If you are familiar with the work of HP Lovecraft, you might have come across a book named “the Necronomicon” which is also referred to as “the Book of the Dead”. Even though Lovecraft claim the book only to be a fiction, some believes the book is real, and Lovecraft covers up its existence claiming it to be fictional. He also once mentioned the name Necronomicon doesn’t have a specific meaning and claims that the title came to him in a dream. He first mention about this book, in the short story "The Hound", written in 1922.
Later, he translated the word using Greek language and deduced the meaning as, "an image of the law of the dead". He broke the word as “nekros”, “nomos”, and “eikon” and aligned them with their Greek meanings, "dead", "law", and "image". After Lovecraft, other authors also mentioned the Necronomicon in their writings and some have even interpreted the title 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". Even though the translations of the title seems to be divergent from one another, they all have maintained the dark and unholy vibe of it. And also, all the translations has agreed to the fact, that the book has something to do with the dead.
Lovecraft had many fans reaching out to him, asking if the book is real, but he continued to maintain his claim that the book was purely imaginary. He wrote a book called the “History of the Necronomicon” since the Necronomicon became enormously popular. But History of the Necronomicon was published after his death.
According to the History of the Necronomicon, the book was originally called “Al Azif”, which was said by Lovecraft as an Arabic word for "a nocturnal sound made by howling of demons". Some authors interpreted this further, saying the sound is made by Beelzebub, who is the "Lord of the Flies". Since the word is Arabic, some interpret it to be the “eerie sound of the jinn in the wilderness". The Necronomicon is said to be written by “Alhazred” who is said to have been a "half-crazed Arab". Alhazred has worshipped the “Yog-Sothoth” and “Cthulhu” who are deities also found in Lovecraft’s work. He was a poet in the court of a minor nobleman in the city of Sanaá in Yemen. For reasons unknown, he has left the city and wondered in the desert for years. During this period, he has visited the ruins of Babylon, the "subterranean secrets" of Memphis, the Empty Quarter of Arabia and much more places where knowledge was hidden. He has used meditation, to reveal and understand these buried knowledge. Alhazred had a clear thirst for knowledge and soon realized that there were some layers that even meditation couldn’t penetrate.
So he inhaled various fumes, which of course made of dark magic. When Alhazred breathed these fumes, his mind broke and took an evil turn. But his mind was powerful enough to understand and endure the evil knowledge he got filled with. In his last years, he lived in Damascus, where he wrote Al Azif, with the dark knowledge he acquired over the years, before his sudden and mysterious death in 738.
The original book which was written by Alhazred, was said to be written in strange symbols. One needs to attain a certain degree of mental power to at least read these symbols. Some even add up to this story, that Alhazred bounded his soul to the book, since his body was never found. For those who are ready to read the symbols, the book itself will appear before them. Even though they qualify enough for the book to appear before them, that doesn’t mean they will be spared from the dark and dangerous energy the book is bounded with. The reader should first strengthen his mind, to an extreme level as Alhazred did through meditation. If not, the book will drive the reader insane, or carry them to a darker dimension where they’ll suffer for eternity. So over the years only a very few has managed to read the book. One such person is the fictional philosopher “Theodorus Philetas” who lived in Constantinople.
In 950, he translated the book into Greek and gave the title “Necronomicon”. This version circulated for many years and some even tried out the magic it contained. This freed dark forces and brought demonic creatures into the world. Consequently, in 1050, the Patriarch of Constantinople, banned the book and burned every existing copy of it.
Thereafter, people spoke about the book in secret. They even typed copies from what was remaining, and mistyped the title, to hide it from plain sight. But the authenticity of these copies is often questionable. For many years, readers managed to maintain the secrecy of the book and after many years, it even got translated to Latin by Olaus Wormius. Both the Latin and Greek text and everything related to any aspect of the book, were banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232. But that didn’t stop the book from being published in many countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany and more. An English magician “John Dee” translated the book into English but Lovecraft wrote that this version was never printed and only fragments of the translation survive.
The book is said to contain darkest secrets that exist in the universe. It is even said to contain a method, to transfer once mind into another. Not only that, the book contains spell not only to summon the dead, but also deities and to bind them as slaves. So it is understandable why many looked and tried to read the book. According to Lovecraft's History of the Necronomicon, copies of the original Necronomicon were held by only five institutions worldwide. They are “The British Museum”, “The Bibliothèque nationale de” France, Widener Library of Harvard University in Cambridge in Massachusetts, The University of Buenos Aires and The library of the fictional Miskatonic University in Massachusetts. He also claims the Miskatonic University holds both the Greek and Latin translations of the book. Some even claim that the secret Vatican Library has the original copy. The book is sealed in a way that no man can gain access to it. Even at present, many argue the book to be real and that it is just as evil as Lovecraft claim it to be, while others debate that the book is indeed fictional as the author himself states.
What do you guys think? Do you think the book really exist or it’s just a made up story by Lovecraft. Even it is so, the book has managed to stir up people for years to a point even Lovecraft didn’t anticipate. The book’s said ability, to appear before the chosen people, is one of the facts that fascinates about it. If the book is real, then there is a chance it will appear before you. But be cautious, since the appearance doesn’t mean you qualify enough to read it. It just means that you passed the first phase of the test.
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