So you don't know what the Cthulhu Mythos is? I admit its hardly a household name.
-
The Cthulhu Mythos, as it is called by some (others prefer names like "The Yog-Sothoth Myth Cycle" or "The Alhazredic Demonology", etc.) is a collection of stories, books and poems written by literally hundreds of authors since the 1920's. The stories were started
by Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937), but were inspired by those of authors he admired (Arthur Machen, Robert W. Chambers and Lord Dunsany most prominently).
During his life Lovecraft encouraged his friends and fellow authors to borrow from and contribute to this growing mythology. After his death this tradition was carried on, and each successive generation has left its mark on the Mythos.
Yes, but what is the Mythos?
Well, at its most academic, it is a set of stories concerning mankind's insignificance in the universe, where that cosmic indifference is anthropomorphozed into a series of creatures called the Great Old Ones. The mind blasting knowledge that these creatures exist sends more than one of Lovecraft's protagonists into the pit of insanity.
On another level the Cthulhu Mythos is simply a fun collection of stories about really nasty creatures from beyond the edges of space and time who always seem to kill off the good guys in some gruesome manner.
It is also the basis for the Role Playing Game, Call of Cthulhu. For more information about this game, I recommend Chaosium's homepage.
At this point you may well be asking, "how do you pronounce Cthulhu?"
- As Chaosium says, "kuh-THOO-loo is the easiest, though not the most exacting way to say it" (Petersen, 9).
L. Sprague de Camp, in his biography of H. P. Lovecraft offers the following pronunciation guide: "'Tlhülhü(lh)', with t somewhere between c in "cube" and t in "tune", lh a voiceless l like Welsh ll, and ü about as in German dünn" (de Camp, p465).
Robert M. Price in The Cthulhu Cycle lists off nearly a dozen pronunciations from H. P. Lovecraft's friends and his letters. These are: Hlu-Hlu, Khlul-hloo, Cluh-Lhu, Clooloo, Clulu, Tulu, Thulhu, Koot-u-lew, Thool-Hoo, and finally K-Lutl-Lutl (Price, 198).
As you can see, this is not a simple question to answer. My advice is: use Chaosium's pronunciation (its the most commonly used, and the easiest to say), but be aware that others do exist (and are probably a bit more correct).
The Cthulhu Cycle Robert M. Price, Series Editor ISBN 1-56882-038-0 Chaosium Inc.
H. P. Lovecraft, a Biography L. Sprague de Camp ISBN 1-56619-994-8 Barnes & Noble Books
