabitants sound a bit like the mermen from "Dagon," with their fishy lips and bulging eyes. On the other hand, they're said to be voiceless, whereas Fishbro McHugewang made "certain odd, measured sounds" when he hugged the monument. The dancing under the moon also makes me think of frog people rather than fish people.
Sounds like they're variations on a theme, but that there probably isn't meant to be any continuity between this story and "Dagon." Can't say I'm terribly saddened by this.
“After many aeons men came to the land of Mnar; dark shepherd folk with their fleecy flocks, who built Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron on the winding river Ai. And certain tribes, more hardy than the rest, pushed on to the border of the lake and built Sarnath at a spot where precious metals were found in the earth.
Not far from the grey city of Ib did the wandering tribes lay the first stones of Sarnath, and at the beings of Ib they marvelled greatly. But with their marvelling was mixed hate, for they thought it not meet that beings of such aspect should walk about the world of men at dusk. Nor did they like the strange sculptures upon the grey monoliths of Ib, for those sculptures were terrible with great antiquity. Why the beings and the sculptures lingered so late in the world, even until the coming of men, none can tell; unless it was because the land of Mnar is very still, and remote from most other lands both of waking and of dream.”
Ah, so not prehuman, just pre human civilization.
We learn what Kadatheron is; another city built by the immigrant herdsmen. Should have explained what it was and why its records are to be relied upon back when the name was first dropped, though.
Also, it sounds like Humans Are Bastards in this setting, though on the other hand Lovecraft describes all of his nonhumans the same way the herdsmen think of the Ibians, so maybe we're meant to agree with them on this?
The land of Mnar is "remote from other lands both of waking and of dream." Interesting. Which reality is it in, I wonder?
“As the men of Sarnath beheld more of the beings of Ib their hate grew, and it was not less because they found the beings weak, and soft as jelly to the touch of stones and spears and arrows. So one day the young warriors, the slingers and the spearmen and the bowmen, marched against Ib and slew all the inhabitants thereof, pushing the queer bodies into the lake with long spears, because they did not wish to touch them. And because they did not like the grey sculptured monoliths of Ib they cast these also into the lake; wondering from the greatness of the labour how ever the stones were brought from afar, as they must have been, since there is naught like them in all the land of Mnar or in the lands adjacent.”
...well, I really hope the author isn't expecting me to root for these guys now.
“Thus of the very ancient city of Ib was nothing spared save the sea-green stone idol chiselled in the likeness of Bokrug, the water-lizard. This the young warriors took back with them to Sarnath as a symbol of conquest over the old gods and beings of Ib, and a sign of leadership in Mnar. But on the night after it was set up in the temple a terrible thing must have happened, for weird lights were seen over the lake, and in the morning the people found the idol gone, and the high-priest Taran-Ish lying dead, as from some fear unspeakable. And before he died, Taran-Ish had scrawled upon the altar of chrysolite with coarse shaky strokes the sign of DOOM.
After Taran-Ish there were many high-priests in Sarnath, but never was the sea-green stone idol found. And many centuries came and went, wherein Sarnath prospered exceedingly, so that only priests and old women remembered what Taran-Ish had scrawled upon the altar of chrysolite. Betwixt Sarnath and the city of Ilarnek arose a caravan route, and the precious metals from the earth were exchanged for other metals and rare cloths and jewels and books and tools for artificers and all things of luxury that are known to the people who dwell along the winding river Ai and beyond. So Sarnath waxed mighty and learned and beautiful, and sent forth conquering armies to subdue the neighbouring cities; and in time there sate upon a throne in Sarnath the kings of all the land of Mnar and of many lands adjacent.”
Sarnath is an empire now. Whatever it was that took the statue and killed Taran-Ish seems to be biding its time, unless the "doom" thing was a bluff (or just Taran-Ish overestimating the threat). I'm reminded of the ghostly hand in Belshazzar's feast hall.
Probably not the latter.
“The wonder of the world and the pride of all mankind was Sarnath the magnificent. Of polished desert-quarried marble were its walls, in height 300 cubits and in breadth 75, so that chariots might pass each other as men drave them along the top. For full 500 stadia did they run, being open only on the side toward the lake; where a green stone sea-wall kept back the waves that rose oddly once a year at the festival of the destroying of Ib. In Sarnath were fifty streets from the lake to the gates of the caravans, and fifty more intersecting them. With onyx were they paved, save those whereon the horses and camels and elephants trod, which were paved with granite. And the gates of Sarnath were as many as the landward ends of the streets, each of bronze, and flanked by the figures of lions and elephants carven from some stone no longer known among men. The houses of Sarnath were of glazed brick and chalcedony, each having its walled garden and crystal lakelet. With strange art were they builded, for no other city had houses like them; and travellers from Thraa and Ilarnek and Kadatheron marvelled at the shining domes wherewith they were surmounted.”
Lists of numbers are not the best way to convey grandiosity; descriptive language works much better. Consequently, the second half of the paragraph is much more fun to read than the first.
The architecture sounds sort of amazing, with the glazed brick houses each with its own garden-pond, and the streets paved with onyx. I was going to say that I hoped they grew out of being genocidal xenophobic asshats, but they still celebrate the "festival of the destruction of Ib," so I wouldn't count on it.
Do they remember the destruction of Ib for reasons other than what they did to the frog people, though? For instance, America is just now starting to realize that Columbus Day and having Andrew "I will drink your trail of tears" Jackson on its currency might not be the best traditions to carry on, but that isn't WHY they were celebrated. Columbus was/is remembered for discovering the Americas and making way, eventually, for the foundation of the country; what he did to the native Caribbean tribes is simply left out of the story and whitewashed. Andrew Jackson is remembered for opening up the west for further colonization; the narrative simply pretends that there was no one already living there when he did so, again whitewashing. So, during this festival at Sarnath, are they celebrating some good that came about for their nation from the destruction of Ib while carefully forgetting what it meant for the frogmen, or are they celebrating the genocide itself?
If the former, I can condemn Sarnathi culture only as much as I condemn my own (both of my own cultures; Israel's day of independence has the same problems). If the latter, fuck these guys.
“But more marvellous still were the palaces and the temples, and the gardens made by Zokkar the olden king. There were many palaces, the least of which were mightier than any in Thraa or Ilarnek or Kadatheron. So high were they that one within might sometimes fancy himself beneath only the sky; yet when lighted with torches dipt in the oil of Dothur their walls shewed vast paintings of kings and armies, of a splendour at once inspiring and stupefying to the beholder. Many were the pillars of the palaces, all of tinted marble, and carven into designs of surpassing beauty. And in most of the palaces the floors were mosaics of beryl and lapis-lazuli and sardonyx and carbuncle and other choice materials, so disposed that the beholder might fancy himself walking over beds of the rarest flowers. And there were likewise fountains, which cast scented waters about in pleasing jets arranged with cunning art. Outshining all others was the palace of the kings of Mnar and of the lands adjacent. On a pair of golden crouching lions rested the throne, many steps above the gleaming floor. And it was wrought of one piece of ivory, though no man lives who knows whence so vast a piece could have come. In that palace there were also many galleries, and many amphitheatres where lions and men and elephants battled at the pleasure of the kings. Sometimes the amphitheatres were flooded with water conveyed from the lake in mighty aqueducts, and then were enacted stirring sea-fights, or combats betwixt swimmers and deadly marine things.”
Roman-style gladiatorial battles were a thing in Sarnath, it seems. I have to imagine that the author is being slightly hyperbolic about how tall the towers supposedly were, unless there was some kind of magic involved.
Lions and elephants have been mentioned a couple times now. That means that whatever world this story takes place in, it has approximately the same biosphere as Earth, and that Sarnath is in or near a place with an ecosystem similar to the African savanna. Or maybe not so near: Hannibal managed to get Indian elephants onto the Iberian Peninsula, after all, so the Sarnathi might have imported their beasts from a similar distance. Also, "deadly marine things." That could mean sharks or crocodiles, but it could also mean an animal that doesn't exist on Earth.
Aquaducts were also mentioned; another Rome parallel. I had been imagining Sarnath as roughly parallel to Babylon or Nineveh, but its pretty clearly more inspired by Rome at this point. It mentions vassal-kings having ambassadorial palaces of their own in Sarnath as well, which I believe was also a thing in Rome? Someone who knows more about that period of history can correct me if I'm wrong.
“Lofty and amazing were the seventeen tower-like temples of Sarnath, fashioned of a bright multi-coloured stone not known elsewhere. A full thousand cubits high stood the greatest among them, wherein the high-priests dwelt with a magnificence scarce less than that of the kings. On the ground were halls as vast and splendid as those of the palaces; where gathered throngs in worship of Zo-Kalar and Tamash and Lobon, the chief gods of Sarnath, whose incense-enveloped shrines were as the thrones of monarchs. Not like the eikons of other gods were those of Zo-Kalar and Tamash and Lobon, for so close to life were they that one might swear the graceful bearded gods themselves sate on the ivory thrones.”
These descriptions are seriously starting to bore me. The writing style is reminiscent of an ancient historian trying to impress people, which I'm sure was Lovecraft's intent, but at a certain length that style gets tiring.
Its interesting to note that the three principle gods of Sarnath are all male. Not that goddess-worshiping societies throughout history haven't been strongly patriarchal (Athens and Japan being the most well known examples), but a polytheistic society that doesn't have any women in its pantheon AT ALL strikes me as likely to be a pretty misogynistic place. I could be wrong. Wonder if Lovecraft was conscious of what he was doing, there?
“And up unending steps of shining zircon was the tower-chamber, wherefrom the high-priests looked out over the city and the plains and the lake by day; and at the cryptic moon and significant stars and planets, and their reflections in the lake, by night. Here was done the very secret and ancient rite in detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard, and here rested the altar of chrysolite which bore the DOOM-scrawl of Taran-Ish.”
That's one mystery solved. Why the priests are keeping this a secret, I'm not sure; maybe they're afraid that eventually some king will take the idol from their possession and undo whatever suppressing magic their "ancient rite of detestation" is working if the secular authorities knew.
I can't help but feel that they're going to make the doom worse the longer they defer it, though. The spirits of the Ibians (or Bokrug, whoever the curse that killed Taran-Ish is coming from) are not going to be happy about their idol being kept as an object of hatred and mockery long after their deaths. I can only imagine that each ritual detestation is adding to their rage, even if it also keeps them at bay.
“Wonderful likewise were the gardens made by Zokkar the olden king. In the centre of Sarnath they lay, covering a great space and encircled by a high wall. And they were surmounted by a mighty dome of glass, through which shone the sun and moon and stars and planets when it was clear, and from which were hung fulgent images of the sun and moon and stars and planets when it was not clear. In summer the gardens were cooled with fresh odorous breezes skilfully wafted by fans, and in winter they were heated with concealed fires, so that in those gardens it was always spring. There ran little streams over bright pebbles, dividing meads of green and gardens of many hues, and spanned by a multitude of bridges. Many were the waterfalls in their courses, and many were the lilied lakelets into which they expanded. Over the streams and lakelets rode white swans, whilst the music of rare birds chimed in with the melody of the waters. In ordered terraces rose the green banks, adorned here and there with bowers of vines and sweet blossoms, and seats and benches of marble and porphyry. And there were many small shrines and temples where one might rest or pray to small gods.”
They have large-scale fans? Wonder what they're powered by. Do the Sarnathi have steam? Electricity? Magic? Slaves in giant hamsterwheels?
Anyway, the point of mentioning that seems to be demonstrating that their technological aptitude was as great as their architectural. Also, glass domes of that size? With any pre-modern techbase that would really take some doing.
This is still kinda boring, though.
“Each year there was celebrated in Sarnath the feast of the destroying of Ib, at which time wine, song, dancing, and merriment of every kind abounded. Great honours were then paid to the shades of those who had annihilated the odd ancient beings, and the memory of those beings and of their elder gods was derided by dancers and lutanists crowned with roses from the gardens of Zokkar. And the kings would look out over the lake and curse the bones of the dead that lay beneath it. At first the high-priests liked not these festivals, for there had descended amongst them queer tales of how the sea-green eikon had vanished, and how Taran-Ish had died from fear and left a warning. And they said that from their high tower they sometimes saw lights beneath the waters of the lake. But as many years passed without calamity even the priests laughed and cursed and joined in the orgies of the feasters. Indeed, had they not themselves, in their high tower, often performed the very ancient and secret rite in detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard? And a thousand years of riches and delight passed over Sarnath, wonder of the world and pride of all mankind.”
WHELP.
“Gorgeous beyond thought was the feast of the thousandth year of the destroying of Ib. For a decade had it been talked of in the land of Mnar, and as it drew nigh there came to Sarnath on horses and camels and elephants men from Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron, and all the cities of Mnar and the lands beyond. Before the marble walls on the appointed night were pitched the pavilions of princes and the tents of travellers, and all the shore resounded with the song of happy revellers. Within his banquet-hall reclined Nargis-Hei, the king, drunken with ancient wine from the vaults of conquered Pnath, and surrounded by feasting nobles and hurrying slaves. There were eaten many strange delicacies at that feast; peacocks from the isles of Nariel in the Middle Ocean, young goats from the distant hills of Implan, heels of camels from the Bnazic desert, nuts and spices from Cydathrian groves, and pearls from wave-washed Mtal dissolved in the vinegar of Thraa. Of sauces there were an untold number, prepared by the subtlest cooks in all Mnar, and suited to the palate of every feaster. But most prized of all the viands were the great fishes from the lake, each of vast size, and served up on golden platters set with rubies and diamonds.”
Pearls dissolved in vinegar.
Did Lovecraft just think that sounded fancy and extravagant (EDIT: apparently not. At least according to legend, that was a Ptolemaic thing)? I can't imagine that tasting good. Or not being terrible for you. I guess people throughout history have done weirder things, but still.
Anyway, huge fish (I'm imagining Amazon catfish, or those giant Asian carp) from the possibly haunted/cursed lake are the main course at the thousandth genocideday feast. Who wants to bet they're going to be erupting with chryssalids or something?
“Whilst the king and his nobles feasted within the palace, and viewed the crowning dish as it awaited them on golden platters, others feasted elsewhere. In the tower of the great temple the priests held revels, and in pavilions without the walls the princes of neighbouring lands made merry. And it was the high-priest Gnai-Kah who first saw the shadows that descended from the gibbous moon into the lake, and the damnable green mists that arose from the lake to meet the moon and to shroud in a sinister haze the towers and the domes of fated Sarnath. Thereafter those in the towers and without the walls beheld strange lights on the water, and saw that the grey rock Akurion, which was wont to rear high above it near the shore, was almost submerged. And fear grew vaguely yet swiftly, so that the princes of Ilarnek and of far Rokol took down and folded their tents and pavilions and departed for the river Ai, though they scarce knew the reason for their departing.”
This random rock has a name? Not sure what to visualize there, but it sounds like the water level of the lake is rising. I commented on the hydrological mystery before; now it seems like there's definitely magic involved in it.
And, green mists and shadows descending from the moon? As I recall, that's how the Ibians are believed to have first come to the planet's surface, and that they had lived on the moon before that. Are we getting another wave of colonization by their species?
“Then, close to the hour of midnight, all the bronze gates of Sarnath burst open and emptied forth a frenzied throng that blackened the plain, so that all the visiting princes and travellers fled away in fright. For on the faces of this throng was writ a madness born of horror unendurable, and on their tongues were words so terrible that no hearer paused for proof. Men whose eyes were wild with fear shrieked aloud of the sight within the king’s banquet-hall, where through the windows were seen no longer the forms of Nargis-Hei and his nobles and slaves, but a horde of indescribable green voiceless things with bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious ears; things which danced horribly, bearing in their paws golden platters set with rubies and diamonds containing uncouth flames. And the princes and travellers, as they fled from the doomed city of Sarnath on horses and camels and elephants, looked again upon the mist-begetting lake and saw the grey rock Akurion was quite submerged.
Through all the land of Mnar and the lands adjacent spread the tales of those who had fled from Sarnath, and caravans sought that accursed city and its precious metals no more. It was long ere any traveller went thither, and even then only the brave and adventurous young men of distant Falona dared make the journey; adventurous young men of yellow hair and blue eyes, who are no kin to the men of Mnar. These men indeed went to the lake to view Sarnath; but though they found the vast still lake itself, and the grey rock Akurion which rears high above it near the shore, they beheld not the wonder of the world and pride of all mankind. Where once had risen walls of 300 cubits and towers yet higher, now stretched only the marshy shore, and where once had dwelt fifty millions of men now crawled only the detestable green water-lizard. Not even the mines of precious metal remained, for DOOM had come to Sarnath.”
Not colonization, it seems. Just a massive attack, either by living frogmen soldiers from the moon, or the ghosts of the slaughtered Ibians manifesting en masse. They're described with golden dishes full of eldritch fire, which I'm guessing are weapons of some kind. I might have to use that idea in DnD or something; magic lanterns that shoot fire. They somehow cause the water level to rise, flooding Sarnath in its entirety, and while its submerged they level it down to its foundations before letting the lake recede again.
Much later, the area is resettled by other humans, ethnically unrelated to the olive-skinned people who founded Sarnath and its lesser sisters. Wonder if the blondies' ancestors were subjects of the Sarnathi, like many of the Gaulic and Germanic peoples were to Rome at its height?
Those water lizards that the Ibians' god resembled are still around. I'm imagining them as a freshwater version of the marine iguana.
“But half buried in the rushes was spied a curious green idol of stone; an exceedingly ancient idol coated with seaweed and chiselled in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard. That idol, enshrined in the high temple at Ilarnek, was subsequently worshipped beneath the gibbous moon throughout the land of Mnar”
Well, at least something of Ib survived in a non-demeaning fashion. The Neo-Mnarites adopt or at least incorporate the ancient religion of the frogmen, while the gods of Sarnath are forgotten.
Holy shit is that heavy, ESPECIALLY read in historical context.
For the first time in Lovecraft's work, we have a nonhuman intelligence being portrayed sympathetically (MIKE's species doesn't count, since they are actually human dreamers). Sure, the Ibians are described as ugly and their ritual dances as horrible to human aesthetics, but the sympathies of the text clearly lie with them over the bellicose and gluttonous Sarnathi.
Of course, despite the Roman trappings, the parallels with American history are much too obvious to ignore. I don't see a way that this could NOT be an intentional analogue to the colonization of the Americas: I'm just surprised to see it coming from Lovecraft, the guy who described Catskill hillbillies as the most degenerate of all the "native American" peoples, and who just a year previously wrote a story about a guy who committed suicide because he couldn't handle the existence of creatures who look quite a bit like the Ibians. This story is the guilty conscience of the modern west laid bare.
I'm not sure how I'd feel about my analogue being an ugly nonhuman, if I was Native American, but within this story at least the Ibians come across as better than humans and not simply different from them. Or at least, better than these humans; the pre-Sarnathi herdsmen are said to have wiped out the Ibians because they didn't like how they looked, which is a much pettier and less pragmatic reason than the ones most historical horrors were motivated by. Without the context of the broader story, with Sarnath becoming a mighty empire built on the ashes of Ib, the atrocity itself would have more in common with the holocaust or the Armenian genocide than the extermination of the Native Americans: a genocide motivated by ideology rather than material greed. Greed at least has some rational motive; you get more nice things for yourself. Killing purely out of unprecipitated hate without expecting a material gain is a giant step beyond that, and rare in history. We Americans (and Canadians. And Australians. And Israelis, though my second nationality didn't exist yet at Lovecraft's time and its ousting of the natives was notably less brutal than the other examples) are still better than that, at least, but the criticism is still pointed enough to work.
At the same time, I can't help but have a nasty feeling about the ending. The wording with which he describes the Neo-Mnarites adopting the Ibian religion...I feel like he might have meant that to be disturbing, or even horrifying. Like, even if he condemns the Sarnathi for their act of unprovoked genocide, he seems to share their revulsion at the Ibians, and feel that the Ibian legacy being passed on is more of a curse for humanity than a blessing for the long-dead Ibians. Maybe I'm being influenced by the attitudes conveyed in Lovecraft's other works instead of just taking this one at face value, but...well, like I said, I have a bad feeling.
Nonetheless, "the Native Americans were nonhuman wild things, but it was still wrong to kill them" is a much better attitude than "the Native Americans were nonhuman wild things, and its a good thing we killed most of them and subjugated the rest," even if its still terrible.
The other possibility - that Lovecraft didn't even realize what he was doing with this story - would just fry my fucking brain. I don't see how it could be possible for someone to be that daft. No, I owe Lovecraft's memory an apology just for thinking that. Sorry about that one, Howie; to make amends, I will refrain from making any more merman dick jokes for at least the next five stories.
Next story is back to Lovecraft's first zine, the United Amateur, with "Poetry and the Gods."
