TheNecronomicon, also referred to as theBook of the Dead, or under a purported originalArabic title ofKitab al-Azif, is afictionalgrimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by thehorror writerH. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's1924 short story "The Hound",[1] written in 1922, though its purported author, the "MadArab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in Lovecraft's "The Nameless City".[2] Among other things, the work contains an account of theOld Ones, their history, and the means for summoning them.
Other authors such asAugust Derleth andClark Ashton Smith also cited theNecronomicon in their works. Lovecraft approved of other writers building on his work, believing such common allusions built up "a background of evilverisimilitude". Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it; pranksters have listed it in rare book catalogues, and a student smuggled a card for it into thecard catalog of theYale University Library.[3]
Capitalizing on the notoriety of the fictional volume, real-life publishers have printed many books titledNecronomicon since Lovecraft's death.
How Lovecraft conceived the nameNecronomicon is not clear—Lovecraft said that the title came to him in a dream.[4] Although some have suggested that Lovecraft was influenced primarily byRobert W. Chambers' collection of short storiesThe King in Yellow, which centers on a mysterious and disturbing play in book form, Lovecraft is not believed to have read that work until 1927.[5]
Donald R. Burleson has argued that the idea for the book was derived fromNathaniel Hawthorne, though Lovecraft himself noted that "mouldy hidden manuscripts" were one of the stock features ofGothic literature.[6]
Lovecraft wrote[7] that the title, as translated from theGreek language, meant "an image of the law of the dead", compounded respectively fromνεκρόςnekros "dead",νόμοςnomos "law", andεἰκώνeikon "image".[8]Robert M. Price notes that the title has been variously translated by others as "Book of the names of the dead", "Book of the laws of the dead", "Book of dead names" and "Knower of the laws of the dead".[citation needed] S. T. Joshi states that Lovecraft's own etymology is "almost entirely unsound. The last portion of it is particularly erroneous, since-ikon is nothing more than a neuter adjectival suffix and has nothing to do witheikõn (image)." Joshi translates the title as "Book considering (or classifying) the dead".[9]
Lovecraft was often asked about the veracity of theNecronomicon, and always answered that it was completely his invention. In a letter toWillis Conover, Lovecraft elaborated upon his typical answer:
Now about the "terrible and forbidden books"—I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred orNecronomicon, for I invented these names myself.Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and hisDe Vermis Mysteriis, while theBook of Eibon is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith's.Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and hisUnaussprechlichen Kulten.... As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes—in all truth they don't amount to much. That is why it's more fun to invent mythical works like theNecronomicon andBook of Eibon.[4]
Reinforcing the book's fictionalization, the name of the book's supposed author, Abdul Alhazred, is not even a grammatically correctArabic name. What is transliterated as "Abdul" in English is actually a noun in the nominative formʿabdu (عَبْدُ, "servant") and the definite articleal- (الـ) and amounts to "servant of the" with the article actually being part of the second noun in the construct, which in this case is supposed to be "Alhazred" (traditional Arabic names do not follow the modern first name-surname format). But "Alhazred", even if considered as a corruption ofal-ḥaḍrāt (حَضْرَات, "the presences") though it seems unlikely, itself is a definite noun (i.e., a noun prefixed by the definite article) and thus "Abdul Alhazred" could not possibly be a real Arabic name.[10] Lovecraft first used the name "Abdul Alhazred" as a pseudonym he gave himself as a five-year-old,[11] and very likely mistook "Abdul" to be a first name while inventing "Alhazred" as an Arabic-sounding surname.
In 1927, Lovecraft wrote a brief fictitious history of theNecronomicon. This fictitious history was published in 1938, after his death, as "History of theNecronomicon". According to this account, the book was originally calledAl Azif, an Arabic word that Lovecraft defined as "that nocturnal sound (made by insects) supposed to be the howling of demons", drawing on a footnote by Rev.Samuel Henley in Henley's translation ofVathek.[12] Henley, commenting upon a passage which he translated as "those nocturnal insects which presage evil", alluded to the diabolic legend ofBeelzebub, "Lord of the Flies" and toPsalm 91:5, which in some 16th century English Bibles (such asMyles Coverdale's 1535 translation) describes "bugges by night" where later translations render "terror by night".[13] One Arabic/English dictionary translates`Azīf (عزيف) as "whistling (of the wind); weird sound or noise".[14] Gabriel Oussani defined it as "the eerie sound of thejinn in the wilderness".[15] The tradition of`azif al jinn (عزيف الجن) is linked to the phenomenon of "singing sand".[16]
In the "History", Alhazred is said to have been a "half-crazed Arab" who worshipped the Lovecraftian entitiesYog-Sothoth andCthulhu in the early 700s CE. He is described as being fromSanaá inYemen. He visited the ruins ofBabylon, the "subterranean secrets" ofMemphis and theEmpty Quarter ofArabia. In his last years, he lived inDamascus, where he wroteAl Azif before his sudden and mysterious death in 738, which, according toIbn Khallikan, happened when he was "seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses". In subsequent years, Lovecraft wrote, theAzif "gained considerable, though surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age." In 950, it was translated intoGreek and given the titleNecronomicon by Theodorus Philetas, a fictional scholar fromConstantinople. This version "impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts" before being "suppressed andburnt" in 1050 byPatriarch Michael (a historical figure who died in 1059).[17]
After this attempted suppression, the work was "only heard of furtively" until it was translated from Greek intoLatin by Olaus Wormius. (Lovecraft gives the date of this edition as 1228, though the real-life Danish scholarOlaus Wormius lived from 1588 to 1654.) Both the Latin and Greek text, the "History" relates, were banned byPope Gregory IX in 1232, though Latin editions were apparently published in 15th centuryGermany and 17th centurySpain. A Greek edition was printed inItaly in the first half of the 16th century. TheElizabethan magicianJohn Dee (1527 –c. 1609) allegedly translated the book—presumably into English—but Lovecraft wrote that this version was never printed and only fragments survive.[17]
According to Lovecraft, the Arabic version ofAl Azif had already disappeared by the time the Greek version was banned in 1050, though he cites "a vague account of a secret copy appearing in San Francisco during the current [20th] century" that "later perished in fire". The Greek version, he writes, has not been reported "since the burning of a certainSalem man's library in 1692", an apparent reference to theSalem witch trials. (In the story "The Diary of Alonzo Typer", the character Alonzo Typer finds a Greek copy.) According to "History of theNecronomicon" the very act of studying the text is inherently dangerous, as those who attempt to master its arcane knowledge generally meet terrible ends.[17]
TheNecronomicon is mentioned in a number of Lovecraft's short stories and in his novellasAt the Mountains of Madness andThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward. However, despite frequent references to the book, Lovecraft was very sparing of details about its appearance and contents. He once wrote that "if anyone were to try to write theNecronomicon, it would disappoint all those who have shuddered at cryptic references to it."[18]
In"The Nameless City" (1921), a rhymingcouplet that appears at two points in the story is ascribed to Abdul Alhazred:
That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die.[19]
The same couplet appears in "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928), where it is identified as a quotation from theNecronomicon. This "much-discussed" couplet, as Lovecraft calls it in the latter story, has also been quoted in works by other authors, includingBrian Lumley'sThe Burrowers Beneath, which adds a long paragraph preceding the couplet.
In his story "History of theNecronomicon", Lovecraft states that it is rumored that artist R. U. Pickman (from his story "Pickman's Model") owned a Greek translation of the text, but it vanished along with the artist in early 1926.
TheNecronomicon is undoubtedly a substantial text, as indicated by its description in "The Dunwich Horror" (1929). In the story,Wilbur Whateley visitsMiskatonic University's library to consult the "unabridged" version of theNecronomicon for a spell that would have appeared on the 751st page of his own inherited, but defective, Dee edition. TheNecronomicon introduces the incantation with this passage:
Nor is it to be thought...that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. TheOld Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen.Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites.Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? GreatCthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä!Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold.Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.
TheNecronomicon's appearance and physical dimensions are not clearly stated in Lovecraft's work. Other than the obviousblack letter editions, it is commonly portrayed as bound in leather of various types and having metal clasps. Moreover, editions are sometimes disguised. InThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward, for example, John Merrit pulls down a book labelledQanoon-e-Islam fromJoseph Curwen's bookshelf and discovers to his disquiet that it is actually theNecronomicon.
Many commercially available versions of the book fail to include any of the contents that Lovecraft describes. TheSimonNecronomicon in particular has been criticized for this.[20]
According to Lovecraft's "History of theNecronomicon", copies of the originalNecronomicon were held by only five institutions worldwide:
The Miskatonic University also holds the Latin translation by Olaus Wormius, printed inSpain in the 17th century.
Other copies, Lovecraft wrote, were kept by private individuals. Joseph Curwen, as noted, had a copy inThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1941). A version is held inKingsport in "The Festival" (1925). Theprovenance of the copy read by the narrator of "The Nameless City" is unknown; a version is read by the protagonist in "The Hound" (1924).
Lovecraft felt that a well-written weird story should be believable and constructed like a convincing hoax. To this end, many of his stories were written as if they were firsthand testimonials or news stories, leading some readers to believe there could be truth to them. Lovecraft said he felt guilty when he heard of fans searching libraries for real-life copies of the Necronomicon. Pranksters occasionally listed theNecronomicon for sale in book stores or inlibrary card catalogues.[21] The Vatican receives requests for this book from those who believe theVatican Library holds a copy.[22]
Starting in the 1950s, various hoaxes were published that purported to be the real Necronomicon.[23] However, none of these early hoaxes made a serious claim to authenticity and were understood to be homages.[21] The early hoaxes typically combined excerpts of previously published occult books with references to Lovecraft's fiction. In 1973,George H. Scithers commercially published a hoax Necronomicon under his publishing company Owlswick. It featured an introduction byL. Sprague de Camp that purported it to be untranslatable and detailed a fictional history of various attempted translators who died mysteriously. In reality, it consisted of repeated, nonsensical glyphs in afictional language known as Duriac. When some credulous customers believed it to be authentic, Scithers attempted to convince them otherwise.[23] Around the same time,LaVeyan Satanists and some occultists became interested in incorporating Lovecraft's mythology into their rituals.[24]
Drawn by the success of Scithers' Necronomicon, more followed. The most famous of these is theSimon Necronomicon, published in 1977.[23] This book, by the pseudonymous "Simon", has little connection to the fictionalLovecraft Mythos but instead is based onSumerian mythology. The author uses this as evidence of its authenticity, arguing that a hoax spellbook would not use the title of an in-universe spellbook from series of horror stories. It purports to come from an ancient manuscript that predates Lovecraft's stories, though there is no record of such a thing. Simon's story incorporates two real-life thieves who were arrested for selling stolen manuscripts, but they have no connection to the Simon Necronomicon, and nobody has ever produced the alleged manuscript. Instead, it is likely thatPeter Levenda, the registered copyright holder of several of Simon's books, is the author. Levenda has denied this.[21] The other major work was a hoax edited byGeorge Hay, which was published in 1978 and included an introduction by the paranormal researcher and writerColin Wilson.David Langford described how the book was prepared from a computer analysis of a discovered "cipher text" byDr. John Dee. The resulting "translation" was in fact written byoccultist Robert Turner,[25] but it was far truer to the Lovecraftian version than the Simon text and incorporated quotations from Lovecraft's stories in its passages.
In 2004,Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred, by Canadian occultist Donald Tyson, was published byLlewellyn Worldwide. Donald Tyson has clearly stated that theNecronomicon is fictional, but that has not prevented his book from being the center of some controversy.[26][unreliable source?] Tyson has since publishedAlhazred, a novelization of the life of theNecronomicon's author.
Kenneth Grant, the British occultist, disciple ofAleister Crowley, and head of theTyphonian Ordo Templi Orientis, suggested in his 1972 bookThe Magical Revival that there was an unconscious connection between Crowley and Lovecraft. He thought they both drew on the same occult forces; Crowley via his magic and Lovecraft through the dreams which inspired his stories and theNecronomicon. Grant claimed that theNecronomicon existed as anastral book as part of theAkashic records and could be accessed throughritual magic or in dreams. Grant's ideas on Lovecraft were featured heavily in the introduction to theSimonNecronomicon and also have been backed by Tyson.[27][unreliable source?][21]
Notes
Taken from:L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English, 7 February 2007, page 8
Bibliography
Works related toHistory of theNecronomicon at Wikisource
