“Trogool is the Thing that is neither god nor beast, who neither howls nor breathes, only It turns over the leaves of a great book, black and white, black and white for ever until THE END. And all that is to be is written in the book is also all that was. When It turneth a black page it is night, and when It turneth a white page it is day. Because it is written that there are gods—there are the gods. Also there is writing about thee and me until the page where our names no more are written. Then as the prophet watched It, Trogool turned a page—a black one, and night was over, and day shone on the Worlds. Trogool is the Thing that men in many countries have called by many names, It is the Thing that sits behind the gods, whose book is the Scheme of Things.”
First Publisher Elkin Mathews, 1905; Pegana Press, 1937
Appearance List Later editions: The Gods of Pegana with S. H. Sime’s photogravure plates (Pegana Press, 1911), The Gods of Pegana with Sime illustrations (1916), The Gods of Pegana (3rd ed., 1919), Beyond the Fields We Know (Ballantine, 1972) ed. Lin Carter.
Description “Trogool is the Thing that is neither god nor beast, who neither howls nor breathes, only It turns over the leaves of a great book, black and white, black and white for ever until THE END. And all that is to be is written in the book is also all that was. When It turneth a black page it is night, and when It turneth a white page it is day. Because it is written that there are gods—there are the gods. Also there is writing about thee and me until the page where our names no more are written. Then as the prophet watched It, Trogool turned a page—a black one, and night was over, and day shone on the Worlds. Trogool is the Thing that men in many countries have called by many names, It is the Thing that sits behind the gods, whose book is the Scheme of Things.”
