I do think you should have at least mentioned Herbert Gordon’s “A Place Called Dagon” (1927), not just for the mention of the name but the concept of a “Place of Dagon”, being a general reference for a site of Pagan worship, which I think Derleth and possibly Lovecraft made use of. Mermen weren’t always viewed negatively, of course, vis the so-called Dagon gravestones mentioned above. Calling your church the Esoteric Order of Dagon was very clearly intended to flag it as “other” – Mount Dagon / Merrymount is the main example here. Most importantly, as discussed in this post – New Englanders, because of their Puritan roots, regarded Dagon as emblematic of Paganism and Oriental/Foreign Paganism especially. IN the case of the former I mostly looked at the linguistic questions of the name Dagon, such as how it is human name rather than the name the creature might use for itself. I’ve talked about Dagon and its particular New England association in both Arkham Gazette #2 (hopefully to be re-released this spring) and in a post to the Sentinel Hill Press blog. I enjoyed the episode but fear you’ve missed an important aspect of Dagon, being the particular connections to New England culture and history that I think informed Lovecraft’s use of the name quite strongly.
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