Editing Shub-Niggurath (section)

== Development ==
Shub-Niggurath's appearances in Lovecraft's main body of fiction do not provide much detail about his conception of the entity. Her first mention under Lovecraft's byline was in "[[The Dunwich Horror]]" (1928), where a quote from the ''[[Necronomicon]]'' discussing the Old Ones breaks into an exclamation of "Iä! Shub-Niggurath!"<ref>H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror", ''The Dunwich Horror and Others'', p. 170.</ref> The story provides no further information about this peculiar expression.

The next Lovecraft story to mention Shub-Niggurath is scarcely more informative. In ''[[The Whisperer in Darkness]]'' (1930), a recording of a ceremony involving human and nonhuman worshippers includes the following exchange:

{{blockquote|Ever Their praises, and abundance to the Black Goat of the Woods. Iä! Shub-Niggurath!<br/>
''Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!''<ref>H. P. Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness", ''The Dunwich Horror and Others'', p. 226.</ref>}}

Similarly unexplained exclamations occur in "[[The Dreams in the Witch House]]" (1932) <ref>H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dreams in the Witch House", ''At the Mountains of Madness'', p. 293.</ref> and "[[The Thing on the Doorstep]]" (1933).<ref>H. P. Lovecraft, "The Thing on the Doorstep", ''The Dunwich Horror and Others'', pp. 287, 296.</ref>