Necronomicon

**The *Necronomicon*** is an occult book written by Abdul Alhazred at some point after the year 710. According to legend, the book is a distillation of everything Alhazred had learned from Elder Beings during the 10 years he spent in the Empty Quarter (Rub’ al Khali) living in an underground city.

## Origin

Alhazred committed the Elder Beings' teachings to paper after 710 when he was in Damascus. The reaction to this is a point of debate in academic circles. One theory is that such dissemination of the occult knowledge was unwelcomed by the Elder Beings and in retaliation, they summoned an invisible monster known as the Harlequin which attacked and killed Alhazred outside in the streets of Damascus in 738. An alternative theory is that the *Necronomicon* was actually a series of occult rituals with the ultimate goal of summoning Azathoth from the Dreamlands; when Alhazred realised the book's true purpose he rejected such a plan and, for *this* reason, he was assassinated in 738.

## Transported to the British Isles

After the death of Alhazred, the *Necronomicon* went missing and no definitive mention of it is recorded for some centuries. However, there is circumstantial evidence that, around the 1100s, the book had made its way out of the Middle East, through Europe and into the British Isles. In the 12th century, records make mention of the Wild Man of Orford and the Green Children of Woolpit. Both Dr. Eleanor Peck and Albert Wilmarth explain that, if one were inclined, they could see these occurrences as evidence of the use (or misuse) of the *Necronomicon* in the area. However, these would be nothing compared to the consequences of further use that would occur in the following decades. The town of Dunwich would pay the price for being the entry point of the *Necronomicon* into the British Isles. According to Parker, the loss of half of the town of Dunwich into the sea was a direct result of misguided attempts to conduct rituals contained within the book's pages. Victoria Ness developed this theory when she suggested that the witch coven responsible for the book's use could very well have been based in a church that became the base of operations for the Church of Starry Wisdom many centuries later.

## Translation

Perhaps scared into leaving the rituals alone after having wiped out half of Dunwich, the Suffolk coven of witches appear to have held on to the *Necronomicon* but not used it. As a result, the book again went missing until occultist and advisor to Elizabeth I, John Dee, tracked it down in the 1580s and convinced the witch coven to give it to him. He soon undertook to translate the *Necronomicon* into English with the help of his associates, Edward Kelley and Quentin Fisher. This translation appears to have served Dee well, as he apparently used rituals within the *Necronomicon* to move the approaching Spanish Armada in an effort to give England a further strategic advantage. With his growing understanding of Alhazred's tome, Dee returned to East Anglia and grew a network of coven's, geographically located in such a way as to take advantage of ley lines that would help to amplify the power of any rituals conducted. However, these efforts were reversed upon James I's ascent to the throne. Around this time, a cunning man named Mr. Ely is suspected of carrying excerpts, if not a complete copy, of the *Necronomicon* as he travelled over to North America on the Mayflower in 1620.

## Current Ownership

The search for the *Necronomicon* has been the obsession of a number of people in recent years including notable occultists like Aleister Crowley. Upon Joseph Curwen's death in 1980, Barbara Sayers spent the next decade of her life travelling across America, Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East all in an effort to locate the *Necronomicon*. Charles Dexter Ward, inspired by Sayers, sought out portions of the text he could find online. The book was of interest to him as he pursued his interests in necromancy because some of the rituals within the pages detailed methods of raising the dead from essential salts. Amelia Fenner's obsession with the book spread to many of her Suffolk Coven followers, and went as far as to spur on Tania Radcliffe to follow her theory that the book came into England via Dunwich in Suffolk. Radcliffe never found the book but Kennedy Fisher's later investigations with Victoria Ness proved that Radcliffe's beliefs were more or less accurate. In 2023, Fisher and Ness uncovered the hidden Church of Starry Wisdom, located in a cosmic breach underneath a house in Dunwich originally owned by Obed Marsh - one of the books kept within the church was indeed the *Necronomicon*, and a version old enough to be the original that came into Dunwich nearly a millennium earlier.

By the 21st century, a number of copies of the book are known to exist after having been translated into at least two languages. Parker claimed to have read the *Necronomicon* and found it quite dull, blaming the writing style of Alhazred. When Fisher and Ness discovered the possible original copy of the book, Ness warned Fisher against even touching it. She explained that the Department had specially trained people to handle such sensitive materials and even then, they were required to wear full metaphysical hazmat suits. Just to cast ones eyes over some of Alhazred's writing risked contracting a memetic virus or brain disease, transmitted not through biology but through linguistics.

## External Links

* *Necronomicon* at The Lovecraft Wiki
* *Necronomicon* at Wikipedia

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 TCoCDW: "Episode 7"
2. ↑ TSoI: "Harlequin"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 TWiD: "Episode 6"
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 TWiD: "Episode 4"
5. ↑ TWiD: "Episode 3"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 TWiD: "Episode 5"
7. ↑ THoTD: "Episode 7"
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 THoTD: "Episode 10"
9. ↑ TSoI: "Saint Germain"
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 TCoCDW: "Episode 5"