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About this quote

What does it mean?
Legends say gods travel in cloud-ships and wise farmers avoid high peaks at night because gods are no longer lenient as they once were.
In plain terms
Farmers avoid mountain peaks at night because gods travel on clouds and are no longer kind.
What can you take from it?
Old superstitions persist about divine presence in nature.

Where it applies

  • listening to folklore
  • hiking at night
  • reading myths

Putting it to work

  • respecting local legends
  • avoiding restricted areas

Questions to consider

  • Why do myths change over time?
  • Should you respect old warnings?

Another view

These legends lack empirical verification.

More from H. P. Lovecraft

  1. Sometimes when earth's gods are homesick they visit in the still of the night the peaks where once they dwelt, and weep softly as they try to play in the olden…

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  2. Barzai knew so much of the gods that he could tell of their comings and goings, and guessed so many of their secrets that he was deemed half a god himself.

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  3. Atop the tallest of earth's peaks dwell the gods of earth, and suffer not man to tell that he hath looked upon them. Lesser peaks they once inhabited; but ever…

    Permalink to quote #34

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