H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos?
A Term He Never Used Has Become Lovecraft's Lasting Legacy
Jul 8, 2009
The story, told in an almost documentary-like fashion, pieces together evidence that an enormous, blasphemous alien entity named Cthulhu once ruled the earth; it now lies sleeping at the bottom of the ocean,from which it will rise again to reclaim its kingdom "when the stars had come around.” Depraved cults in the dark corners of the Earth worship Cthulhu as a god.
Weird Tales was Lovecraft’s regular market and he was a favorite among the readers, but the editor, Farnsworth Wright, felt that “The Call of Cthulhu” was “slow". Lovecraft then submitted it to another pulp, Ghost Stories, where it met the same fate.
The stars did finally come around; a year later, Wright asked to see the story again,and this time accepted it. It appeared in the February, 1928 issue of Weird Tales.
Lovecraft's Pseudomythology
Even as he began to expand the idea of alien ‘gods’ into what he referred to as a pseudomythology, it is clear that Lovecraft did not consider these stories as separate from anything else he wrote; these elements merely formed a background against which he could place his stories. In fact he followed "The Call of Cthluhu" with "Pickman's Model", which mentions the Necronomicon, but otherwise is not related to the so-called-Mythos stories.
An ardent materialist, Lovecraft explained the philosophy against which he set all his stories in a letter to Wright along with the resubmission,writing, "Now all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the cosmos-at-large.....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."
Lovecraft tied earlier creations like Nyarlathotep, Azathoh and the dread forbidden book, the Necronomicon into his evolving world, and added others such as Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Nigguruth, the Elder Things and shoggoths.
Soon, his friends and fellow writers began to incorporate elements of Lovecraft’s pseudomythology into their own stories, and add to it. Clark Ashotn Smith contributed the toad-god Tsathoggua and another forbidden book, The Book of Eibon; Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, wrote more than a dozen Mythos stories and added Nameless Cults by Friedrich von Junzt to the Lovecraftian library.
Lovecraft enjoyed and encouraged these endeavors, and returned the compliment by referencing these other books and ‘deities’ in his stories. This began an informal tradition that continues to this day with writers such as Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, F. Paul Wilson, T.E.D Klein and even Stephen King. Each has added to and expanded what Lovecraft biographer S.T. Joshi prefers to call the Lovecraft Mythos.
But the author who has had the most impact on the evolving mythology is Lovecraft’s friend and disciple, August Derleth.
The Derleth Mythos
After Lovecraft died and his stories seemed doomed to obscurity, Derleth formed Arkham House, named after Lovecraft’s famous fictional stand-in for Salem. The Outsider and Others, the first ever collection of Lovecraft’s stories, was Arkham House's initial release, in 1939.
Among Lovecraft’s papers, Derleth found several uncompleted stories as well as plot ideas, some of which utilized the various aliens and grimoires Lovecraft and his circle had developed. Having already written several related stories of his own, Derleth completed or, in some cases, wrote completely original tales inspired by Lovecraft’s notes. These were collected in The Watcher Out of Time and Others (1974), presented as collaborations between Lovecraft and Derleth.
It was Derleth who coined the term, “The Cthulhu Mythos.” He also began to give the mythology a structure, decreeing that Cthulhu and the other 'gods' were elementals and establishing a hierarchy. Whereas Lovecraft sought to convey the horror of cosmic indifference, Derleth brought his Catholicism to bear, imposing the struggle of good against evil, the Elder Gods against the Old Ones.
Derleth wrote a number of Mythos tales, codifying his view; some of these were collected in The Mask of Cthulhu (1958); his Mythos novel, The Trail of Cthulhu, followed in 1962.
Many of his decisions remain controversial and many authors disregard his contributions altogether. The Cthulhu Mythos tag has, however, become entrenched in popular culture. Cthulhu, who only appears in one Lovecraft story in any significant way, is one of the best known monsters in the world.
The Call of Cthulhu has been a popular role-playing game for almost thirty years. Comic book mini-series with titles like Fall of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Tales make regular appearances. Low-budget movies with unrelated plotlines incorporate the name in their titles for marketing value. Cthulhu’s squid-like head appears on t-shirts and heavy metal cd covers; there are even humorous web comics, such as The Unspeakbale Vault of Doom., devoted to a kinder, cuddlier Cthulhu.
Attempts to collect Lovecraft's stories during his life time had been few and unsuccessful, and he died without any idea that his fiction would one day be lifted out of the decaying pages of the pulp magazines. Yet today, his name and stories, particularly those in the Cthulhu Mythos, live on as one of the great legacies of weird fiction.
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