|
The Elder Sign is an icon in the Cthulhu Mythos, whose stories describe it as a form of protection against evil forces. Although not described in Lovecraft's work, he illustrated it in correspondence as a line with five branches. Mythos writer August Derleth described the Sign as a warped, five-pointed star with a flaming pillar (or eye) in its center, and it is this interpretation which has become the most popular in subsequent Mythos literature. ==Description== The Elder Sign is first mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft's 1926 story ''The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath'', although it is not described ("the farmer and his wife would only make the Elder Sign and tell him the way to Nir and Ulthar"). Lovecraft described the Elder Sign only once in his writings, as given by the aged alcoholic Zadok Allen in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936): "In some places they was little stones strewed abaout—like charms—with somethin' on 'em like what ye call a swastika nowadays. Prob'ly them was the Old Ones' signs." In this story, the sign is used as a defense against Deep Ones, the story suggesting that the Deep Ones cannot harm someone protected by an Elder Sign. However, Lovecraft is known to have drawn it in at least one of his correspondences as a single line with five shorter lines branching off. August Derleth, who wrote several Cthulhu Mythos stories, described it as a warped, five-pointed star with a flaming pillar (or eye) in the center. This latter description, which is featured in his novel ''The Lurker at the Threshold'' (1945), has become the most well-known and popular version of the Elder Sign. It is the version used in ''Dungeons & Dragons'', described in ''Deities and Demigods'' as an icon of green soapstone, and also appears in Chaosium's ''Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game—as well as the later version published under the Open Gaming License—and in the video game ''Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth'' as well as in the boardgame Arkham Horror, produced by Fantasy Flight Games. A third version of the Elder Sign, incorporating both Derleth's description and Lovecraft's drawing, appears in Lin Carter's short story "The Horror in the Gallery" (1976). This version places Lovecraft's branching design as a cartouche in the center of an oval "star stone". According to the fictional ''Book of Iod'', one of the numerous arcane tomes mentioned in the Cthulhu Mythos, the Elder Sign is a powerful weapon against the servants of Cthulhu and the Outer Gods, and can be used to drive them off.〔("Cthulhu Universalis" ), accessed April 18, 2011.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「elder sign」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|