The Gods of Pegana

The Gods of Pegana (1905) is Lord Dunsany's first published work and one of the earliest examples of a fully invented mythology in modern literature. Written in an archaic, biblical style, the book describes the gods of Pegana — from the supreme, sleeping deity Māna-Yood-Sushāī, who created all other gods, to the drummer Skarl whose ceaseless drumming keeps Māna-Yood-Sushāī asleep. Through a series of interconnected vignettes, Dunsany describes the creation of the worlds, the deeds and rivalries of the gods, and the fate of the mortals who worship them.

The book unfolds as a kind of sacred text for an imaginary religion. The gods Kib, Sish, Mung, and Slid govern life, time, death, and the sea, while lesser deities like Limpang-Tung (the god of mirth) and Yoharneth-Lahai (the god of little dreams) tend to the quieter corners of existence. A sequence of prophets — Yonath, Yug, Alhireth-Hotep, Kabok, and Imbaun — attempt to interpret the will of the gods, each failing or deceiving in turn. The work concludes with a vision of the final ending: the bird of doom Mosahn trumpeting the last day, the gods sailing away in golden galleons, and Māna-Yood-Sushāī sitting alone in ultimate silence.

The Gods of Pegana profoundly influenced both J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion and H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic mythology, establishing the template for invented pantheons in fantasy literature. Its prose style — incantatory, rhythmic, and deliberately archaic — remains distinctive more than a century after its publication.