Elder Sign

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The Elder Sign is an icon in the Cthulhu Mythos, first mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, written in 1926.

“ Once he stopped at a farmhouse well for a cup of water, and all the dogs barked affrightedly at the inconspicuous Zoogs that crept through the grass behind. At another house, where people were stirring, he asked questions about the gods, and whether they danced often upon Lerion; but the farmer and his wile would only make the Elder Sign and tell him the way to Nir and Ulthar. ”
 

[edit] Description

Elder Sign, modelled on that handwritten by Lovecraft in a 1930 letter to Clark Ashton Smith.
Elder Sign, modelled on that handwritten by Lovecraft in a 1930 letter to Clark Ashton Smith.
Elder Sign, modelled after the version described by Derleth.
Elder Sign, modelled after the version described by Derleth.


Lovecraft described the Elder Sign only once in his writings, as given by the aged alcoholic Zadok Allen in "The Shadow over Innsmouth" (1936): "In some places they was little stones strewed abaout — like charms — with somethin' on 'em like what ye call a swastika nowadays. Prob'ly them was the Old Ones' signs." In this story, the sign is used as a defense against Deep Ones; apparently, the Deep Ones cannot harm someone protected by an Elder Sign. However, Lovecraft is known to have drawn it in at least one of his correspondences[1] as a single line with five shorter lines branching off.

August Derleth, who wrote several Cthulhu Mythos stories, described it as a warped, five-pointed star with a flaming pillar (or eye) in the center. This latter description, which is featured in his novel The Lurker at the Threshold (1945), has become the most well-known and popular version of the Elder Sign. It is the version used in D&D, described in Deities and Demigods as an icon of green soapstone, and also appears in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game — as well as the later version published under the Open Gaming License — and in the Xbox video game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

A third version of the Elder Sign, incorporating both Derleth's description and Lovecraft's drawing, appears in Lin Carter's short story "The Horror in the Gallery" (1976). This version places Lovecraft's branching design as a cartouche in the center of an oval "star-stone". According to the fictional Book of Iod, one of the numerous arcane tomes mentioned in the Cthulhu Mythos, the Elder Sign is a powerful weapon against the servants of Cthulhu and the Outer Gods, and can be used to drive them off.

[edit] References

  • Harms, Daniel (1998). "Elder Sign", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, pp. 98–99. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ H. P. Lovecraft (1998). Selected Letters III. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, p. 216. ISBN 0-87054-032-7.