The Great Dreamer, the sleeper of Earlier, the slumbering one, great Cthulhu.

Chances are very likely that at some point in your life you've seen a depiction of Cthuloo are heard of reference to him.

The great green ancient one is by far the most famous entity in the Cthulhu mythos, and thus a fitting starting point for our series.

We're going to take a look at the literary history of Cthulhu, as well as give a brief

description of his mythological background within the mythos universe.

First, a note on pronunciation.

Lovecraft himself gave several differing pronunciations of the creature's name throughout

his life, including Clulu, with a heavy guttural first syllable.

The most common pronunciation, however, is Kthulu, popularized much later after Lovecraft's death.

The truth of the matter is, this is an alien name meant to be spoken in an alien tongue, so no answer is truly right.

Since Kthulhu is the most common pronunciation,

that is what I will continue to use.

Contrary to popular belief, Cthulhu is only ever featured in a single story by Howard Phillips Lovecraft,

The Call of Cthulhu, published in 1928.

Lovecraft very rarely showcased any of the ancient beings, including great Cthulhu in his stories.

So the call of Cthulhu is a bit of a special case.

The story in typical Lovecraftian fashion is told through various letters, manuscripts, and

conversations.

The climax of the story is the terrifying account of a sailor directly encountering Cthulhu as

the great old one emerges from his home in Sunkin Ehrlich.

Cthulhu's name was mentioned in a few others of Lovecraft's stories and letters, but it was other writers that really ran with the concept of Cthulhu and Erliere.

Writers such as August Durelath, Robert Block, Charles Strauss, Neil Gaiman, and many, many others have taken Lovecraft's foundations and

...