A review by nwhyte
The Gods of Pegana by Lord Dunsany

4.0

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2155065.html[return][return]This is another book available online, complete with illustrations by S.H. Sime. It is quite a remarkable achievement, a short collection of fantasy vignettes illustrating a new pantheon, led by the always-capitalised creator god MNA-YOOD-SUSH*, who has fallen asleep and must not be woken (which may sound familiar); the people of Pegna, and their prophets, have a very uneasy relationship with the various deities.[return][return]Both J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft, teenagers when it was first published, claimed to have been inspired by The Gods of Pegna and one can see the links, though of course they took it in quite different directions. (Lovecraft also mentions Sime's art, and one can see its influence in Tolkien's drawings too.) Looking at it from the other direction, you can detect the influence of W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, both of whom Dunsany would ave known well, along with perhaps some elements from his mother's cousin Sir Richard Burton. But Dunsany took all of these and made his own secondary creation; I don't think it is mch of an exaggeration to say that he helped set the tone for a whole genre.