Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Harms, Daniel

  [One occultist has suggested to me that Aklo bears many similarities to Enochian, the pre-human language John Dee supposedly discovered through contact with angels and used by occult groups until the present. Though most passages usually considered to be Aklo have little resemblance to Enochian, the link does bring up some interesting possibilities. (See especially “Aklo Sabaoth” and “Aklo Unveilings”.)]

  See Aklo Sabaoth; Aklo Unveilings; Iä; Kuen-Yuin; Remnants of Lost Empires. (Letter (9/23/94), Az0th; The Necronomicon, Culp; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “Aliah Warden”, Johnson; “The Haunter of the Dark”, Lovecraft; “The Diary of Alonzo Typer”, Lovecraft and Lumley; “The White People”, Machen (O); “Plant y Daear”, Ross; “The Return of the Lloigor”, Wilson.)

  AKLO SABAOTH (or AKLO FOR THE SABAOTH). Formula in the Aklo language used to invoke extradimensional beings. The Aklo Sabaoth may only be performed on clear nights when the moon is in its first phase. It is only effective for those spirits that are “answerable from the hill”; there may be another version which will invoke those of the air.

  Some have linked the Aklo Sabaoth with John Dee’s incantations known as the “Enochian Keys”, as the nineteenth Key summons the angels of the “Aires”. Thus, the version that calls the spirits of the hill might be an inferior variant of the original Aklo Sabaoth. It should also be noticed that “Sabaoth” is the Hebrew word for “Hosts”, a term usually used for angels. All of this is speculation, and experimenters are advised to be cautious.

  See Aklo. (Letter (9/23/94), Az0th; “The Tower on Yuggoth”, Campbell; “The Dunwich Horror”, Lovecraft (O).)

  AKLO UNVEILINGS. Levels of initiation in the cult of Glaaki. A cult member may undergo up to forty-eight of these Unveilings, and the forty-ninth takes place when Glaaki calls his worshiper to him for the last time. It is interesting to note that John Dee’s Enochian system of magic also includes forty-eight Keys, or incantations, as well as a forty-ninth that is unknown and which could invoke God.

  See Aklo; Glaaki. (Letter (9/23/94), Az0th; “The Inhabitant of the Lake”, Campbell; Selected Letters IV, Lovecraft (O).)

  AL AZIF (also KITAB AL-AZIF). Original Arabic title for Alhazred’s Necronomicon. Al-Azif supposedly refers to the sounds made by insects at night, which the people of Alhazred’s time took to be the calls of djinn. The occultist Kenneth Grant has noted the buzzing noises heard during magical rituals and flying saucers encounters as a possible explanation for the title. Others, though, have given alternate meanings for Al Azif, such as “to soar or fly”.

  [Lovecraft took this name from a footnote in Beckford’s Vathek.]

  See Alhazred, Abdul; Necronomicon (appendices); Philetas, Theodorus; Sadowsky, Phileus P. (Outside the Circles of Time, Grant; “History of the Necronomicon”, Lovecraft; “The Last Test”, Lovecraft and de Castro (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  ALALA. Being alluded to in the infamous Green Book. Alala is a Great Old One who is a native of the Gulf of S’glhuo. It is a sound that can manifest itself as a huge monstrous being, and the Gulf’s inhabitants serve and fear it.

  [Alala turned up as the name of a deity for both the Greeks and the Mesopotamians. Whether Machen knew this or not is unknown.]

  See Green Book; S’glhuo. (“The Voice of the Animals”, Adair; “The Plain of Sound”, Campbell; “The White People”, Machen (O).)

  ALAOZAR. Legendary city located on the fabled Plateau of Sung. The city was built upon the Isle of Stars, where extraterrestrial beings landed thousands of years ago, within the Lake of Dread. No party of explorers has ever found this site, but it is a holy place for the Tcho-Tcho people. Beneath Alaozar lie the caverns in which Lloigor and Zhar dwell. If reports from the Burmese interior are accurate, this city may have been destroyed.

  See E-poh; Lloigor; Sung; Zhar; Zhou Texts. (“The Lair of the Star-Spawn”, Derleth and Schorer (O).)

  ALAR. 1) Character from the play The King in Yellow, in one account. 2) City that besieges the metropolis of Hastur in the same play, according to others.

  See Demhe; Hastur; King in Yellow; Yhtill. (“More Light”, Blish; “The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)

  ALDONES. 1) Character who seeks the throne of Yhtill in The King in Yellow. 2) The founder of the city of Hastur’s ruling dynasty in the same play.

  See King in Yellow; Last King. (“More Light”, Blish; “The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)

  ALHAZRED, ABDUL (also ABD AL-AZRAD) (655? - 738). Poet and mystic of Sanna in Yemen, best known for his Kitab al-Azif (later re-titled Necronomicon). The deeds of this man, who is said to have been a descendent of the mythical tribe of Ad, are still matters of legend in the Middle East.

  The early life of Abdul Alhazred remains a mystery. Several different and contradictory accounts have appeared:

  1) Our first mention of Alhazred is during his travel to Egypt, where he studied necromancy under the wizard Yakthoob. After his master’s death, he led Yakthoob’s disciples on his travels, until most of them were destroyed. (Carter)

  2) Alhazred—who in this account is unnamed—was a young shepherd who narrowly escaped death when he witnessed a cult of the Old Ones. Having seen their power, he forsook his former life. (Levenda)

  3) The son of a prostitute and a silver merchant, Alhazred was recognized as a brilliant scholar even in his youth. He married into the family of the Governor of Tabez and had two children. Shortly thereafter, he seemed to become possessed by a demon, turning to impious conduct. Being brought before the Caliph for judgment, he was cast into the desert. (St. Albans.)

  4) Alhazred was a young herder’s son who was brought to the court of King Hasan of Sana’a due to his beautiful voice. He lived in the palace for many years as a favored son of the court. Due to an affair with the king’s daughter, Alhazred was mutilated and abandoned in the depths of the desert. (Tyson)

  5) Alhazred grew up in a poor family and gained recognition for himself as a soldier. Finding the work not to his taste, he apprenticed himself to a silk merchant, becoming enamored of one of his customers. Upon learning that she was the lover of a local prince, Alhazred absconded with the business’ profits. (Larkin)

  No matter what Alhazred’s origin, the substance of his later life is less debated. He is known to have spent much time in the Empty Quarter of the Arabian desert, where he discovered both Irem, the City of Pillars, and the Nameless City. In search of mystical knowledge, he made extensive travels throughout the Middle East and beyond. The exact destinations are debatable, but Alexandria, Memphis, and Babylon are commonly named stops upon his route. In the end, he dwelt in Damascus, where he penned the Al Azif.

  In his Biographical Dictionary, Ibn Khallikan tells of an invisible beast devouring the “mad” poet in the marketplace of Damascus in the middle of the day. Even this legend is disputed; some state it is a confused re-telling of his former trance-states or the death of his master Yakthoob. Others claim that his death was illusory and that he was borne off to the Nameless City to be tortured and killed. A few heretics of his time proclaimed that he returned to the Empty Quarter, from which he would one day return. Legend has it that his voice can still be heard in the insects of the desert, teaching apprentice magicians his forgotten lore.

  It seems that an earlier scribe who copied the Necronomicon made an error with regards to the name of the book’s author, as “Abdul Alhazred” is said to have no real meaning in Arabic. Scholars have suggested various solutions to the puzzle of the mad Arab’s true name:

  a) Abd al-Azrad, “the worshiper of the great devourer” (from “abd” = worshiper/servant, “al” = the, Azrad = “strangler/devourer”) (Hamblin)

  b) Abd Al-’Uzza, “servant of Al-Uzza [a pre-Muslim goddess]” (Stanley)

  c) Abdallah Zahr-ad-Din, “Servant-of-God Flower-of-the-Faith” (given the mad Arab’s religion, an unlikely name at best) (de Camp)

&nbs
p; d) al-Hazred, a name which has only kept its meaning of “one-who-sees-what-shouldn’t-be-seen” in Yemenite (Farmer)

  Aside from the Necronomicon, only a few of Alhazred’s works have survived, including the short story “Al Jeldah” (“The Scourge”) and a few of his poems, which were quite popular with the nobles of his time.

  [“Abdul Alhazred” was a play-name of Lovecraft’s that either he or the Whipple family lawyer, Albert Baker, invented when HPL was very young.]

  See Al Azif; Book of Thoth; ghouls; Great Old Ones; Hadoth; Ibn Ghazi; Ibn Schacabao; Irem; Kara-Shehr; Lamp of Alhazred; Leng; Maze of the Seven Thousand Crystal Frames; Nameless City; Necrolatry; Necronomicon (appendices); shoggoths; That is not dead …; Yakthoob; Yhe Rituals. (“The Doom of Yakthoob”, Carter; “In the City of Pillars”, Carter; “Mnomquah”, Carter; “The Shadow from the Stars”, Carter; “The Thing under Memphis”, Carter; “The Vault beneath the Mosque”, Carter; “A Brief Biography of Abdul Alhazred”, Cornford; “Foreword” to Al Azif, de Camp; “The City without a Name”, Hamblin; “Notes on a Fragment of the Necronomicon”, Hamblin; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “The Saga of Abdul Alhazred”, Larkin; Necronomicon, Levenda; “History of the Necronomicon”, Lovecraft; “The Nameless City”, Lovecraft (O); “The Transition of Abdul Alhazred”, Price; “The Life of the Master”, St. Albans; “The Scourge”, Saplak; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley; Alhazred, Tyson; “Key to the Mysteries”, Webb.)

  ALLEN, ZADOK (1832-1927?). Town drunk of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. When he was around fifteen, the plague struck Innsmouth, and Allen’s father died as a result of it, a blow from which Allen never recovered. He became a member of the Esoteric Order of Dagon with the rest of the townsfolk, but was never admitted into the inmost circle. He left Insmouth to fight in the Civil War, but returned to the town thereafter. He vanished during the summer of 1927 after a conversation with Robert Olmstead.

  (“The Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft (O); “The Weird Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft and Glasby.)

  ALPHABET OF NUG-SOTH. See Nug-Soth.

  AMULET OF THE HOUND (also JADE HOUND). Talisman of green jade in the shape of a winged hound, believed to be a stylized version of a Hound of Tindalos. These items are the emblems of a cannibalistic cult of Leng, providing one of its members with the ability to do as they please without regard to law or custom. The hound supposedly represents the corpse-eating spirits of the region.

  Each amulet captures and destroys the souls that the wearer consumes in cannibalistic rites, adding to the magician’s power. A supernatural force slays those who take one of these amulets from its owner, whether living or dead, so long as the amulet is taken without permission. Other texts claim that the amulet protects the owner from the Hound until it is removed. The wizard Yakthoob might have owned such an amulet.

  See Hounds of Tindalos. (“The Madness out of Time”, Carter; “The Hound”, Lovecraft (O); “An Eidolon of Nothing”, Pugmire; “Arcane Antiquities”, Sammons; “Then Terror Came”, Thomas; Necronomicon, Tyson.)

  ANCIENT ONES. Transmogrified beings who have passed through the Ultimate Gate guarded by Tawil at’Umr. Though originally of many different species, they appear in Tawil at’Umr’s great temple as cloaked, sleeping figures bearing scepters and seated on pedestals. The Ancient Ones only wake to aid those who desire to enter the Ultimate Gate and join their number. It may be that the Ancient Ones are the Great Old Ones themselves.

  See ‘Umr at-Tawil; Vatican Codex. (“Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price.)

  ANGELL, GEORGE GAMMELL (1857-1926). Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University, who succumbed to a heart attack on November 23, 1926. Angell pioneered the research on the worldwide Cthulhu cult. Subsequent scholars, beginning with his nephew Francis Thurston, have built their conclusions upon this man’s work. He is also known for the creation of a library classification system dedicated to esoteric works.

  See Cthulhu; R’lyeh; Thurston, Francis Wayland. (“The Call of Cthulhu” (graphic adaptation), Coulthart and Lovecraft; “The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft (O); “The Atrocity Archives”, Stross.)

  ANGLES OF TAGH CLATUR. Set of incantations that may bring beings from the Other Side to this world. Only the reversed angles, which make these creatures partly corporeal, may be used before the stars are right. (Some Egyptian high priests may have known these ceremonies and used them to bring Glaaki to Earth temporarily before his later physical arrival on a meteorite.) The Reversed Angles may also be used to provide protection against such beings.

  See Glaaki. (“The Inhabitant of the Lake”, Campbell (O); “The Render of the Veils”, Campbell, “Something in the Moonlight”, Carter.)

  ANTARKTOS, MOUNT. Mountain located near the South Pole, beneath which dwells the Great Old One Gol-goroth.

  See Gol-goroth. (“The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “Antarktos”, Lovecraft (O).)

  APHOOM ZHAH. Flame-being spawned by Cthugha after that Great Old One was imprisoned. Aphoom Zhah appears as a gray flickering flame that freezes whatever it touches.

  After leaving Fomalhaut, Aphoom Zhah spent some time on Yaksh before finally coming to Earth on Mount Yarak (or Yaanek) at the North Pole. According to the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Elder Gods found him there and bound him in a deep pit beneath it. Aphoom Zhah poured out cold in its fury, freezing the land around it. This being was later responsible for directing Rlim Shaikorth to destroy the land of Mhu Thulan. In years to come, Aphoom Zhah himself created the cold which destroyed Hyperborea, Zobna, and Lomar.

  Aphoom Zhah is believed to have spawned Gnoph-keh, Rhan-Tegoth, and Voorm. The Gnophkeh and the voormis are known to revere it, but it has no known human cult attached to it.

  See Remnants of Lost Empires; Rlim Shaikorth; Voormish Tablets; Yaanek. (“Acolyte of the Flame”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O); “The Light from the Pole”, Carter and Smith.)

  ARAN, MOUNT. Peak which lies in the Valley of Ooth-Nargai, near Celephaïs. Its lower slopes are covered with a lush forest of ginkgos, while its summit remains snow-capped throughout the year. Though the Gods of Earth never danced upon this mountain, tales of strange ice sculptures make travelers reluctant to climb its slopes.

  See Celephaïs. (“Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “Iced on Aran”, Lumley.)

  ARKHAM. Town located on the Miskatonic River in Essex County, Massachusetts.

  Arkham was founded in the latter 17th century by freethinkers who found the area’s religious communities too strict. Its name might derive from that of the Arkham family, who numbered among the town’s first inhabitants. The town grew slowly at first, with agriculture being the primary source of revenue. Around the year 1692, the witchcraft-fever that swept Salem also touched Arkham. The Arkham authorities sent at least one witch, Keziah Mason, to Salem for trial, and Goody Fowler was hung by an angry mob upon her return to town in 1704.

  During the middle of the 18th century, Arkham became a thriving seaport. It was one of the town’s most influential captains, Jeremiah Orne, who imparted the books and funds that led to the founding of Miskatonic Liberal College. By the beginning of the 19th century, the sea trade had failed, but many mills began to spring up upon the banks of the Miskatonic. In 1861, Miskatonic Liberal College, which already enjoyed the highest reputation, became Miskatonic University, an institution that became the town’s most famous landmark. The flood of 1888 and the typhoid outbreak of 1905 led to a serious decline in the town’s fortunes. Mostly due to the revenue generated by the University, Arkham was able to recover and flourish until the disastrous storm and flood of 1980, which destroyed much of the town.

  Different accounts of Arkham’s present conditions exist; some say that the town is rundown and serves as a suburb to nearby Beverly, while others tell of its booming population and Miskatonic’s state-of-the-art facilities. In either case, the town is a paradise for the scholar and antiquarian, but offers little for the casual traveler.

  See Armitage, Henry; Ayle
sbury; Aylesbury Pike; Azathoth and Other Horrors; Billington’s Wood; Bolton; Brown Jenkin; Carter, Randolph; Cult of the Skull; Derby, Edward Pickman; Dewart, Ambrose; Fowler, Goody; Gilman, Walter; Hoag, Wilbur; Kingsport; Mason, Keziah; Meadow Hill; Miskatonic River; Miskatonic University; Phillips, Ward; Shrewsbury, Laban; Smith, Morgan; S’ngac; Thaumurgatical Prodigies; Themystos’ Island; Theron Marks Society; Upton, Daniel; Wilmarth, Albert; Witch-House. (Arkham Unveiled, Herber; A Resection of Time, Johnson; “Season of the Witch”, Launius; “The Dreams in the Witch-House”, Lovecraft; “The Dunwich Horror”, Lovecraft; “Herbert West—Reanimator”, Lovecraft; “The Picture in the House”, Lovecraft (O); The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley; “The Fall of Cthulhu”, Nelson.)

  ARMITAGE, HENRY (1855-1939/1946?). One-time head librarian at Miskatonic University, and the author of Notes toward a Bibliography of World Occultism, Mysticism, and Magic (Miskatonic University Press, 1927), and Devils and Demons in the Miskatonic Valley.

  Armitage’s childhood remains a mystery; scurrilous rumors have circulated that he came from Innsmouth and that his parents were killed in the government raid on that town. Armitage attended Miskatonic University (Class of 1881), later obtaining his doctorate at Princeton and his Doctor of Letters degree at Cambridge. The young man first became interested in uncanny subjects in 1882 when he heard of a mysterious meteor which had landed near Arkham. This occurrence led him to obtain a copy of the Necronomicon for the library and consult it for the first time. Later, Armitage returned to this volume to solve the mysterious death of Wilbur Whateley, a correspondent of his who lived in Dunwich and had been killed in the library. With the aid of Professors Rice and Morgan, he put an end to the horror that had ravaged Dunwich. His health failed thereafter, and he was relieved of his station in favor of Cyrus Llanfer some time before 1936, though he appears to have continued at the library in some capacity.

  The circumstances around Armitage’s death remain unclear. One source states that he perished while trying to save the Rare Book collection from a fire in 1939, though others maintain he worked for U. S. intelligence during World War II. Another says that he died in 1946 of a heart attack brought on by being knocked down by the guard dogs outside the library.