What I've Been Reading : Lovecraft: The Call of Cthulhu

by H. P. Lovecraft

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“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

And with those words, we truly begin the Cthulhu Mythos. This is the Lovecraft I’ve been waiting for. Enough with wading through all of his early crap, all the half formed ideas and elder things to reach this point. It has the basic Lovecraftian elements: the man driven mad from his experience, the in-human race from beyond that tip the balance of insanity in the minds of men, the scientific-sounding investigation of these ancient horrors.

Finally here is the foundation of the Cthulhu Mythos, before it was only lightly hinted at here and there, now we have the first exposition on the subject. It’s why this story was the real turning point for Lovecraft and why the mythos is named for this bizarre beast, who appears only once and is mentioned again very sparsely.

“They worshiped, so they said, the great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died.”

In addition, we have the return of the dreaded Necronomicon, penned by the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, who hinted at this cult in the lines (Game of Thrones fans take notes, we have shades of the Drowned God here),

“That is not dead which can eternal lie

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

Cthulhu himself is a giant creature who is waiting for the stars to align properly to rising again from his sunken house (or citadel) of R’lyeh. Which, according to the events of the story, is at 47°9′S 126°43′W- or the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean. We know this because a Norwegian stumbles across the risen island, accidently releases the Great Old One, and then impales his yacht into the creature’s chest, ripping it apart.

The story here is an investigation of an investigation. A man finds a strange file on sinister happenings among his dead uncle’s papers. The file is a collection of various seemingly disconnected events across the globe, all of which points to a hidden cult (perhaps the oldest religion in human history). The stories range from the visions of a feverish physic sculptor, to a raid on a bloody cult of human sacrifices in Louisiana, to rumblings of uprisings in various remote spots, and so on until the narrator himself takes up the case and investigates this mysterious cult himself. And like the greatest of Lovecraft stories, it ends but nothing is finished.

A lot of debate has raged back and forth over the inspiration for this tale. Some say its from Tennyson’s “The Kraken”, others claim Dunsay’s “The Gods of Pegana”, and there some who lay claims to the ancient tales of Lemuira and Atlantis. I say it doesn't matter one single bit. The story is its own. And while it may take elements of them, it is unique enough to be different from each one and thus cause a debate. The only tales it’s really similar to is Lovecraft’s own early story Dagon.

The character of Cthulhu is now the poster boy for all things Lovecraft. He is the writer’s Mickey Mouse, his Spiderman, his Superman. And the fact that all of his works are in the public domain means that the characters and stories will never die. Not when people can profit from their plunder.

Now while I may seem like I was breast fed on this stuff, I only first came into contact with the Mythos not through the books, but via the roleplaying game of the same name The Call of Cthulhu. I had never heard of the man before I picked up a 2nd hand copy of its 4th edition in 1990 and dove-in head first. Thus, I imbibed all of the backstory before jumping into the actual material- which probably made it easier for young me to read, like reading the libretto before the opera. Lovecraft, as much as I love the stories, can become excessively wordy.

As such, Cthulhu has been in my blood since before High School. Had it not been for the accessories, the geek stuff, I may never have read it. I’ve linked what videos I could find below, but strangely there aren’t too many adaptations of the story into any other mediums.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.