Which Lovecraft stories are Cthulhu mythos?

[Doc Twilight]

Hello, everyone -

Recently I got a compilation of all of Lovecraft's work. I wanted to catch up on the Cthulhu mythos and read as much as I could from the originator. But I'm not sure which stories are "officially" part of the Mythos. Can someone with more knowledge help me out with this?

I know that "The Call of Cthulhu" is in the genre, as are "Shadow Over Innsmouth", "At the Mountains of Madness", and "The Dunwhich Horror", but I'm unsure what else is part of the genre. The compilation I have has literally everything HP Lovecraft wrote, but it does not differentiate what is "mythos" material and what is not.

-Doc

[Malebolgia]

Well most of it is...I don't know if anything is noted as "official" mythos but most of them are connected to the Myhtos (I think only a few stories aren't actually). My favorite stories:

The Haunter of the Dark (connected to Nyarlathotep)

The Shadow over Innsmouth (connected to Dagon and the Deep Ones)

At the Mountains of Madness (with Elder Things, Shoggoths and connections to Cthulhu)

The Dream Quest  of Unknown Kadath (about the longest story connected to the Mythos and not the easiest one to read, but the grandness of it all is fantastic)

The Unnamable (Shoggoth)

The Whisperer in Darkness (it involves the Mi-Go a lot)

Dagon (duh ...short but fun!)

Nyarlathotep (ditto)

Pickman's Model (nice to see him both here and in Dream Quest)

The Crawling Chaos

The Hound (lots of references)

The Outsider (fantastic story with a great ending!)

The Shadow out of Time (great story about the Yithians)

And I could go on and on and on and on...ah...his stories are just so awesome.

For the Mythos you can also check out Wikipedia. It has quite some information about Lovecraft and the Mythos:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos

[Uncle Mike]

All Lovecraft stories are mythos stories...at least that is how I see it. Many of the monsters defy description and can not be easily placed into ordered reality...so, pretty much any story can be a mythos tale. The stories with no monsters usually describe some feeling of dread or impending doom or madness...so, again mythos stuff. I guess some of the stories that Lovecraft liked would qualify for mythos status as well: lord Byron, Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgson and even ol' Robert Louis stevenson had a couple. Not 'mythos' in colour, but in flavor anyways. just my two cents...

[myincubliss]

was it the black and gold collected edition? so beautiful...

as far as i know, the 'mythos' came about after Lovecraft's death, when August Derleth collected/continued his works - generally, the 'mythos as monsters' we know and love were only alluded toby Lovecraft, and weren't neccesarily connected (eg- Nyarlathotep being the messenger of the gods was a detail added by Chaosium in the RPG).

so (after some rambling) afaik all Lovecraft's supernatural/things man was not meant to know stories are considered part of the 'mythos', through the writing of other authors (wiki cthulhu mythos and august derleth for a fun read)

[Wolf 359]

  It's allllllllllllllllllllll mythos. And worthy of all the praise. Lovecraft intended for it to continue with his friends, in the different directions it took, and I'm glad it did.
  Since you're reading and enjoying these stories for the first time, and I remember when I was introduced to them, all I can say is 'I envy you'.

[white knight]

He started out with Dunsanian tales before getting in the Mythos, but most of his New England horror tales were later subumed into the Mythos. Or so the second volume of my Lovecraft omnibus says.

[myincubliss]

If you fancy a useable bestiary and guide to the mythos (as a setting rather than a literary guide), it might be worth picking up a copy of the rpg rulebook (produced by chaosium? ffg?), as it's jam-packed with all sorts of juicy info extrapolated from the stories (where in some cases, description of horrors fell firmly into the 'less is more' category, which is great for atmosphere, not so great for modelling...)

[Bako]

Exactly what was the compilation you found called? As I've been looking for one for myself instead of buying a lot of them separate you could say.

[myincubliss]

Get Isbn: 978-0575081567 - despite having the stories in several different collections, I picked this up because it's just beautiful - black and gold, with cthulhu on the front, a nice map of Arkham...

[itchy]

yeah got the same book for xmas the full title is Necronomicon,the best wierd tales of HP Lovecraft and if you are in UK Waterstones have the Black and Gold hardback at £15.00 or did a few weeks ago

[myincubliss]

??

We have it for £20... the rrp.

Unless you have a friend that works there, in which case they can get it for about £13.

Although I managed to blag getting mine free...

[Bako]

Err, what exactly is Isbn: 978-0575081567?

[myincubliss]

The international standard book number - take the dash out and put the resulting 13 digit number into amazon or summat and it'll come up... or waterstones.com. Probably waterstones.com.

[Bako]

Ah, I see. Thanks.