# Old Zadok — Short Fiction character guide

> Old Zadok in Short Fiction by H. P. Lovecraft.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Zadok, Zadok Allen

**First appearance:** 0065-the-shadow-over-innsmouth

## Snapshot

A half-crazed, whiskey-soaked ancient who trades Innsmouth's ugliest secrets for a drink, and whose ramblings turn out to be terrifyingly accurate.

## Who they are

Zadok is the town's disreputable memory — a drunkard everyone dismisses and no one silences, muttering about Marsh, the reef, and things that come ashore at night. His fear is genuine and his details too specific to be mere delusion, which makes him both pitiable and dangerous to know. He matters because he hands the narrator the first real key to Innsmouth's history, and his terror primes the reader for what the town is hiding.

## In the story

### [The Birth and Early Years of Wilbur Whateley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/ii)

Mentioned as Zechariah Whateley, of the undecayed Whateleys, who brought Alderney cows to the farm.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iii)

Not directly mentioned in this chapter, but the loungers at Dunwich Village recall tales of Old Whateley's youth and strange sacrifices.

### [The Shadow Over Innsmouth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/the-shadow-over-innsmouth)

A drunken local who reveals the history of Innsmouth's pact with the Deep Ones.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/i)

Implied as a source of local lore about Innsmouth's strange people and Captain Marsh's voyages.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/ii)

A 96-year-old town drunkard and storyteller, described as half-crazed and liquorish, who sits at the fire station.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iii)

Old Zadok recounts the history of Innsmouth, the Oath of Dagon, and the horrors he witnessed, before fleeing in terror.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iv)

The narrator reflects on old Zadok's insane story, which has left him disturbed and uneasy.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/v)

Referenced indirectly through the narrator's memory of Zadok's mutterings about Obed Marsh's daughter marrying an Arkham man.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/old_zadok
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters