Chorazin (location)

Chorazin was a community in Biblical Palestine, located in what is now modern Israel. It appears in the New Testament, was associated in tradition with the Antichrist, and was mentioned in the horror fiction of M. R. James. Presumably because of this connection, H. P. Lovecraft used it as the name of an unwholesome village in "The Diary of Alonzo Typer".
==In the Real World==
Chorazin was a village in Galilee, one of the divisions of Palestine in Roman times. It was located some 2.5 miles north of Capernaum, a town that features prominently in the Gospel story. Chorazin was later the site of an Arab village, Khirbat Karraza, that was depopulated during the 1947-48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine. Today a nearby Israeli village, Korazim, is named for the ancient site.Wikipedia, "Chorazin."
In the gospels of Matthew (11:20-24) and Luke (10:12-16), Jesus curses the towns that heard his message and did not repent, in parallel passages that begin, "Woe to you, Chorazin!" Capernaum and Bethsaida are also singled out for condemnation, leading the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, an apocryphal religious text, to comment that the Antichrist "will be conceived in Chorazin, be born in Bethsaida, and begin to rule in Capernaum."Wikipedia, "Woes to the unrepentant cities."
==In M. R. James==
Because Chorazin is not otherwise mentioned in the Gospels, whereas the other two places are the hometowns of eight of the 12 Apostles, this prediction had a worse impact on Chorazin's reputation. This sinister association led to Chorazin's appearance in the M. R. James story "Count Magnus" (1904), a story that Lovecraft greatly admired.Lovecraft called it "assuredly one of the best" of James' stories: Supernatural Horror in Literature, "The Modern Masters," by H. P. Lovecraft.
The title character of the story, a sinister and supposedly long-dead aristocrat, is said to have gone on a "Black Pilgrimage" to Chorazin, and to have "brought something or someone back with him". The Count leaves behind a note saying, "If any man desires to obtain a long life, if he would obtain a faithful messenger and see the blood of his enemies, it is necessary that he should first go into the city of Chorazin, and there salute the prince...." The last words appear to be "of the air".
==In Lovecraft==
Lovecraft uses the name Chorazin for the location of the Van der Heyl mansion in the revision tale "The Diary of Alonzo Typer"-- a "straggling village...populated by Indians and later by renegades from the surrounding country." The "decadent Chorazin villagers" are noted for their "stupidity and taciturnity,"
Lovecraft's Chorazin is located in upstate New York, about a six-hour walk from the town of Batavia.
==Other Writers==
The Lovecraftian writer Darrell Schweitzer also uses the name Chorazin for a horror setting, this one "inspired by long drives to Niagara Falls" when he regularly attended a convention called Eeriecon:You do notice on such trips how the familiar and safe world is only along the roadway, and eldritch rites or hideous murders could be taking place a half a mile away into the forest and no one might ever know. That whole landscape has inspired the Chorazin series of stories, of which “The Girl in the Attic,” and also my YA novel The Dragon House. Chorazin is located in the “flyover” part of north-central Pennsylvania, which is pretty blank on the map. Go to the Poconos, turn left, and go beyond any of the towns or resorts, and there is … what? Any large state in America holds such mystery. It is quite different from Europe, particularly Britain, where if there is a clump of more than two or three trees, it probably has a name, a hereditary forester, and a record in the Domesday Book. We have a lot of empty land.Black Gate, "The Beauty in Horror and Sadness: An Interview with Darrell Schweitzer," by S. E. Lindberg, September 3, 2018.
In the Mythos novella Lord of the Worms, by Brian Lumley, the villainous sorcerer who assumes the name Carstairs was born in Chorazin in the year 1602, and has survived for centuries by periodically changing bodies.
==References==
Category:Locations Incorporated From the Real World
Category:Structures