“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.
I have a love for Lovecraft, I admit it, despite the hammy writing style which can be hard going the concepts for what he produces are, in a nutshell, awesome! Of course without Lovecraft there would be little chance of films like Hellboy and I adore those too.
“The Call of Cthulhu” was published in Weird Tales in 1928 and was the story about the entity being trapped underwater in a city called R’lyeh in the South Pacific. And what a description he brings to us for this creature… “…an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature…. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings”
The creature is portrayed to be the subject of man’s anxiety on a subconscious level. Cthulhu might well be trapped in the watery city but there is a belief that he will one day return. His worshippers chant the phrase Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
Cthulhu does not solely appear in the one story. The Dunwich Horror (1928) references him, and The Whisperer in the Darkness (1930) hints at one of his characters knowing his origin. The fantastic novella “At The Mountains of Madness” is due to be made into a feature film and in this Cthulhu is referenced because the Star-spawn of Cthulhu went to war with a race known as The Elder Things before man was even around. Lovecraft’s complex bestiary and mythical hierarchy have become for some a wonderfully intricate study and passion that spawns (get it?) a whole host of fictions inspired by the man’s work and Cthulhu really does make for a big part of that.
Investigations into the unknown and weird 