Understanding Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” in 5 minutes

For more information about the author and his life, feel free to check out our article on “The Nameless City”, which serves as an introduction to Lovecraft’s works.

Summary of the short story

The story is divided into three parts. In this summary, the narrator will not be gendered, as neither the name nor the gender is known. However, it can be assumed that the narrator is male.

Part 1: “The Horror in Clay”

The narrator’s grand-uncle, George Gammell Angell, a professor of Semitic languages, has died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. As the professor’s sole heir, the narrator discovers something strange among his personal effects: a clay relief covered in terrifying, otherworldly images, and a manuscript titled “The Cult of Cthulhu”. The relief depicts unknown hieroglyphs and a grotesque humanoid figure with tentacles on its head and small wings, which the narrator describes as repulsive and hideous. The relief was created by the artist Henry Anthony Wilcox, inspired by visions in his dreams of green slime, massive cyclopean cities, monoliths, and the strange phrases “Cthulhu fhtagn” and “R’lyeh”. For weeks, Wilcox was plagued by his visions, and Angell’s notes describe his episodes of madness. The narrator, intrigued, digs deeper. Angell had documented similar cases worldwide: nightmares, artists producing similar drawings, and people experiencing intense panic. Many accounts referenced a giant figure, and the narrator suspects it may be the same horrific creature depicted in the relief.

Part 2: “The Tale of Inspector Legrasse”

The notes tell how, seventeen years earlier, Inspector Legrasse approached an archaeological society seeking help in identifying a small figure he had confiscated from a brutal, unfamiliar cult. The statue resembled the figure on the relief, but neither seemed connected to any known civilization. The idol was made from an unknown greenish-black stone with gold specks. The archaeologists could not help him.

One of the archaeologists, however, recognized the cult from an encounter in Greenland. The Inspector’s encounter with the cult in New Orleans revealed that this group was part of a worldwide secret cult worshipping Cthulhu, a god of the Great Old Ones, who ruled the Earth long before humanity. Cthulhu is said to sleep and dream in a sunken city, waiting to be awakened by priests. The cultists chant: “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn,” which translates to, “In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” The same chant was also recorded in Greenland. The cult’s practices include orgies, human sacrifices, and hysterical dancing.

Legrasse learned more about the cult and the Great Old Ones from an elderly man named Castro, who claimed that the Great Old Ones once ruled the Earth, living in massive cyclopean cities now lying beneath the Pacific Ocean. The Great Old Ones are dead but waiting for the stars to align to rise again. Castro added that the Great Old Ones lack physical form, cannot truly die, and communicate telepathically. They can manipulate the dreams of susceptible humans. Castro explains that the Great Old Ones are waiting for humanity to become like them—without moral constraints, free, wild, and ecstatic. Only then will they rise. Castro also quotes a line from the Necronomicon by poet Abdul Alhazred: “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even death may die,” saying it alludes to the Great Old Ones. The narrator pieces together these fragments and visits Wilcox, the artist who created the relief, to verify his story. He finds Wilcox’s account credible, which fuels his obsession with the cult even more.