An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

“Nyarlathotep”: The narrator confusedly recalls the coming of a mysterious Pharaoh-like individual named Nyarlathotep, who appears to be the harbinger of the collapse of the universe. “The Outsider”: The narrator knows nothing of his ancestry or origins—indeed, little at all about himself. He thinks that he lives in a castle, but when he ascends to its tower to look at the surrounding landscape, he emerges at ground level—suggesting that his dwelling had been far underground. He goes exploring and finds a home in which much revelry is taking place. Just as he attempts to meet the inhabitants, they flee in terror from a hideous creature that has entered the home simultaneously with the narrator. The narrator is shocked to learn that the creature is merely his reflection in a mirror.

“The Picture in the House”: The narrator, who is bicycling through the Miskatonic Valley seeking genealogical data, is caught in a rainstorm and seeks shelter in a ramshackle house, where he encounters a preternaturally old man who turns out to be a cannibal.

“Polaris”: In dream, the narrator is tasked with manning the watch-tower of Thapnen, to warn against a siege by the city’s foes, the Inutos. Unfortunately, the Pole Star casts a spell on him, and he falls asleep at his post. He awakens to real life, but believes he still dreams and vainly tries to “awaken” so that he can warn his fellow Lomarians of imminent attack by the Inutos.

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“The Shadow over Innsmouth”: See Olmstead, Robert (whose name is provided only in HPL’s notes for that story).

“The Shunned House”: The narrator is the nephew of Dr. Elihu Whipple; his own profession is not specified. As a youth, the narrator heard much about the mysterious “shunned house,” about which Whipple had conducted considerable research. His interest piqued by his uncle’s findings, he visits the house with increasing frequency, until he stays there overnight and observes “the thin, yellowish, shimmering exhalation” that he had seen there in his youth. He and Whipple attempt to eradicate the entity, but during their vigil the entity overtakes Whipple and the narrator is compelled to kill his uncle to release the old man from the grip of the entity. Finally, he pours carboys of acid into the earth to destroy the thing.

“The Silver Key”: See Phillips, Ward (who is identified as the narrator only in “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”).

“The Transition of Juan Romero”: The narrator is a laborer in the Norton Mine, in the American Southwest. He and Romero investigate a strange throbbing sound emanating from the mine. Romero becomes separated from the narrator and disappears into the cave. The narrator sees something he cannot describe, nor can he be certain whether he has seen anything or merely dreamt it, but somehow he escapes the mysterious fate that befalls Romero.

“What the Moon Brings”: The narrator admits to being terrified of the moon and moonlight, because they seem to transform the known landscape into something unfamiliar and hideous. “Nathicana.”

Poem (99 lines); probably written no later than 1920, apparently in conjunction with Alfred Galpin. First published in the Vagrant([Spring 1927]).

A poem speaking in Poe-like accents of the mysterious woman Nathicana. It was meant as “a parody on those stylistic excesses which really have no basic meaning” (HPL to Donald Wandrei, [August 2, 1927]; ms., JHL). Apparently Galpin was somehow involved in the composition, as the pseudonym under which the poem was published (“Albert Frederick Willie”) alludes in its first two names to Galpin and in its last name to his mother’s maiden name, Willy.

Necronomicon.

Mythical book of occult lore invented by HPL.

The work is first cited by name in “The Hound” (1922), although its purported author, Abdul Alhazred, was cited as the author of an “unexplainable couplet” in “The Nameless City” (1921). HPL states that the name Abdul Alhazred was supplied to him at the age of five by “a family elder—the family lawyer [Albert A. Baker], as it happens—but I can’t remember whether I asked him to make up an Arabic name for me, or whether I merely asked him to criticise a choice I had otherwise made” (HPL to Robert E.Howard, January 16, 1932; AHT). The coinage was somewhat unfortunate, as it contains a reduplicated article (Abd ul Alhazred). A more idiomatic coinage would have been Abd el-Hazred.

HPL cited his book so frequently in his tales that by late 1927 he felt the need to write a “History of the Necronomicon” to keep his references consistent. At that time he noted that the work had been written by Alhazred around 700 C.E. and titled by him Al Azif(a term HPL lifted from Samuel Henley’s notes to Wil