Hounds of Tindalos
Hound of Tindalos |
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| Classification | Extraterrestrial life form |
|---|---|
| First appearance | "The Hounds of Tindalos" |
| Created by | Frank Belknap Long |
A Hound of Tindalos is a fictional creature created by Frank Belknap Long for the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. They first appeared in Long's short story "The Hounds of Tindalos" (1931). Lovecraft mentions the creatures in his short story "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931).
[edit] Description
"They are lean and athirst!" he shrieked... "All the evil in the universe was concentrated in their lean, hungry bodies. Or had they bodies? I saw them only for a moment, I cannot be certain."
—Frank Belknap Long, "The Hounds of Tindalos"
The Hounds of Tindalos dwell in the distant past of the earth, when normal life had not yet advanced past one-celled animals. They are said to inhabit the angles of time, while other beings (such as humankind and all common life) descend from curves. The Hounds are thought to be immortal and are believed to lust after something in humankind and other normal life, and will follow victims through time and space to get it. Their appearance is unknown because no characters who meet them survive long enough to give a description. It is said that they have long, hollow tongues or proboscis to drain victims' body-fluids, and that they excrete a strange blue pus or ichor.
Though the Hounds are sometimes pictured as canine, probably because of the evocative name of the first story in which they appeared, it is not likely that they appear as such- the story states that the name "veils their foulness". Various pastiches suggest that the Hounds are more bat-like in appearance, like the byakhee, or may appear even worse. The name Hounds of Tindalos refers more to the creatures' habits than their appearance.
Because of their relationship with the angles of time, they can materialize through any corner if it is fairly sharp—120° or less. When a Hound is about to appear, it materializes first as smoke pouring from the corner, and finally the head emerges followed by the body. It is said that once a human becomes known to one of these creatures, a Hound of Tindalos will pursue the victim through anything to reach its quarry. A person risks attracting their attention by travelling through time.
[edit] Other appearances
- In the story Tindalos by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the main character is haunted by a being named Tindalos. It shares many attributes with the creatures in "The Hounds of Tindalos", and the main character reads the Frank Belknap Long story in-story, as a way of gaining an understanding of the chewing sound that haunts her.
- The Hounds are minor Final Fantasy X-2 lupine spirit-creatures, named Tindalos in the game.
- The Hounds chase the time-travelers, "Titus Crow" in Brian Lumley's "The Transition of Titus Crow" (book II of the Mythos Omnibus or Cthulhu Cycle Deities saga), and Henri-Laurent de Marigny in "Elysia" (book VI of the same series).
- Shadow Hearts uses a very loose interpretation of one of the creatures as a boss. Tindalos, as it is referred to, is depicted as resembling the rotting corpse of a giant, skinned dog, and is of a very different origin from the Hounds.
- Macho Women with Guns is a comedy role-playing game that parodies many subjects, including the Cthulhu Mythos. Its list of "critters" includes the Puppies of Tindalos.
- In The Unspeakable Vault (Of Doom), a webcomic satirizing the Cthulhu Mythos beings, there is a lean, dog-like being known as "Tindaloo" which is capable of passing through other dimensions and sometimes acts as the "family dog" to the deities.
- The hounds also appear in the Roger Zelazny novel The Changing Lands, attacking the main characters as the house they are in travels through time.
- A hound of Tindalos appears in Michael Cisco's short story, The Firebrands of Torment in such a way as to suggest that the protagonist might actually be the offspring of one.
- James Hetfield of Metallica has said that the song "All Nightmare Long" draws inspiration from the Hounds of Tindalos.
- The hounds also appear in The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, attacking by following Thoth through time, Thoth explains how to hide from them.
- In the game Arkham Horror, based on the Cthulhu Mythos, The Hound of Tindalos jumps directly from location to location, while most other monsters wander the streets.
- The Lovecraft-inspired band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets has a song called "Sounds of Tindalos" on their album Spaceship Zero.
- The story of the Hounds is retold in brief by William S. Burroughs in his novel The Place of Dead Roads.
- In the short story "Mongoose", by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, the Hounds are described as the apex predators of an extra-dimensional food chain that also includes the bug-like Toves and large-mouthed, eyeless Raths. The Hounds are referred to by the scientific name Pseudocanis tindalosi, which literally means "the false dog of Tindalos", but most of the characters call them "Bandersnatches" after a creature in Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky".
[edit] References
- Long, Frank Belknap. "The Hounds of Tindalos" (1931). In Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1st ed.), Random House, 1998. ISBN 0-345-42204-X.
