The Pilgrims of the Sun
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The Pilgrims of the Sun is a narrative poem by James Hogg, first published in December 1814, dated 1815. It consists of four cantos, totalling somewhat less than 2000 lines. In similar vein to 'Kilmeny' in The Queen's Wake (1813), it tells of a young woman's journey to an ideal world and her return to Earth.
After completing his Highland poem Mador of the Moor in February 1814, Hogg conceived the idea of 'a volume of romantic poems, to be entitled "Midsummer Night Dreams".'[1] The first poem he composed for this project was Connel of Dee, in which a shepherd's social aspirations come to an end when he has a nightmare of a hellish marriage and violent death. Hogg then completed a second poem in three weeks, The Pilgrims of the Sun, offering a contrasting vision of a journey to a heavenly world.[2] A short poem 'Superstition' was also intended for Midsummer Night Dreams, but when James Park of Greenock read Hogg's recent poems in manuscript and judged The Pilgrims of the Sun to be the best, it was decided to publish The Pilgrims separately (with 'Superstition'), leap-frogging Mador of the Moor.[3] Connel of Dee first appeared in Winter Evening Tales (1820).[4]
Editions
The Pilgrims of the Sun; A Poem. By James Hogg, Author of the Queen's Wake, &c. appeared in Edinburgh on 12 December 1814, with the date 1815 and the publishers given as 'London: Printed for John Murray, 50, Albemarle Street: and William Blackwood, South Bridge Street, Edinburgh'. However, Murray was disappointed when he read the entire poem, and when it appeared in London in January 1815 the publication details had been changed to 'Edinburgh: Printed for William Blackwood, South Bridge Street; and sold by J. Murray, London'.[5] The volume also contained 'Superstition'. The two poems were included, with Connel of Dee and other poems, in a revived Midsummer Night Dreams in the second volume of Hogg's Poetical Works published in 1822 by 'Archibald Constable & Co. Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson & Co. London'.[6]
A critical edition of The Pilgrims of the Sun is included in James Hogg, Midsummer Night Dreams and Related Poems, edited by the late Jill Rubenstein and completed by Gillian Hughes with Meiko O'Halloran, which appeared in 2008 as Volume 24 in the Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition of The Complete Works of James Hogg published by Edinburgh University Press.