The Gods of Pegāna · Chapter
The River explained
This chapter describes the River Imrāna, a river of silence that flows from Pegāna through the skies to the Sea of Silence.
What happens
This chapter describes the River Imrāna, a river of silence that flows from Pegāna through the skies to the Sea of Silence. It tells of the god Yoharneth-Lahai, who sails a dream-built ship upon this river, weaving the hopes and fancies of people into dreams and returning them to the sleeping worlds. Those weary of worldly clamor may board the ship and drift up the river, passing Sirāmi, the lord of All Forgetting, who relieves them of their memories. The chapter also foreshadows the end of the gods, when they will sail down Imrāna to the Silent Sea.
Themes in this chapter
The Role of Art and Mirth
Yoharneth-Lahai's ship is built from dreams, poets' fancies, and people's hopes, illustrating the creative and restorative power of art and imagination.
Time and Inevitable Decay
The prophecy of the end includes the old hound Time baying on the River's banks, symbolizing the inevitable decay and end of the gods.
The Search for Meaning
The weary who board Yoharneth-Lahai's ship seek escape from worldly clamor and sorrow, drifting toward forgetting and silence, reflecting a search for peace beyond mortal understanding.
Characters to notice
- Yoharneth-Lahai
The god who sails the dream-built ship on the River of Silence, weaving hopes and fancies into dreams.
- Skarl
His drumming gives rise to the River Imrāna.
- Mung
Makes the sign of Mung over those who board the ship and pass from sleeping to the River.
- Sirāmi
The lord of All Forgetting, who sits where the River flows through Pegāna's gates and causes those who behold him to lose their memories.
- Māna-Yood-Sushāī
Mentioned in the prophecy of the end, when he will awake and think some other plan concerning gods and worlds.
Key passages
“There arises a river in Pegāna that is neither a river of water nor yet a river of fire, and it flows through the skies and the Worlds to the Rim of the Worlds, a river of silence.”
In Pegāna, a unique river of silence flows through the skies and worlds to the edge of existence.
Introduces the River Imrāna as a metaphysical river of silence.
“Upon her deck were rowers with dream-made oars, and the rowers were the people of men’s fancies, and princes of old story and people who had died, and people who had never been.”
The ship's rowers are beings from imagination, legend, the dead, and the never-born.
Describes the dream-stuff of Yoharneth-Lahai's crew.
“And, lying there upon the deck among their own remembered fancies, and songs that were never sung, and they drift up Imrāna ere the dawn, where the sound of the cities comes not, nor the voice of the thunder is heard, nor the midnight howl of Pain as he gnaws at the bodies of men.”
Those aboard the ship drift up the river before dawn, escaping all noise, thunder, and suffering.
Depicts the peaceful escape offered by the River of Silence.
“It hath been said that when Skarl ceases to drum, and Māna-Yood-Sushāī awakes, and the gods of Pegāna know that it is the end, that then the gods will enter galleons of gold, and with dream-born rowers glide down Imrāna (who knows whither or why?) till they come where the River enters the Silent Sea, and shall there be gods of nothing, where nothing is, and never a sound shall come.”
At the end of all things, the gods will sail down Imrāna to the Silent Sea and become gods of nothing.
Foreshadows the final destiny of the gods.
