Shantak

A shantak is a fictional creature in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. It is also part of the Cthulhu Mythos. The creature first appeared in Lovecraft's novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926).

Description[edit]

They were not any birds or bats known elsewhere on earth or in dreamland, for they were larger than elephants and had heads like a horse's. Carter knew that they must be the shantak-birds of ill rumour, and wondered no more what evil guardians and nameless sentinels made men avoid the boreal rock desert.

—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

A shantak is a huge, scaly, birdlike creature with batlike wings, slimy skin, and two strong talons that lives in the Cold Waste of Earth's Dreamlands, serving Nyarlathotep. Shantaks are sometimes summoned to serve as steeds. They are hunted by the Elder God Nodens and greatly fear nightgaunts.

References[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1985) [1926]. "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". In S.T. Joshi. At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels (7th corrected printing ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-038-6. Search this book on

v t e Cthulhu Mythos
Mythos writers	H. P. Lovecraft Robert Bloch Clark Ashton Smith Robert E. Howard Frank Belknap Long August Derleth Fritz Leiber Stephen King
Cthulhu Mythos deities	Azathoth Cthugha Cthulhu Cyäegha Ghatanothoa Hastur Hypnos Ithaqua Nodens Nyarlathotep Shub-Niggurath Tsathoggua Yig Yog-Sothoth
Cthulhu Mythos species	Byakhee Chthonians Deep Ones Dholes Elder Things Flying polyps Gnophkeh Great Race of Yith Hounds of Tindalos Hunting Horrors Shan Lloigor Many-angled ones Master of the Monolith Men of Leng Mi-go Moon-beasts Nightgaunts Serpent Men Shantaks Shoggoth Star vampire Tcho-Tcho Voormis Yugg
Related	Cthulhu Mythos anthology Books in the Cthulhu Mythos Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture Dreamlands Elements of the Cthulhu Mythos Alan Moore's The Courtyard Neonomicon Providence

v t e H. P. Lovecraft
Bibliography
Novels	The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Novellas	The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath The Whisperer in Darkness At the Mountains of Madness The Shadow over Innsmouth The Shadow Out of Time
Short stories	"The Beast in the Cave" "The Alchemist" "The Tomb" "Dagon" "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson" "Polaris" "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" "Memory" "Old Bugs" "The Transition of Juan Romero" "The White Ship" "The Street" "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" "The Statement of Randolph Carter" "The Terrible Old Man" "The Tree" "The Cats of Ulthar" "The Temple" "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" "Celephaïs" "From Beyond" "Nyarlathotep" "The Picture in the House" "Ex Oblivione" "Sweet Ermengarde" "The Nameless City" "The Quest of Iranon" "The Moon-Bog" "The Outsider" "The Other Gods" "The Music of Erich Zann" "Herbert West–Reanimator" "Hypnos" "What the Moon Brings" "Azathoth" "The Hound" "The Lurking Fear" "The Rats in the Walls" "The Unnamable" "The Festival" "The Shunned House" "The Horror at Red Hook" "He" "In the Vault" "Cool Air" "The Call of Cthulhu" "Pickman's Model" "The Silver Key" "The Strange High House in the Mist" "The Colour Out of Space" "The Descendant" "History of the Necronomicon" "The Very Old Folk" "Ibid" "The Dunwich Horror" "The Dreams in the Witch House" "The Thing on the Doorstep" "The Evil Clergyman" "The Book" "The Haunter of the Dark"
Collaborations	"The Green Meadow" "Poetry and the Gods" "The Crawling Chaos" "The Horror at Martin's Beach" "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" "The Curse of Yig" The Mound "Medusa's Coil" "The Horror in the Museum" "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" "Out of the Aeons" "The Tree on the Hill" "Till A’the Seas" "In the Walls of Eryx" "The Thing in the Moonlight"
Poetry	Fungi from Yuggoth
Essays	"Supernatural Horror in Literature" To Quebec and the Stars Autobiography: Some Notes on a Nonentity
Locations	Arkham Dunwich Innsmouth Kingsport Miskatonic University Miskatonic River Lovecraft Country R'lyeh Celephaïs Sarkomand The Nameless City Yuggoth
Characters	Abdul Alhazred Robert Harrison Blake Randolph Carter Kuranes Herbert West
Books about	H. P. Lovecraft: A Life H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside Lovecraft: A Biography Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos
Related	Cthulhu Mythos Dream Cycle Lovecraftian horror Cosmicism H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society Necronomicon Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (documentary) Kalem Club Sonia Greene (wife) Whipple Van Buren Phillips (grandfather)
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Shantak

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