Frequently Asked Questions -- The Necronomicon Part I
Version 1.3
20 October 1993
compiled by Kendrick Kerwin Chua (kendrick+@CMU.EDU)
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
  United States of America

-----------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
= Introduction to Version 1.3
= Introduction to original version
= Frequently Asked Questions
  (1) What is the Necronomicon?
  (1a) Who is H.P. Lovecraft?
  (2) Where can I get a copy of the Necronomicon?
     1. The Necronomicon, edited by Simon
     1a. The Necronomicon Spellbook, The Gates of the Necronomicon
     2. The Necronomicon by Colin Wilson, edited by George Hay
     3. Al Azif, the Owlswick Press Necronomicon
  (3) Who is/was Abdul Al-Hazred? Does he exist?
  (4) Who or what is Cthulhu?
  (5) What is a *Necromicon*? Shouldn't it be Necronomicon?
  (6) Does thge Necronomicon really exist?
  (7) What is the Voynich Manuscript?
  (8) Where can I find more information?
= Appendix
  (1) History of the Necronomicon, as rendered by H.P. Lovecraft
  (2) An abridged Pantheon of Mythos, as given by Lovecraft and Simon
  (3) Miscellaneous useful information about the Necronomicon

------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION TO VERSION 1.3
---------------------------

Again, a revision is prompted by a change in the status of the Faraday
book. As I said in an eariler post, the Faraday Necronomicon does not
exist. It was a spoof that was inadvertantly published by a
Massachusetts newspaper, and does not deserve the amount of research
I've put into it (you may properly infer that I'm a bit incensed at this
find ... ) Anyway, the rest of the introduction comes from v. 1.2,
because most the rest of the FAQ is the same. Enjoy.

KKC  20 October 1993

Other than that, I have been able to fill in a few blanks in the
original FAQ, a table of contents, and I have added a third part as a
sort of appendix. This includes within it the complete text of
Lovecraft's fictional _History of the Necronomicon_, as well as a
Pantheon listing of the dieties which are common to Lovecraft and the
Simon Necronomicon. If you feel I have left anything out, or that I have
made an error, please don't hesitate to send me e-mail. Thanks go out to
Lupo the Butcher, who was a tremendous help with the original text and
in between revisions, as well as Josh Geller and Thyagi Nagashiva (who
is no longer listed as an alias of Aliester Crowley....)

KKC, 29 June 1993


INTRODUCTION
------------

I sometimes wonder why I have taken it upon myself to become a caretaker
of the argument over the "thing" called the Necronomicon. Not the black
paperback book, not the concept H.P. Lovecraft invented, and not the big
coloring book by H.R. Giger. I cannot bring myself to call it anything
but the "thing", because at present, the human race cannot come to a
consensus on what the Necronomicon is. People who claim that they are
skeptics, people who believe that they practice Magick, people who
believe that they are Satanists, and just about everyone else have
argued and argued with their voices and their e-mail accounts over the
what, why, where, who, how, and the when of the Necronomicon. 

Most people who argue whatever viewpoint are reasonably knowledgable
about their subject, and are fairly expert in their particular angle of
entry into the subject of the Necronomicon. Science fiction and horror
fans who have something to say are well-read in their H.P. Lovecraft and
August Derleth. Pagans and Satanists who join in are reasonably
well-read in their LaVey and Crowley. Skeptics know their Colin Wilson
and their Sumerian mythology. And so, except for the big flamewar that
happens every six months or so, discussion is at best educational and
enlightening, but usually leads to no concrete conclusions or new ideas.

Aside from that problem, there are also newbies on Netnews and beyond
who may have seen a Lovecraft novel once or twice, dabbled in the
occult, or played a role playing game. Innocently asking what the
Necronomicon is, they become the butt of numerous jokes, get caught in
flamewars, and leave their questions mostly unanswered and their
information confused and incomplete. I know, because I was once in this
predicament. I have since taken the time to research, filled my disk
space with other peoples posts and flames, and created this FAQ for the
enlightenment of all. 

If you have any comments to make, additions to contribute, or
corrections to offer, please e-mail me at <kendrick+@CMU.EDU>. Thanks go
out to Thyagi Nagashiva, "Grendel" Al Billings, Colin Low, and Josh
Geller of netnews.alt.magick, SemHaza and Lupo from alt.satanism, Marc
Carlson, and Issac Truder. Also to anyone out there that helped whom I
may have forgotten.

Kendrick Kerwin Chua
22 March 1993
Servant of the Dark Lord, and keeper of the decade.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
--------------------------
   [Note: Text within [brackets] indicate text which would normally be placed
    in a footnote or a bibliography. However, since this FAQ is most likely
    going to be read as a text file on some newsreader, footnotes are 
    unwieldly in the extreme. Therefore, all such information will be
    bracketed and indented like so. Read them or ignore them.  KKC]


(1) What is the Necronomicon?
    
A question not answered easily, quickly, or with any level of assurance.
If we may begin at what seems to be the beginning, we will also answer
the question:

(1a) Who is H.P. Lovecraft?

In the early 1900's, a man by the name of Howard Phillips Lovecraft
lived in New England and struggled with an unsuccessful career as a
writer. Living as a bachelor and a recluse most of his life, he tried
various occupations, journalism, literary criticism, and editing among
them. He finally came upon an enjoyable form of composition, writing
horror fiction. Like his hero, Edgar Allen Poe, Lovecraft dreamed of
creating worlds of wonder and mystery, and is credited with the creation
of the modern mystery format by his student, Robert Bloch, the author of
_Psycho_. While Lovecraft published much of his work, most notably in
the magazine "Weird Tales", he died with no critical acclaim, and little
recognition by the public. It was much later, after World War II and
into our decade, that Lovecraft began to receive the publicity that he
deserved as a literary figure. Lovecraft is now noted as the logical
successor to Poe, and served as the inspiration for many modern horror
authors, including Steven King.

    [(1) Most information from Willis Conover's biography of Lovecraft 
     entitled _Lovecraft at Last_. Published by Carrollton-Clark in 1975 in
     Arlington, Virginia. ISBN 0-915490-02-1. Conover was a publisher who
     corresponded with Lovecraft during the height of his writing and
     during his years of illness before he died.     KKC]

What made Lovecraft's works different from other pulp fiction was his
method of "legitimizing" the stories he told. Devoid of gratuitous
splatter violence or adolescent foolishness, Lovecraft mixed ancient
mythology and occult literature by real authors with books and
theologies of his own devising. He did this so well that in many short
stories, one cannot tell the difference between the two without a
lifetime's knowledge of the subject. Take the story "The Rats in the
Walls", where Lovecraft creates a fictional family history from the
Magna Mater cult, or in "The Dunwich Horror", where Lovecraft freely
intermingles books like the Malleus Maleficarum with fictional titles
like the Book of Eibon or the Vermiis Mysterius.

    [(2) This opinion is expounded upon by Robert Bloch in the 
     introduction to the Lovecraft anthology entitled _Bloodcurdling Tales
     of Horror and the Macabre_. New edition published by Ballantine Books,
     ISBN 0-345-35080-4.     KKC]

One of the titles that Lovecraft freely threw around was Necronomicon.
Lovecraft denied that the book existed, and wrote as a joke a paper
titled "A History of the Necronomicon", giving a chronology of the book,
names, and places. Supposedly, the book was written around A.D. 700 by an
arab by the name of Abdul Al-Hazred, and the original title was Al Azif,
which is arabic for the sound made by nocturnal insects. Al-Hazred was
supposedly better known as "the Mad Arab, and the name of the book is
supposedly bastardized greek and latin, which roughly translates into
"The Book of Dead Names" (IE ikon=book, Necro=die or dead, and
Nom=name). Lovecraft told his colleagues that he stole the name "Al
Azif" from another author as a joke, and that the name "Al-Hazred" was a
pun on his mother's maiden name, Hazard. (The history is reproduced in
the Appendix, in part 3 of the FAQ. The archivist is receiving no
monetary gain from the publication of the material in this public
format.)

    [(3) Again, from Conover's _Lovecraft at Last_.     KKC]

From this, we can assume the following: In fiction or in fact, the
Necronomicon is a magickal grimiore, or a collection of spells and
experiences from the pen of one person, presumably the man called
Al-Hazred.

Apparently there are those who believe that Lovecraft lied. Several
books are currently in print bearing the title "Necronomicon". But
whether or not Lovecraft invented the concept of the Necronomicon, it
was he who gave it publicity and notoriety.

(2) Where can I get a copy of the Necronomicon?

Well, it depends on what you are looking for. Several books are on the
market now that bear the title Necronomicon:

-

   1) The Necronomicon, by Abdul Al-Hazred
      Edited by Simon
      ISBN 0-380-75192-5
      Copyright 1977 by Magickal Childe Publications, New York
                1980 by Avon Books, third printing
      218 pages, illustrations by Khem Set Rising
      Standard mass media (paperback) format
      $5.99 in the U.S.

Published by the same people who produced Anton Lavey's _Satanic Bible_,
this book has little or nothing to do with Lovecraft, but a great deal
to do with Sumerian and Assyrian mythology. One-fourth of the book is a
large introduction written by Simon that supposedly relates the history
and the times of the Necronomicon and of Abdul Al-Hazred. The book seems
to be a collection of genuine translations of cuneiform tablets found in
Iraq by archaeologists, with the occasional indecipherable line
deciphered by Simon, invariably with some reference to Cthulhu or
another reference to something vaguely Lovecraftian.

Simon claims that the book was originally written in Greek, and that
this volume is not a complete translation, as parts were "purposely left
out" for the "safety of the reader". 

This book is interesting because of its subtlety in some places, and
outright bluntness in others. While Simon attempts in his preface to
form a tenuous link between Lovecraft and Aliester Crowley (who never
met each other, as far as anyone knows), he dedicates the book in part
to a demon named Perdurabo, without telling us who he is. Frater
Perdurabo is a name that Crowley adopted for himself, and is a mystical
motto of sorts. Also, Simon warns against allowing the text to be used
by "novices" in the mystical arts, and the author also states repeatedly
something to the effect of "show these words not to the uninitiated".
However, neither give any definition of what an expert or an initiate
might be. The system of rituals also seems extremely simplistic,
compared to, say, the high-complexity of the Golden Dawn system.

On the up side, the book does contain some "real" information, most
notably the fifty names of Marduk as archetypes, and an abridged version
of the Sumerian creation epic, where Marduk kills Tiamat and creates the
earth from her corpse. Also, the symbols and sigils are complex and
interesting to look at, and form the basis of a "gate walking" ritual
that supposedly takes a full year, and is supposed to raise the user's
conciousness to a higher state. This sort of ritual is common to many
magickal texts. The text also bears a suspicious resemblance to _The
History of Babylon_ by Berosus, which is considerably more credible to
historical authorities.

This book was also made available in hardback leatherbound, with silver
inlay on the cover. The archivist believes that the print run was about
600, and it was made available in an advertisement in Omni magazine in
1989.

   1a) The Necronomicon Spellbook, by Simon
       ISBN 0-939708-11-6
       Copyright 1987 by Magickal Childe Publications
       170 pages, paperback
       $6.95 in the U.S.

       The Gates of the Necronomicon, by Simon
       ISBN 0-939708-08-6
       $14.95 in the U.S

These two books, essentially repeating the material in the "original"
Simon Necronomicon, are Simon's efforts towards fleshing out the vague
material he originally put forth in 1977. 

The Necronomicon Spellbook, originally entitled _Necronomicon Report_,
is a "simplified" guide towards usage of the fifty names of Marduk in
divination and prayer, and contains some interesting insight into the
meanings of the names. It is interesting to note that many systems of
Magick seem to have some diety upon whom many names are conferred;
Egyptian and Greek pantheons come to mind.

The Gates of the Necronomicon is a purported "introduction to the
system," which supposedly takes one step by step through each part of
the gate walking initiation which is described in the Necronomicon.
Supposedly, the ambiguities and unavailability of certain materials
which are needed in the rituals are explained away by Simon. The book is
currently unavailable from Magickal Childe; although they claim to have
published a first edition in June of 1992, it was never made available. 
It will be released for the first time in December of 1993, as a sort of 
"sequel" to the first.

    [(4) Short of travelling directly to New York and visiting the Magickal 
     Childe shop, you will find these two very difficult to obtain (and if 
     you don't, please do tell us all how you got them).   KKC]

    2) The Necronomicon, by Colin Wilson et al. 
       Edited by George Hay
       Copyright 1978 Neville Spearman, London
       184 pages, illustrated by Stamp and Turner
      
With about 150 pages of introduction and essay, and about 40 pages of
Necronomicon, famed skeptic Colin Wilson gives us the most exhaustive
piece of research on how H.P. Lovecraft must have seen the Necronomicon,
and evidence for and against the existence of such a book. Wilson calls
on the research by Robert Turner and David Langford to form a
Necronomicon that they admit freely was fabricated from the works of
Lovecraft alone, and seemingly without any real historical base.
Notably, Wilson presents a "complete" text on the summoning of
Yog-Sothoth and the passage through the gates, the Ibn Ghazi powder, the
"adjuration" of Cthulhu, and references to Kadath, Leng, and other names
found only in Lovecraft's stories. There is also a poem containing the
famous "not dead which eternal lie" couplet.

Wilson claims to have taken the contents of an obscure volume owned by
John Dee called the Liber Logaeth, which supposedly contains several
tables of enochian-like characters in 49x49 grids. From this, Hay and
Wilson claim to have taken the contents of the book that they published.

It can be said with a fair amount of certainty that the Hay book is a
fake. In addition to various references to the ficitonal Miskatonic
University as if it were real, there are also plates and photographs
which are cunningly faked as if to convince the reader that all the
materiel is genuine. Look closely if you have a copy; what they portray
is not necessarily what has been "translated."

In toto, the book contains:

A table of working
The configuration of planetary and astrological stones to form a circle
Four hand signs
Ye Elder Sign
Ye Sigil of Koth
To Compuund Ye Incense of Zkauba
To Make Ye Powder of Ibn Ghazi
Ye Unction of Khephnes Ye Egyptian
To Fashion the Scimitar of Barzai
Ye Alphabet of Nug-Soth
Ye Voice of Hastur
Concerning Nyarlathotep
Of Leng in Ye Cold Waste
Of Kadath Ye Unknown
To Call Forth Yog-Sothoth
To Conjure of Ye Globes
Ye Adjuration of Great Cthulhu
To Summon Shub-Niggurath Ye Black
The Talisman of Yhe
Ye Formula of Dho-Hna

This book is probably most useful to players of the role playing game
"Call of Cthulhu", as it is most faithful to the works of Lovecraft.

At the moment, the book is not available on American shelves, so far as
the archivist has been able to discern. Every occult shop and speciality
bookstore has either been out of stock for years or participate in some
elaborate conspiracy to keep it out of American hands (most likely the
former, but don't discount the possibility :) To obtain the book, you
need to mail order it for $9.95 from the Abyss, a New England occult
wholesaler whose address I regret I do not have on hand.

The Hay Necronomicon will also have a sequel in December, called "The
R'lyeh Text", which supposedly is a translation of the second half of
the book (the Necronomicon part is only the first half, so claims
Wilson). It will be interesting to see how they will rehash old material
to make it seem new.

    [(5) This information owes a great deal to Ashton from the net,
     who seems to have  no last name, but found and bothered to 
     read the book. Apologies, I haven't yet recorded ISBN number.   KKC]

   3) Al Azif: The Necronomicon, by Abdul Al-Hazred
      Copyright 1973 by Owlswick Press
      196 pages
      Hardback

This is an interesting book, if for purely aesthetic reasons. It
consists of eight pages of simulated Syrian script, repeated over and
over 24 times, in a spiffy hardback cover. No notes, no value, makes a
great conversation piece.

It is interesting to note that Wilson says in his introduction to the
Hay Necronomicon that it was this book which inspired DeCamp to
collaborate on the publication of the Hay Necronomicon. The connection
is unclear, as this book is very very unavailable to the general public. 

-
An entry which once deserved a place among these Necronomicons has been
proven to be a hoax. Apparently a man by the name of Wollheim sent to the
Branford Review (a Massachusetts Newspaper) a fake review of a book
called Necronomicon in 1934, supposedly edited by a W.T. Faraday. 
Interestingly, it was this fake book review which inspired Lovecraft 
to write his own History of the Necronomicon, according to Willis 
Conover. A copy of the history is found at the end of this FAQ.

There are also many other books that bear the same title. Modern artist
H.R. Giger, of _Alien_ fame, has produced two books of horror art title
Necronomicon. There is also a gaming newsletter in the northeast called
Necronomicon. There are also many entries in catalogs, library systems,
and cross-references to books with the title Necronomicon, most of which
are pranks or inside jokes. If anyone does find a significant book
titled Necronomicon not in the above list, please e-mail the archivist.

(3) Who is/was Abdul Al-Hazred? Does he exist?

Two theories:
    1) Lovecraft?

As stated above, Lovecraft created the name as a family joke. His
mother's maiden name was Hazard, and taking a common name "Abdul",
Lovecraft created the Mad Arab with his scanty knowledge of Arabic
nomenclature. Lovecraft had such inside jokes with many of his fictional
authors. Comte D'Erlette, author of the fictional _Cultes de Goules_,
was a derivative of the name of Lovecraft's biggest fan, August
_Derleth_. Robert Blake, the writer who was possessed and destroyed by
Nylarlathothep in "The Haunter of the Dark," was based on his student
Robert Bloch, the author of _Psycho_. 

    2) For Real?

Supposedly, Ibn Khallikan was a wandering Arab who ended up in Damascus
after witnessing horrible magical rituals since leaving his home on the
bank of the Euphrates river sometime in the mid 1200's. He took the name
Abdul Al-Azred, which supposedly but erroneously means Servant of God,
He Who Knows the Forbidden (or something to that effect). After writing
down an incomplete synopsis of everything he learned and saw, he
mysteriously vanished, leaving only a thick, 800 page greek text. It is
interesting to note that Lovecraft cites Khallikan in his fictional
_History of the Necronomicon_ as one of Al-Hazred's biographers.

There is evidence against and for both theories, all of which is too
lengthy to include in this already humongous FAQ. But suffice it to say
that the above two theories are the prevalent ones, with other minor
ones floating around.

   [(6) Jason and Laurie Brandt from the University of Oregon are the 
    main contributors to the extremely abridged text above.     KKC]


(4) Who or what is Cthulhu?

Cthulhu is the main character of Lovecraft's masterpiece, "The Call of
Cthulhu".  Supposedly, in the early days of life on earth, an alien
being came to earth and established rule over whatever sentient life was
inhabiting earth. However, the lives of Cthulhu and his race are
reportedly cyclical, and so at present they are in a hibernation of
sorts.

Cthulhu is chief among these entities. Cthulhoid beings resemble a
humanoid several hundred feet tall, with a head resembling a squid,
claws, and prodigious telepathic capabilities. Supposedly, the cycle is
about to end as the 20th century comes to a close, and Cthulhu has
maintained a cult of humans to help him return and re-establish his
previous rule.

In the Simon Necronomicon, Cthulhu is seen as the great and all-powerful
evil that will invade the world with the rest of his "evil" brethren if
certain gates are left open or carelessly used. Cthulhu is head of the
Ancient Ones, the old gods who were defeated originally by the Elder
Gods, who are supposedly the "good guys". 

An interesting side note: Kutu is the name of a city in the Sumerian
underworld, according to the mythology. Lu is a word in Sumerian which
reads as "man", as evidenced by all the Mesopotamian kings whose names
were LuGalxxxxx, meaning "Great Man of xxxxx". So KutuLu means man of
the underworld. Or so claims Simon, the editor of the Magickal Childe 
rendering of the Necronomicon.

Those interested should read the netnews.alt.horror.cthulhu FAQ for more
information. 


Please see part two.
(C) 1993 by Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick+@CMU.EDU>
Permission is hereby granted to all users of electronic mail to post and
distribute this document in an unaltered and complete state, for
non-profit and educational purposes. One part may not be disseminated
without the other two. For CD-Rom and other commercial rights, please
contact the archivist.


Kendrick Kerwin Chua - kc3u+@andrew.cmu.edu  -or-  kendrick+@CMU.EDU
Dark Lord come forth and claim your world!  Godan Ktones!  Kibashen!
-------------------------------