Necronomicon, the. Mostly fictional.

Contrary to much popular speculation, the Necronomicon is a fictional concept, created by Howard Philips Lovecraft, an early twentieth century author of "weird fiction". HP Lovecraft said in letters to some of his many correspondents that the name "Necronomicon" came to him in a dream, as did much of the inspiration for his fiction; with a rough knowledge of ancient Greek, he parsed the name thus: necros, "dead"; nomos, "law" or "custom"; eikon, "image"; so, The Image of the Law of the Dead. However, a more informed analysis points to -icon as a generic Greek noun ending, so the name may more accurately be translated as Concerning the Ways of the Dead.

The Necronomicon features prominently in the middle and late period fiction of HP Lovecraft¹, when he wrote the stories that are now collectively referred to as the "Cthulhu Mythos". It is generally depicted as an ancient book bound in human skin, an English translation of the blasphemous tome Al-Azif³ by the Mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred⁴. It consists of an account by al-Hazred of his travelling quests for forbidden knowledge, of his apprenticeship as a necromancer, and of his attempts to summon various of the Great Old Ones⁵. It was widely used with Lovecraft's permission by his contemporaries in their own fiction, has been referenced in several films, not all of them relating to Lovecraft's work, and has even inspired a collection of work by the artist HR Giger.

Lovecraft and his fellow authors and correspondents created several similar ancient books, to which they variously made reference in their stories. These include such dread manuscripts as the "Book of Eibon", created by Clark Ashton Smith; "Mysteries of the Worm", created by 'Psycho' author Robert Bloch; and "Nameless Cults", the fabrication of Conan creator Robert E Howard. A comprehensive list of these fictional books, and several genuine occult books referenced by Lovecraft et al, can be found at The HP Lovecraft Archive.

More recently, due perhaps in part to the deadpan narrative voice adopted by Lovecraft and others in Mythos fiction, the Necronomicon has come to be seen as real by would-be practitioners of black magic. This erroneous belief was fueled in the 1970s by a small group of authors and Lovecraft fans, most prolific among them Colin Wilson, who devised a hoax Necronomicon, published by a small press and purporting to be the reissued transcription of a second century translation of the heretical volume by Simon Magus. Several other homemade hoax Necronomicons have since been circulated, particularly in America.

Most likely quote: "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die⁷."

Least likely quote: "Any resemblance to real events or to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."