HAIR DEMON

HAIR DEMON

"It was in the attitude of one that had crept along the floor on its belly, and it was, so far as could be collected, a human figure. But of the face which was now rising to within a few inches of his own no feature was discernible, only hair. Shapeless as it was, there was about it so horrible an air of menace that as he bounded from his chair and rushed from the room he heard himself moaning with fear: and doubtless he did right to fly."

"He was a very beautiful person, and constantly wore his own Hair, which was very abundant, from which, and his loose way of living, the cant name for him was Absalom, and he was accustom'd to say that indeed he believ'd he had shortened old David's days, meaning his father, Sir Job Charlett, an old worthy cavalier."

"He was found in the town ditch, the hair as was said pluck'd clean off his head. Most bells in Oxford rung out for him, being a nobleman, and he was buried next night in St. Peter's in the East. But two years after, being to be moved to his country estate by his successor, it was said the coffin, breaking by mischance, proved quite full of Hair."

M.R. James, The Diary Of Mr. Poynter 

 

MONSTROUS SAWFLY

MONSTROUS SAWFLY
"If I was to describe my experience exactly, I should say this: there was a dry, light, rustling sound all over the room as I went in, and then (you remember it was perfectly dark) something seemed to rush at me, and there was — I don’t know how to put it — a sensation of long thin arms, or legs, or feelers, all about my face, and neck, and body. Very little strength in them, there seemed to be, but Spearman, I don’t think I was ever more horrified or disgusted in all my life, that I remember: and it does take something to put me out. I roared out as loud as I could, and flung away my candle at random, and, knowing I was near the window, I tore at the curtain and somehow let in enough light to be able to see something waving which I knew was an insect’s leg, by the shape of it: but, Lord, what a size! Why the beast must have been as tall as I am. And now you tell me sawflies are an inch long or less. What do you make of it, Spearman?’"

M.R. James, The Residence At Whitminster

GUARDIAN DEMON

 GUARDIAN DEMON

"'Startled as I was, I looked round after him, and saw him stand for a minute at the top and then walk away a few yards. Then I heard him call softly, "All right, sir," and went on pulling out the great bag, in complete darkness. It hung for an instant on the edge of the hole, then slipped forward on to my chest, and put its arms round my neck.'"

 "'My dear Gregory, I am telling you the exact truth. I believe I am now acquainted with the extremity of terror and repulsion which a man can endure without losing his mind.  I can only just manage to tell you now the bare outline of the experience. I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould, and of a cold kind of face pressed against my own, and moving slowly over it, and of several--I don't know how many--legs or arms or tentacles or something clinging to my body. I screamed out, Brown says, like a beast, and fell away backward from the step on which I stood, and the creature slipped downwards, I suppose, on to that same step. Providentially the band round me held firm.'"

M.R. James, The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas

SPIDER SPAWN

SPIDER SPAWN

"The sharp outline, however, seen for an instant, was imprinted on his brain, and he could have sworn, he said, though it sounded foolish, that, squirrel or not, it had more than four legs."

"So it was. First, at the fork, they saw a round body covered with fire — the size of a man's head — appear very suddenly, then seem to collapse and fall back. This, five or six times; then a similar ball leapt into the air and fell on the grass, where after a moment it lay still. The Bishop went as near as he dared to it, and saw — what but the remains of an enormous spider, veinous and seared! And, as the fire burned lower down, more terrible bodies like this began to break out from the trunk, and it was seen that these were covered with greyish hair"

"All that day the ash burned, and until it fell to pieces the men stood about it, and from time to time killed the brutes as they darted out. At last there was a long interval when none appeared, and they cautiously closed in and examined the roots of the tree."

   "They fond," says the Bishop of Kilmore, "below it a rounded hollow place in the earth, wherein were two or three bodies of these creatures that had plainly been smothered by the smoke; and, what is to me more curious, at the side of this den, against the wall, was crouching the anatomy or skeleton of a human being, with the skin dried upon the bones, having some remains of black hair, which was pronounced by those that examined it to be undoubtedly the body of a woman, and clearly dead for a period of fifty years."

M.R. James, The Ash Tree

BAT DEMON

 

BAT DEMON

"I have said that the miserable and criminous old woman whom the fen-men had killed was buried a bare ten yards away from the two conjurors: and their eyes were often fixed upon her grave as upon the point to which their spells were directed. Looking over at the grave, Hardman beheld crouched upon it a shape which there was small likelihood of his ever forgetting. It was the figure, one would say, at first sight, of an enormous bat, with folded wings and hints of head approaching the human form. In a short moment, Hardman caught sight of the folds of wrinkled skin or hide that hung down from the cheeks, of the wide ears which shone transparent in the moonlight, and of the two lines of dusky red fire which marked the almost closed eyes."

M.R. James, The Fenstanton Witch

ROBERT OLMSTEAD by PATRICK CARSON SPARROW

ROBERT OLMSTEAD
"I hear and do strange things in sleep, and awake with a kind of exaltation instead of terror. I do not believe I need to wait for the full change as most have waited. If I did, my father would probably shut me up in a sanitarium as my poor little cousin is shut up. Stupendous and unheard-of splendours await me below, and I shall seek them soon. Iä-R’lyeh! Cthulhu fhtagn! Iä! Iä! No, I shall not shoot myself—I cannot be made to shoot myself!"
     

 "I shall plan my cousin’s escape from that Canton madhouse, and together we shall go to marvel-shadowed Innsmouth. We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Y’ha-nthlei, and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Illustration by Patrick Carson Sparrow 

RICHARD UPTON PICKMAN by NICK GUCKER

 

RICHARD UPTON PICKMAN

"For hours he climbed with aching arms and blistered hands, seeing again the grey death-fire and Thok’s uncomfortable pinnacles. At last he discerned above him the projecting edge of the great crag of the ghouls, whose vertical side he could not glimpse; and hours later he saw a curious face peering over it as a gargoyle peers over a parapet of Notre Dame. This almost made him lose his hold through faintness, but a moment later he was himself again; for his vanished friend Richard Pickman had once introduced him to a ghoul, and he knew well their canine faces and slumping forms and unmentionable idiosyncrasies. So he had himself well under control when that hideous thing pulled him out of the dizzy emptiness over the edge of the crag, and did not scream at the partly consumed refuse heaped at one side or at the squatting circles of ghouls who gnawed and watched curiously."

A greenish elderly ghoul offered to conduct him to Pickman’s present habitation, so despite a natural loathing he followed the creature into a capacious burrow and crawled after him for hours in the blackness of rank mould. They emerged on a dim plain strown with singular relics of earth—old gravestones, broken urns, and grotesque fragments of monuments—and Carter realised with some emotion that he was probably nearer the waking world than at any other time since he had gone down the seven hundred steps from the cavern of flame to the Gate of Deeper Slumber.

      There, on a tombstone of 1768 stolen from the Granary Burying Ground in Boston, sat the ghoul which was once the artist Richard Upton Pickman. It was naked and rubbery, and had acquired so much of the ghoulish physiognomy that 

its human origin was already obscure.

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

Illustration by Nick Gucker

EDWARD PICKMAN DERBY by MICHELLE SOULIERE

 EDWARD PICKMAN DERBY

"Blond and blue-eyed, he had the fresh complexion of a child; and his attempts to raise a moustache were discernible only with difficulty. His voice was soft and light, and his pampered, unexercised life gave him a juvenile chubbiness rather than the paunchiness of premature middle age. He was of good height, and his handsome face would have made him a notable gallant had not his shyness held him to seclusion and bookishness."

"Edward went to pieces rapidly after that. He did not call again, but I went daily to see him. He would always be sitting in his library, staring at nothing and having 
an air of abnormal listening."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing On the Doorstep

Illustration by Michelle Souliere 

 

Yog Blogsoth Merchandise on Etsy

The Yog-Blogsoth etsy store is now live! It's called Store Des Ghoules and you can get to it by clicking here!

There are a few old zines left (including ONE copy of Volume I and ONE copy of Collection I), patches, stickers, buttons, posters, screen prints and small 4"x 6" prints. 

Also, dont forget that starting tomorrow there will be another installment of Guests In the Witch House featuring Nick Gucker, Michelle Souliere &  Patrick Carson Sparrow.

Lastly, as you may know, I just got back from a trip to Switzerland and Italy with Jeanne and you can see our pictures at my tumblr, Corpse Altar.

 

We went to 4 ossuaries and saw about 7 jeweled skeleton relics! 

Enjoy the rest of the week's posts!

 

TCHO-TCHO

TCHO-TCHO
Of earthly minds there were some from the winged, star-headed, half-vegetable race of palaeogean Antarctica; one from the reptile people of fabled Valusia; three from the furry pre-human Hyperborean worshippers of Tsathoggua; one from the wholly abominable Tcho-Tchos; two from the arachnid denizens of earth’s last age; five from the hardy coleopterous species immediately following mankind, to which the Great Race was some day to transfer its keenest minds en masse in the face of horrible peril; and several from different branches of humanity.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out Of Time

"On the contrary, they were a horde of little men, the tallest of them no more than four feet, with singularly small eyes set deep in dome-like, hairless heads. These queer attackers fell upon the party and had killed men and animals with their bright swords almost before our men could extract their weapons."

"It is true that strange legends had reached us even before we had left Ho-Nan province of a weird race of little people, to whom the natives applied the odd name, "Tcho-Tcho."'
August Derleth & Mark Schorer, The Lair Of the Star Spawn

HOWLING WIND-WRAITH

HOWLING WIND-WRAITH

"I think I screamed frantically near the last—I was almost mad—but if I did so my cries were lost in the hell-born babel of the howling wind-wraiths"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City

SCALY WINGED BEAST

 

SCALY WINGED BEAST

The vast tomb, or temple, was an anomalous color—a nameless blue-violet shade. Large beasts flew in the cloudy sky, and I seemed to hear the pounding of their scaly wings.

H.P. Lovecraft & Duane W. Rimel, The Tree On the Hill

 

STRANGE-TONGUED FIEND

STRANGE-TONGUED FIEND

"Presently those voices, while still chaotic before me, seemed to my beating brain to take articulate form behind me; and down there in the grave of unnumbered aeon-dead antiquities, leagues below the dawn-lit world of men, I heard the ghastly cursing and snarling of strange-tongued fiends."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City

OBLONG SWIMMER

 OBLONG SWIMMER
"'Do you remember,” he shouted, “what I told you about that ruined city in Indo-China where the Tcho-Tchos lived? You had to admit I’d been there when you saw the photographs, even if you did think I made that oblong swimmer in darkness out of wax. If you’d seen it writhing in the underground pools as I did. . . ."

H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, The Horror In the Museum

WHITE POLYPOUS THING

WHITE POLYPOUS THING
"There were legends of a hidden lake unglimpsed by mortal sight, in which dwelt a huge, formless white polypous thing with luminous eyes." 
 H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

 

ITHAQUA

ITHAQUA
"Lloigor, Zhar and Ithaqua shall ride the spaces among the stars and shall ennoble those who are their followers, who are the Tcho-Tcho; Cthugha shall encompass his dominion from Fomalhaut; Tzathoggua shall come from N'kai..."
H.P. Lovecraft & August Derleth, The Lurker At the Threshold

"A large thing, I am told, vaguely like a man, yet infinitely unlike him. Details are very distorted and unreliable. It is said to have been an air elemental, but there are weird hints of something of incredible age, that rose out of hidden fastness in the far north, from a frozen and impenetrable plateau up there."

"Another puzzling factor is the appearance, far off to one side of this point in the trail, in a line with the wandering footsteps of the three travelers, of a huge imprint, closely resembling the foot of a man-but certainly a giant-which appears to have been made by an unbelievably large thing, and the foot, though like that of a man, must have been webbed!"
August Derleth, The Thing That Walked On the Wind

"And it did not have a white color, but rather a blue-green tint shading 
away into purple."
August Derleth, Ithaqua

THE WORM

THE WORM
"Gyyagin vardar!' I screamed. 'Servant of Yogsoggoth, the Nameless One! The Worm from beyond Space! Star Eater! Blinder of Time! Verminis! Now comes the Hour of Filling, the Time Of Rending! Verminis! Alyah! Alyah! Gyyagin!"

"A huge black maw was discovered beneath; Cal tottered on the edge, his hands held out, his face distended in a wordless scream that I shall hear forever."

"And then there was a huge surge of gray, vibrating flesh. The smell became a nightmare tide. It was a huge outpouring of viscid, pustulant jelly, a huge and awful form that seemed to skyrocket from the very bowels of the ground. And yet, with a sudden horrible comprehension which no man can have known, I perceived that it was but one ring, one segment, of a monster worm that had existed eyeless for years in the chambered darkness beneath that abominated church!"

Stephen King, Jerusalem's Lot

"There, securely wedged between two century-old editions of Shakespeare, stood a great black volume with iron facings. Upon it, in hand-engraved lettering, was the inscription, De Vermis Mysteriis, or 'Mysteries of the Worm."'

Robert Bloch, The Shambler From the Stars

"There is tangible proof—in the form of marginal notes—that I went minutely through such things as the Comte d’Erlette’s Cultes des Goules, Ludvig Prinn’s De Vermis Mysteriis, the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt, the surviving fragments of the puzzling Book of Eibon, and the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out Of Time

NYOGTHA (NYARLATHOTEP)

NYOGTHA (NYARLATHOTEP)

"Men knew him as the Dweller in Darkness, that brother of the Old Ones called Nyogtha, the Thing that should not be. He can be summoned to Earth's surface through certain secret caverns and fissures, and sorcerers have seen him in Syria and below the black tower of Leng; from the Thang Grotto of Tartary he has come ravening to bring terror and destruction among the pavilions of the great Khan."
"He dreamed of Salem, and of a dimly glimpsed, gelatinous black thing that hurtled with frightful speed through the streets, a thing like an incredibly huge, jet black amoeba that pursued and engulfed men and women who shrieked and fled vainly."
"The disk was lifted, flung aside, and a great wave of iridescent blackness, neither liquid nor solid, a frightful gelatinous mass, came pouring straight for Leigh."
Henry Kuttner, The Salem Horror
 
"It was the eldritch scurrying of those fiend-born rats, always questing for new horrors, and determined to lead me on even unto those grinning caverns of earth's centre where Nyarlathotep, the mad faceless god, howls blindly to the piping of two 

amorphous idiot flute-players."

H. P. Lovecraft, The Rats In the Walls

"It is His wood-The Wood of N'gai, the terrestrial abode of the Blind, Faceless One, the Howler In the Night, the Dweller in Darkness, Nyarlathotep, who fears only Cthugha."

August Derleth, The Dweller In Darkness

MOTHER HYDRA

 MOTHER HYDRA  

'“Yield up enough sacrifices an’ savage knick-knacks an’ harbourage in the taown when they wanted it, an’ they’d let well enough alone. Wudn’t bother no strangers as might bear tales aoutside—that is, withaout they got pryin’. All in the band of the faithful—Order o’ Dagon—an’ the children shud never die, but go back to the Mother Hydra an’ Father Dagon what we all come from onct—Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn—”'
H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth

"The Hydra was said to be the progeny of the monstrous Echidne and Typhon. It was described as a vast, dog-like body from which sprouted, according to different sources, nine, fifty, a hundred, or even a thousand serpents' heads whose breath stank with poison."

"The Hydra was later used to equate with the monstrous apocalyptic beasts in the Book Of Revelations Of Saint John in the Christian New Testament scriptures. In this interpretation the Hydra was said to be the adversary of Saint Michael the archangel at the final battle before the Day Of Judgement. In this guise the Hydra was usually portrayed as a two-legged dragon with as many as nine heads, but otherwise looking like a Wyvern."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

THOR

THOR

The mighty Woden laughs upon his throne,

And once more claims his children for his own.

The voice of Thor resounds again on high,

While arm'd Valkyries ride from out the sky

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle Song

"But a god must be more than well loved: he must show the attributes of godhead, and this Thor did, abundantly. By name and quality he was the thunder god, who rumbled in his goat drawn chariot across the heavens and was armed with the thunderbolt in the shape of his short-handled hammer Mjollnir. Red-bearded, massive of frame, enormously strong, he was cast in a protecting role for Asgard and the gods and by implication for 

Midgard and the race of men." 

"It was Red Thor, not Odinn, who stood out against White Christ. It was the hammer, not the spear, which warded off the cross."

Gwyn Jones, The Vikings

"Thor has two he-goats, that are called Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, and a chariot wherein he drives, and the he-goats draw the chariot;"

He has also three things of great price: one is the hammer Mjöllnir, which the Rime-Giants and the Hill-Giants know, when it is raised on high; and that is no wonder, it has bruised many a skull among their fathers or their kinsmen. He has a second costly thing, best of all: thegirdle of might; and when he clasps it about him, then the godlike strength within him is increased by half. Yet a third thing he has, in which there is much virtue: his iron gloves; he cannot do without them when he uses his hammer-shaft. But no one is so wise that he can tell all his mighty works; yet I can tell thee so much tidings of him that the hours would be spent before all that I know were told."

"About evening, Thor took his he-goats and slaughtered them both; after that they were flayed and borne to the caldron. When the cooking was done, then Thor and his companion sat down to supper. Thor invited to meat with him the husbandman and his wife, and their children: the husbandman's son was called Thjálfi, and the daughter Röskva. Then Thor laid the goat-hides farther away from the fire, and said that the husbandman and his servants should cast the bones on the goat-hides. Thjálfi, the husbandman's son, was holding a thigh-bone of the goat, and split it with his knife and broke it for the marrow. "Thor tarried there overnight; and in the interval before day he rose up and clothed himself, took the hammer Mjöllnir, swung it up, and hallowed the goat-hides; straightway the he-goats rose up, and then one of them was lame in a hind leg."

Gylfaginning

"On his way to meet the giant, Thor spends the night with a friendly giantess, 
who lends him her magic staff."
Heather O'Donoghue, From Asgard To Valhalla: The Remarkable History Of Norse Myths

News...

Hey guys, just a bit of news for you. 

First off, there are still a handful of Pumpkin Faces In the Night prints:

Head over to the Yog-Blogsoth store to pick one up!

So Illustro Obscurum Volume VI went on sale and sold out within 2 hours on Friday! I'm thinking about doing a reprint of Volumes V & VI in the near future so comment if you're interested so I can gauge how many I should get made. 

Also there was a bit of a delay with the interior pages of Volume VI, so if you purchased it Friday it'll be a few days later than usual. Normally when I have them up for sale on Friday, I ship them out on Monday but this batch won't go out until Thursday. 

Finally, I spent the weekend in NYC doing some Halloween stuff and checked out a site that I think should be of interest to most HPL fans...Harry Houdini's grave! It's in an "abandoned" cemetery in Queens but it abuts 3 other cemeteries that are still in use, so if you can get into one you can easily walk into the others. Lovecraft famously ghost wrote Under the Pyramids for Houdini and I've been wanting to check out his grave for a while. Totally worth the trip!

News...

CHILDREN OF YULETIDE

The next few days will be cool news items before I post Illustro Obscurum Volume VI for sale on Friday October 25th at 11am EST.

I also wanted to announce that the same day at the same time I'll be putting prints of a Halloween piece for sale.

Lastly, November 15th is the opening for a group show I'm organizing called Children Of Yuletide. I'm really, really excited for this theme and lineup. Look at the artist list below, it's awesome!

The theme is Pagan and Non-Abrahamic winter festivals throughout the world. There are 22 artists including: Alan Brown, Christopher Burdett, Mike Bukowski, Jeanne D'Angelo, Keely Dolan, Heather Gargon, Eden Grace, Justin Gray, Kat Gun, Sam Heimer, Trevor Henderson, Jeremy Hush, Alina Josan, Erin McCown, Brynn Metheney, Alicia Neal, Paul Romano, Kristin Scholz, Dylan Garrett Smith, Ketch Wehr & Jenn Woodall.

I did the poster above and it features a Krampus, Schnappviecher, Namahage and Babugeri which are all creatures from different countries' winter festivals, and the rest of the pieces in the show will have similar topics.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN BROWN!
For those of you that follow this blog, Alan's name may be familiar to you. Not only has he contributed to the Empty Night Skies benefit show that Jeanne D'Angelo and I curated, he's currently working on a piece for the Children Of Yuletide show I'm curating. Most likely though, you'll recognize him from the Guests In the Witch-House piece he did of Randolph Carter in Dreams Quest Of Unknown Kadath. 

Anyway, he's one of the most tireless and talented people I know and he's a huge inspiration to me. This piece is based off a character and creature from his epic wordless  OVOYYAMAR comic which you should check out. 

You can also buy prints from him here and support an amazingly talented dude! 

PYEWACKETT

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of one Yog-Blogsoth's official mascots. Pyewackett Peter Cushing passed away this morning due to heart failure. He was an awesome affectionate dude, and the loss is taking it's toll. There will be a brief hiatus before the next half week's illustrations and Illustro Obscurum Volume VI is available....

"For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Cats Of Ulthar 

ODIN

WODEN/ODIN

"My strength is waning; dimly can I see

The helmeted Valkyries close to me. 

Ten more I slay! How strange the thought of fear, 

With Woden's mounted messengers so near!"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"These is a myth of Odin’s acquiring runes by hanging on a tree and wounded by a spear, an offering to himself. He bows his head and looks down, perhaps into the deep, and takes up the runes, falling now from the tree to the ground. How he took up runes while hanging is not clear: perhaps a magical act is intended."

"In other Eddic attributes of Odin there is a further resemblance-his skill in arts, his mastery in magic, his description as a traveller. Like Mercury he was a god or leader of the dead. Both gods were depicted with hat and staff."

"Here Odin rides, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, he appeared as an old man, one-eyed, of sombre aspect, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and wise of speech."

"Odin’s ring, Draupnir, “Dropper,” made by the dwarf Sindri and given by his brother to Odin, was so called because eight rings of the same weight dropped from it every ninth night." 
John Arnott MacCulloch, The Mythology Of All Races

"The Scandinavian god Odin had human victims regularly offered to him, and these were put to death by being hung on a tree and stabbed with a spear. One of his titles was "God of the Hanged," or "Lord of the Gallows," and the Hamaval tells how when young, he was sacrificed to himself in the same way."
The Forest In Folklore and Mythology, Alexander Porteous 

 
"I trow I hung on that windy 
Tree nine whole days and nights, 
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin, 
myself to mine own self given, 
high on that Tree of which none hath heard 
from what roots it rises to heaven."
Hávamál
 



 

HEINDALL

HEINDALL

"There to remain, till Heindall's horn shall sound, 

And Ragnarok enclose creation round; 

And Bifrost break beneath bold Surtur's horde, 

And Gods and men fall dead beneath the sword;"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"In the Eddic poems he is “whitest of the gods,” and, like the Vanir, he knows the future.
Heimdall is “the man mighty in arms,” and, as watchman of the gods, he has a horn, the Gjallar-horn, which meanwhile rests under the ash Yggdrasil."

Snorri combines much of this and gives further details about Heimdall. He is “the white god,” great and holy, born of nine sisters. He is also called Hallinskidi, “ram”,
and Gullintani, “Golden teeth.”

"Grimm compared Heimdall at Heaven’s bridge to the angel guarding Paradise with a sword, and his horn blown before the Doom to the
trumpet blown by the angel at the Last Day."
 John Arnott MacCulloch,  The Mythology Of All Races

"Of all the gods, Heimdall has the closest connection with an animal, namey, the ram. According to Skáldskaparmál, a form of his name, Heimdali, is a word for ram, and Heimdali and Hallinskídi turn up in the thurlur for ram."
Norse Mythology, John Lindow

SCHRIMNIR

SCHRIMNIR

"Who cares to find the heaven of the priest, 

When only warriors can with Woden feast? 

The flesh of Schrimnir, and the cup of mead, 

Are but for him who falls in martial deed"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"Valhalla is the great hall of Odin, wherein he feasts with his chosen heroes, all those who have fallen bravely in battle, for all who die a peaceful death are excluded. The flesh of the boar Schrimnir is served up to them, and is abundant for all. For although this boar is cooked every morning, he becomes whole again every night."
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology

JÖRMUNGANDR

 JÖRMUNGANDR

"With our swords have we contended! 

Come but new to Gothland's shore

For the killing of the serpent 

We have gaine'd from Thor"

H.P. Lovecraft, Regner Lodbrog's Epicedium

"For our blood is the same the vandals are vaunting; 

We too are the stout sons of Woden and Thor;"

"So must we face the serpents that seek to destroy us, 

And with spirit as light, ev'ry fiend overwhelm!" 
H.P. Lovecraft, Ad Britannos-1918

"And Ragnarok enclose creation round; 
And Bifrost break beneath bold Surtur's horde, 
And Gods and men fall dead beneath the sword'
When sun shall die, and sea devour the land, 
And stars descend, and naught but Chaos stand.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"The wolf Fenrir, whos jaws stretch from heaven to earth, breaks his fetters' the Midgard Snake, spewing poison, rises from the sea; Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, made of the uncut nails of dead men, breaks from her moorings down in Hel."
Gwyn Jones, The Vikings

"The sea will rear up because Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, is twisting and writhing in fury as he makes his way toward the land. With every breath, Jormungand will stain the soil and the sky with his poison. The waves caused by the serpent's emerging will set free the ship Naglfar, and with the giant Hymir as their commander,
the giants will sail towards the battlefield."
Micha F. Lindemans, Encyclopedia Mythica

"Jormungand is not the only serpent in Norse mythology but he is much the most fearsome. He is so vast that he actually encircles Midgard; all humankind is caught within his coil as he lies on the ocean bed, biting on his own tail."
Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Norse Myths



 

 

SURTUR

SURTUR

'There to remain til Heindall's horn shall sound, 

And Ragnarok enclose creation round; 

And Bifrost break beneath Surtur's horde, 

And Gods and men fall dead beneath the sword;"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"Giant particularly associated with Ragnarok."

"After the individual gods have fallen, Surt casts fire over the earth and burns the entire world. The name Surt is used in poetry as a general name for a giant. It meant something like "black," as if he were charred"
John Lindow, Norse Mythology

"The fire giants, led by Surt, come riding out of Muspell, and as they approach Asgard the rainbow bridge Bifrost cracks under their weight."

"The sun grows dark, stars fall from the sky, the sea invades the land, Surt flings fire over all the world; heaven and earth, the whole universe are consumed, 
and Earth sinks into the sea."
Gwyn Jones, The Vikings

"That one is called Surt, who sits there at the end of the world as a guardian. He has a burning sword, and at the end of the world he will travel and harry and defeat all the gods and burn the entire world with fire."
 Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning

News...

Just a quick update, in about a week I'll be posting a week and a half's worth of Norse Gods/Monsters that HPL mentions in some poetry and lettters. I'm really excited to move away from the Greek pantheon for a bit haha. Also, I'm working on laying out Illustro Obscurum Volume VI and that'll be up for sale right after all the Norse gods post.

Volume VI will be a Dagon themed issue, so expect sea monsters...lots of sea monsters!

News...

Hey folks,  there's gonna be a bit of a wait til the next monster/god post because freelance work is catching up with me. However, I do have 6 new gods drawn, waiting to be inked that'll post in about 2 weeks and are all from Norse mythology!

In other news, I did my second guest appearance on The Double Shadow two weeks ago for the story The Coming Of the White Worm and you should definitely check it out here.

Lastly, Kenneth Hite, HPL game writer and designer extraordinaire, mentioned Yog-Blogsoth in his column on the Pelgrane Press site.

DEIMOS

DEIMOS

"Ares and his train have gone forth with the madness of Gods, and have returned, Deimos and Phobos glutted with unnatural delight."

H.P. Lovecraft & Anna Helen Crofts, Poetry and the Gods 

"DEIMOS was the god  of fear, dread and terror, and his twin-brother PHOBOS of panic fear, flight and battlefield rout. They were sons of the god Ares, who accompanied their father into battle, driving his chariot and spreading fear in their wake."

"In classical art the two were usually represented as youths. Phobos was sometimes depicted with a lion or lion-like head."

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

"Here Phobos and Ares there stirred up the hosts: hard after followed Deimos with slaughter's gore besprent, that in one host might men see, and be strong, in the other fear."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall Of Troy

"From the outer gate wild Impetus leaps, and blind Nefas and Irae flushing red and pallid Deimos, and Insidia lurks with hidden sword, and Discordia holding a two-edged blade."
Statius, Thebaid

"Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hades, Luctus and avenging Curae have set their bed; there pale Morbi dwell, sad Senectus, and Phobos, and Fames, temptress to sin, and loathly Egestas, shapes terrible to view." 
Virgil, Aeneid