Lovecraft and the Old Gods

[Morienthar]

I was reading everything I had on Lovecraftian gods and I found a few similarities between a certain Great Old one Rhogog and The Old gods

1.He is supposed be a Great Oak tree with a eye on the Trunk

2.As for all the Old Gods he employs the Winged Horrors

3.He is the Cup Bearer of the Blood of the Great Old Ones.

4.Also like the Old Gods is into Blood Sacrifices.

[Leif]

Mind=blown.

[jandslegate]

Mind=blown.

:agree:

It's obvious he's had some influence with Lovecraft. This however goes way beyond an easter egg-ish nod. It's funny I saw this immediately after I posted that the Great Other was a Cthulu trapped in the frozen sea of TLOAW in the Rh'lor = The Great Other thread.

Awesome find!

ETA:

Now I can't help but imagine a giant frozen weirwood far up north beyond the wall.

[Ser Lepus]

So we have the Drowned God (Cthulhu or Dagon), the Old Gods (the Great Old One Rhogog), the Great Other (maybe Nug, the God of Ghouls?) and Rh'llor (Cthugha)...a happy Eldritch Abomination family...

[Manfryd Lothston]

Drowned God is definitely Dagon-like (moreover, "Dagon" is an actual and well-used Ironborn name), but R'hllor being Cthugha I don't agree with. R'hllor gives powers to the Red Priests, and the Red Faith is very different from worshipping the Great Old Ones (well, apart from the human sacrifice thing). For starters, Lovecraftian abominations are bent upon destruction/enslavement of humanity, whereas the Red Faith aims to protect humanity from the Night that never ends.

[Scipio Africanus]

Lovecraftian abominations are bent upon destruction/enslavement of humanity,

First off I''ve only read the original Lovecraftian material and thus know only the original "old gods" and other abominations and other horrors.

Lovecraft used the term "old gods" rather liberally in his original stories, interchanging them with the term "elder ones" often. But if I think of the Old Gods I think of Cthulu and the other star spawned horrors waiting at the edge of time. These gods in general, if they get involved with humanity, don't really seek its destruction but bring chaos to the order of the universe once again. Of course that does mean the destruction of human civilization, but there's a difference. ;)

But Lovecraft's works were always about unspeakable things waiting at the edges of reason waiting to spread violence and chaos on unsuspecting man. In that sense, while perhaps there are similarities to Lovecraft's work, the Old Gods in the North are not Lovecraftian, for they appear to seek balance and order rather than chaos and destruction.

The Drowned God does bear similarities to Dagon, and Ironborn culture is certainly more geared towards chaos and warfare then the rest of Westerosi society.

[Ser Lepus]

Drowned God is definitely Dagon-like (moreover, "Dagon" is an actual and well-used Ironborn name), but R'hllor being Cthugha I don't agree with. R'hllor gives powers to the Red Priests, and the Red Faith is very different from worshipping the Great Old Ones (well, apart from the human sacrifice thing). For starters, Lovecraftian abominations are bent upon destruction/enslavement of humanity, whereas the Red Faith aims to protect humanity from the Night that never ends.

R'hllor gives help in exchange for sacrifice, it's hardly altruistic (that is, assuming it even has something to do with the spells of the Red Priests).

[Morienthar]

We really know nothing about the Old Gods to say what they seek,apart from the fact they are like a hive mind of dead Greenseers.

[Sullen]

Why does everyone forget the Black Goat of Qohor when discussing Lovecraftian deities in ASoIaF?

Definitively Shub-Niggurath.

[Morienthar]

Why does everyone forget the Black Goat of Qohor when discussing Lovecraftian deities in ASoIaF?

Definitively Shub-Niggurath.

The Black Goat of the Woods...Yes,How could I forget that!!