Dream Cycle

The Dream Cycle refers to a series of stories by author H. P. Lovecraft. These stories concern themselves with "The Dreamlands": a vast, alternate dimension that can be entered via dreams.

A map of Lovecraft's "Dreamworld" by Jack Gaughan (1967).

Geography

The Dreamlands is apparently divided into four regions:

• the "West" (location of Steps of Deeper Slumber, the port of Dylath-Leen (largest city of the Dreamlands), the town of Ulthar (where no man may kill a cat), Hlanith (a coastal jungle city), Ilarnek (a desert trade capital), Mnar (known for its grey stones in which are carved the protection sign against the Old Ones), the ruins of Sarnath on the shores of a lake dedicated to Bokrug and Enchanted Wood);
• the "South" (location of the isle of Oriab and the Fantastic Realms);
• the "East" (location of the city Celephaïs, created from cloth by its monarch King Kuranes, the greatest of all recorded dreamers, and The Forbidden Lands);
• and "the North" (location of the feared Plateau of Leng, complete with man-eating spiders and satyr-like beings known as the "Men of Leng").

Other locales include "The Underworld" (a subterranean region underneath the Dreamlands and inhabited by monsters), the "Moon" (accessible via a ship and inhabited by "moon-beasts", creatures allied with Nyarlathotep) and Kadath, a huge castle atop a mountain and the domain of the "Great Ones".

Bibliography

• Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. Del Rey, 1985.

Contents:

• "Polaris" (1918)
• "The White Ship" (1919)
• "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1919)
• "The Cats of Ulthar" (1920)
• "Celephaïs" (1920)
• "Ex Oblivione" (1920)
• "From Beyond" (1920)
• "Nyarlathotep" (1920)
• "The Quest of Iranon" (1921)
• "The Nameless City" (reference only) (1921)
• "The Other Gods" (1921)
• "Azathoth" (1922)
• "The Hound" (reference only) (1922)
• "Hypnos" (1922)
• "What the Moon Brings" (1922)
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926)
• "The Outsider" (1926)
• "The Silver Key" (1926)
• "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1926)
• "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (1927)
• "The Thing in the Moonlight" (Based on a letter written to Donald Wandrei. Written by J. Chapman Miske) (1927. Published 1941)
• "At the Mountains of Madness" (reference only) (1931)
• "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932)
• "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (with E. Hoffmann Price) (1932)

Other

• Harms, Daniel (1998). "Dreamlands". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 89–91. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. 
• Brian Lumley wrote his own Dreamlands books as well, beginning with "Hero of Dreams".