H.P Lovecraft question

[Bysshe]

I've been working my way through a collection of H.P Lovecraft's short stories, and this afternoon I read 'The Quest of Iranon'.

In the explanatory notes at the back of the book, it says:

"It is among the best of HPL's Dunsanian imitations, although there is perhaps a hint of social snobbery at the end (Iranon kills himself because he discovers he is of low birth)."

A question to anyone who has read 'The Quest of Iranon' - is this your interpretation, as well? I know it's not very important, but it confused me slightly because that's not how I saw it. I didn't see any "social snobbery" in it at all.

I would like to hear some other interpretations of this story, if there are other H.P Lovecraft fans on here....

[PeterL]

Anyone who thinks that Iranon died because he learned that he might not be of noble birth didn't read the story. 'The Quest of Iranon' is beautiful. I had read it before, but nearly all of Lovecraft's writings deserve many readings. Lovecraft truly took Keats' advice to heart and uncaged his fancy.

Interpertation: Oranon is a symbol of imagination, the true heart of art. Romnod is a lover of art, but not so completely taken up. Aira is an ideal place, a place that can exist only in the imagination of an artist. Teloth symbolizes the "work-a-day" world. The other places mentioned or visited symbolize vartious approaches to the ideal of art. Whether a king or a shoveler of dung, Oranon was the king of his world. That is a great story. It makes me want to write some more. Perhaps I will in a few minutes.

[Woland]

That isnt my interpretation of why Iranon killed himself. Iranon is obsessed with his memories of Aira and the idyllic memories of its beauty from his youth. After he learns he was never a prince and that Aira never was, he realizes that wondrous place can never be found. Iranon joins his dreams in death by walking into the quicksand.

[Bysshe]

Thank you! That's more or less what I thought - he was so distraught to find out that the place he'd been looking for all his life was just a product of his imagination, that he decided to end his life.

I thought the "Iranon kills himself because he discovers he is of low birth" theory didn't make sense.

[PeterL]

That isnt my interpretation of why Iranon killed himself. Iranon is obsessed with his memories of Aira and the idyllic memories of its beauty from his youth. After he learns he was never a prince and that Aira never was, he realizes that wondrous place can never be found. Iranon joins his dreams in death by walking into the quicksand.

"And in the twilight, as the stars came out one by one and the moon cast on the marsh a radiance like that which a child sees quivering on the floor as he is rocked to sleep at evening, there walked into the lethal quicksands a very old man in tattered purple, crowned with whithered vine-leaves and gazing ahead as if upon the golden domes of a fair city where dreams are understood. That night something of youth and beauty died in the elder world."

I question whether he believed that the Aira that the "antique shepard" had s[oken of the same Aira that Oranon sought, but he felt doubt, and the doubt slew "something of youth and beauty."