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Re: A Lumley Cthuvian Fragment

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On Sunday, 1 October 2000 12:30:00 UTC+5:30, cyber...@my-deja.com  wrote:
> We've finally put out the fires here at the Cthuvian Language Labs and
> hired some new scribes. You've got to be careful working with Cthuvian,
> one wrong word and *poof!* Those Outer Gods can't take a joke....
> 
> Anyway, here's a fragment from Lumley's *The Burrowers Beneath.*
> 
> Ya na kadishtu nilgh'ri stell'bsna Nyogtha,
> K'yarnak phlegethor l'ebumna syha'h n'ghft,
> Ya hai kadishtu ep r'luh-eeh Nyogtha eeh,
> s'uhn-ngh athg li'hee orr'e syha'h.
> 
> The first line and a half we already did, since they're straight from
> Kuttner's "Salem Horror:"
> 
> I knew nothing at all
> I petitioned Nyogtha
> We shared our thoughts
> 
> As for the rest....
> 
> The prefix L means "beside," and, knowing Nyogtha, "ebumna" is "pit."
> What kind of pit? "Syha'h" means "eternity;" "n'ghft" is related to
> "n'gha" (death), probably "darkness."
> 
> We've already translated "Ya" as "I" and "kadishtu" as "know" or
> "understand." After 'sharing thoughts' with Nyogtha, we can assume that
> the writer means "I now understand."
> 
> "Ep" is a curious word. It's possible that the transcriptionist, eager
> to catch every significant sound, actually caught a belch (write your
> own joke). In conjunction with "hai," though, I'm guessing it means
> "only now," that is, that some time has passed since the previous event
> and the current event is a direct result.
> 
> "Eeh," as noted in an earlier fragment, means "answers," although the
> final H may indicate some kind of voice change, or even an appositive
> marker. "R'luh" means "secret" or "hidden" (note the correspondence with
> "R'lyeh," which might mean "Secret City" or "Hidden Palace").
> "R'luh-eeh" thus means "secret lore" or "forbidden knowledge," but in
> the sense that it has been provided to one, not discovered or wrested
> from its source.
> 
> "S'uhn-ngh" has that same root "ngh" (darkness), so we'll say "s'uhn"
> means "agreement" or "pact." It follows that "athg" is "sign" or
> "pledge;" that "li'hee" is "on pain of" or "answer with;" and that
> "orr'e" is "soul" or "spirit" (contrast with 'bthnk' [body] and 'lloig'
> [psyche]).
> 
> The literal translation:
> 
> I know nothing, [I] petition Nyogtha,
> [We] exchange data {lit. 'force from cyberspace'},
> beside [the] pit [of] eternal darkness,
> Only now do I know the hidden lore [with which] Nyogtha responded,
> [This] unholy pact [do I] sign [lest I] answer with my eternal spirit.
> 
> 
> In some kind of regular meter, like the original:
> 
> I knew nothing at all, I petitioned Nyogtha,
> We shared our thoughts beside the darkest pit,
> I know now the dark wisdom Nyogtha imparts,
> This dark pledge I seal with my immortal soul.
> 
> An aside: after studying Spencer's fragments, I'm inclined to classify
> them as non-Cthuvian. For one thing, there are an awful lot of Xs, and
> odd as it sounds, we haven't yet encountered this exotic letter in a
> true Cthuvian fragment. Another hint is the word 'barsoom,' which
> Burroughs fans will recall from his John Carter stories as the Martian
> name for their planet; it's not relevant to the Mythos (as far as I
> know...) so it must be considered a 'false cognate,' that is, a word
> spelled the same in another language but with a different meaning.
> 
> 
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

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Re: A Lumley Cthuvian Fragment kazuyamcgd@gmail.com - 2020-06-04 00:29 -0700

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