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The Quest of Iranon
Lovecraft, Howard Phillips
Published:
1935
Categorie(s):
Fiction, Short Stories
Source:
http://en.wikisource.org
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About Lovecraft:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of fantasy, horror
and science fiction. He is notable for blending elements of science fiction
and horror; and for popularizing "cosmic horror": the notion that some
concepts, entities or experiences are barely comprehensible to human
minds, and those who delve into such risk their sanity. Lovecraft has be-
come a cult figure in the horror genre and is noted as creator of the
"Cthulhu Mythos," a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a
"pantheon" of nonhuman creatures, as well as the famed Necronomicon,
a grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works typically had a
tone of "cosmic pessimism," regarding mankind as insignificant and
powerless in the universe. Lovecraft's readership was limited during his
life, and his works, particularly early in his career, have been criticized as
occasionally ponderous, and for their uneven quality. Nevertheless,
Lovecraft’s reputation has grown tremendously over the decades, and he
is now commonly regarded as one of the most important horror writers
of the 20th Century, exerting an influence that is widespread, though of-
ten indirect. Source: Wikipedia
Also available on Feedbooks for Lovecraft:
•
(1926)
•
(1931)
•
(1928)
•
(1934)
•
(1931)
•
(1936)
•
(1930)
•
(1927)
•
(1938)
•
(1932)
Copyright:
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Into the granite city of Teloth wandered the youth, vine-crowned, his
yellow hair glistening with myrrh and his purple robe torn with briers of
the mountain Sidrak that lies across the antique bridge of stone. The men
of Teloth are dark and stern, and dwell in square houses, and with
frowns they asked the stranger whence he had come and what were his
name and fortune. So the youth answered:
"I am Iranon, and come from Aira, a far city that I recall only dimly but
seek to find again. I am a singer of songs that I learned in the far city, and
my calling is to make beauty with the things remembered of childhood.
My wealth is in little memories and dreams, and in hopes that I sing in
gardens when the moon is tender and the west wind stirs the lotus-
buds."
When the men of Teloth heard these things they whispered to one an-
other; for though in the granite city there is no laughter or song, the stern
men sometimes look to the Karthian hills in the spring and think of the
lutes of distant Oonai whereof travellers have told. And thinking thus,
they bade the stranger stay and sing in the square before the Tower of
Mlin, though they liked not the colour of his tattered robe, nor the myrrh
in his hair, nor his chaplet of vine-leaves, nor the youth in his golden
voice. At evening Iranon sang, and while he sang an old man prayed and
a blind man said he saw a nimbus over the singer's head. But most of the
men of Teloth yawned, and some laughed and some went to sleep; for
Iranon told nothing useful, singing only his memories, his dreams, and
his hopes.
"I remember the twilight, the moon, and soft songs, and the window
where I was rocked to sleep. And through the window was the street
where the golden lights came, and where the shadows danced on houses
of marble. I remember the square of moonlight on the floor, that was not
like any other light, and the visions that danced on the moonbeams
when my mother sang to me. And too, I remember the sun of morning
bright above the many-coloured hills in summer, and the sweetness of
flowers borne on the south wind that made the trees sing.
"Oh Aira, city of marble and beryl, how many are thy beauties! How I
loved the warm and fragrant groves across the hyline Nithra, and the
falls of the tiny Kra that flowed though the verdant valley! In those
groves and in the vale the children wove wreathes for one another, and
at dusk I dreamed strange dreams under the yath-trees on the mountain
as I saw below me the lights of the city, and the curving Nithra reflecting
a ribbon of stars.
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"And in the city were the palaces of veined and tinted marble, with
golden domes and painted walls, and green gardens with cerulean pools
and crystal fountains. Often I played in the gardens and waded in the
pools, and lay and dreamed among the pale flowers under the trees. And
sometimes at sunset i would climb the long hilly street to the citadel and
the open place, and look down upon Aira, the magic city of marble and
beryl, splendid in a robe of golden flame.
"Long have I missed thee, Aira, for i was but young when we went in-
to exile; but my father was thy King and I shall come again to thee, for it
is so decreed of Fate. All through seven lands have I sought thee, and
some day shall I reign over thy groves and gardens, thy streets and
palaces, and sing to men who shall know whereof I sing, and laugh not
nor turn away. For I am Iranon, who was a Prince in Aira."
That night the men of Teloth lodged the stranger in a stable, and in the
morning an archon came to him and told him to go to the shop of Athok
the cobbler, and be apprenticed to him.
"But I am Iranon, a singer of songs, " he said, "and have no heart for
the cobbler's trade."
"All in Teloth must toil," replied the archon, "for that is the law." Then
said Iranon:
"Wherefore do ye toil; is it not that ye may live and be happy? And if
ye toil only that ye may toil more, when shall happiness find you? Ye toil
to live, but is not life made of beauty and song? And if ye suffer no sing-
ers among you, where shall be the fruits of your toil? Toil without song
is like a weary journey without an end. Were not death more pleasing?"
But the archon was sullen and did not understand, and rebuked the
stranger.
"Thou art a strange youth, and I like not thy face or thy voice. The
words thou speakest are blasphemy, for the gods of Teloth have said that
toil is good. Our gods have promised us a haven of light beyond death,
where shall be rest without end, and crystal coldness amidst which none
shall vex his mind with thought or his eyes with beauty. Go thou then to
Athok the cobbler or be gone out of the city by sunset. All here must
serve, and song is folly."
So Iranon went out of the stable and walked over the narrow stone
streets between the gloomy square house of granite, seeking something
green, for all was of stone. On the faces of men were frowns, but by the
stone embankment along the sluggish river Zuro sat a young boy with
sad eyes gazing into the waters to spy green budding branches washed
down from the hills by the freshets. And the boy said to him:
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"Art thou not indeed he of whom the archons tell, who seekest a far
city in a fair land? I am Romnod, and borne of the blood of Teloth, but
am not olf in the ways of the granite city, and yearn daily for the warm
groves and the distant lands of beauty and song. Beyond the Karthian
hills lieth Oonai, the city of lutes and dancing, which men whisper of
and say is both lovely and terrible.Thither would I go were I old enough
to find the way, and thither shouldst thou go and thou wouldst sing and
have men listen to thee. Let us leave the city of Teloth and fare together
among the hills of spring. Thou shalt shew me the ways of travel and I
will attend thy songs at evening when the stars one by one bring dreams
to the minds of dreamers. And peradventure it may be that Oonai the
city of lutes and dancing is even the fair Aira thou seekest, for it is told
that thou hast not known Aira since the old days, and a name often chan-
geth. Let us go to Oonai, O Iranon of the golden head, where men shall
know our longings and welcome us as brothers, nor even laugh or frown
at what we say." And Iranon answered:
"Be it so, small one; if any in this stone place yearn for beauty he must
seek the mountains and beyond, and I would not leave thee to pine by
the sluggish Zuro. But think not that delight and understanding dwell
just across the Karthian hills, or in any spot thou canst find in a day's, or
a year's, or a lustrum's journey. Behold, when I was small like thee I
dwelt in the valley of Narthos by the frigid Xari, where none would
listen to my dreams; and I told myself that when older i would go to Sin-
ara on the southern slope, and sing to smiling dromedary-men in the
marketplace. But when I went to Sinara i found the dromedary-men all
drunken and ribald, and saw that their songs were not as mine, so I trav-
elled in a barge down the Xari to onyx-walled Jaren. And the soldiers at
Jaren laughed at me and drave me out, so that I wandered to many cities.
I have seen Stethelos that is below the great cataract, and have gazed on
the marsh where Sarnath once stood. I have been to thraa, Ilarnek, and
Kadatheron on the winding river Ai, and have dwelt long in Olathoe in
the land of Lomar. But though i have had listeners sometimes, they have
ever been few. and I know that welcome shall wait me only in Aira, the
city of marble and beryl where my father once ruled as King. So for Aira
shall we seek, though it were well to visit distant and lute-blessed oonai
across the Karthianhills, which may indeed be Aira, though i think not.
Aira's beauty is past imagining, and none can tell of it without rapture,
whilist of Oonai the camel-drivers whisper leeringly."
At the sunset Iranon and small Romnod went forth from Teloth, and
for long wandered amidst the green hills and cool forests. The way was
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