The Temple (Lovecraft)

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The Temple (English original title "The Temple") is a 1920 horror story by the US author HP Lovecraft . The action takes place in a German submarine during the First World War and contains allusions to the Atlantis myth.

action

Lovecraft tells the story as a report by a German submarine commander from 1917, allegedly found in a message in a bottle on the coast of Yucatan. In this text, the commander of the German submarine U29, Count von Altberg-Ehrenstein, reports on the events in the period from June 18 to August 20, ultimately leading to the death of the entire crew of the ship.

At the beginning, the submarine sinks the British freighter “Victory” and the lifeboats carrying its crew. When it resurfaces, the body of a young sailor is found on the deck of the submarine. During the looting of the corpse, an ivory sculpture depicting a young man's head is found, which Lieutenant Klenze, next in rank to von Altberg-Ehrenstein, takes. In the commandant's eyes, the crew reacts to the man's corpse, and especially to the sculpture, with superstitious fear. When this situation worsened to the point that it endangers discipline, von Altberg-Ehrenstein began killing crew members.

There are more victims in the explosion of the machines, which leaves U29 unable to maneuver. After diving, it also turns out to be impossible to bring the boat back to the surface, so that an unknown current drives it ever deeper and further south.

After the murder of the last other crew members, only von Altberg-Ehrenstein and Klenze are left. Klenze is also increasingly showing signs of mental disruption, similar to that of the crew members before him, this seems to be related to the ivory sculpture. His madness culminates in his suicide - with von Altberg-Ehrenstein's consent, he leaves the boat through the pressure lock without a diving suit .

U29 ends up on the ocean floor inside an ancient, sunken city that von Altberg-Ehrenstein thinks is Atlantis. In the middle of the city he finds a huge temple with an image of God that resembles the ivory head that Klenze took with him. The commander perceives increasing spiritual decline in himself, on the one hand he fears the temple, on the other hand he feels drawn to it. After the lights on the submarine also fail, he perceives light, ritual movements and music from the temple, but initially dismisses it as a delusion. When he realizes that he cannot resist the urge to go to the temple, he takes appropriate precautions - unlike Klenze, he has a pressure suit ready - and prepares the report, which breaks off at this point.

Origin, publication and German translation

The story, written in 1920, was first published in 1925 under the English title "The Temple" in the Weird Tales magazine . The German translation "Der Tempel" comes from Charlotte Countess von Klinckowstroem.

Footnotes

  1. ^ HP Lovecraft: The Temple. In: HP Lovecraft: City Without a Name. Horror stories. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 157-175.
  2. ↑ cf. HP Lovecraft: City Without a Name. Horror stories. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 4 and August Derleth: Introduction. In: HP Lovecraft: Omnibus. Volume 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. Harper Collins Publishers, London 2000, pp. 7-9.

swell

  • HP Lovecraft: The Temple. In: HP Lovecraft: City Without a Name. Horror stories. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-39256-5 ( Fantastic Library 346 = Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch 2756).
  • HP Lovecraft: The Temple. In: HP Lovecraft: Omnibus. Volume 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. Harper Collins Publishers, London 2000, ISBN 0-586-06324-2 .

literature

  • August Derleth : Introduction. In: HP Lovecraft: Omnibus. Volume 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. Harper Collins Publishers, London 2000, ISBN 0-586-06324-2 .