Fiction Īside from the title of the novel fragment, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath was the first fiction by Lovecraft to mention Azathoth: Price sees another inspiration for Azathoth in Lord Dunsany's Mana-Yood-Sushai, from The Gods of Pegana, a creator deity "who made the gods and thereafter rested." In Dunsany's conception, MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI sleeps eternally, lulled by the music of a lesser deity who must drum forever, "for if he cease for an instant then MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI will start awake, and there will be worlds nor gods no more." This oblivious creator god accompanied by supernatural musicians is a clear prototype for Azathoth, Price argues. Lovecraft's attempts to work this idea into a novel foundered (a 500-word fragment survives, first published under the title " Azathoth" in the journal Leaves in 1938), although Lovecraftian scholar Will Murray suggests that Lovecraft recycled the idea into his Dream Cycle novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, written in 1926. The name may also be inspired by the phrase "As a thought".Īnother note Lovecraft made to himself later in 1919 refers to an idea for a story: "A terrible pilgrimage to seek the nighted throne of the far daemon-sultan Azathoth." In a letter to Frank Belknap Long, Lovecraft ties this plot germ to Vathek, a supernatural novel by William Beckford about a wicked caliph. Price also points to the alchemical term " Azoth", which was used in the title of a book by Arthur Edward Waite, the model for the wizard Ephraim Waite in Lovecraft's " The Thing on the Doorstep". Price argues that Lovecraft could have combined the biblical names Anathoth ( Jeremiah's home town) and Azazel-mentioned by Lovecraft in " The Dunwich Horror". The first recorded mention of the name Azathoth was in a note Lovecraft wrote to himself in 1919 that read simply, "AZATHOTH-hideous name". He is the ruler of the Outer Gods, and may be seen as a symbol for primordial chaos. Azathoth is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos and Dream Cycle stories of writer H.
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