The Doom that Came to Sarnath
| "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" | |
|---|---|
| Author | H.P. Lovecraft |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy short story |
| Published in | The Scot |
| Publication date | 1920 |
"The Doom that Came to Sarnath" (1920) is an early short story by H. P. Lovecraft. It is written in a mythic/fairy tale style and is associated with his Dream Cycle. It was first published in The Scot, a Scottish amateur fiction magazine, in June 1920.
The Doom That Came to Sarnath and Other Stories is also the title for a collection of short stories by Lovecraft, first published in February 1971.
The influence of Lord Dunsany on the story can be seen in the reference to a throne "wrought of one piece of ivory, though no man lives who knows whence so vast a piece could have come", which evokes the gate "carved out of one solid piece" of ivory in Dunsany's "Idle Days on the Yann".
Though Sarnath is a historical city in India —the place where the Buddha first taught— Lovecraft said that he thought he invented the name independently.
According to the tale, more than 10,000 years ago, a race of shepherd people colonized the banks of the river Ai, in a land called Mnar, forming the cities of Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron (not to be confused with Kadath), which rose to great intellectual and prowess. Craving more land, a group of these hardy people migrated to the shores of a lonely and vast lake at the heart of Mnar, founding the city of Sarnath.
But the settlers weren't alone. At the other side of the lake, was the ancient grey-stone city of Ib, inhabited by a queer race who had descended from the moon. Lovecraft described them as "in hue as green as the lake and the mists that rise above it.... They had bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious ears, and were without voices."
These beings worshipped a strange god known as Bokrug, the Great Water Lizard, although it was more their physical form that caused the people of Sarnath to despise them.
The citizens of Sarnath killed all the creatures inhabiting Ib, destroyed the city, and took their idol as a trophy, putting it in Sarnath's main temple. The next night, the idol vanished under mysterious circumstances, and Taran-Ish, the high-priest of Sarnath, was found murdered. Before dying, he had scrawled a single word onto the empty altar: "DOOM".
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