So far we’ve covered quite a few of the important deity that makes an appearance in the Cthulhu Mythos but there is one else I got in particular that many of you have been requesting for quite a long time so today’s we will be covering shub-niggurath also known as the Black Goat in the woods of a thousand young similar to many other deities shub-niggurath is an entity originally mentioned by Lovecraft but only expanded on by the many authors and contributors that followed she first appeared in the story titled to the last test in 1928 but remains a figure that Lovecraft never really explained or expanded on we do hear the name mentioned in various rituals and incantations but nearly all of her description and law comes from August Derleth Robert Bloch Ramsay Campbell and many more of the mythos authors now as to what Shabnam earth actually appears as that’s a bit harder to explain she’s essentially an enormous mass of horrid proportion a cloud of black goo from which emerges dozens of goat legs hundreds of flailing black tentacles and several mouths tripping of blood and slime these mice continuously spit out small creatures and that is one of the main reasons that she of Naga wrath is regarded as a deity of fertility be it far more grotesque than the deities of fertility that we may be used to from traditional mythology now as for the origins of the name itself much of love cross work was influenced by lord dunsany and it’s likely that shub-niggurath is a reference to a character in dunsany streamers tales called shawl nuga north who is also a date he associated with the wild and untamed nature in terms of the rather odd family tree that many have attempted to piece together shub-niggurath is one of the oldest eighty’s to exist as a thought, of course, being the first and the oldest followed by the nameless mist and it’s sibling the unnamed darkness.
Shub-Niggurath – Deity in The Cthulhu Mythology
Shebna Groth is considered a child of the darkness and yorkshire sloth himself came from the nameless mist so there are definitely some parallels that we can draw there considering that ship negraph was both the mate and wife to yorkshire thought making her one of the potential mothers of Naga and yep and the grandmother to our favourite squid boy the great dreamer Cthulhu it’s also believed that she mated with the King in Yellow hosta producing several different creatures the most well-known being a thousand young who also referred to as the dark young in some cases now these children are quite similar in description to their mother they appear as a collection of tentacles pitch black in color capable of grown as big as 20 feet tall standing on stumpy hoof legs like Ritesh trees in a dying forests the dark young often described as abominations that smell like an open grave and they can often be found in woodlands wherever their mother’s cult has an active following in some cases a dark young can act as an avatar or as a mouthpiece for their mother accepting the sacrifices from the cult on her behalf there is one ritual that can be found in the book of a bond that summons a dark young through a blood offering it states that the victim must be sacrificed over a stone altar deep in the woodlands at the darkest of the moon the dark young would then manifest devouring the offering intended for their mother why these cults have no direct interaction with shift McGrath isn’t really mentioned but it may have something to do with the fact that we don’t really know where she currently resides and haven’t done so for some time the most common theory being that she’s located deep beneath the surface on the planet Edith yeah this was originally a planet inhabited by the knocks off but eventually they were overwhelmed by race of huge worm-like creatures called the dolls who completely destroyed the knocks off in their attempt to annihilate the planet but sure McGrath was able to survive and has been under the planet’s surface ever since another interesting theory makes a distinction between shivnath and the black goat claiming that they’re in fact two separate entities the black goat is described as a male figure being referred to as the Lord of the woods in the whisper in a darkness which is also a title used to describe the Greek god of the wild pan who himself as a deity associated fertility this then led to the theory that the black goat is actually the personification of pan who in turn is the earthly avatar of Shiva niggath.
Who breeds with her followers in relation to who actually worshipped her there are several groups that we can take a look at these included the hyperborean z– a race of mythical human-like entities believed to have originated from the far north in a lost era the humans of the city saw Nath who existed some ten thousand years ago also said to be amongst her followers the MU or the movie ins were primarily a race known for their worship of katana Thor the first born of Cthulhu but they did have one member among them known as teok who would eventually become a high priestess Shipp niggath looking for her assistance in destroying katana Thor and its followers she was also worshipped by a number of alien species including the MIGO and the Nagas earth I know at times these lesser mentioned the alien species can get a bit confusing so I think I’ll make a follow-up article going over some of them in some more detail one thing to note is that many of her followers believe that her milk mutated those who drank it into terrible so we do have this weird notion of her followers seen this as the end goal becoming one of her repulsive children in cheb negraph we have another deity created by Lovecraft who he himself never really expanded upon it was instead the writers who followed who took the idea and implemented it in their own stories some of the most famous examples included Stephen King who referenced her several times including in his novel revival and then again in his story Crouch End where we see a woman being pursued by the minions of the goat for a thousand young eventually been hunted by the goat itself towards the end of the story and Terry Pratchett was also an author well-known for taking the works of Lovecraft and AD in his own humorous spin for example Pratchett has a character in moving pictures called to ship Alka Fett the infernal star toad with a million young it was known to kill its victims by showing them pictures of his children until their brains would explode there are dozens of books TV shows mangas and games and in some way referenced the character and I’m sure many of you have fought against shobhna growth as a boss in the latest South Park game which of course has its own rather comical approach to Lovecraft’s deities in terms of her overall role in the mythos honestly I don’t really know and I suppose that’s how it’s meant to be to me she fills the role of the mother deity that we see in so many other mythologies so perhaps she is the dark twisted earth mother of cosmic horror Limina.
