The Gods of Pegāna · Chapter
The Deeds of Mung explained
Mung, the Lord of All Deaths between Pegāna and the Rim, travels the Earth and encounters mortals who fear him.
What happens
Mung, the Lord of All Deaths between Pegāna and the Rim, travels the Earth and encounters mortals who fear him. He explains the inevitability of death, the fixed nature of the cosmic scheme, and the fleeting nature of sorrow, ultimately severing life from flesh with his sign.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Death
The chapter is entirely about Mung's role in death, the sorrow of leaving family, and the inevitability of the end.
Fate vs Free Will
Mung explains that the path each man takes is fixed by the Scheme of Things, leaving no room for alternative choices.
Time and Inevitable Decay
Mung speaks of the forty million years before and after a man's life, and Sish's banishment of years, emphasizing time's relentless flow.
Characters to notice
- Pegāna Mung
Mung is the central figure, the Lord of All Deaths, who walks everywhere and confronts mortals with the sign of Mung.
- Kib
Kib is mentioned as the giver of the road that every man treads upon the earth.
- Māna-Yood-Sushāī
Māna-Yood-Sushāī is referenced as the one who may make new gods in the future, offering a possibility of a different path.
- Sish
Sish is mentioned as the one who banishes years, indicating the passage of time.
Key passages
“Were the forty million years before thy coming intolerable to thee? Not less tolerable to thee shall be the forty million years to come!”
You did not suffer before you were born, so you will not suffer after you die.
Mung comforts a man by equating the time before birth with the time after death.
“Had it been possible for thee to go by any other way then had the Scheme of Things been otherwise and the gods had been other gods.”
Your path was inevitable; if you could have chosen differently, the entire universe would have to be different.
Mung explains that fate is fixed within the cosmic order.
“With the gods it is always Now. And before Sish hath banished many of the years the sorrows of thy family for thee shall go the way of thine.”
The gods exist in an eternal present, and soon your family's grief will also pass away.
Mung reassures a grieving man that his family's sorrow is temporary from a divine perspective.