Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Nightmare of the Lilliputian

Read "Nightmare of the Lilliputian" at The Eldritch Dark:


This quintain from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) combines a reference to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) with a reference to the sacred tree of Norse mythology (the more common spelling is Yggdrasil).  The roots of Yggdrasil are usually represented as gateways to three of the nine worlds of Norse legend.

"Nightmare of the Lilliputian" seems to describe an ultimate feeling of insignificance, given that the speaker is "a midge / With broken wing / Crawling" beneath the immensity of the cosmic tree.  It really does describe a terrifying nightmare, where one is so low as to be totally inconsequential.


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