Cthulhu

Cthulhu in the lost city of R'lyeh

Cthulhu is a fictional being created by horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and is one of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones.^[1] It is often cited for the extreme descriptions given of its appearance, size, and the abject terror that it invokes. Because of this reputation, Cthulhu is often referred to in science fiction and fantasy circles as a tongue-in-cheek shorthand for extreme horror or evil.

Cthulhu has also been spelled Cathulu, Kutulu, Q'thulu, Ktulu, Cthulu, Kthulhut, Kulhu, Thu Thu, Tulu,^[2] and in many other ways. It is often preceded by the epithet Great, Dead, or Dread.

Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as "Khlûl'hloo" or "Kathooloo"^[3] S. T. Joshi points out, however, that Lovecraft gave several differing pronunciations on different occasions.^[4] According to Lovecraft, this is merely the closest that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language.^[5]

Cthulhu first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928)—though it makes minor appearances in a few other Lovecraft works.^[6] August Derleth used the creature's name to identify the system of lore employed by Lovecraft and his literary successors, the Cthulhu Mythos.

The Call of Cthulhu

Main article: The Call of Cthulhu

The most detailed descriptions of Cthulhu in "The Call of Cthulhu" are based on statues of the creature. One, constructed by an artist after a series of baleful dreams, is said to have "yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature.... A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings."^[7] Another, recovered by police from a raid on a murderous cult, "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."^[8]

When the creature finally appears, the story says that the "thing cannot be described", but it is called "the green, sticky spawn of the stars", with "flabby claws" and an "awful squid-head with writhing feelers". The phrase "a mountain walked or stumbled" gives a sense of the creature's scale.^[9]

Cthulhu is depicted as having a worldwide cult centered in Arabia, with followers in regions as far-flung as Greenland, Louisiana, and New Zealand.^[10] There are leaders of the cult "in the mountains of China" who are said to be immortal. Cthulhu is described by some of these cultists as the "great priest" of "the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky."^[11]

The cult is noted for chanting its horrid phrase or ritual: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", which translates as "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."^[12] This is often shortened to "Cthulhu fhtagn", which might possibly mean "Cthulhu waits", "Cthulhu dreams".^[13], or "Cthulhu waits dreaming" ^[14] Ostensibly part of a couplet from the Necronomicon, the other line being "yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth."

One cultist, known as Old Castro, provides the most elaborate information given in Lovecraft's fiction about Cthulhu. The Great Old Ones, according to Castro, had come from the stars to rule the world in ages past.

“

They were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape...but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them.^[15]

”

Castro points to the "much-discussed couplet" from Abdul Alhazred's Necronomicon:

That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die.^[16]

Castro explains the role of the Cthulhu Cult: When the stars have come right for the Great Old Ones, "some force from outside must serve to liberate their bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented them from making an initial move."^[15] At the proper time,

“

the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth....Then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.^[17]

”

Castro reports that the Great Old Ones are telepathic and "knew all that was occurring in the universe". They were able to communicate with the first humans by "moulding their dreams", thus establishing the Cthulhu Cult, but after R'lyeh had sunk beneath the waves, "the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse."^[18]

Star-spawn of Cthulhu

The star-spawn of Cthulhu, or Cthulhi, have a physical simility with Cthulhu himself, but are of far smaller size. This race arrived with him, but relatively little is known about them. On earth they built the city R'lyeh, which later sank in the ocean, and where they still dwell with Cthulhu. A few are rumored to have escaped this incident, and can be found in hidden places on earth.

Elsewhere in Lovecraft's fiction

Cthulhu makes several cameo appearances elsewhere in Lovecraft's fiction, sometimes described in ways that appear to contradict information given in "The Call of Cthulhu". For example, rather than including Cthulhu among the Great Old Ones, a quotation from the Necronomicon in "The Dunwich Horror" says of the Old Ones, "Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly."^[19] But different Lovecraft stories and characters use the term "Old Ones" in widely different ways.

In At the Mountains of Madness, for example, the Old Ones are a species of extraterrestrials, also known as Elder Things, who were at war with Cthulhu and his relatives or allies. Human explorers in Antarctica discover an ancient city of the Elder Things and puzzle out a history from sculptural records:

“

With the upheaval of new land in the South Pacific tremendous events began.... Another race--a land race of beings shaped like octopi and probably corresponding to the fabulous pre-human spawn of Cthulhu--soon began filtering down from cosmic infinity and precipitated a monstrous war which for a time drove the Old Ones wholly back to the sea.... Later peace was made, and the new lands were given to the Cthulhu spawn whilst the Old Ones held the sea and the older lands.... [T]he antarctic remained the centre of the Old Ones' civilisation, and all the discoverable cities built there by the Cthulhu spawn were blotted out. Then suddenly the lands of the Pacific sank again, taking with them the frightful stone city of R'lyeh and all the cosmic octopi, so that the Old Ones were once again supreme on the planet....^[20]

”

This all seems to occur before the Permian period (about 300 million years ago), and certainly before the Jurassic period (200 million years ago),^[21] in apparent contrast to "The Call of Cthulhu", where R'lyeh sinks after the rise of humanity.

The narrator of At the Mountains of Madness also notes that "the Cthulhu spawn...seem to have been composed of matter more widely different from that which we know than was the substance of the Antarctic Old Ones. They were able to undergo transformations and reintegrations impossible for their adversaries, and seem therefore to have originally come from even remoter gulfs of cosmic space.... The first sources of the other beings can only be guessed at with bated breath." He notes, however, that "the Old Ones might have invented a cosmic framework to account for their occasional defeats."^[22] Other stories have the Elder Things' enemies repeat this cosmic framework.

In "The Whisperer in Darkness", for example, one character refers to "the fearful myths antedating the coming of man to the earth--the Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu cycles--which are hinted at in the Necronomicon." That story suggests that Cthulhu is one of the entities worshipped by the alien Mi-Go race, and repeats the Elder Things' claim that the Mi-Go share his unknown material compositions. The story mentions in passing that some humans call the Mi-Go "the old ones".^[23]

"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" establishes that Cthulhu is also worshipped by the nonhuman creatures known as Deep Ones.^[24]

According to correspondence between Lovecraft and fellow author 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.

August Derleth

August Derleth, a literary protégé, wrote several stories in the Cthulhu Mythos (a term he coined) that dealt with Cthulhu, both before and after Lovecraft's death. In "The Return of Hastur", written in 1937, Derleth proposes two groups of opposed cosmic entities,

“

the Old or Ancient Ones, the Elder Gods, of cosmic good, and those of cosmic evil, bearing many names, and themselves of different groups, as if associated with the elements and yet transcending them: for there are the Water Beings, hidden in the depths; those of Air that are the primal lurkers beyond time; those of Earth, horrible animate survivors of distant eons.^[25]

”

According to Derleth's scheme, "Great Cthulhu is one of the Water Beings". Derleth indicated that "the Water Beings oppose those of Air"--a departure from traditional elemental theory, in which water and fire were opposed--and depicted Cthulhu as engaged in an age-old arch-rivalry with a designated Air elemental, Hastur the Unspeakable, whom he describes as Cthulhu's "half-brother".^[26]

Based on this framework, Derleth wrote a series of stories, collected as The Trail of Cthulhu, about the struggle of Dr. Laban Shrewsbury and his associates against Cthulhu and his minions--culminating, in "The Black Island" (1952), with the atomic bombing of R'lyeh, which Derleth has moved to the vicinity of Ponape. Derleth describes Cthulhu in that story as

“

a thing which was little more than a protoplasmic mass, from the body of which a thousand tentacles of every length and thickness flailed forth, from the head of which, constantly altering shape from an amorphous bulge to a simulacrum of a man's head, a single malevolent eye appeared.^[27]

”

Derleth's interpretations are not universally accepted by enthusiasts of Lovecraft's work, and indeed are criticized by some for projecting a stereotypical conflict between equal forces of objective good and evil into Lovecraft's strictly amoral continuity. ^[28]

In other media

An American independent film titled 'Cthulhu', (Cthulhu the Movie) directed by Daniel Gildark premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 14, 2007.
The lead singer of GWAR, Oderus Urungus, has a penis-like appendage growing between his legs known as "The Cuttlefish of Cthulhu".
Lin Carter, in his Xothic legend cycle, depicts Cthulhu of having mated with the quasi-female entity Idh-yaa on a planet near the double star Xoth. This spawned four offspring: Ghatanothoa,^[29] Ythogtha, Zoth-Ommog, and Cthylla.
The English horror writer Brian Lumley introduced an equally powerful, but questionably benevolent, "brother" to Cthulhu called Kthanid.
Stephen King has suggested that Cthulhu represents "a gigantic, tentacle-equipped, killer vagina from beyond space and time."^[30] Cthulhu is also mentioned in his short story "Crouch End."
Finnish antiquarian S. Albert Kivinen (real name: Seppo Kivinen) referred to Cthulhu in his short story Keskiyön Mato Ikaalisissa ("The Midnight Worm in Ikaalinen") with a quote from a fictional folk poem. In this poem, Cthulhu was referred to as Kutunluu (English = goat's bone), which in Finnish is pronounced almost identically.
Anton Szandor Lavey suggests in his book "The Satanic Rituals" that the "Call To Cthulhu " is an actual Satanic ritual.
Colin Wilson identifies the fictitious source of Lovecraft's Cthulhu character in his novel "The Philosophers Stone" as an ancient and powerful priest and religious leader.
Charles Stross illustrates the consequences of attempting to use Cthulhu (codenamed Koschei) as a weapon in his novelette "A Colder War".
Neil Gaiman in his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors included two stories connected with the Cthulhu universe: "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" in which a man shares a pint with two acolytes of Cthulhu, and "Only the End of the World Again", set in Lovecraft's imaginary town of Innsmouth, where a werewolf private detective prevents the awakening of the Great Old Ones. In his short story collection Fragile Things, the opening story, "A Study In Emerald", is a Sherlock Holmes story set in a universe where the Great Old Ones control the world.
Vadim Panov in his The Secret Town cycle described break-through of Cthulhu from Deep Hell. In his novels Cthulhu was referred as a slave driver for Grand Master Azag-Tot.
In episode 50 of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy "Prank Call of Cthulhu," Cthulhu is comically drawn as the leader-boss of the nightmare monsters who cause chaos and turn humans into monsters.
On their 1984 album Ride the Lightning, metal band Metallica released a song titled Call of Ktulu inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.
The Progressive Rock band Caravan released a song called "C'Thlu Thlu" on their 1973 album For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night.
The Black Metal band Cradle of Filth released a song titled Cthulhu Dawn released on the album "Midian" and the album "Eleven Burial Masses" which was not sold in the US.
Brand Gamblin writes, produces, and directs "Calls For Cthulhu", a comedy series depicting Cthulhu as the host of his own call-in show.
In the MMORPG World of Warcraft a boss character is named C'thun, likely inspired by Cthulhu.
German fantasy author Wolfgang Hohlbein wrote a series of short stories for magazines that was later published as a book series called "Der Hexer von Salem."
In an episode of The Real Ghostbusters Cthulhu appeared from the bottom of the sea near Coney Island after being summoned by a cult. The Ghostbusters used their proton packs and the electricity of a roller coaster to send Cthulhu back into the deep.
Cthulhu appears in the "Game of Extraordinary Gentlemen" at the back of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II.
In Simon Green's "Something from the Nightside", Cthulhu is written on the wall of the subway station. The main character claims it is misspelled.
The deathcore band The Black Dahlia Murder released a song entitled "Thy Cosmic Horror" on their album Unhallowed
The 2001, film noir video game, Max Payne has one of the central antagonists, Jack Lupino, invoke the name of numerous demonic creatures, one such creature happens to be Cthulhu.
In the computer game Thief: The Dark Project, an ancient statue of a winged humanoid with tentacled head is found in the level "The Lost City." Upon finding it, Garrett remarks "Creepy!"
In The Comedy adventure, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy Cthulu is a monster who hides in the phone line and uses prank calls to turn humans into monsters.

Artistic imagery

Cthulhu has been depicted in a parody of the Ichthys bumper ornament.

Cthulhu has served as direct inspiration for many modern artists and sculptors. Prominent artists that produced renderings of this creature include, but not limited to, Paul Carrick, Stephen Hickman, Kevin Evans, Dave Carson and Francois Launet.

Multiple sculptural depictions of Cthulhu exist, the most noteworthy of them being Stephen Hickman's Cthulhu Statue and NetherCraft Cthulhu. Hickmans's Cthulhu offers a remarkably accurate depiction of the creature and is considered to be "canonical" (this sculpture is so popular that it serves as a separate object of inspiration for many works, most recent of which are the Cthulhu Worshiper Amulets manufactured by a Russian jeweler). It was produced by Bowen Designs for some time, but is currently not available for sale. Today the Hickman Cthulhu Statue is a rarity which is actively hunted on eBay and other auctions.

Notes

^ 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, among other things, and the words "Kutulu" and "Cuthalu" are not linguistically correct Sumerian.
^ Harms, "Cthulhu", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 64.
^ Lovecraft said 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." H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters V, pp. 10 – 11.
^ S. T. Joshi, note 9 to "The Call of Cthulhu, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
^ "Cthul-Who?: How Do You Pronounce 'Cthulhu'?", Crypt of Cthulhu
1. 9

^ "Cthulhu Elsewhere in Lovecraft", Crypt of Cthulhu #9.
^ H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", The Dunwich Horror and Others, p. 127.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 134.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", pp. 152-153.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", pp. 133-141, 146.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 139.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 136.
^ Will Murray, "Prehuman Language in Lovecraft", in Black Forbidden Things, Robert M. Price, ed., p. 42.
^ Marsh, Philip "R'lyehian as a Toy Language - on psycholinguistics"
^ ^a ^b Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 140.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 141. The couplet appeared earlier in Lovecraft's story "The Nameless City", in Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, p. 99.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 141.
^ Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", pp. 140-141.
^ Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror", The Dunwich Horror and Others, p. 170.
^ Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, in At the Mountains of Madness, p. 66.
^ Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, pp. 67-68.
^ Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, p. 68.
^ Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness"
^ Lovecraft, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", pp. 337, 367.
^ August Derleth, "The Return of Hastur", The Hastur Cycle, Robert M. Price, ed., p. 256.
^ Derleth, "The Return of Hastur", pp. 256, 266.
^ August Derleth, "The Black Island", The Cthulhu Cycle, Robert M. Price, ed., p. 83.
^ Bloch, Robert, "Heritage of Horror", The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
^ Ghatanothoa first appeared in Hazel Heald's short story "Out of the Aeons" — a story ghostwritten by Lovecraft (q.v.).
^ Houellebecq, H.P. Lovecraft, Against the World, Against Life, Introduction by Stephen King, p. 13.

References

Akeley, Henry (Hallowmas 1982). "Cthul--Who?: How Do You Pronounce 'Cthulhu'?". Crypt of Cthulhu #9: A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal Vol. 2 No. 1. Retrieved on February 19, 2006. Robert M. Price (ed.), Bloomfield, NJ: Miskatonic University Press.
Angell, George Gammell (Hallowmas 1982). "Cthulhu Elsewhere in Lovecraft". Crypt of Cthulhu #9: A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal Vol. 2 No. 1. Retrieved on February 19, 2006. 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.
Bloch, Robert (1982). "Heritage of Horror", The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, 1st ed., Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-35080-4.
Harms, Daniel (1998). "Cthulhu", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, (2nd ed.), Oakland, CA: Chaosium, pp.64 – 7. ISBN.

— "Idh-yaa", p. 148. Ibid.

— "Star-spawn of Cthulhu", pp. 283 – 4. Ibid.

Joshi, S. T.; David E. Schultz (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN.
Lovecraft, Howard P. [1928] (1999). "The Call of Cthulhu", in S. T. Joshi (ed.): The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. London, UK; New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN.
Lovecraft, Howard P. (1968). Selected Letters II. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN.
Lovecraft, Howard P. (1976). Selected Letters V. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN-X.
Mosig, Yozan Dirk W. (1997). Mosig at Last: A Psychologist Looks at H. P. Lovecraft, 1st printing, West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press. ISBN.
Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon, (1st ed.), Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. ISBN.
Marsh, Philip. R'lyehian as a Toy Language - on psycholinguistics. Lehigh Acres, FL 33970-0085 USA: Philip Marsh.

External links

"The Call of Cthulhu," H. P. Lovecraft's original story featuring the first appearance of Cthulhu
Cthulhu Lives, the Lovecraft Historical Society

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