shane
Junior Member
Easter Island, Giant Gastropods and The Cult of Cthulu
For those of you who aren't familliar with Howard Phillip Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, shame on you. If you are familliar with the mythos, skip the next paragraph.
Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories were about an ancient race of evil gods who came to Earth from the stars long before the advent of man. This race supposedly contructed the nightmarish city of Rl'yeh, which sunk into the ocean - where Cthulhu and the old gods now lie dormant. It is believed by certain sects of gothic teenagers on ketamine that he learned of this race of "old ones" from a book called the Necronomicon, written by Abdul Alhazred. A bit of research has shown that, in all likelihood, the Necronomicon was written as a hoax/tribute by several members of the Lovecraft circle after HPL's death. That, however, is not directly relevant to this post.
In Lovecraft's story, "The Call of Cthulu," he states the following...
HPL is usually notoriously unspecific in his descriptions, which is what originally piqued my curiousity about this rather specific bit of information about the location of Rl'yeh. In moments of boredom, I began doing bits of research into the location. What began as an Idle curiousity became much more when I found this site...
http://bloopwatch.org/thebloop.html
I also came to notice the area in question was often decorated with sea monsters of various nature on old maps and globes. The most likely explanation for this, of course, is that it is an open area of ocean with nothing very interesting to look at. It is also a likely possibility that these cartographic decorations inspired Lovecraft to use this location in his story. Accepting these two facts, however, the "bloop" becomes either a coincidence of near impossible odds or well perpatrated hoax with no apparent motivation.
I began looking into the lore of the nearby islands of Fiji recently, hoping to find some legend tying in to this strange patchwork of information about giant sea monsters and evil gods, and realized that I had overlooked a rather signifigant bit of said information.
The island of Rapa Nui, more commonly known as Easter Island, is situated at S. Latitude 27.05, W. Longitude 109.20 and is the closest landmass to the given location of Rl'yeh. The history of the island, thanks to good ol' Christian book burning, is shrouded in mystery. We know from the accounts of the island's first european discoverer that there were multiple ethnicities living in isolation there (dark skinned, dark haired people along with lighter skinned, red haired people). Why they Rappa Nui came to the island is unknown, but they all banded together in destroying the local forests in order to move thousands of giant Maoi statues. Whatever their reasons for building and placing these statues, it was an obsession that seems to have led to their downfall.
http://mysteriousplaces.com/Easter_Island/...html/tour3.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/
Was the cult of the Maoi an anceint incarnation of the Cult of Cthulhu spoken of in Lovecraft's stories? Were the Rappa Nui drawn to Easter Island from their distant homes in order to worship an ancient sea monster? Probably not, but it's something to think about.
For those of you who aren't familliar with Howard Phillip Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, shame on you. If you are familliar with the mythos, skip the next paragraph.
Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories were about an ancient race of evil gods who came to Earth from the stars long before the advent of man. This race supposedly contructed the nightmarish city of Rl'yeh, which sunk into the ocean - where Cthulhu and the old gods now lie dormant. It is believed by certain sects of gothic teenagers on ketamine that he learned of this race of "old ones" from a book called the Necronomicon, written by Abdul Alhazred. A bit of research has shown that, in all likelihood, the Necronomicon was written as a hoax/tribute by several members of the Lovecraft circle after HPL's death. That, however, is not directly relevant to this post.
In Lovecraft's story, "The Call of Cthulu," he states the following...
HPL is usually notoriously unspecific in his descriptions, which is what originally piqued my curiousity about this rather specific bit of information about the location of Rl'yeh. In moments of boredom, I began doing bits of research into the location. What began as an Idle curiousity became much more when I found this site...
http://bloopwatch.org/thebloop.html
I also came to notice the area in question was often decorated with sea monsters of various nature on old maps and globes. The most likely explanation for this, of course, is that it is an open area of ocean with nothing very interesting to look at. It is also a likely possibility that these cartographic decorations inspired Lovecraft to use this location in his story. Accepting these two facts, however, the "bloop" becomes either a coincidence of near impossible odds or well perpatrated hoax with no apparent motivation.
I began looking into the lore of the nearby islands of Fiji recently, hoping to find some legend tying in to this strange patchwork of information about giant sea monsters and evil gods, and realized that I had overlooked a rather signifigant bit of said information.
The island of Rapa Nui, more commonly known as Easter Island, is situated at S. Latitude 27.05, W. Longitude 109.20 and is the closest landmass to the given location of Rl'yeh. The history of the island, thanks to good ol' Christian book burning, is shrouded in mystery. We know from the accounts of the island's first european discoverer that there were multiple ethnicities living in isolation there (dark skinned, dark haired people along with lighter skinned, red haired people). Why they Rappa Nui came to the island is unknown, but they all banded together in destroying the local forests in order to move thousands of giant Maoi statues. Whatever their reasons for building and placing these statues, it was an obsession that seems to have led to their downfall.
http://mysteriousplaces.com/Easter_Island/...html/tour3.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/
Was the cult of the Maoi an anceint incarnation of the Cult of Cthulhu spoken of in Lovecraft's stories? Were the Rappa Nui drawn to Easter Island from their distant homes in order to worship an ancient sea monster? Probably not, but it's something to think about.