About a decade ago, Stuart Thomas Underhill (not his real name), had horror author H.P. Lovecraft on his mind when he was inspired to rewrite the lyrics to the Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” The song transformed into “Hark! The Elder God Awakens,” in honor of Cthulhu, the alien monster whose origin is said to trace back to the late Providence author’s 1928 short story “The Call of Cthulhu.”
“I made it into a carol that in hindsight wasn’t very good,” Underhill admits. But then he penned some better Lovecraftian carols. And tracked down some more. “Then I got some friends together and we went out singing. Just like Christmas caroling. Only funnier.”
Each December for about five years they gifted the world with their sung parodies of holiday tunes, Underhill says. Then they stopped. Now after a five-year gap, he’s put an invitation up online inviting friends and strangers to join him in “Cthulhu Caroling” beginning at 7 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 9, around the general area of Cambridge’s Harvard Square. Check the event page for the exact meeting location as well as for the song lyrics (formatted for your smart phone or in PDF form so they can be easily printed out). At last check, 13 people claimed to be going and 438 registered that they were interested.
If for some reason you happen to be unfamiliar with Cthulhu, Underhill explains, “Imagine the scariest thing you can think of. This is the thing that thing worships. … Lovecraft describes him as enormous, green and with tentacles sticking out of his face. There are also wings and claws. It’s not really clear what he is because everyone who sees him goes insane.”
If you’ve not previously gone Cthulhu Caroling, one question you may have is how does one say the name Cthulhu, let alone sing it? “Everybody pronounces it differently,” Underhill says. Personally, he goes with Kah-thu-lu. “It’s supposed to be an unpronounceable name.”
Favorite Cthulhu carols include “Migo We Have Heard on High” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish Men.” Or how about: “I saw Mommy kissing Yog-sothoth in the ring of stones on Central Hill.”
“We really get interesting reactions,” Underhill says. “The first year that we did it, my favorite reaction: We were in front of a store. Inside the story they sell pornography, that’s the primary thing they sell. Some father heard what we were singing and dragged his children into the nearest store … and then dragged them right out.”
The last time they Cthulhu Caroled, they mutated the classic “Away in a Manger” into “A Day in a Coffin.” Sample lyrics: “Away in a coffin at sunrise you sleep. / The vampire lord Dracula under his keep.” He says a woman smiled to the music, but as she listened more her smile faded and she departed. Only to return a bit later with the rest of her family. “They stayed with us and sang with us a few more songs.”
“I love to sing, but I’m not a Christian,” Underhill says. “So I get a little uncomfortable singing Christian songs. Over the past thousand years, most of the music that’s been written in Western culture has been written by Christians and a lot of it mentions Jesus or God.”
Singing the parodies is meant as fun. Underhill adds, “This is in large part connected to my wiccan practice as a third degree high priest in the Black Forest Clan. … It’s not connected to the medieval sword fighting.” When he’s not Cthulhu Caroling, among his endeavors is teaching sword fighting. But that’s another story.
Pictured at top: “Spawn of the Stars” illustration by Sofyan Sharif with Santa hat added by Greg Cook. (Via Wikipedia/ Creative Commons license)