Cthulhu in the Necronomicon
in English, written by Laban Shrewsbury, ca 1915
An unwieldy sheaf of 492, typewritten pages mixed with diagrams, photographs, holographic notations, and appendices. This work constitutes the raw first draft of a book Shrewsbury intended as the sequel to his previous work, An Investigation of the Myth-Patterns of Latter Day Primitives. Badly in need of editing and organization, Shrewsbury's rambling narrative picks up where his earlier book left off, but he now uses the Necronomicon instead of the R'lyeh Text to interpret various ancient myths.
The focus of the work is an entity called Great Cthulhu, a being Shrewsbury alternately describes "primal god" or "water elemental", and who has been worshipped in various forms throughout human history. Cthulhu is described as having a brother named Hastur, an air elemental who somehow opposes Cthulhu. Both Necronomicon and R'lyeh Text hint that Cthulhu is currently asleep or otherwise inactive, entombed at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Shrewsbury hypothesizes that telepathic emanations from the sleeping entity have had a profound impact on human mythology and history, citing hundreds of examples lifted from archaeology and anthropology. Most of these examples are, unfortunately, fragmentary, and many are written in shorthand useful only to an anthropologist. The final sections of the book describe other entities that Shrewsbury organizes according to an elemental paradigm: Hastur (air), Nyarlathotep (earth), and Cthugha (fire). Shrewsbury also describes an ancient global cult that has been devoted to Cthulhu for millennia, and is secretly striving for the god's revival. Shrewsbury hypothesizes that Cthulhu's return would mean the destruction of human civilization (if not planet Earth), and speculates that the water elemental might be thwarted by taking advantage of Cthulhu's opposition and conflict with Hastur.
The Orne Library possesses the only copy of this manuscript, which Laban Shrewsbury deposited at the library shortly before his disappearance in 1915. Armitage's initial reading left him convinced that Shrewsbury had lost his mind. In the wake of the Dunwich Horror, however, the librarian is no longer so sure. (Johnson, Sam, and Sandy Antunes. "Miskatonic University: A Handbook to the Pride of Arkham." Chaosium, Oct. 2005. )
The focus of the work is an entity called Great Cthulhu, a being Shrewsbury alternately describes "primal god" or "water elemental", and who has been worshipped in various forms throughout human history. Cthulhu is described as having a brother named Hastur, an air elemental who somehow opposes Cthulhu. Both Necronomicon and R'lyeh Text hint that Cthulhu is currently asleep or otherwise inactive, entombed at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Shrewsbury hypothesizes that telepathic emanations from the sleeping entity have had a profound impact on human mythology and history, citing hundreds of examples lifted from archaeology and anthropology. Most of these examples are, unfortunately, fragmentary, and many are written in shorthand useful only to an anthropologist. The final sections of the book describe other entities that Shrewsbury organizes according to an elemental paradigm: Hastur (air), Nyarlathotep (earth), and Cthugha (fire). Shrewsbury also describes an ancient global cult that has been devoted to Cthulhu for millennia, and is secretly striving for the god's revival. Shrewsbury hypothesizes that Cthulhu's return would mean the destruction of human civilization (if not planet Earth), and speculates that the water elemental might be thwarted by taking advantage of Cthulhu's opposition and conflict with Hastur.
The Orne Library possesses the only copy of this manuscript, which Laban Shrewsbury deposited at the library shortly before his disappearance in 1915. Armitage's initial reading left him convinced that Shrewsbury had lost his mind. In the wake of the Dunwich Horror, however, the librarian is no longer so sure. (Johnson, Sam, and Sandy Antunes. "Miskatonic University: A Handbook to the Pride of Arkham." Chaosium, Oct. 2005. )
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