词条 | High Priest Not to Be Described |
释义 |
The High Priest Not to Be Described (Elder Hierophant, Tcho-Tcho Lama of Leng) is a fictional character in H. P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. He first appeared in the Lovecraft short story "Celephaïs" (1920). Description{{Original research section|date=July 2015}}The High Priest Not to Be Described is the sole occupant of a remote and ancient monastery on the Plateau of Leng in the Dreamlands. It serves the Outer Gods. It's possible that it may be the King in Yellow, Hastur. Another oft-conjectured possibility is that it is the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep. The monastery where he dwells has a confusing tangle of lightless corridors with disturbing frescoes that chronicle Leng's bloodcurdling history. Deep in the bowels of the monastery, inside a frightening domed room, the High Priest Not to Be Described sits on a throne of gold atop a stone dais in pitch-black darkness. Five steps down from the dais is a row of six blood-stained stone altars surrounding a yawning well that is rumored to connect with the Vaults of Zin in the underworld. In Lovecraft's novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926), Randolph Carter has a fateful encounter with the High Priest Not to Be Described. The only description of the High Priest is given in this passage:
During his search for the fabled city of Celephaïs, the dreamer Kuranes had an equally chilling experience, just narrowly escaping the High Priest. IdentityAlthough the identity of the high priest is never established in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, the following passage (which appears below the passage quoted above) gives a hint:
Since the moon is inhabited by pale, flute-playing toad creatures, and since the High Priest Not to be Described also communicates by playing the flute, he may simply be one of the lunar toad creatures and a servant of Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos that consistently opposes Randolph Carter throughout the story. Furthermore, when Carter uses an opportune moment to escape and is fleeing blindly through the monastery's darkened, labyrinthine passageways, he dares not think of his pursuer and of "the stealthy padding of shapeless paws on the stones behind him, or of the silent wrigglings and crawlings which must be going on back there in lightless corridors." He may instead be an avatar of Nyarlathotep,[1] as a similar creature is mentioned in Walter C. DeBill Jr.'s "In 'Ygiroth". The sheer horror of Carter's reaction when he approaches the High Priest in the Yellow Mask lends some support to this possibility. There is also a chance of the high priest being an avatar of Hastur, as Hastur is greatly connected to the colour "yellow" and "the King in Yellow" all clad in yellow often pictured with a mask or a yellow sheet across the face. the "frightful red-litten city" may also refer to "Carcosa" the nightmare city of Hastur / The King in Yellow. Hastur is also known as "The Unspeakable One" which closely resembles the high priest not to be described. References
|editor=Kevin L. O'Brien (ed.)|origyear=1975|year=2003|publisher=Lindisfarne Press}}
Notes1. ^Harms, p. 138. {{DEFAULTSORT:High Priest Not To Be Described}} 5 : Characters in American novels of the 20th century|Cthulhu Mythos deities|Fictional characters introduced in 1920|Fictional priests and priestesses|Fictional characters without a name |
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