Gol-goroth

🔀 you may be looking for Groth-Golka

Gol-goroth (The Forgotten Old One) is a fictional deity created by Robert E. Howard for his Cthulhu Mythos stories, and later incorporated into the tales of Lin Carter as a Great Old One. He is first mentioned in Howard's "The Children of the Night", where Professor Kirowan refers to "nameless and ghastly gods and entities as Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, Tsathoggua, Gol-goroth, and the like." Howard explores the idea further in "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth", where Gol-Gororth is preeminent among the titular entities.

Background[]

Gol-goroth appears as a titanic, black toad-like monstrosity with an impossibly malevolent glare, or a tentacle covered, scaly, bat-winged entity. However, its physical form may alter to fit the worst nightmares of whoever is viewing it (spider-like to an arachnophobic person, etc.). ^(source?)

It is a dark god of Bal-Sagoth (CIRCLE: "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" Robert E. Howard) and Hyboria, with some modern cults centering around Britain and might also be named as the god of the Black Stone in Hungary (EXP: Ye Booke of Monstres), although other sources have challenged this claim (EXP: Ye Booke of Monstres II). It may have been worshipped in Atlantis under the name Golgor in connection with other Atlantean deities such as Valka, Hotah, and Honen (CIRCLE: "The Moon of Skulls" Robert E. Howard), and also by the Little People via the Black Stones ^(source?).

In the first printing of "The Fishers from Outside", by Lin Carter, Gol-goroth is mentioned in the Book of Eibon as dwelling under Mount Antarktos, at the South Pole, and being the master of the Fishers from Outside (which Carter equates with the Shantaks). However, this has been rectified in more recent printings, as Carter intended to refer to Groth-Golka, not Gol-goroth, having simply confused the names of the two deities.

It is also detailed in Nameless Cults. ^(source?)