The Yeti, a.k.a. Abominable Snowman, or Migo, is a legendary creature and cryptid originating from the Himalayan mountains. They are usually described as anthropoids, comparable to the American Sasquatch. Although popular culture often portrays them as having white fur, this feature is rarely reported in actual sightings.
In the Cthulhu Mythos, the Yeti is most commonly associated with the Mi-Go, an alien species named after the Tibetan word for the creature. However, other interpretations have been proposed as well.
In Lovecraft Circle works[]
H. P. Lovecraft refers to the Himalayan legend in his novella The Whisperer in Darkness, in which protagonist Albert Wilmarth skeptically dismisses reports about alien creatures in the Vermont hills by comparing them to similar legends of satyrs and dryads found around the world. Wilmarth specifically points out "the even more startlingly similar belief of the Nepalese hill tribes in the dreaded Mi-Go or "Abominable Snow-Men" who lurk hideously amidst the ice and rock pinnacles of the Himalayan summits". After his correspondence with Henry Wentworth Akeley, who presents evidence that the Vermont creatures are real, Wilmarth and Akeley come to the conclusion that they are in fact the Mi-Go.
| “ | For one thing, we virtually decided that these morbidities and the hellish Himalayan Mi-Go were one and the same order of incarnated nightmare. | „ | |
| ~ Albert Wilmart (HPL: The Whisperer in Darkness) |
In At the Mountains of Madness, Lovecraft continues to refer to this species as Mi-Go and to liken them to the Himalayan Snow-Men. Protagonist William Dyer, who has spoken to Albert Wilmarth about the Mythos before, readily identifies the crustacean-like aliens from Yuggoth as "undoubtedly the same as those figuring in certain whispered hill legends of the north, and remembered in the Himalayas as the Mi-Go, or Abominable Snow-Men".
In the works of August Derleth, the Great Old Ones' servitor races include the "Abominable Mi-Go" (AWD: "The House on Curwen Street", "The Whippoorwills in the Hills"), also referred to as the "Abominable Snowmen" (AWD: "The House in the Valley"), which inhabit not just Tibet but the Plateau of Leng as well (AWD: "The Seal of R'lyeh"). On at least one occasion, Derleth went as far as to call them "the Abominable Snow-Men of Mi-Go" (AWD: "A Note on the Cthulhu Mythos").
Other interpretations[]
The Cultes des Goules contains information about the Yeti, which are apparently a cult of degenerate nocturnal humanoids connected to Ithaqua. A Miskatonic University expedition to Mt. Sarn'a in the Himalayas encountered Yetis that looked like facultative bipedal anthropoids with no tail, only traveled at night, and chanted about Ithaqua. (EXP: "They Only Come Out at Night")
In the Doctor Who universe, the Yeti are a real mammalian species that inhabit the Himalayas. However, the actual Yeti has only been featured briefly in the series, as the creatures that menaced the Doctor turned out to be Robot Yeti, modelled after the real animal and controlled by the alien entity known as the Great Intelligence (ADJ: The Abominable Snowmen, Downtime). In the expanded universe, the Great Intelligence has been identified as none other than Yog-Sothoth (EXP: All-Consuming Fire, Millennial Rites).