Preview
Displayed Title
Jurgen meets his father in Hell
Description
From Chapter 34 - "How Emperor Jurgen Fared Infernally"
Philistia and Pseudopolis are at war. When Philistia triumphs, Jurgen, Chloris, and others are taken prisoner and sent to limbo of their ancestors' religion. Jurgen, still alive, is sent to Hell, which is a creation of his ancestors' imagination. In Hell, Jurgen tells the demons that he is the Emperor of Noumaria. The demons say Hell is overrun with emperors who are very troublesome to the demons due to their pridefulness.
"... But who governs this country?" [asked Jurgen.]
They told him how Hell was divided into principalities that had for governors Lucifer and Beelzebub and Belial and Ascheroth and Phlegeton: but that over all these was Grandfather Satan, who lived in the Black House at Barathum.
"Well, I prefer," says Jurgen, "to deal directly with your principal, especially if he can explain the polity of this insane and murky country. Do some of you conduct me to him in such state as becomes an emperor !"
So Cannagosta fetched a wheelbarrow, and Jurgen got into it, and Cannagosta trundled him away. Cannagosta was something like an ox, but rather more like a cat, and his hair was curly.
And as they came through Chorasma, a very uncomfortable place where the damned abide in torment, whom should Jurgen see but his own father, Coth, the son of Smoit and Steinvor, standing there chewing his long moustaches in the midst of an especially tall flame.
"Do you stop now for a moment!" says Jurgen, to his escort.
"Oh, but this is the most vexatious person in all Hell !" cried Cannagosta; "and a person whom there is absolutely no pleasing!"
"Nobody knows that better than I," says Jurgen.
And Jurgen civilly bade his father good-day, but Coth did not recognize this spruce young Emperor of Noumaria, who went about Hell in a wheelbarrow.
"You do not know me, then?" says Jurgen.
"How should I know you when I never saw you before ?" replied Coth, irritably.
And Jurgen did not argue the point : for he knew that he and his father could never agree about anything. So Jurgen kept silent for that time, and Cannagosta wheeled him through the gray twilight, descending always deeper and yet deeper into the lowlands of Hell, until they had come to Barathum.
Topical Subject
Historical fiction; Fantasy fiction; Linoleum block-printing
Personal Name Subject
Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958; Ogden, Samuel Robinson, Jr. (1896-1985)
Language
eng
Genre
linocuts (prints); books
Local Genre
artwork; text
Type
Still Image
Digital Format
image/jpg
Rights Statement URL
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Rights
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgement of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Collection
Twenty-two Plates From Cabell's Jurgen
Source
Ogden S, James Branch Cabell Collection, James Branch Cabell Collection. Twenty-Two Plates from Cabell’s Jurgen. [publisher not identified]; 1929.
File Name
jurgenplates_024.jpg