Doctor Strange's Tagline Mystery Solved?

[Starborn Dragon]

One of Doctor Strange's most famous taglines is "Hoary Hosts of Shoggoth!" which he uses to summon his magical energies or just says out in surprise sometimes.

Now once in a while I think of this line and I think I've come to realize what it is really referring to.

So i submit to you that it is actually a reference to a creation of HP Lovecraft.

The Shoggoth was first mentioned in HPL's sonnet XX "Night Gaunts from the cycle Fungi From Yuggoth and here is an artist's interpretation of the being:

The definitive description comes from At The Mountains of Madness as follows:

[FONT=Arial][FONT=Arial,Sans-Serif]We were on the track ahead as the nightmare plastic column of foetid black iridescence oozed tightly onward through its fifteen-foot sinus; gathering unholy speed and driving before it a spiral, re-thickening cloud of the pallid abyss-vapour. It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter[/FONT][/FONT]

Now so who are the Hoary Hosts?

now that's hard to say truly who it is, but here's my way of thinking.

I personally believe it is a veiled reference to the race that created them, called The Elder Beings. Because when you think of it, even though the Shoggoths were their slaves, the Elder Things could be considered their hosts, because they kept them in their cities.

Here is his description from Mountains Of Madness:

Important discovery. Orrendorf and Watkins, working underground at 9:45 with light, found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil of wholly unknown nature; probably vegetable unless overgrown specimen of unknown marine radiata. Tissue evidently preserved by mineral salts. Tough as leather, but astonishing flexibility retained in places. Marks of broken-off parts at ends and around sides. Six feet end to end, 3.5 feet central diameter, tapering to 1 foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths. Combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans. All greatly damaged but one, which gives almost seven-foot wing spread. Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in Necronomicon. These wings seem to be membraneous, stretched on a framework of glandular tubing. Apparent minute orifices in frame tubing at wing tips. Ends of body shrivelled, giving no clue to interior or to what has been broken off there.

And here is an image of it:

So in short, I believe that when Doctor Strange says Hoary Hosts Of Shoggoth, he is referring to HPL's Elder Things.

I might be wrong, but I don't think so.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It's "Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth."

But yes, there are definitely Lovecraftian influences and references in the comics and there apparently will be in the upcoming film as well.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Hoggoth is still just one letter away from being Shoggoth, so I don't think it's a coincidence.

It could be, but I doubt it.

 

[sojourner]

This was a mystery? Not to anyone that is familiar with Lovecraft and Dr. Strange.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

This was a mystery? Not to anyone that is familiar with Lovecraft and Dr. Strange.

It is to those who read Doctor strange but know nothing of Lovecraft.

 

[Reverend]

This was a mystery? Not to anyone that is familiar with Lovecraft and Dr. Strange.

Yeah, even from what little I know of Strange in the comics, I can smell the eldrich and non-euclidean odour of the Lovecraftian a mile away. There's no mystery here.
Hell, there's very little horror/mystical fiction written in the last 50 years that isn't influenced in some way or another by HPL.

This was a mystery? Not to anyone that is familiar with Lovecraft and Dr. Strange.

It is to those who read Doctor strange but know nothing of Lovecraft.

Pretty sure those that have read the latter greatly outnumber the former.

 

[DWF]

Hoggoth is still just one letter away from being Shoggoth, so I don't think it's a coincidence.

It could be, but I doubt it.

Stan Lee once admitted to just making it up anyway.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Besides Strange uses this phrase as an expletive way more often than it's part of a spell.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Dr. Strange...influenced and influencer...I read somewhere that Dr. Strange comics were a major inspiration for psychedelic poster art in the 60s.

(Playing second fiddle to acid, I'd guess....)

 

[Marsden]

Stan Lee absolutely adores alliteration.

 

[Mudd]

Hoggoth is still just one letter away from being Shoggoth, so I don't think it's a coincidence.

It could be, but I doubt it.

Stan Lee once admitted to just making it up anyway.

Like a number of things he "just made up," apparently someone else made it up first.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Hoggoth is still just one letter away from being Shoggoth, so I don't think it's a coincidence.

It could be, but I doubt it.

Stan Lee once admitted to just making it up anyway.

Like a number of things he "just made up," apparently someone else made it up first.

Very often people who worked for him.

 

[Silvercrest]

H.P. Lovecraft worked for Stan Lee? That would explain so much!

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I knew someone would go there. You get a cookie.


A cookie from the depths of the old ones.

 

[Silvercrest]

Shtunggli stell'bsna tharanak ilyaa COOKIE!!!!!!

'Nuff said.

 

[DWF]

It's "Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth."

But yes, there are definitely Lovecraftian influences and references in the comics and there apparently will be in the upcoming film as well.

Those Lovecraft references came from Jim Starlin though not Stan Lee.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It's "Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth."

But yes, there are definitely Lovecraftian influences and references in the comics and there apparently will be in the upcoming film as well.

Those Lovecraft references came from Jim Starlin though not Stan Lee.

And?

 

[DWF]

It's "Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth."

But yes, there are definitely Lovecraftian influences and references in the comics and there apparently will be in the upcoming film as well.

Those Lovecraft references came from Jim Starlin though not Stan Lee.

And?

And there's no evidence that any Lovecraftian references camee from Lee and some are suggesting.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Those Lovecraft references came from Jim Starlin though not Stan Lee.

And?

And there's no evidence that any Lovecraftian references camee from Lee and some are suggesting.

Okay. I was just wondering, because nothing in my post mentioned Stan Lee at all.