Dagon is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in July, 1917. The title character, Dagon, shares part of the mythology of a pantheon of fictitious, undersea gods known as the Deep Ones. While this story is the first to physically reveal the existence of Dagon, the Deep Ones’ legacy is more comprehensively explained in Lovecraft’s short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936). Dagon and the Deep Ones are both part of what is known as the Cthulhu Mythos. This story was inspired in part by a dream that Lovecraft experienced.

Synopsis

The story is told from the first person perspective of an American Naval officer at the onset of World War I. In the tale, the unnamed narrator finds the ship he is serving on overtaken by a German man-o-war. The sailor escapes on a lifeboat and sails aimlessly across the sea until he eventually comes upon an unnamed black, murky islet. As he wanders the island, he comes to the conclusion that the island was formerly "a portion of the ocean floor... thrown to the surface" by a volcanic upheaval.

While exploring this dark island, the narrator comes upon a gigantic monolith that he suspects is several centuries old. When he investigates more closely, he discovers evidence that it instead far predates humanity. He is horrified to witness a godlike creature of the Deep Ones known as Dagon (sometimes referred to as Father Dagon). Lovecraft describes Dagon’s appearance as follows:

Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds.

Finally, the narrator describes how, despite having been rescued and returning to civilization, he is still haunted by his memory of Dagon. He mentions that, while he had turned to morphine to quell his fears, his supply of the drug has run out. The story ends with the narrator stating an imminent intent to commit suicide by jumping out of a window, believing that Dagon had found him and was attempting to break into his bedroom.

Publication history

Although first written in 1917, Dagon was first published in the November 1919 edition of a fantasy magazine entitled The Vagrant (issue #11). It has been subsequently reprinted in the following collective works.

• The Vagrant issue #11 – November, 1919 (pp 23-29)
• The Lurking Fear and Other Stories – Ballantine Books, New York: 1971 (pp 23-28)
• Dagon and Other Macabre Tales – Arkham House, Sauk City, WI: 1987 (pp 14-19). Definitive edition edited by S. T. Joshi.
• The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road To Madness – Ballantine Books, New York: 1996 (pp 37-41)
• The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories – Penguin Books, New York: 1999 (pp 1-6)
• Waking Up Screaming: Haunting Tales Of Terror – Del Rey, New York: 2003 (pp 218-223)

Connections to other Cthulhu Mythos tales

• In "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928), one of the newspaper clipping collected by the late Professor Angell mentions a suicide from a window that may correspond to the death of the narrator of Dagon.

Other presentation

• Both "Dagon" (1919) and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936) were used as source material for the 2001 film Dagon.

• Mehrunes Dagon is one of the chief Daedric protagonists in the Elder Scrolls series of games.

• In Mahou Sentai Magiranger, the leader of the Inflersia Hell Gods is named Dagon, who is based on the Lovecraft character and the Gillman.

Trivia

• The story mentions Piltdown Man, which had not been exposed by the scientific community as a fraud and hoax at the time of writing.

References and footnotes

1. Explanatory Notes by S. T. Joshi.

• Definitive version.

Cthulhu Mythos | Horror short stories