List of Cthulhu Mythos books
Many fictional works of arcane literature appear in H. P. Lovecraft's cycle of interconnected works often known as the Cthulhu Mythos. The main literary purpose of these works is to explain how characters within the tales come by occult or esoterica. However, in some cases the works themselves serve as an important plot device. For example, in Robert Bloch's tale "The Shambler from the Stars", characters inadvertently cast a spell from the arcane book De Vermis Mysteriis.
Another purpose of these fictional works was to give members of the Lovecraft Circle a means to pay homage to one another. Consequently, Clark Ashton Smith used Lovecraft's Necronomicon in Smith's tale "Ubbo-Sathla". Likewise, Lovecraft used Robert E. Howard's Nameless Cults in his tale "Out of the Aeons". Thereafter, these fictional works and others appear in the stories of numerous other Mythos authors, including August Derleth, Lin Carter, Brian Lumley, Jonathan L. Howard, and Ramsey Campbell.
B
Book of Azathoth
He must meet the Black Man, and go with them all to the throne of Azathoth at the centre of ultimate Chaos. That was what she said. He must sign in his own blood the book of Azathoth and take a new secret name now that his independent delvings had gone so far.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dreams in the Witch House"
The Book of Azathoth is a creation of Lovecraft's. It is mentioned in "The Dreams in the Witch House" as a book harbored by Nyarlathotep in the form of the Black Man. The protagonist, Walter Gilman, is forced to sign the book in his blood, pledging his soul to the Other Gods. The idea of this fictional book is likely based on classical descriptions of witch-cults, Satanic rites, and the signing away of souls.
Other authors have expanded on the Book of Azathoth. Michael Alan Nelson writes that the signer attracts the attention of the Other Gods by writing their name in the book. Glynn Owen Barrass states that the Book of Azathoth praises the Lovecraftian pantheon and renounces/mocks the Christian scripture.
Book of Eibon
... The Book of Eibon, that strangest and rarest of occult forgotten volumes... is said to have come down through a series of manifold translations from a prehistoric original written in the lost language of Hyperborea.
—Clark Ashton Smith, "Ubbo-Sathla"
The concept of Book of Eibon, or Liber Ivonis or Livre d'Eibon, is attributed to Clark Ashton Smith and can be said to be his equivalent of Lovecraft's Necronomicon. It appears in a number of Lovecraft's stories, such as "The Haunter of the Dark", "The Dreams in the Witch House", "The Horror in the Museum", "The Shadow Out of Time" and "The Man of Stone", a collaboration with Hazel Heald.
Within these narratives, this book is supposed to have been written by Eibon, a wizard in the land of Hyperborea. It was an immense text of arcane knowledge that contained, among other things, a detailed account of Eibon's exploits, including his journeys to the Vale of Pnath and the planet Shaggai, his veneration rituals of Zhothaqquah, and his magical formulae—such as for the slaying of certain otherworldly horrors. In the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos, only one complete fragment of the original is known to exist, scattered in different places of our world, though there are translations in English, French, and Latin—Liber Ivonis is the title of the Latin translation.
Smith presents his short story "The Coming of the White Worm" as Chapter IX of the Book of Eibon.
Lin Carter wrote numerous 'completions' or imitations of Clark Ashton Smith stories which purported to be various sections of the Book of Eibon.
Outside of Smith's and Lovecraft's mythoses, the book notably appears in Lucio Fulci's supernatural horror film The Beyond, where inappropriate use of it opened up one of the seven gates of Hell, allowing its zombie-like denizens to cross over.
Book of Iod
The Book of Iod was created by Henry Kuttner and first appeared in his short story "Bells of Horror". The original Book of Iod is written in the "Ancient Tongue", possibly a combination of Greek and Coptic. While its origin is unknown within the narrative, the Book of Iod may have been written by the mysterious author "Khut-Nah", which sounds remarkably like Kuttner. The Book of Iod contains details about Iod, the Shining Hunter, Vorvados, and Zuchequon. According to the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos, the Huntington Library of San Marino, California is said to hold an expurgated translation, possibly in Latin, by Johann Negus.The Book of Iod was also the title of a short-story collection published by Chaosium in 1995, containing 10 Cthulhu Mythos stories by Henry Kuttner, along with three related stories by Kuttner, Robert Bloch, Lin Carter, and Robert M. Price.
C
Celaeno Fragments
The Celaeno Fragments is credited to August Derleth. In his novel The Trail of Cthulhu, "Celaeno" refers to a distant planet that contains a huge library of alien literature. The character Professor Laban Shrewsbury and his companions traveled to Celaeno several times to escape Cthulhu's minions. Later in the lore's timeline, Shrewsbury wrote the Celaeno Fragments, a transcript of what he remembered of his translations of the books in the Great Library of Celaeno. He submitted the transcript, which consisted of about 50 pages, to the Miskatonic University's library in 1915.Cthäat Aquadingen
The Cthäat Aquadingen, possibly meaning Things of the Water, was created by Brian Lumley for his short story "The Cyprus Shell". This fictional work, by an unnamed author, deals with Cthulhu and other sea-horrors, such as Inpesca. It also contains many so-called Sathlattae, rituals and spells related to Ubbo-Sathla. It is first mentioned as appearing in northern Germany around 400 AD. According the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos, a Latin version was written between the 11th and 12th century, as was an English translation that appeared sometime in the 14th century.Cultes des Goules
Cultes des Goules, or Cults of Ghouls, was created by Robert Bloch. The work is often misattributed to August Derleth because the fictional author is the "Comte d'Erlette". It is a book on black magic and the uses of the dead written by the character Francois-Honore Balfour in 1702 of the lore's timeline. It was first published in France and later denounced by the church. Only a handful of copies are exist in present day settings. One of the established copies was kept for 91 years in an arcane library of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence, Rhode Island. After Robert Blake’s mysterious death in 1935, Doctor Dexter removed the grimoire and added it to his library.Cultes des Goules is mentioned numerous times in the works of Caitlin R. Kiernan and plays an especially important role in her 2003 novel Low Red Moon. The text is also prominently mentioned in her short story "Spindleshanks "—collected in To Charles Fort, With Love.
The book Cultes des Goules is also mentioned in passing as being part of a collection that was discovered in the titular castle in the 1981 novel The Keep, but does not appear in the 1983 movie based on the book.
D
De Vermis Mysteriis
De Vermis Mysteriis, or Mysteries of the Worm, was created by Robert Bloch, first appearing in Bloch's short story 'The Secret in the Tomb" and featured extensively in Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars". The fictional grimoire was used by Stephen King in his short story "Jerusalem's Lot" and novel Revival.Dhol Chants
The Dhol Chants was first mentioned in the short story "The Horror In The Museum" by Lovecraft and Hazel Heald. They are alluded to in passing as a semi-mythical collection of chants attributed to the almost-human people of Leng. The chants themselves are never described, nor do they appear in any other of Lovecraft's works. August Derleth later used the chants in his stories "The Gable Window", The Lurker at the Threshold, and "The Shadow Out of Space".According the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos, Miskatonic University's library is said to hold a copy of the Dhol Chants.
E
Eltdown Shards
Richard F. Searight invented The Eltdown Shards in a head-note to his story "The Sealed Casket". The story was actually published in that issue without the headnote. Lovecraft later quoted the unpublished headnote in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith, "leading some to believe that he wrote it". He cited the book in The Shadow Out of Time and The Challenge from Beyond.The Eltdown Shards are mentioned in numerous mythos stories as mysterious pottery fragments found in 1882 and named after the place where they were discovered, Eltdown in southern England. In the lore timeline, the shards date to the Triassic period and are covered with strange symbols thought to be untranslatable. Nonetheless, several characters penned their own interpretations of the markings, including Gordon Whitney and his The Eltdown Shards: A Partial Translation. Many of these fictional works, as well as a number of non-academic versions, are mentioned in stories featuring secretive cults.
Whitney's translation is similar to the Pnakotic Manuscripts, a fictional text produced by the Great Race of Yith. The translation describes Yith, the planet from which the Great Race came, and the Great Race's fateful encounter with the Yekubians. A magical formula from the 19th shard is for the summoning of the "Warder of Knowledge"; unfortunately, the dismissal portion of the ritual is garbled, so the summoning of this being could prove calamitous. Despite its connections to the Great Race, lore of the Cthulhu Mythos has established that the Eltdown Shards were most likely inscribed by the Elder Things, who probably buried the ceramics in England when it was part of the great supercontinent Pangaea.