The Doom That Came to Sarnath

Dream Cycle

by H.P. Lovecraft

Although this early imitation of Dunsany—first published in the amateur journal The Scot in (1920)—reveals the Irish writer's influence in every line, it is also characteristically Lovecraft, a harbinger of things to come.

Written in ornate, mannered prose, the story itself is simple: the men who built the "new" city of Sarnath—a city destroyed ten thousand years ago—hate the older city of Ib, and therefore lay waste to it and kill every one of its inhabitants, preserving only the statue of Bokrug the water-lizard god, which they carry to Sarnath in triumph. But Bokrug will not be mocked, and eventually doom comes to Sarnath too.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Lovecraftian, Fantasy, Fiction, Classics, Weird Fiction

18 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 1919

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this early imitation of Dunsany—first published in the amateur journal The Scot in (1920)—reveals the Irish writer's influence in every line, it is also characteristically Lovecraft, a harbinger of things to come.

Written in ornate, mannered prose, the story itself is simple: the men who built the "new" city of Sarnath—a city destroyed ten thousand years ago—hate the older city of Ib, and therefore lay waste to it and kill every one of its inhabitants, preserving only the statue of Bokrug the water-lizard god, which they carry to Sarnath in triumph. But Bokrug will not be mocked, and eventually doom comes to Sarnath too.

If Dunsany had written this story, he would have emphasized the ancientness of Sarnath and hinted at destroyed cities and moribund gods even more ancient than Ib. It would be a prophet's tale, fortelling the death of another city built ten thousand years after Sarnath, and the prophet would also speak of the destruction of cities not yet built, the death of gods not yet imagined. A wistful and melancholy tale, a quintessentially Celtic meditation upon the great mystery of time.

But Lovecraft writes a different sort of story, in which fear of the other—the alien, ancient other, these creatures with “bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips..., curious ears, and...without voice" —may turn to hatred and violence, but that no amount of violence can eradicate the old fears, that the gods of the unfathomable past will inevitably reassert their presence, that those gods will indeed return to enact their revenge.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe I dog-paddled through that swamp of putridly purple description just for a final paragraph of madness born of horror unendurable.

Howie, you tease, you're all build up and no delivery.


This is the third of the Dreamlands story cycle.
The White Ship <--previous | next --> The Cats of Ulthar

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time there was a grand and glorious city called Ib. It was inhabited by green beings that worshipped the god Bokrug, the Great Water Lizard. Then humans came to walk the earth, and they settled themselves near the city of Ib. But the humans despised and hated the green creatures inhabiting Ib, as they did not look anything like them. The humans then went and killed all the creatures, destroyed the city and took their god’s idol as a trophy.

But gods don’t take kindly to humans who disrespect them. Will the humans be able to live happily ever after?


This is an atmospheric and very descriptive short story by the legendary horror writer. It actually reads a bit like a dark, moody fairy tale. I also quite like the theme of this story. Because it’s clear the humans are in the wrong for killing the creatures of Ib, simply because they looked different.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarnath conquered a much older town named Ib and took their idols away. Now Bokrug the water lizard is missing, the highpriest dead and doom hanging over Sarnath. Does doom finally come to town? Atmospheric story with a fascinating idol (Bokrug) and great scenes when doom strikes. Otherwise a bit over descriptive in some parts. Nevertheless a classic Lovecraft full of foreboding and old terror. Recommended!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of how humans wiped out an advanced race of reptilian humanoids.

This is more for mood than story/plot.

OVERALL GRADE: B minus.

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Ten thousand years ago in the land of Mnar there used to be a glorious city of Sarnath. It's gone now.
Before humans came the land of Mnar was the home of lake creatures, the beings of Ib. '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.' When humans came they killed them all and destroyed their city of Ib. As a proof of their power they took their green idol to their city.
There is a bit overly descriptive part of the story that shows how much Sarnath had progressed since the destruction of Ib that might pull you out of it, but it's not a big deal if you are familiar with Lovecraft at all. I can forgive anything in his case.

Since the title is in itself a spoiler, it's not surprising that the creatures and their lizard-god got the last laugh. Nothing in the story makes me feel sorry for the humans.

[Pat the Book Goblin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was awesome!!

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is one of the better stories from Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. It reads like a dark fairy tale and the foreshadowing of the deadly curse is played out rather nicely, so 4 stars.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doomed City

The story has all the hallmarks of Lovecraft's writing. Elaborate description and hidden horrors too terrible to contemplate. All in all a good short story. The second half of the book was pretty much incomprehensible, however, and seemed to have nothing to do with the story or the author as far as I could tell.

[Sauerkirsche · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Das Verderben das über Sarnath kam" ist eine eher ungewöhnliche Geschichte für Lovecraft. Mehr Fantasy als klassischer Horror, spielt sie in einer fiktiven Welt die jedoch von ähnlichen alten, bösen Wesen und Göttern beherrscht wird wie die reale Welt in Lovecrafts Cthulhu-Mythos. Wer das Ergänzungswerk "Die Welt von Eis und Feuer" von George R.R. Martin zur Game of Thrones Reihe gelesen hat, wird viele Parallelen erkennen. Gestalten, Beschreibungen, selbst Stadtnamen hat Martin übernommen. Bis zu dieser Geschichte wusste ich nicht, dass mit George R.R. Martin ein weiterer berühmter Autor Lovecraft zu seinen Hauptinspirationsquellen zählt. Mit diesem Bewusstsein, fallen einem natürlich deutlich mehr Anspielungen auf wie bspw. Spruch und Wappen der Eisenmänner.
Nicht mein liebster Lovecraft, aber trotzdem eine lesenswerte Kurzgeschichte.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third story in Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. It has a setting and an event occurs. But the story has no protagonists or antagonists. It's a description of a natural, or rather, mystical disaster. The story is about 85% setting description, 15% event narration.

That doesn't really work for me. The story still gets three stars because if that's all you're going to do, describe and narrate, I can't imagine it being done better, or being written better.

2nd Review

The protagonist, I now see, is Bokrug, eikon of Ib. This is a story of an ancient civilization of aliens making a home by a lake. They build a city they name Ib and worship Bokrug, a water lizard. Along comes man many years later, who builds a civilization along a river headed by a rival city by the lake, a city they name Sarnath. Out of jealousy, spite or whatever the men of Sarnath wipe out Ib. This is the story of Ib's revenge. Pretty cool. Not sure how I missed all this on my first couple reads.

[Jost · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with all the dream cycle stories, lacking in plot and heavy in description.

[Stephanie Zed · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

[Mika · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's about the City of Sarnath in its glory and downfall when they stole the water-lizard god Bokrug from Ib. What seemed to be a victory for Sarnath turned out to be a downfall which only left ruins.

While I enjoy stories surrounding royalty, I'm not so enthusiastic when it comes to politics and wars (unless it's fantasy, but it didn't hit here). I wasn't really engaged. Still giving it 2 out of 5 as I liked the god Bokrug.

[Per · Rating 2 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Do...

https://www.tor.com/2014/12/10/rising...

[Chris Bowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now almost fully away from horror and deep into the realms of fantasy, H.P. Lovecraft continues the Dream Cycle series with The Doom That Came to Sarnath, a history of a successful yet overindulgent city that bears many parallels to Rome; how it was founded and how it eventually falls. Be ready for lots of made up fantasy names over just a few pages. Does not offer much in the way of a standalone story.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two 'gibbeous moons' in this one, bringing us up to four total so far!

'The Doom that Came to Sarnath', as a title, goes so hard. And I didn't dislike the tale, but it's not as interesting as its title. There's so many invented place names thrown around in such a dry voice that it feels like reading Dune - and not in a good way. There's definitely some weird racial vibes towards the end, but the underlying narrative of a city's doom is quite cool, and the constant revisiting of the lake and the strange lights sighted under it according to rumour after the fall of Ib is unease-crafting gold. Decent stuff that doesn't do much really, but has a fairly solid ending.

2.5 Vengeful Fishfolk out of 5

🐟🐟1/2⬛⬛⬛

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

H.P. Lovecraft writes a short story from the perspective of an omniscient narrator who recalls the conquest of the ancient city of Ib by the people of the new city of Sarnath, who prospered for 1000 years and even forgot their colonial history--to their future tragic detriment. A surprise ending complicates the plot's conclusion, and its usage invites multiple readings to understand the story. While some readers might be overwhelmed by the story's century-old vocabulary, other readers seeking a slowly unfolding horror story about the mysteries of the unknown and the dangers of hubris and ignorance of history should be entertained.

[Baal Of · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple story of human eradication of another species, because they are other, the slow build of magnificent empire, and then their destruction by those they thought they had wiped out. Flowery language, and a very fairy-tale feeling in the opulence of the city.

[Eddie B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

White guilt?

[David Sarkies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empires Fall
13 Aug 2022 – Nottingham

My initial plan was to write this review while sitting at Ye Old Road to Jerusalem, arguably England’s oldest pub, however when I got there I discovered that pretty much everybody else had the idea of having a drink there (and that it is so busy that a broken glass is the least of their problems). I did go to another pretty old pub, dating back to the 13th century, but it turned out to be a bike pub. Yeah, only in England is there a pub that dates back to the 13th century that turn out to be a bike pub.

Anyway, while I’m on the train heading back to London from Nottingham (and the only reason I went to Nottingham was to have a beer at Ye Olde Road to Jerusalem – and I was assured that a horde of crusaders weren’t going to barge into the pub while I was there drinking there). Fortunately that turned out to be the case, so I was able to sit on my stool and read my book, which wasn’t this one because I had already finished it.

To be honest a part of me felt like I was reading a Dungeons and Dragons sourcebook, and another part of me felt as if I was reading a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. That’s sort of what came to mind, though I might have been thinking of somebody else, but couldn’t quite grasp the name, so I’ll stick with Samuel Taylor Coleridge since it did remind me a lot of Kubla Kahn. Actually it reminded me so much of Kubla Kahn that I sort of wondered whether Lovecraft was on drugs when he wrote this (though the internet explicitly says that he didn’t take drugs, which is what I suspected).

So, the story is basically about the rise and fall of the city of Sarnath, and it spends most of the time giving some particularly detailed descriptions of this city. In a way that is why I related it to some roleplaying sourcebook since they tend to go into some pretty detailed descriptions of their cities, despite the fact that I consider these sourcebooks a complete waste of money. However, it also sounds as if it is one of those cities, like Myth Drannor in the Forgotten Realms, that was once a powerful, and beautiful, city that has since been destroyed and is now ruins inhabited my monsters that adventurers will explore looking for treasures and experience.

Then again, it also makes me think of the other great cities in our world, the ones that arose to prominence, dominated the region, or even the world, only to be brought low by their neighbours. Well, maybe not Rome, who had expanded to control most of Europe, though I do think of London which was eventually brought low by the Germans, who were neighbours (and well, you could consider that the barbarians that eventually sacked Rome were neighbours, but that was a rather complex collapse). However, as is typical with Lovecraft, the city turned out to be inhabited by some rather nasty beings. This wasn’t a city of barbarians, or people that spoke a different language, but a city of green creatures and ended up attacking and destroying the place. Yeah, while it comes across as being a fantasy, the introduction of Lovecraftian monsters raises it to another level.

[Ⰰⱃⰿⰰⱀⰴ Ⱆⰾⰴⰵⱃⰻⰽⱁ Ⱅⰵⱄⰾⰰ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zagrebačka naklada
Zagreb, 2012.
Preveo Toni Golub
Jezik je tipična lofrkatiština.
Sadržajno govoreći tipično Lovecraftovo djelo, sjajan primjer sadržajne aktualizacije i toposa Cthulhu mitologije koja je razvijena radi čistog larpurlartizmu u vidu toga što je u potpunosti antimimetična.
Mimetična umjetnost je bila i ostala pseudoumjetnost, realizam je najbolji primjer kako je mimetična umjetnost ništa drugo doli sredstvo propagande, bila ona komunistička, feministička ili jednostavno libtardska.
Lovecraft je bio istinski fantazof, i u tom pogledu istinski umjetnik, iako je djelovao uglavnom unutar žanrovske domene. Fantazofija (antimimetičnost, larpurlartizam, visoki esteticizam- skovah ja taj termin) je najveća spona rane moderne s romantizmom.
Lovecraftov Cthulhu mitos je druga spona Lovecraftova opusa s romantizmom. Treba se sjetiti samo Blakeove mitologije, brojnih prerada njemačke volk mitologije od strane kruga u Jeni... Romantizam je stvarao novu mitologiju baš kao i Lovecraft. To je taj intuitivni osjećaj da polako Kali Yuga prelazi u Satya Yuga. Kotač se okreće ma koliko scijentističke i religijske dogme crtale pravac povijesti.
Nietzsche je bio u pravu. Kako nam znanost ne može dati odgovore okrećemo se Lovecraftu, odnosno na još većoj vjerničkoj razini vjeri u reptile iz druge dimenzije, novonastajuća religija Davida Icekea je odraz zore Satya Yuge.
Drago mi je da moji unuci neće morati gledati onu ružnu Darwinovu facu.
Hasta luego!

[Dimitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

okay but why did I love this so muchhhh❤️‍🔥
Firstly, the cover O M G
As for the story,the starting paragraph got me IN << There is the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by np 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 NO MORE>>
Like Lovecraft what DID YOU PUT IN HEREEE
Continuing with the story I feel like I am in in an EPIC fantasy book
My favourite SOO FAR 🫶🏻

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

1919, December 3: The Doom That Came to Sarnath

“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.”




“The Doom That Came to Sarnath” is probably the 18th oldest surviving story by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). It was first published in the June 1920 issue of The Scott, as scottish periodical rather than an American one. The tale is clearly heavily inspired by the works of Lord Dunsany, although the gloom and horror of the beginning and ending are pure Lovecraft. “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” is often classified as a part of HPL’s Dream Cycle, but I don’t understand why. The story is certainly a work of fantasy, but the events are clearly meant to take place on Earth 11,000-12,000 years ago, not in the Dream Lands.

The story is about the rise and fall of mankind's first great city-state, Sarnath. HLP makes clear that there were sentient races that populated the Earth long before man rose to prominence, and the citizens of Sarnath will eventually pay for the crimes they committed against one such race. This concept - that there is nothing special about the human race to the cold, indifferent Universe - is a central part of HPL’s concept of cosmic horror that drove his best fictional work.

My biggest problem with “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” is that Lovecraft spends too much time describing the grandeur of the great city and it gets a little dull. At the same time, I enjoyed seeing the arrogant citizens of Sarnath fall to ruin and the earlier descriptions certainly made the climax more powerful. Blame my enjoyment on my prejudice towards people that I perceive as “privileged.” It does seem to be a very common human desire to see arrogant, powerful people laid low. It’s one of the reasons that Booth Tarkington’s great novel The Magnificent Ambersons and Orson Welles’ 1942 film adaptation remain classics.

Coincidentally, there is an ancient city in India named Sarnath that has nothing to do with this story. According to Joshi & Schultz (2004), Lovecraft was unaware of this city and believes that he simply made the name up.

Title: “The Doom That Came to Sarnath”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft
Date: December 3, 1919 (written), June 1920 (published)
Genre: Fiction - Short story, dark fantasy, horror
Word count: - 2,695 words
Date(s) read: 2/15/22
Reading journal entry #49 in 2022

Sources:

The story: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/fict...
The Scot no. 44 (June 1920): 90–98.
Joshi, S.T.; Schultz, David E. (2004). An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Hippocampus Press.

The illustration is called The Doom that came to Sarnath - Concept Art and was created by the artist M. Crassus. Check out his work here: https://www.artstation.com/mcrassusart

[Etain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read this because the Batman comic "the doom that came to Gotham" is on my tbr.
Probably my favorite Lovecraft (mainly because it's sort of anti-colonial instead of extremely racist, or at least can be interpreted that way.) I'll check out some more of the dream cycle stories

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and flowery read about the rise and fall of the doomed ancient city of Sarnath.

[Eithan Arellius · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

[Razan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginative, but purely descriptive with no real plot.

[Graeme Rodaughan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hubris begets Nemesis - but told with too many words...

2 'Endured,' stars.

[Johana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hear hear the story about a beginning and sudden fall of the beautiful and prospering city of Sarnath...