Innsmouth

Innsmouth is a fictional town in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and is also part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft first mentioned Innsmouth in his short story "Celephaïs"^[1] (1920), though his passing reference was to a fictitious town in England. Lovecraft later relocated Innsmouth to New England, most famously in the story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936).

Lovecraft called Innsmouth "a considerably twisted version of Newburyport, [Massachusetts]".^[2]

History

Innsmouth is a coastal village located in Essex County, Massachusetts, between Newburyport and Arkham. Founded in 1643, Innsmouth was once a great trading center and major seaport. The War of 1812 brought an end to the town's prosperity when many of its sailors turned to privateering and were subsequently killed in raids against the British fleet. As a result, sea trade fell off considerably and most of the town's income came primarily from mills built along the Manuxet River. The town also relied on dwindling revenues from Captain Obed Marsh's increasingly profitless ventures in the Indies.

The plague

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In 1840, Obed Marsh started a cult in Innsmouth known as the Esoteric Order of Dagon, basing it on a religion practiced by certain Polynesian islanders he had met during his travels. Shortly thereafter, the town's fishing industry experienced a great upsurge.

Records indicate that in 1846 a mysterious plague struck the town, causing mass depopulation. In reality the deaths were caused by the Deep Ones themselves. Obed Marsh had entered into a compact with the aforementioned creatures, offering them sacrifices in exchange for plentiful gold and fish. When Obed and his followers were arrested, the sacrifical rites ceased and the Deep Ones retaliated. However, the cult activity subsequently resumed, and the interbreeding policy greatly increased, resulting in numerous deformities. Consequently, Innsmouth was shunned for many years, until 1927 when it came under investigation by Federal authorities for alleged bootlegging.

Esoteric Order of Dagon

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The Esoteric Order of Dagon was the primary religion in Innsmouth after Captain Obed Marsh returned from the South Seas with the dark religion circa 1838. It quickly took root due to its promises of expensive gold artifacts and fish, which were desired by the primarily-fishing town.

The central beings worshipped by the Order were the Deep Ones, Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, and, to a lesser extent, Cthulhu. The Deep Ones were seen largely as intermediaries between the various gods, rather than as gods themselves. Even so, the cultists sacrificed various locals to the Deep Ones at specific times in exchange for a limitless supply of gold and fish.

The Esoteric Order of Dagon (which masqueraded as the local Masonic movement) had three oaths which members had to take. The first was an oath of secrecy, the second, an oath of loyalty, and the third, an oath to marry a Deep One and bear or sire its child.

The Esoteric Order of Dagon was seemingly destroyed when one of Obed Marsh's lost descendants sent the U.S. Treasury Department to seize the town. As a result, the town was more or less destroyed, and the Order was thought disbanded.

Other appearances

The Esoteric Order is also featured in many Call of Cthulhu role-playing game supplements.

The video game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is set in Innsmouth.

The Lovecraftian musical A Shoggoth on the Roof features Obed Marsh as a main character, along with a head cultist of a chapter of the Esoteric Order of Dagon.

Manuxet River

The Manuxet River is a fictional river that runs through Massachusetts and empties into the sea at the town of Innsmouth. Although there is a Manuxet River in Worcester, Massachusetts, Will Murray believes that Lovecraft based his fictional Manuxet on the Merrimack River and probably invented the name from root words of the Algonquin language.

To support his claim, Murray gives two reasons. First, even though Newburyport was the inspiration for Innsmouth, it is clearly a separate location since Lovecraft himself placed the real-life Newburyport to the north of Innsmouth in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Based on his research, Murray thinks that Lovecraft actually based Innsmouth on Gloucester, Massachusetts,^[3] which is located on Cape Ann on the coast. Secondly, Lovecraft is known to have come up with the name for his fictional Miskatonic River by combining Algonquin root words.^[4] Murray believes that Lovecraft used a similar method to come up with Manuxet. In Algonquin, man means "island" and uxet translates to "at the large part of the river"; thus, when combined Manuxet means "Island at the large part of the river". Murray contends that this meaning is well suited to Innsmouth's placement at the mouth of the Manuxet. And Cape Ann itself (the alleged site of Innsmouth) is connected to the mainland by only a thin strip of land and might be thought of as an island.^[5]

References

Books

Harms, Daniel (1998). "Esoteric Order of Dagon". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed. ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. pp. 103–4. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); |pages= has extra text (help)

—"Innsmouth", pp. 149–50. Ibid.

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1999) [1936]. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". In S. T. Joshi (ed.) (ed.). The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. London, UK; New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-1411-8234-2. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1984) [1936]. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". In S. T. Joshi (ed.) (ed.). The Dunwich Horror and Others (9th corrected printing ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-870-54037-8. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help) Definitive version.

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1998). Selected Letters III. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-870-54032-7.

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1976). Selected Letters V. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-8705-4036-X.

Journals

Murray, Will (St. John's Eve 1988). "I Found Innsmouth!". Crypt of Cthulhu #57: A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal. Vol. 7 (No. 7): pp. 10–14. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help); |pages= has extra text (help); |volume= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |year= (help) Robert M. Price (ed.), Mount Olive, NC: Cryptic Publications.

Murray, Will (Michaelmas 1990). "Roots of the Manuxet". Crypt of Cthulhu #75: A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal. Vol. 9 (No. 8): p. 34. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help); |pages= has extra text (help); |volume= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |year= (help) Robert M. Price (ed.), Upper Montclair, NJ: Cryptic Publications.

Notes

^ S. T. Joshi's notes on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, p. 411.
^ Lovecraft, Selected Letters V, p. 86.
^ In 1987, Will Murray took a field trip to Newburyport and Gloucester to research locales from Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". In Newburyport there is a State Street (the street where the narrator of the story boards a bus to Innsmouth) and a State Street YMCA (where the protagonist roomed and where Lovecraft himself may have stayed during his visit to the town). When he visited Gloucester, Murray found a Gilman House — more formally, the Sargeant–Murray–Gilman–Hough House — a hotel in the story but in real life a Georgian-era mansion turned into a public museum. He also found other landmarks mentioned in the story, including streets named Adams Church, Babson, Main, and Fish, and a building adorned with large, white wooden pillars on its front and side — the Legion Memorial Building — that looks remarkably like the story's Masonic Lodge (the meeting place for the Esoteric Order of Dagon). The Legion Building, built in 1844–45, served as the Gloucester Town Hall until 1867 when it became the Forbes School. Saving it from demolition, the American Legion took over the building in 1919 and, a year later, added a columned portico to the Middle Street side to match the Washington Street frontage. It has never been a Masonic Lodge, however. (Murray, "I Found Innsmouth!", Crypt of Cthulhu #57.)
^ Lovecraft, Selected Letters III, p. 432.
^ Murray, "Roots of the Manuxet", Crypt of Cthulhu #75.

[1] S. T. Joshi's notes on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, p. 411.

[2] Lovecraft, Selected Letters V, p. 86.

[3] In 1987, Will Murray took a field trip to Newburyport and Gloucester to research locales from Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". In Newburyport there is a State Street (the street where the narrator of the story boards a bus to Innsmouth) and a State Street YMCA (where the protagonist roomed and where Lovecraft himself may have stayed during his visit to the town). When he visited Gloucester, Murray found a Gilman House — more formally, the Sargeant–Murray–Gilman–Hough House — a hotel in the story but in real life a Georgian-era mansion turned into a public museum. He also found other landmarks mentioned in the story, including streets named Adams Church, Babson, Main, and Fish, and a building adorned with large, white wooden pillars on its front and side — the Legion Memorial Building — that looks remarkably like the story's Masonic Lodge (the meeting place for the Esoteric Order of Dagon). The Legion Building, built in 1844–45, served as the Gloucester Town Hall until 1867 when it became the Forbes School. Saving it from demolition, the American Legion took over the building in 1919 and, a year later, added a columned portico to the Middle Street side to match the Washington Street frontage. It has never been a Masonic Lodge, however. (Murray, "I Found Innsmouth!", Crypt of Cthulhu #57.)

[4] Lovecraft, Selected Letters III, p. 432.

[5] Murray, "Roots of the Manuxet", Crypt of Cthulhu #75.

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