List of Cthulhu Mythos books
This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. (February 2023) |
Many fictional works of arcane literature appear in H. P. Lovecraft's cycle of interconnected works often known as the Cthulhu Mythos. The main literary purpose of these works is to explain how characters within the tales come by occult or esoterica (knowledge that is unknown to the general populace). However, in some cases the works themselves serve as an important plot device. Thus, in Robert Bloch's tale "The Shambler from the Stars", a weird fiction writer seals his doom by casting a spell from the arcane book De Vermis Mysteriis.
Another purpose of these tomes was to give members of the
B
Book of Azathoth
He must meet the Black Man, and go with them all to the throne of Azathoth at the centre of ultimate Chaos. That was what she said. He must sign in his own blood the book of Azathoth and take a new secret name now that his independent delvings had gone so far.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dreams in the Witch House"
The Book of Azathoth is a creation of Lovecraft's. It is mentioned in "The Dreams in the Witch House" as a book harbored by Nyarlathotep in the form of the Black Man (or Satan). The protagonist, Walter Gilman, is forced to sign the book in his blood, pledging his soul to the Other Gods. The idea of the book is likely based on classical descriptions of witch-cults, Satanic rites, and the signing away of souls.
Other authors have expanded on the Book. Michael Alan Nelson writes (in his Fall of Cthulhu series for Boom! Studios) that the signer attracts the attention of the Other Gods by writing their name in the book. Glynn Owen Barrass states (in The Starry Wisdom Library) that the book praises the Lovecraftian pantheon and renounces/mocks the Christian scripture.
Book of Eibon
. . . The Book of Eibon, that strangest and rarest of occult forgotten volumes ... is said to have come down through a series of manifold translations from a prehistoric original written in the lost language of Hyperborea.
—Clark Ashton Smith, "Ubbo-Sathla"
The Book of Eibon, or Liber Ivonis or Livre d'Eibon, is attributed to Clark Ashton Smith and can be said to be his equivalent of Lovecraft's Necronomicon.[1] It appears in a number of Lovecraft's stories, such as "The Haunter of the Dark" (Liber Ivonis), "The Dreams in the Witch House" (Book of Eibon), "The Horror in the Museum" (Book of Eibon), "The Shadow Out of Time" (Book of Eibon) and "The Man of Stone", a collaboration with Hazel Heald (Book of Eibon).
The book is supposed to have been written by
Smith presents his short story "The Coming of the White Worm" as Chapter IX of the Book of Eibon.[3]
Lin Carter wrote numerous 'completions' or imitations of Clark Ashton Smith stories which purported to be various sections of the Book of Eibon.
Outside of Smith's and Lovecraft's mythoses, the book notably appears in Lucio Fulci's supernatural horror film The Beyond (1981), where inappropriate use of it opened up one of the seven gates of Hell, allowing its zombie-like denizens to cross over.[1]
Book of Iod
The Book of Iod was created by
The Book of Iod was also the title of a short-story collection published by Chaosium in 1995, containing 10 Cthulhu Mythos stories by Henry Kuttner, along with three related stories by Kuttner, Robert Bloch, Lin Carter, and Robert M. Price.
C
Celaeno Fragments
The Celaeno Fragments is credited to August Derleth. In his
Cthäat Aquadingen
The Cthäat Aquadingen, possibly meaning Things of the Water (As Aquadingen can be translated from Dutch into Water/Aqua things), was created by
version was apparently written between the 11th and 12th century, as was an English translation that appeared sometime in the 14th century.Cultes des Goules
Cultes des Goules, or Cults of Ghouls, was created by
Cultes des Goules is mentioned numerous times in the works of
The book Cultes des Goules is also mentioned in passing as being part of a collection that was discovered in the titular castle in the 1981 novel The Keep, but does not appear in the 1983 movie based on the book.
D
De Vermis Mysteriis
De Vermis Mysteriis, or Mysteries of the Worm, is a grimoire created by Robert Bloch, first appearing in Bloch's short story 'The Secret in the Tomb" (Weird Tales, May 1935) [7] and featured extensively in Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars" (1935). It also was used by Stephen King in his short story "Jerusalem's Lot" and novel Revival.
Dhol Chants
The Dhol Chants was first mentioned in the short story "The Horror In The Museum" (
Miskatonic University's library is said to hold a copy of the Dhol Chants.
E
Eltdown Shards
Richard F. Searight invented The Eltdown Shards in a head-note (which purported to be a quotation from this text) to his story "The Sealed Casket" (Weird Tales, March 1935). The story was actually published in that issue without the headnote. Lovecraft later quoted the unpublished headnote in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith, "leading some to believe that he wrote it".[8] He cited the book in The Shadow Out of Time and The Challenge from Beyond.
The Eltdown Shards are mentioned in numerous mythos stories. They are mysterious pottery fragments found in 1882 and named after the place where they were discovered, Eltdown in southern England. The shards date to the Triassic period and are covered with strange symbols thought to be untranslatable. Nonetheless, several authors have penned their own interpretations of the markings, including Gordon Whitney and his The Eltdown Shards: A Partial Translation. Many of these works, as well as a number of non-academic versions, have circulated among secretive cults.
Whitney's translation is remarkably similar to the
G
G'harne Fragments
The G'harne Fragments first appeared in the works of
The two primary translators of the fragments are
K
The King in Yellow
A creation of
According to the stories, the play was widely censored. The author is unknown, and is believed to have committed
Lovecraft was a fan of the book and included references to the Lake of Hali and the Yellow Sign in his short story "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1930). August Derleth later expanded on this connection in his own stories, rendering Hastur as an evil deity related to Cthulhu and the King In Yellow as one of his incarnations.
L
Liber Ivonis
See Book of Eibon.
N
Necronomicon
The Necronomicon is arguably the most famous (or infamous) of Lovecraft's grimoires. It appears in a number of Lovecraft's stories, as well as in the writings of other authors.
O
On the Sending Out of the Soul
On the Sending Out of the Soul appears in Henry Kuttner's short story "Hydra" (1939). It is an eight-page pamphlet on astral projection. The pamphlet appeared in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1783 and circulated among occult groups. Most copies were destroyed in the wake of a series of grisly murders.
The first seven pages of the pamphlet contain vague mystic writing; however, the eighth page details a formula for effecting astral travel. Among the required ingredients are a brazier and the drug
P
Parchments of Pnom
The Parchments of Pnom is a manuscript written by Hyperborea's leading genealogist and soothsayer. It is written in the "Elder Script" of that land and contains a detailed account of the lineage of the Hyperborean gods, most notably Tsathoggua.
Pnakotic Manuscripts
The Pnakotic Manuscripts were created by
Poakotic Fragments
Also known as Puahotic Fragments mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft's ghost writing "The Horror in the Museum".
Ponape Scripture
The Ponape Scripture first appeared in
In contemporary times, other versions of the Ponape Scripture have seen print.
R
Las Reglas de Ruina
Las Reglas de Ruina (literally "the Rules of Ruin") first appeared in
Revelations of Gla'aki
The Revelations of Gla'aki first appeared in
S
Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan
The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan is a collection of writings mentioned by Lovecraft in "The Other Gods" (1921) and "
The collection can be considered to be an analogue to the I Ching, a Chinese text of cosmology and divination.
T
Tarsioid Psalms
The Tarsioid Psalms are a collection of writings dating back the early
Testaments of Carnamagos
Now, as he sat there in a state half terror, half stupor, his eyes were drawn to the wizard volume before him: the writings of that evil sage and seer, Carnamagos, which had been recovered a thousand years ago from some Graeco-Bactrian tomb, and transcribed by an apostate monk in the original Greek, in the blood of an incubus-begotten monster. In that volume were the chronicles of great sorcerers of old, and the histories of demons earthly and ultra-cosmic, and the veritable spells by which the demons could be called up and controlled and dismissed.
—Clark Ashton Smith, "The Treader of the Dust"
The Testaments of Carnamagos was created by Clark Ashton Smith and first appeared in his short story "Xeethra" (1934). The text is featured more prominently in Smith's "The Treader of the Dust" (1935). Confusedly, Xeethra is set in the far distant future on Zothique, Earth's last continent, whereas "The Treader of the Dust" is set in (Smith's) current times.
The book gives a description of the Great Old One
U
Unaussprechlichen Kulten
Unaussprechlichen Kulten was created by
The name is grammatically incorrect. In proper German it would be named either Unaussprechliche Kulte or Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten (Of Unspeakable Cults).
Z
Zanthu Tablets
The Zanthu Tablets first appeared in "The Dweller in the Tomb" (1971), by Lin Carter. The centerpiece of the story is the discovery of the tablets, which are an important part of Carter's Xothic legend cycle.
The tablets themselves are 12 engraved pieces of black
In 1913, guided by the Ponape Script, Harold Hadley Copeland led an expedition into
Copeland published a brochure entitled The Zanthu Tablets: A Conjectural Translation in 1916. He made the rough translation using a key borrowed from the estate of Colonel Churchward, the last qualified translator of ancient Naacal, and heavily edited it out of a concern for "public sanity". The controversial brochure was later denounced by the academic community and was suppressed by the authorities. Copeland's later manuscripts were never published. Ten years after the publication of the brochure, Copeland died in an asylum.
Carter's story "The Thing in the Pit" in his Lost Worlds purports to be a translation from the Zanthu Tablets.
Zhou Texts
An ancient manuscript found in Asia, written circa in 1100 BC during Zhou dynasty. It contains the rituals to summon the Great Old One Kassogtha.
Miscellaneous books
The following is a list of miscellaneous books—both real and fictitious—appearing in the Cthulhu Mythos. Along with the use of arcane literature, texts which innately possess supernatural powers or effects, there is also a strong tradition of fictional works or fictionalizing real works in the Mythos. The main literary purpose of books in the Mythos is to explain how characters within the tales come by occult or esoteric knowledge that is unknown to the general populace. However, in some cases the works themselves serve as important plot devices or simply opportunities for members of the Lovecraft Circle to pay homage to one another and other sources.
The following table[16] is organized as follows:
- Title. The title of the work as it appears in the Cthulhu Mythos.
- Fict/Real. Fictitious works are denoted by F; real-life works by R.
- Author. The person or character credited as the author of the work. Authors of nonfictional works are real people. If the author is fictitious, the name of the writer who created the work appears in parentheses after the character's name. Surnames of Mythos writers are as follows:
- Derleth = August Derleth
- Bloch = Robert Bloch
- Howard = Robert E. Howard
- Lovecraft = H. P. Lovecraft
- Notes. A brief summary of the work.
A–D
Title | Fict/ Real |
Author | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
An Investigation into Myth-Patterns of Latter-Day Primitives with Especial Reference to the R'lyeh Text |
F
|
Prof. Laban Shrewsbury (Derleth) |
—
|
Ars Magna et Ultima | R
|
Ramon Llull (1235–1315) | Ars Magna et Ultima roughly translates to Universal Art. The proper title of this work is Ars Magna, Generalis et Ultima (1517). |
Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria | R
|
William Scott-Elliot | This work is an omnibus volume, published in 1925, of the author's two earlier volumes, The Story of Atlantis (1896) and The Lost Lemuria (1904), |
Azathoth and Other Horrors | F
|
Edward Pickman Derby (Lovecraft)
|
—
|
The Black Rites | F
|
Luveh-Keraphf (Bloch) |
—
|
Book of Azathoth | F
|
(Lovecraft) | In Lovecraft's fiction, it is a book carried by Outer Gods.[17]
|
Book of Dzyan | R
|
Blavatsky | The Book of Dzyan purports to be an ancient text of Tibetan origin, but only came to light in the late 19th century and may be a forgery dating from that time. |
Book of Hidden Things | F
|
—
|
Originally created by William Lumley in his draft version of The Diary of Alonzo Typer, the book was retained by Lovecraft when he revised the story, though it receives only passing mention. |
Book of Thoth | F
|
—
|
A book from Egyptian mythology but an actual text in mythos stories. |
Cabala of Saboth | R
|
(Robert Bloch) | First mentioned by name in "The Secret in the Tomb" (1935). According to Bloch's story "The Mannikin", it was published in a Greek translation in 1686. |
Clavis Alchimiae | R
|
Robert Fludd (1574–1637) | An unpublished manuscript, copied by an amanuensis, and headed Declaratio breuis, &c., is in the Royal manuscripts, British Library, 12 C. ii. Fludd's Opera consists of his folios, not reprinted but collected and arranged in six volumes in 1638; appended is a Clavis Philosophiæ et Alchimiæ Fluddanæ, Frankfort, 1633. |
Commentaries on Witchcraft | F
|
Mycroft (Bloch) | The fictitious author Mycroft may allude to Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft Holmes. |
Cryptomenysis Patefacta | R
|
John Falconer | The title of this work, first published in 1685, translates to "The Art of Secret Information Disclosed Without a Key". Lovecraft found this work in the entry on "Cryptography" in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica and included it, along with other titles from the same article, in his story "The Dunwich Horror" (1929). |
Cthulhu in the Necronomicon | F
|
Prof. Laban Shrewsbury (Derleth) |
The work is Professor Shrewsbury's supposed sequel to his An Investigation into Myth-Patterns of Latter-Day Primitives. Shrewsbury's unfinished work was published posthumously following his alleged demise. The original manuscript is kept at the Miskatonic University library.
|
Daemonolatreia | R
|
Remigius | Remigius is the Nicholas Remy (1530–1612), an infamous French judge who presided over witchcraft trials. During a 15-year period, he convicted and sentenced to death about 900 reputed witches. His work, Daemonolatreia or Demonolatry, is a compendium of information about witchcraft, intended to be used for prosecuting alleged witches.
|
The Daemonolorum | F
|
(Bloch) | —
|
De Furtivis Literarum Notis | R
|
Giovanni Battista della Porta (1535?–1615)
|
The title means "On the Secret Symbols of Letters". Like Cryptomenysis Patefacta, Lovecraft found the work under "Cryptography" in the 20th century edition of Encyclopædia Britannica. |
De Lapide Philosophico | R
|
Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) | —
|
De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis | F
|
Ranft [1734] (Bloch) |
The title means "On the Eating of the Dead in the Tomb", a reference to a legend that claims that entombed corpses, driven by pangs of hunger, feed on their burial shrouds and even their own rotting flesh. Two real-life books share this title, one by Michael Ranft (1728) and the other by Philip Rehrius (1679). |
G–P
Title | Fict/ Real |
Author | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Ghorl Nigral | F
|
(Willis Conover) | An invention of one of Lovecraft's correspondents. |
Image du Monde |
R
|
Gauthier de Metz | L'Image du monde (French, the image of the world) or Imago Mundi, an encyclopedic work about creation, the Earth and the universe, wherein facts are mixed with fantasy |
Invocations to Dagon | F
|
(Derleth) | —
|
Key of Wisdom | R
|
Artephius | |
Kryptographik | R
|
J.H. Klüber | A real book on cryptography, published 1809. |
Liber Damnatus | F
|
(Lovecraft) | —
|
Liber Investigationis | R
|
Geber (c. 721 – c. 815)[18]
|
Liber investigationis magisterii |
Magyar Folklore | F
|
Dornly (Howard) |
—
|
Marvells of Science | F
|
Morryster (Lovecraft) | Though mentioned by Lovecraft in "The Festival" (1925), the book was actually created by Ambrose Bierce in his story "The Man and the Snake" (1890). |
Night-Gaunt | F
|
Edgar Hengist Gordon (Bloch) |
—
|
Observations on the Several Parts of Africa | F
|
Sir Arthur Jermyn (Lovecraft) |
Created by Lovecraft in "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" (1921). |
Of Evill Sorceries done in New-England of Daemons in no Humane Shape |
F
|
(Lovecraft & Derleth) | —
|
Occultus | F
|
Heiriarchus (Bloch) |
—
|
Polygraphia | R
|
Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) | Another book on cryptography from the Encyclopædia Britannica that Lovecraft mentions in "The Dunwich Horror". |
R–Z
Title | Fict/ Real |
Author | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Regnum Congo | R
|
Filippo Pigafetta | —
|
Remnants of Lost Empires |
F
|
Otto Dostman (Howard) |
—
|
Sadducismus Triumphatus | R
|
Joseph Glanvill | A revised edition was published in London in 1681. |
The Saurian Age | F
|
Banfort (Lovecraft & Derleth) |
—
|
The Seventh Book of Moses | R
|
(Derleth) | A work supposedly written by Moses that purports to be a lost book of the Bible. Lin Carter, referring to the Lewis de Claremont edition in his collection, called the work a "sloppy literary forgery".[19] |
The Soul of Chaos | F
|
Edgar Hengist Gordon (Bloch) |
—
|
Sussex Manuscript | F
|
(Fred L. Pelton) | Pelton, a Lovecraft fan in Lincoln, Nebraska, wrote the work as an alleged English translation of the Necronomicon. Derleth, who was initially interested in the book and intended to publish it, mentioned it in his novel The Trail of Cthulhu to make it part of the mythos canon. Although Arkham House never published the work, it was printed in a special issue of Crypt of Cthulhu #63 (Eastertide 1989). |
The Tablets of Nhing | F
|
(Lovecraft & E. Hoffman Price) | They are engraved tablets kept on the planet Yaddith which the wizard Zkauba consulted in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (1934). |
Thaumaturgicall Prodigies in the New-English Canaan |
F
|
Rev. Ward Phillips (Lovecraft) |
Although created by Lovecraft, the book is featured more prominently in Derleth's posthumous collaboration The Lurker at the Threshold (1945). |
Thesaurus Chemicus | R(?)
|
Roger Bacon | Although Roger Bacon is cited as the writer of the work in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the provenance of Thesaurus Chemicus is not known. A similar work on alchemy, Speculum Alchemiae (1541), is credited to Bacon, though he may not have been its author. |
Traicté des Chiffres |
R
|
Blaise de Vigenère | Vigenère was a leading European authority on cryptography and wrote a similarly titled book, Traicté des Chiffres ou d'Escrire, which was published in Paris in 1586. |
Turba Philosophorum | R
|
(Lovecraft) | A book of alchemy whose title means "Gathering of Philosophers", published in Basel in 1613. |
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe | R
|
Dr. Margaret Alice Murray | Lovecraft cited this work as early as "The Horror at Red Hook" (1927). |
We Pass From View | F
|
Roland Franklyn (Campbell)
|
—
|
Zohar | R
|
(Lovecraft) | Actual key work of Jewish kabbalism |
Notes
- ^ a b Ben Larned (June 1, 2017). "Forbidden Tomes: Books to Films – The Literary Influences on Lucio Fulci". Daily Dead. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, pp. 30–3.
- ^ The Coming of the White Worm
- ^ Harms, "Book of Iod", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 33.
- ^ Robert M. Price (1985). "H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos". Crypt of Cthulhu. 5 (1): 11, footnote #11. Robert M. Price (ed.), Mount Olive, NC: Cryptic Publications.
- ^ S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, Westport CT; Greenwood Press, 2001, p. 22
- ^ S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2001, p. 22
- ^ S. T. Joshi; David Schultz, eds. (2001). An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 232.
- ^ Harms, "Ponape Scripture", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, pp. 102–3.
- ISBN 1-56882-040-2.
- ^ Joshi & Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 187.
- ISBN 0-87054-073-4.)
- ^ Harms, "Ponape Scripture", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, pp. 244–5.
- ISBN 0-8125-1660-5.
- ^ A 12th volume had a different origin than the original 11, written by an old recluse living near the lake where Gla'aki lives, from his dreams. When he died, the book wound up in a job lot, and came into the possession of the god Y'golonac, who uses it in his search for a high priest. Notes on The Revelations of Glaaki Archived July 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Compiled from Lin Carter's "H. P. Lovecraft: The Books" (2001).
- ^ Harms, "Book of Azathoth", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 29.
- ISBN 978-1-58715-471-3. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- ^ Carter, "H. P. Lovecraft: The Books", Discovering H. P. Lovecraft, p. 139.
References
- Harms, Daniel (1998). The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
- ISBN 1-58715-471-4.
- Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon. ISBN 1-56184-129-3.
- Stanley, Joan L (1995). Ex Libris Miskatonici: A Catalogue of Selected Items from the Special Collections in the Miskatonic University Library (2nd ed.). West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press. ISBN 0940884569. Archived from the originalon 2020-07-12. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
External links
- Mythos Tomes, a web site dedicated to the forbidden tomes of the Cthulhu Mythos
- The Dan Clore Necronomicon Page Everything You Never Wanted To Know About The Necronomicon (Al Azif) Of The Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred But Weren't Afraid Enough To Know Better Than To Ask!
- The King in Yellow public domain audiobook at LibriVox