Showing posts with label H.P. Lovecraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label H.P. Lovecraft. Show all posts

Monday, September 29, 2025

Cellar Horrows

“At last I heard the sounds from beyond those barred plates of sheet iron: the mencing padding and muttering, as of gigantic night things within.

Out of the cellar’s evil blackness they stretched, with shadowy hints of scaly wrists beyond them, and with a waving malignant will guiding their horrible groping.

I had come as a seeker-but now I knew that something was seeking me…”

The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, H. P. Lovecraft and others, August Derleth, 1970.


A 245 page paperback novel, featuring 10 short stories. Published by Ballantine Books.

Contents

  1. The Crawling Chaos, H. P. Lovecraft and Elizabeth Berkeley
  2. The Green Meadow, H. P. Lovecraft and Elizabeth Berkeley
  3. Winged Death, Hazel Heald
  4. The Horror in the Museum, Hazel Heald
  5. The Diary of Alonzo Typer, William Lumley
  6. The Horror in the Burying Ground, Hazel Heald
  7. The Electric Executioner, Adolphe de Castro
  8. The Curse of Yig, Zealia Bishop
  9. The Mound, Zealia Bishop
  10. Two Black Bottles, Wilfred Blanch Talman

Saturday, April 12, 2025

More Fictional Titles

Sometime ago I made my first post of "special books", those titles that were referred to in some piece of fiction. In the past I have researched the titles and have come upi empty. They prove to be fictional titles that were mentioned within the test, a figment of the authors imagination.

Here are a few more of these "made-up" titles.

"These, however, were but a prelude to his shelves of books, designated for deposit to the university library. Some appeared fabulously old, so old in fact, that they bore no dates and must have decended, to judge from their appearence and their written characters, from medieval times. The more recent of these were not dated beyound 1850:

Pnakotic Manuscripts
R'lyeh Text
Unaussprechlichen Kutten, von Jungt
The Book of Eitho
The Dhol Chants
The Seven Crypical Books of Hson
Ludvig Prumn's De Vermi's Mysteries
The Celalno Fragments
The Cultes desGoules of the Conte d'Erlette
The Book of Dzyan
Photostat copy of the Necromicon

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

The Table of Contents and Preface to The Survivor and Others

"Amoung the papers of the late Howard Phillip Lovecraft were various notes and or outlines for stories which he did not live to write. Of these, the most complete was the title story of this collection."

The Survivor
Wentworth's Day
The Peabody Heritage
The Gable Window
The Ancestor
The Shaddow Out of Space
The Lamp of Alhazred

"Certain houses, like certain persons, manage somehow to proclaim at once their character for evil. Perhaps it is the aroma of evil deeds committed under a particular roof, long after the actual doers have passed away, that makes the gooseflesh come and the hair rise. Something of the original passion of the evil-doer, and of the horror felt by his victim, enters the heart of the innocent watcher, and he becomes suddenly conscious of tingling nerves, creeping skin, and a chilling of the blood..."

—ALGERNON BLACKWOOD

Preface from The Survivor, H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth.

Monday, March 24, 2025

Contributors to the Cthulha Mythos

Although Lovecraft may not had planned the Cthulha Mythos at the beginning, it didn't stop his contemporaries from contributing to its cause and eventual creation. These contributors using many of the same races added to the Cthulha Mythos:

Frank Belknap Long
Clark Aston Smith
August Derleth
Lin Carter
Robert W. Chambers
Robert E. Howard


More authors and their work. Classic Mythos Online

...........................................................................

Added text (Mythos) to the first paragraph on 3/31/25 at 1:10PM.

Updated on 3/25/25 at 11:48. I added the link above.

Thursday, March 20, 2025

The Ballantine Horror Series

I found this list of additional titles of Ballentine’s horror line of books in The Survivor and Others, by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth. This volume was published in 1957 and with its yellowing and water damaged pages is not in great condition.

#377K The Sound of Hos Horn, Sarban
#380K Tales to be Told in the Dark, Basil Davenport
#431K The Doll Maker, Sarbon
#458K Some of your Blood, Theodore Sturgeon
#466K Things with Claws, edited by Whit and Hallie Burnett
#508K Night'sBlack Agents, Fritz Lieber, Jr.
#522K Tales of Love and Horror, editor Don Congdon
#574 Zackerly's Vulture Stew

In addition, there are three books featured at the bottom the back cover.

Alone by Night
Shaddows with Eyes
Nine Orro

These titles may or may not still be available, but with not posting this list these titles would be lost to most of us.

Friday, March 14, 2025

More of Lovecraft's Cthulha's Mythos

It has been almost nine years since I last posted anything Lovecraftian, however recently a came into a small cache of Lovecraftian literature and I will be making a few new posts on this topic.

Thirteen Primary Stories of the Cthulhu Mythos


The Nameless City
The Festival
The Colour out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Haunter of the Dark
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow out of Time
At the Mountains of Madness
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Thing on the Doorstep

Although argumentatively it could be said that there are other texts associated with the mythos, these thirteen were written by the creator of the Mythos, H. P. Lovecraft.

I have read the titles that have been italicized.

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

The most merciful thing in the world…

The most merciful thing in the world… is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on an island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far…

The Shadow of of Space, H. P. Lovecraft & August Derleth

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Creatures from H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands

Ghasts

"That a mortal dreamer could traverse their cavern realm and leave by that door is inconceivable; for mortal dreamers were their former food, and they have legends of the toothsomeness of such dreamers even though banishment has restricted their diet to the ghasts, those repulsive beings which die in the light, and which live in the vaults of Zin and leap on long hind legs like kangaroos."

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft

"Ghasts are humanoid creatures with hoofed feet and kangaroo-like legs and nose-less faces".

The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, Daniel Harms

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Creatures from H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands

Moon-Beasts

"There, around a hideous fire fed by the obnoxious stems of lunar fungi, there squatted a stinking circle of the toad-like moon-beasts and their almost-human slaves. Some of these slaves were heating curious iron spears in the leaping flames, and at intervals applying their white-hot points to three tightly trussed prisoners that lay writhing before the leaders of the party. From the motions of their tentacles Carter could see that the blunt-snouted moon-beasts were enjoying the spectacle hugely, and vast was his horror when he suddenly recognised the frantic meeping and knew that the tortured ghouls were none other than the faithful trio which had guided him safely from the abyss and had thereafter set out from the enchanted wood to find Sarkomand and the gate to their native deeps."

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft

Moon-beasts are "pale, squat, toadlike creatures, superhumanly strong and noxious-smelling. Moon-beasts, have no eyes, but use the mass of pink tentacles at the end of their snout to sense their surroundings."

The H. P. Lovecraft Wiki

Friday, October 27, 2023

Creatures from H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands

Shantaks

"Other views shewed the gaunt grey peaks dividing Leng from Inganok, and the monstrous shantak-birds 1 that build nests on the ledges half way up. And they shewed likewise the curious caves near the very topmost pinnacles, and how even the boldest of the shantaks fly screaming away from them."

Fourth and fifth mention of the creature "Shantaks" in Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kodath.


1 Shantaks are creatures that resemble large scaled birds with heads of horses . Shantaks live in the moutains near to the Plateau of Leng, in Dreamlands.

The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

Full Text of The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kodath, H.P. Lovecraft

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Creatures from H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands

Zoogs

“In the tunnels of that twisted wood, whose low prodigious oaks twine groping boughs and shine dim with the phosphorescence of strange fungi, dwell the furtive and secretive zoogs1.„

~ H. P. Lovecraft , The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath


1Zoogs are a race of sentient forest-dwelling creatures that inhabit the Dreamlands of Earth. They are rodent like creatures about the size of a cat and have short tentical like appendages around their mouths and nose. Zoogs have a taste for flesh and may attack a human who wonders into the wood at night. They are mortal enemies of cats, as they prey upon their kittens, for they consider them a delicacy, and are preyed upon in return by adult cats.

Friday, September 2, 2022

Ghoulish PVC Miniatures

I really dpn't know what to make of the creatures. I thought of tagging them "Petri Dish Creatures" or creatures from the deep or perhaps they are the ghoulish creatures H.P. Lovecraft wrote about in his "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

"And yet I saw them in a limitless stream—flopping, hopping, croaking, bleating—surging inhumanly through the spectral moonlight in a grotesque, malignant saraband of fantastic nightmare. And some of them had tall tiaras of that nameless whitish-gold metal . . . and some were strangely robed . . . and one, who led the way, was clad in a ghoulishly humped black coat and striped trousers, and had a man’s felt hat perched on the shapeless thing that answered for a head. . . .

I think their predominant colour was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked."

The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H. P. Lovecraft

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

The Barman Continues

“Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green,
There hath he lain for age and will lie.
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by men and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise.”

A line from Lord Tennyson’s The Kraken; Only the End of the World Again, Neil Gaiman. As found in Lovecraft’s Monsters, edited by Ellen Datlow.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

The Barmen Speaks

“Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepth…"

A line from Lord Tennyson’s The Kraken; Only the End of the World Again, Neil Gaiman. As found in Lovecraft’s Monsters, edited by Ellen Datlow.

Reaper Hordling Miniatures

As you can plainly see I haven’t opened the Reaper’s # 77335, Hordlings sprue package. Reaper’s Dark Haven Bones line and are cast from plastic. The hordling in the center reminds me Lovecraft’s Cthulhu character, albeit, a smaller version of this massive mystical creature. I don't know how tall these miniatures are exactly, but they look about an inch to a inch and half tall.

I have so many projects that I could be working on, however I find myself continuing to purchase more items that will have to be added to my projects list. If the truth be known I really don’t have an extensive projects list and typically forget about what I have purchased. The latest acquisition becomes the latest project and the new workbench is starting to become over crowed with half built or half-completed projects. It is all quite madding; just in time for the ghoulish season.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Lovecraft’s Monsters #2

These are the monsters and personalities that are featured in Lovecraft’s Monsters. The link will transfer you to a page with pictures, quotes, and a description of each monsters and personality.

Azathoth
Great Cthulhu
Deep Ones
Elder Things
Ghouls
Hounds of Tindalos
The King in Yellow
Serpent People
Shoggothers
Shub-Niggurath



11 Lovecraftian monsters that aren’t Cthulhu

Friday, October 12, 2018

Lovecraft’s Monsters

Lovecraft’s Monsters from Amazon

Lovecraft’s Monsters is compilation of eighteen stories by eighteen different authors. Following in H. P. Lovecraft’s footsteps and the Cthulhu Mythos genera the authors introduce the reader to ten of Lovecraft’s monsters.

The authors represented here in this anthology are:

Neil Gaiman
Laird Barron
Nadia Bulkin
Brain Hodge
Kim Newman
William Browning Spencer
Elizabeth Bear
Fred Chappell
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Thomas Ligotti
Gemma Files
Howard Waldrop & Steven Utley
Steve Rasnic Tem
Karl Edward Wagner
Joe R. Lansdale
Nick Mamatas
John Langan

Monday, September 17, 2018

Inferences to the King in Yellow

Ambrose Bierce, created a fictional character, a god: Hastur; “Haite the Shepherd”, 1891. H. P. Lovecraft made an inference to Hastur and elements from Bierce’s story in his “The Whisper in the Darkness” and his poem “The Elder Pharos”. This character Hastur was further developed by August Derleth. Derleth depicts Hastur as one of the Great Old Ones.’

Thursday, July 19, 2018

10 Must-“Visit” Fictional Lands

10 Must-“Visit” Fictional Lands is a short directory of ten fictional lands created by the likes of Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burrough, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien

The Geography of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands

"The Dreamlands is divided into four continental regions, each named for its cardinal direction.

The West is the most well-known region of the Dreamlands and is probably the most peopled as well. It is where dreamers emerge from the Steps of Deeper Slumber. The port of Dylath-Leen, the largest city of the Dreamlands, lies on its coast. The town of Ulthar, where no man may kill a cat, is also located here. Other important cities are Hlanith (a coastal jungle city) and Ilarnek (a desert trade capital). The land of Mnar and the ruins of Sarnath are found at the southern border. The Enchanted Wood of the Zoogs is also found here. It joins the South.

The South is the southern coastal region of the continent shared by the West along with the islands of the Southern Sea, including the isle of Oriab, the largest. The South's land-locked regions and its coastal areas are known as the Fantastic Realms, because they contain nightmarish and sometimes incomprehensible zones. Otherwise, the islands of the Southern Sea are fairly normal.

The East is a continent that is largely uninhabited, except for Ooth-Nargai. The city of Celephaïs is the capital of Ooth-Nargai and was created from whole cloth by its monarch King Kuranes, the greatest of all recorded dreamers. Beyond Ooth-Nargai are The Forbidden Lands, dangerous realms into which travel is interdicted.

The North is a cold, mountainous continent notorious for its Plateau of Leng, a violent region shared by man-eating spiders and satyr-like beings known as the "Men of Leng". The North also has a number of friendlier places, such as the city of Inganok, famous for its onyx quarries. The deepest reaches of the North are said to hold Unknown Kadath, the home of the Great Ones.

In addition to these regions, the Dreamlands has a few other locales that defy conventional description.

The Underworld is a subterranean region that runs beneath the whole of the Dreamlands. Its principle inhabitants are ghouls, who can physically enter the waking world through crypts. The Underworld is also home to the Gugs, monstrous giants banished from the surface for untold blasphemies. The Underworld's deepest realm is the Vale of Pnath, a dangerous lightless chasm inhabited by enormous unseen beasts called bholes. Bholes are likely the ancestors of the dholes of Yaddith.

The Moon has a parallel in the Dreamlands and is inhabited by the dreaded moon-beasts, amorphous frog-like creatures allied with Nyarlathotep. Interestingly, it is possible for a ship to sail off the edge of the Dreamlands and travel through space to the moon.”

Yog-Sothoth Wiki

Map of Lovecraft's Dreamlands



Lovecraft's Dreamlands Literature