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Cthulhu

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Cthulhu (alternate spellings: Tulu, Cthulu, Ktulu, and many others) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. Cthulhu often includes the title Great or Dread.

Cthulhu's name is usually pronounced /kəˈθuːluː/, /kəˈθʊːluː/, or /kəˈtʰʊːluː/ (IPA transliteration); however, according to Lovecraft, this may simply be the closest that human vocal cords can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language Akeley-a. In fact, Lovecraft speculated that "Khlul'hloo" Pearsall-129 might be a better pronunciation.

Although the cycle of stories written by Lovecraft, his protégés, and his literary successors bear the label "Cthulhu mythos" (a term invented by August Derleth and never used by Lovecraft), Cthulhu is arguably one of the least terrible creatures in the pantheon. Cthulhu himselfNote-a debuted in Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu" Burleson-8 (1928)—though he makes minor appearances in a few other of Lovecraft's works Angell-a. Much of what is now termed the "Cthulhu mythos" varies greatly from Lovecraft's original conception of a meaningless, value-less universe with no eternal struggle. Furthermore, the mythos lore that came after Lovecraft's death was mostly concocted by Derleth.

Cthulhu in the mythos

If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings... It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence...
— H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

File:Cthulhupainting.jpg
Painting of Cthulhu

Cthulhu is a Great Old OneSumerian-theory and is by far the most prominent member of the group. He currently lies in death-like sleep in the sunken city of R'lyeh somewhere in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. "When the stars are right", R'lyeh will rise from the sea, never to sink again, and Cthulhu will awaken and revel across the world, "ravening for delight". Though humans might worship Cthulhu as he lies sleeping, they are immaterial to his grand design (it is implied, however, that Cthulhu will ultimately require the assistance of his human cult to escape from his watery tomb in R'lyeh, but there are many other beings in the mythos that could fill this role, including the servants of Cthulhu himself). The tomb in which Cthulhu slumbers is locked with the great seal of the Old Ones however, which repels his spawn and that of other Great Ones. As a result, humans are almost assuredly required in his re-awakening.

Cthulhu is described as being colossal, but his exact size is not given. In Lovecraft's story, he was able to pursue a ship across the Pacific Ocean for some distance, albeit on some underwater portion of risen R'lyeh, yet still keep most of his body above water. Although he can communicate with "the fleshy mind of mammals" in their dreams, this contact is currently blocked by his present immersion in seawater. Cthulhu's body is essentially proof against damage by weapons of mortal design, being constructed of the material found in the empty spaces of the cosmos. Any damage will simply be replaced by dust and summoned material, as the Great One's will allows him to manifest a physical form across space. Attempts were made by the Old Ones at the disruption of his earthly form, however all yielded failure. The position of the stars alone disrupts his mental control so that he must remain sleeping in sunken R'lyeh.

Cthulhu is sometimes regarded as "evil", but this is not how he is depicted in "The Call of Cthulhu" and other works. Instead, he is portrayed as amoral, with an ethic that transcends conventional notions of good and evil. Cthulhu's amorality might be compared to what S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz call the "anti-mythology" of Lovecraft's fiction Joshi-51. In most mythologies, man's significance in the universe is validated by his connection to divine agents with similar moral values. Lovecraft shattered this conceit by basing his stories on the "premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large... To achieve the essence of real externality, whether of space or time or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, good and evil, love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all... [W]hen we cross the line to the boundless and hideous unknown—the shadow haunted Outside—we must remember to leave our humanity and terrestrialism at the threshold." Lovecraft-150 Cthulhu's nature seems to be consistent with this view.

Cthulhu is closely identified with this quote from the Necronomicon:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange æons, even death may die.

He is also associated with the phrase "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," which translates to "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." This line is ostensibly part of a couplet from the Necronomicon, the second line of which is "yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth."

Cthulhu has several avatars, including B'moth (Beh'moth, the Devourer) and Chorazin, although these are not mentioned in Lovecraft's work and are actually later additions. Cthulhu is served by the beings known as the star-spawn (see below), which look like smaller versions of Cthulhu himself. His coming to earth aeons ago and the sinking of R'lyeh were recorded by the Elder Things (in At the Mountains of Madness) with whom he warred.

Cthulhu in Derleth's mythos

In Derleth's stories, Cthulhu is not as powerful as the other god-like mythos creatures, nor is he much of a leader. In fact, the two most powerful (revealed) beings in the mythos are, in order, Azathoth (The Blind Idiot God) and Yog-Sothoth (The Lurker at the Threshold). Nonetheless, Cthulhu's cult is the most widespread and has the largest number of worshippers.

Cthulhu cult

Cthulhu's cult has survived through the centuries and is arguably the most effective at recruiting new members. While Cthulhu dreams in R'lyeh, his cult actively pursues its agenda in his name. The cult's behind-the-scenes activities play a major role in Derleth's stories, and through them Cthulhu can continue to implicitly exert his influence.

Cthulhu's rival

Although Cthulhu is the best known figure in the pantheon, his alliance with the other mythos creatures in Derleth's stories is an uneasy one at best. At least one other Great Old One rivals his power and appears to be his personal enemy. That being is Hastur, Lord of the Interstellar Spaces, who currently resides in the Hyades. Although Derleth did not create Hastur, he did introduce him into the mythos as Cthulhu's half-brother and worst enemy. Various stories feature Hastur's cult assisting those trying to prevent Cthulhu from awakening. Other stories simply mention the rivalry between the two. In Derleth's "The Return of Hastur", first published in March 1939, the two gods even meet face-to-face, albeit briefly. This must be taken with a grain of salt, however, since many authors of Mythos fiction rarely dwell on this assumed rivalry, if they acknowledge it at all. Also, Hastur's domain is limited to a region far beyond Earth (Carcosa) and rarely impinges on Cthulhu's territory.

Cthulhu's family tree

According to Lovecraft and his correspondent Clark Ashton Smith, Cthulhu's parent is the androgynous deity Nagoob. Nagoob mated with the Outer God Yog-Sothoth to bear Cthulhu on the planet Vhoorl. Lin Carter, in his Xothic legend cycle, mated Cthulhu with the quasi-female entity Idh-yaa to produce four offspring: GhatanothoaGhatanothoa, Ythogtha, Zoth-Ommog, and Cthylla. The English horror writer Brian Lumley introduced an equally powerful, but questionably benevolent, "brother" to Cthulhu called Kthanid.

Idh-yaa

According to the Ponape Scripture, Idh-yaa is the "wife" of Cthulhu. No description for Idh-yaa is given, but the being is said to dwell on a planet near the double star Xoth. It is here where Cthulhu mated with Idh-yaa to produce their four progenies.

Star-spawn of Cthulhu

The star-spawn of Cthulhu (or Cthulhi) are beings who arrived on Earth with Cthulhu. They resemble Cthulhu and may be his progenies. Like Cthulhu, they can mutate their shapes, but always retain their master's distinctive outline.

After coming to Earth, the star-spawn built a great basalt city called R'lyeh on an island in the Pacific Ocean. They warred briefly with the Elder Things, but thereafter established a treaty. When R'lyeh sank, the star-spawn became trapped beneath the sea with Cthulhu (nonetheless, a few of his spawn may still be free).

References to Cthulhu

See also: References to the Cthulhu mythos

Literary references

  • The "Lovecraft Circle"
    • Ramsey Campbell's short story "The Tugging" (1976) pays homage to "The Call of Cthulhu", hinting that the appearance of a strange astronomical body in the solar system heralds the return of the Great Old One himself.
    • In Brian Lumley's short story "The Fairground Horror" (1976), Cthulhu's priests bear the "Mark of Cthulhu", which looks something like a white sea anemone—in one priest, this "mark" substituted in place of a hand, while in another it grew from the top of the priest's head, seemingly rooted deep in the brain.
  • Other literary references
    • A Cthulhu-like entity features in the Doctor Who novel White Darkness by David A. McIntee. A later Doctor Who novel, All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane, states that the entity in question was Cthulhu, although McIntee stated in internet postings that this was not his original intention ([1]).
    • Cthulhu is the master of William Starling in the book Knees Up Mother Earth (2004) by British author Robert Rankin. Raised by the Eye of Utu, he sought to unearth the serpent featured in Genesis of the Bible.
    • An American tourist named Ben encounters two acolytes of Cthulhu in the English town of Innsmouth in Neil Gaiman's short story "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" from his book Smoke and Mirrors. The two men tell Ben about their duty to the "impermanently deceased" Cthulhu and show him the ruins of sunken R'lyeh in the bay. Ben awakes after a drunken sleep to find the town vanished and no record of it anywhere.

Music references

Role-playing games

  • Call of Cthulhu is the title of a popular role-playing game based on the Cthulhu mythos.
  • The Cthulhu mythos was introduced to the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons in the first edition of the TSR book Deities and Demigods (in 1980) further editions were released without the Cthulhu mythos section due to copyright issues. In 2002, an edition of Call of Cthulhu was released under the d20 license, an open source rule system compatible with Dungeons and Dragons (ISBN 0786926392).
  • Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay features the Ruinous Powers, gods of Chaos that are reminiscent of Cthulhu and his associates.
  • The Palladium roleplaying game Rifts has a Cthulhu inspired alien intelligence known as the 'Lord of the Deep' that lives in the Pacific ocean and grants powers to his cultists throughout the world.
  • Cumberland Games & Diversions has released the third edition of the parody RPG Pokéthulhu.
  • Cthulhu Lives! is a live-action Lovecraft-inspired game.

Collectable Card Games

  • "MYTHOS The Collectable Card Game" was released by Chaosium Publications, Oakland, CA beginning 1996, based on the mythos genre. Starters, 3 base sets, a Dreamlands set, a New Aeon set, and two limited edition decks were released in all. Card types include Adventure, Allies, Artifacts, Events, Investigator, Locations, Monsters, Spells, and Tomes. Cards are either common, uncommon, or rare. New Aeon is considered the rarest edition. Investigators solve adventures with the help of allies with weapons and spells, while portals reveal monsters which collide in a cosmic battle. Game ends at 20 adventure points or when an investigator goes insane. The artwork and design are superb. The genre is richly employed. Mystery shrouds how this game silently went under.
  • "Call of Cthulhu Collectable Card Game" is in release currently at 2 complete 3 set blocks of 535 cards by Fantasy Flight Games under license from Chaosium. It is not compatible with MYTHOS. It also has common, uncommon, and rare cards. Sets released include: Arkham Edition(AE) block, Unspeakable Tales(UT), Forbidden Relics(FR), Eldritch Edition(EE) block, Masks of Nyarlathotep(MN), and Forgotten Cities(FC), also 14 AE promos, and EE promos being released, Premium Starters AE and EE with 10 new cards each, and Yithian deck (Y). Dreamlands block expected. Foreign language releases include French, Spanish, and German. Factions include: Agency, Myskatonic University, Syndicate, Cthulhu, Hastur, Yog Sogoth, Shub Niggurath. There are also neutral and fixed cards. Complex deck building options and thematic strategy make this a brilliant game. The layout and design are great, but the artwork is of greater cultural importance. It is these fantastic images that continue the mythos, that sustain the genre with authenticity and wild imagination.

Video games

  • In the PSone game Castlevania: Symphany of the Night a monster named Cthulu wanders through the black marble gallery. Even though named such the monster in Olrox' Quarters named Malachi bears more of a resemblance to the mythical beast. This is belived to be an error made while translating the game.
  • In the PC game Thief, Cthulhu is depicted as a giant statue wearing a white robe. This image appears in the level "The Lost City" which is set in a long forgotten ruin buried deep underground.
  • X-COM: Terror from the Deep has a main adversary with a very similar appearance and origin to Cthulhu. Also, there is a race of aliens named Deep Ones.
  • The PlayStation 2 game Shadow Hearts is inspired by the Cthulhu mythos, using such notables as Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep for monster designs.
  • The Nintendo/Silicon Knights game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the Nintendo Gamecube is inspired by the Cthulhu mythos and features effects dealing with character's sanity - a main component in Lovecraft stories.

Television

Film and other media

  • The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society has produced an independent black-and-white silent film titled "The Call of Cthulhu", based closely on Lovecraft's original story. More about the film through IMDB or the HPLHS website.
  • Arkham NW Productions, a Seattle based production company is producing a feature horror film titled Cthulhu loosely based on the short story "Shadow Over Innsmouth". The film stars Jason Cottle, Scott Green, Cara Bouno and Tori Spelling and is scheduled to be released in 2006. More on the movie through imdb.
  • The movie Cast a Deadly Spell is a 1991 film based in a 1940's Cthulhuian universe. The main actor plays a detective named H.P. Lovecraft, who is hired to find an ancient book (the necronomicron). It has a rather impressive Cthulhu that gets summoned at the end of it.

Parodies of Cthulhu

Cthulhu has become an icon symbolizing evil in parodies.

Gaiman's collection of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors, also features a story entitled "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" about an American who accidentally stumbles across a sleepy British coast town whose inhabitants worship C'thulu. In the introduction to the book, Neil attriubtes his inspiration for the story to a conversation with editor John Jarrold about H.P. Lovecraft's prose style.

The Movie "In the Mouth of Madness" contained many references to the Cthulhu mythos, including a brief glimpse of several Old Ones, one of which bares noticeble resemblence to Cthulhu himself.

  • The comic book series Hellboy contains several references to the Cthulhu, including a sleeping group of Great Old Ones which await assistance in waking up and destroying.
  • The comic book series Little Gloomy features a costar character by the name of "Carl Cthulhu" who resembles a tiny Cthulhu but rather than being evil and destructive, he is subdued by the simple pleasures in life, such as happy bunnies. Sadly, these don't seem to be available in the world of Little Gloomy, yet do appear in books and his dreams. Carl will often threaten his friends with his plans of destruction, but assures them that because of their kindness their deaths shall be quick and painless.

References

  • Akeley, Henry (a pseudonym?) (Hallowmas 1982). "Cthul--Who?: How Do You Pronounce 'Cthulhu'?". Crypt of Cthulhu #9: A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal. Vol. 2 No. 1. Retrieved February 19. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) Robert M. Price (ed.), Bloomfield, NJ: Miskatonic University Press.
  • Angell, George Gammell (a pseudonym?) (Hallowmas 1982). "Cthulhu Elsewhere in Lovecraft". Crypt of Cthulhu #9: A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal. Vol. 2 No. 1. Retrieved February 19. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) Robert M. Price (ed.), Bloomfield, NJ: Miskatonic University Press.
  • Burleson, Donald R. (1983). H.P. Lovecraft, A Critical Study. Westport, CT / London, England: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23255-5.
  • Harms, Daniel (1998). "Cthulhu". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana ((2nd ed.) ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. pp.64–7. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
—"Idh-yaa", pp.148. Ibid.
—"Star-spawn of Cthulhu", 283–4. Ibid.
  • Joshi, S. T. (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-31578-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Lovecraft, Howard P. (1968). Selected Letters II. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-870-54029-7.
  • Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon ((1st ed.) ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. ISBN 1-561-84129-3.

Notes

  1. ^ Akeley, "Cthul--Who?: How Do You Pronounce 'Cthulhu'?".
  2. ^ Lovecraft suggested that "the first syllable [of Khlul'-hloo is] pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness." (Pearsall, "CTHULHU", The Lovecraft Lexicon, pp. 301.)
  3. ^ Although commonly referred to as "he", Cthulhu's gender is never defined and is probably an absurd definition to give to "outre" creatures such as the Great Old Ones. However, there is the impression that another being in the mythos, Shub-Niggurath, an Outer God, has distinct female qualities due to her presumed fecundity.
  4. ^ Derleth was probably inspired by Lovecraft's seminal tale to call his mythology the "Cthulhu mythos"; though Lovecraft himself (had he heard it) would likely never have approved. (Burleson, H.P. Lovecraft, A Critical Study, pp. 8.)
  5. ^ Angell, "Cthulhu Elsewhere in Lovecraft".
  6. ^ It is sometimes claimed that Cthulhu corresponds to a monster or god in Sumerian mythology named "Kutulu" (or sometimes "Cuthalu"). In reality, "Kutulu" comes from Simon's Necronomicon, which is a fiction based loosely on Sumerian mythology and other things.
  7. ^ S.T. Joshi & David E. Schultz, An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, pp. 51.
  8. ^ H.P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters II, pp. 150.
  9. ^ Ghatanothoa first appeared in Hazel Heald's short story "Out of the Aeons"—a story ghostwritten by Lovecraft (q.v.). Carter later included the deity in his Xothic legend cycle, which connected Ghatanothoa to Cthulhu, though no such relation appears in the original Heald story. It is also worth noting that the mythos links Ghatanothoa to the energy beings known as the Lloigor.

On-line short stories

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