# Polaris explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by H. P. Lovecraft.

## What happens

The narrator, tormented by the uncanny light of the Pole Star, recounts his visions of the ancient marble city of Olathoe on the plateau of Sarkis. In his dreams, he is a citizen of Lomar, tasked with watching for the advance of the squat, yellow Inutos from a tower. But the Pole Star whispers a hypnotic promise, lulling him to sleep and causing him to fail in his duty. He awakens to a world of stone and brick, mocked by those who tell him his heroic life was only a dream, while he remains haunted by the guilt of betrayal.

## Themes in this chapter

### Dreams vs. Reality

The narrator is trapped between the vivid dream of Lomar and the waking world, uncertain which is real.

### Madness and Psychological Decay

The narrator's sleeplessness, guilt, and the mocking voices suggest a descent into madness.

### Alienation and Otherness

The narrator feels alienated from both the dream world (as a failed watcher) and the waking world (where he is mocked).

## Character check-ins

### Unknown Narrator

The dreamer and watcher, tormented by the Pole Star and guilt-ridden over his failure to warn Olathoe.

### Kuranes

Not directly present, but the narrator's dream-journey and longing for a lost city echo Kuranes's experiences.

## Key lines

> Slumber, watcher, till the spheres, Six and twenty thousand years Have revolv'd, and I return To the spot where now I burn.

Sleep, guardian, until the precession of the equinoxes brings the Pole Star back to this exact position after 26,000 years.

_The Pole Star's hypnotic promise lulls the narrator into fatal slumber._

> They say there is no land of Lomar, save in my nocturnal imaginings; that in those realms where the Pole Star shines high, and red Aldebaran crawls low around the horizon, there has been naught save ice and snow for thousands of years, and never a man save squat, yellow creatures, blighted by the cold, whom they call 'Eskimo.'

The waking world insists that Lomar never existed; the polar region is only a frozen wasteland inhabited by Eskimos.

_The narrator's reality is denied, deepening his confusion and guilt._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/polaris
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_26_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters