Historical dream account · English · published source text
The Flaming Breakfast Urn
Horace G. Hutchinson
Dreams and Their Meanings (1901) · 1901 edition, chapter IV, printed pp.79–79; PDF pages 91–91; original scan leaves 93–93
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There is a variant to this ; and in this variant form it was a common and dreadful experience of my own childhood, wherein, instead of being pursued, while one's efforts to escape are clogged, one is remorselessly and mysteriously drawn towards the fearful object, whatever it may be, that object itself remaining stationary. Some force like hypnotism (though the actual name of hypnotism had hardly been invented in my childhood) seemed to impel me to walk, despite my wishes, to a certain landing on the main staircase, whereon the breakfast urn used in my dreams to appear, swollen to a huge size, and encircled, like Brunhild, with a wall of flame. Towards this dreadful object (perhaps my fingers had been burnt by the urn sometime or other) I found myself bound to walk with slow steps, in spite of my own horror of its flaming fiery furnace and the prayers of my nurse who used to stand with me on the landing below, whence I began my reluctant ascent towards the flames and the urn. I remember that I never could understand how it was that she did not stretch out a hand and pull me back from the horrid journey, but she never did. I cannot understand it even now. In consequence of this dream and its attendant horrors, the breakfast urn itself, harmless and rotund copper body, grew to be associated with pains and terror. I took an intense childish dislike to the thing, and probably many will be able to recall a like experience of a harmless inanimate object becoming endued with actively terrible attributes.
Source & context
A published personal recollection sent to, or personally recorded by, Horace G. Hutchinson and printed in his 1901 edition. Recurrent personal accounts are counted once, not once per occurrence. Where Hutchinson interrupts a quotation, his original reporting phrases remain in the excerpt. This is a personally recalled recurring scene with specific actions, not a generic list of dream types.
Horace G. Hutchinson, reported in Horace G. Hutchinson, Dreams and Their Meanings (London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901), 1901 edition, chapter IV, printed pp.79–79; PDF pages 91–91; original scan leaves 93–93. Primary witness: original 1901 edition at Internet Archive. The compiler, dreamer, and separately credited earlier recorder are distinguished. Editorial title and navigation themes added; no generated narrative or new translation.
The publication year is not the dream date. No exact dream date or present-day person location is inferred. Dates printed in the narrative remain source wording.
Public domain in the United States (1901 edition) ↗
The original English 1901 edition is public domain in the United States by expired publication term; Archive metadata reports NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT. No new Archive license or Public Domain Mark grant is asserted. The linked NoC-US statement describes the US-only rights basis; blanket worldwide clearance is not asserted. Hutchinson’s own writing and named or unidentified contributors are distinguished; no contributor is assigned the compiler’s death date. Hutchinson (own recollection).
Source locator and text provenance
1901 edition, chapter IV, printed pp.79–79; PDF pages 91–91; original scan leaves 93–93
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Whitespace/linewrap normalization, witnessed end-of-line dehyphenation, and listed scan-verified OCR repairs only. No dream narrative, person, event, translation or stylistic rewrite added.
- Account text SHA-256
- c7b3c37676f75aa790e788c8b9f723282c85c0578f55275bcae7deca7a943147
- Source file SHA-256
- 40a41bb112104c3680401c260e060fde498bfe84e41f4394ee28e47f7e827b5f
Content notes
- Childhood nightmare
- Fire
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.