Pombo (Dunsany)

Overview

Pombo is the desperate human petitioner in Dunsany's The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater. The request he needs granted is never disclosed. When Ammuz does not answer promptly, Pombo asks the friendly god Tharma to overthrow Ammuz and thereby breaches the gods' etiquette. Other idols refuse him in turn. Living in London, he searches shops, museums and auction rooms and supplicates his own inexpensive figures. The narrator gives him a haggard face but little physical description. Its account of his supposed origin in Burmah and its conflation of Asian religions belong to the story's exoticising fantasy, not an ethnographic account of any community.

When incense and music fail, Pombo smashes his own idols. A maker of figures rebukes him but eventually explains that Duth, a disreputable god just beyond the world's edge, answers prayers that respectable gods reject. Pombo becomes hopeful and travels to World's End, although the narrator says that his means of reaching it without money were not entirely honest. Lowering himself into what appears to be a well, he finds the top stair. His fear that the advice is a divine joke gives way to the discovery of a real descent through blue gloaming, stars and passing comets. The narrated journey crosses from satirical London into the collection's impossible geography.

Below Lonely House and the bridge to Nowhere, Pombo passes the flower-god Maharrion and a grey attendant described as neither cat nor bird. He finally sees Duth, but rushes beyond the intended stopping place, clutches at bare rock and falls away from the world without waking from the fall. The narrator offers several possible causes for his haste and refuses to choose decisively between them. The story therefore ends before any answer to his original request; it does not show Duth refusing him or granting a fatal wish. Pombo's need, fear and impatience drive the movement, while divine etiquette and the idol-maker's profession form the satirical framework.

First appearances & development

Lord Dunsany’s authored English fantasy in The Book of Wonder. The retained title and complete selected tale establish authorship and narrative scope; the consulted electronic body does not identify its exact historical print edition.

Canon & continuity

Complete selected tale, all 5 paragraphs, with original preface and epilogue.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   The Book of Wonder

   Lord Dunsany · 1912

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary historical authored fictionThe Book of Wonder - The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the IdolaterResearch access: 2026-10-21

Image credits

Original AI literary interpretation.