by Benjamin Lomax

Created on: November 27, 2010

“The Nameless City” is a short story by the creator of the Cthulhu mythos, second only to Edgar Allen Poe as the master of macabre short fiction, H.P. Lovecraft. It was written in January of 1921 and originally published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal The Wolverine (number 11), one of Lovecraft’s earliest published works and widely accepted as the first stories of the Cthulhu mythos. It was also reprinted in the fall of 1936 issue of the Fanciful Tales and collected in The Lurking Fear and other stories in 1947.

“The Nameless City” refers to a lost city in the Araby desert, an accursed place forgotten by man and shunned even by the ancient sources that lead the narrator to discover it. Sleep before penetrating the city brings vibrant and disturbing dreams. Upon entering the ruins of the city, a cold and vicious wind from the interior seems to pull at the explorer, drawing him in.

Investigation of the largest structure, thought to be a temple, reveals a tunnel descending deep into the earth in a seemingly endless spiral. At the bottom of the spiral is a chamber with numerous cases fastened to the walls which appear to be irregularly shaped coffins. Frescoes lining the walls depict monstrous humanoid crocodiles, impossible and frightening, apparently some sort of primitive gods. The depictions show these strange creatures departing the surface lands and entering a shrouded underground land.

Promptly a low moan erupts from the depths of the tunnel and the irresistible tug of the vicious wind erupts, seeming stronger than ever and dragging the narrator toward a light emerging from that direction. The narrator finds himself thrust into that opening to see a vast and angry army of the reptilian creatures, very much alive and real. The bronze door slams behind him from the tunnel, his last experience.

The story is the first to refer to the “Mad Arab” Abdul Alhazred, the author of Lovecraft’s pivotal Necromicon, which is quoted as an unnamed source in this story. This story is also unusual in utilizing other quotes, including a stanza from Thomas Moore and Lord Dunsany and other quotes from earlier Lovecraft works in the guise of poetic quotes. The slide back and forth between actual and fictional quotes and geographic connotations similarly back and forth between Lovecraft’s creations and real places lends a realistic air to the story.

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