Thursday, December 02, 2010

Cthulhu Or Cephalopod?



Here's one for the wycked mysteryes file:

Why Is Cthulhu On This 300 Year Old Gravestone?

Fascinating article and subsequent comments for the Lovecraft fans out there.

11 comments:

Z said...

I have NO idea what any of that's about but I think REMEMBER is a pretty name! And TWO Ichabod Wiswelds, or whatever it is? What are the chances?
Signed,
Ichabod Wisweld :-)

cube said...

Ichabod, nice of you to drop by ;-)

Remember is nice name, but I don't know if it would work in modern times. Imagine the teasing...

Cthulhu, a tentacled creature, hails from the work of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.

I think it is more likely that the image on the gravestone is more likely a cephalopod than Cthulhu, but why?

Brooke said...

Cthulhu is just an over-glorified illithid. ;)

Karen K said...

My mother's ancestors came from England and settled in MA and NH in the 1630's. I've actually found pictures of a few of my puritan xxth grandparents' gravestones, so I thought this was super cool.

My first thought was that lobster and squid were known to the 17th century colonists... but that still doesn't explain why there was a cephalopod on his gravestone!

Teresa said...

That was very interesting!!

cube said...

Brooke: Gygax claimed to have gotten the inspiration for the illithids from Brian Lumley.
In turn, Lumley was very inspired by Lovecraft. In my opinion, since Lovecraft wrote The Call of Cthulhu in 1926, his is the seminal work and the rest are derivative.

There's a thin line between paying homage and ripping off someone's work.

cube said...

Karen Howes: Cool beans. Mr. Cube hails from New Hampshire, but in more recent history that the 1600's

Walking around those old cemetaries can be an eerie experience whether you know the inhabitants or not.

Squid are cephalopods, and I'm sure the coastal communities were acquainted with them, but it still makes me wonder what it means on a gravestone. I think I'm going to do a little research on the matter.

Fascinating stuff.

cube said...

Teresa: I'm glad you liked it :-)

birdwoman said...

Who was Yog Sothoth? I vaguely remember (without the capital letter, so not a name) reading a lovecraft piece when I was a youth - my bro was a big fan - and the monster was Yog Sothoth. I couldn't make that up.

yes, yes, I could google, but you sound like you know the what's what with the whole Chthulhu thing.

(*)>

cube said...

birdwoman: Yog Sothoth is one of the Great Old Ones who come from beyond and before the universe. It is known by many names, with various spellings, but is most often known to be the keeper of The Gate between the old ones and us. It lurks at the threshold and waits...

birdwoman said...

sounds like my husband.

(*)>