At the Mountains of Madness · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
The Narrator
major
Also known as Unknown, I, me, my, myself, mine
A Miskatonic geologist who leads the Antarctic expedition and must weigh scientific ambition against the sanity-shattering truths buried in the ice.
Lake
major
Also known as poor Lake
The expedition's biologist, whose restless drilling and reckless hunger for older fossils push the team past the edge of known geological time.
Danforth
major
Also known as young Danforth, XII Danforth
A brilliant young scholar and pilot whose forbidden reading in the Necronomicon gives him words for horrors his eyes were never meant to hold.
The Old Ones
supporting
Also known as the marine Old Ones, armed Old Ones
The aeons-dead architects of a cyclopean Antarctic city, whose geometrically impossible ruins rewrite the entire history of life on Earth.
Professor Frank H. Pabodie
supporting
Also known as Pabodie
The expedition's chief engineer, whose drills and boring equipment crack open the primordial rock and let something ancient answer back.
Gedney
minor
Also known as young Gedney, poor Gedney
A missing expedition member later found dead near the ancient city.
McTighe
minor
A member of the expedition's support staff.
Sherman
minor
A member of the expedition's support staff.
The Shoggoths
supporting
Also known as Shoggoths
Shapeless, protean servants bred by the Old Ones, whose whispered name in a madman's mouth carries five hundred million years of dread.
Carroll
minor
A member of the expedition's support staff.
Moulton
minor
Also known as young Moulton
A member of the expedition's support staff.
Atwood
minor
A member of the expedition's support staff.
Dyer
minor
The narrator's surname, revealed late in the story.
Captain Douglas
minor
Also known as Douglas
The captain of the ship that transports the expedition to Antarctica.
