The mortal stream from dawn of Life in a steady course has run; What men are satisfied to name

their Souls was in the mud and slime begun: Life is a ladder, with the rungs hidden from our human eyes; its foot placed in chaos-gloom, its head set high above the skies: For all that is, has come by either design or by progression natural; Why waste on flesh your hate and fear, why waste on spirit your love and awe? Is not the highest honor theirs who from the worst has fashioned the best; Could not mans predecessors shape the world of matter to suit their will? Yes, the more disagreeable the stuff, the more cunning must be the laborers hand: To shape by craft the uneven earthlxiii into a more refined elegance.

Portico VIII
There are black zones of shadow close to our daily paths, and now and then some evil soul breaks a passage through. When that happens, the man who knows must strike before reckoning the consequences. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep, 1933. How must this sage of life arrange, now that this tale of years is writ, So like the content traveler to go their way; with composure in equilibrium fit? How when the light and glow of life wanes in thickly gathering gloom, shall mortal scoff at sting of Death, shall scorn the victory of the Tomb?lxiv But!faded flower and fallen leaf no more shall deck the parent tree; and man once dropt by Tree of Life what hope of other life has he?

32

amid such reflected shades must we dwell? Pale shadows ourselves to live, to die?lix With expectations, the surface is all we may know. Discard wishful thinking and plumb, Those abyss depths beneath the reflection, bottomless depths; tis a more fitting measure stick to recognize. Will you settle to gazelx at the mirrored firmamentlxi upon the waters surface? A false heaven hiding that which is beneath? Or divelxii to see what truth may be deeper, jeweled treasure of the Kraken; where no man can tell, nor aught earth-mother ever bare, the infinite, cold dark reaches, behind false firmament. Come sit awhile neath arbor rose, growing upon lichgate, to contemplate what dwells within such a depth as these.

Portico VII
After all, the strangest and maddest of myths are often merely symbols or allegories based upon truth... --H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, 1931. What is it that man feigns call his Soul? But a state of things, a sound, a word. Is not my thinking conscious enough for me? In what dwelling-place did the primeval savage beast, keep its Soul? Is not the breath of Life sufficient to work the matter-born machine?

31

Now fiery hot, now icy frost, now drowned by steamy flood, now reeking of decay. While oer all this shone the distant sun in yon firmament, a grim orb of boiling fire: trailed by pale ruined orb of moon, a specter upon the path of night. What would such ancient monstrous minds think of our Good, or Bad? The voracious blood-fed Leviathan, wilder than wildest wolf or bear? These elder of earths masters went their way, to become memory and name; While the frail, upstart balding ape, to Earth laid claim, where colossal beasts once ruled, and whom by fickle blade of Time, may yet rule again.

Necronomicon

An annotated new verse rendition with supplementary materials, regarding that well-known fictitious tome.

Portico VI
In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in dreams, but then something had happened. The great stone city Rlyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu, 1926.

Hope is as false; hope is as true: As image reflected upon water. As mist mingled with the skies; so weaves the thoughts of mortal man, a perceived shroud of mixed Truth and Lies, man is wrapped up in self-made pall veillviii, vanity feed daydream, to death by hope, deceived hope dies. Caught up by hopeful expectations, seeing only what hopes would see,
30

Copyright 2008 By Ambrose Bertram Hunter

Unauthorized copying or redistribution of this work is prohibited.

http://www.lulu.com/ambrosehunter

cum grano salis

Such are all your gods, measure sticks swung by filthy monkeys. Yet older things did come before such artifice design. Primal and serene they moved undimensioned in time. So why should we slave to meter our depth and breadth against a phantasm, and for its nonexistence grace to beg. The primal Cause, the Causing Cause, nameless, perplexing, this suits me well, vague as airy space, dark in its darkness mystical, fleeting as a tolling of the bell. Why would one crave for more? Why make an earthly mask of your own fears into a god? Least you mistake a mask for a true face, or a true face for a mask. And what of your pears long gone, as you and I must also depart. Deaths blade of time is poised over every breath. Death harvests the sheaf. It is we who think to make winnowing of wheat and chafe.

Portico V
What I had thought morbid and shameful and ignominious is in reality awesome and mind-expanding and even glorious-- my previous estimate being merely a phase of mans eternal tendency to hate and fear and shrink from the utterly different. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness, 1930. There is no Good, there is no Bad; these be caprice of mans own thought: What helps him he calls Good, what hinders him he curses Bad. These alter with the place and society, and in course of Time, all has worn both Virtues crown and devil horns. Long before man dwelt upon this earth, life was bitter suffering, prey and Death. Where hideous serpentinelvi beings would tear and rend apart each others corpulencelvii; This innocent fresh Eden was only fit for spawn of frightful monster-brood;
29

Portico IV
Unseen things not of earthor at least not of tridimensional earthrushed foetid and horrible through New Englands glens, and brooded obscenely on the mountain tops. Of this he had long felt certain. Now he seemed to sense the close presence of some terrible part of the intruding horror, and to glimpse a hellish advance in the black dominion of the ancient and once passive nightmare. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror, 1928. You may ask, O sage, by moon what hath though gleaned; toiling long consumed the nights, what experience has thou gained? Let the red dawn surmise what we shall do, When the blue starlight dies and all is throughlv. For all your gods are none but manmade, despotic tyrants oer conscious crafted to rule. Surrogate parents for the adult of infantile thought, who with aging gained rank, and in the gaining lost shepherding shelter of ones pears. And so now calls to the heavens and to throne, as child would look up to childhood guardians. Fie, twas lacking guardians against fear of the shadowy unknown, that such manmade artifice fancies were first raised. To fix Infinite spaces into a measure stick in form of manly god king, and with this ideal ruler to judge and gauge your own worthiness.

This document was adapted from compiled notes originally made in preparation for part of an introductory lecture and book discussion at the local Crimson Tweed Club, T-will grotto.

DISCLAIMER This document is presented for educational purposes. The material used for this document was gathered from various sources. It is thought to be mostly accurate, but it is in no way explicitly guaranteed to be so. Use of this document in rituals, incantations, and other workings is undertaken at the users own risk, there shall be no liability assumed on the part of the author or publisher. The user assumes the entire risk related to their use of this document. Both the author and the publisher are providing this document as is, in no event will the author or the publisher be liable to the user or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this document.
De omnibus dubitandum est.

About the author

Ambrose Bertram Hunter, serves as Steward over a joined lineage of European and Appalachian mysticism, is a scholar of the dark arts, and researcher of all things occult.

28

The masked revelers danced, and sang, and trod on hither hills. But transient as the nights deep tide, now the last doth slip away, yon drearier horizons to haunt. While this Pilgrim lingers still on the dawns-light Carcosa shoreli. With vanity we look on others death as but the shearing of the wheat, yet look to our own as an ending of all the world. Barely we grasp the foot of a mountain of learning, to attain the sight of uncharted vistas, breath the alpine airlii, and witness the harmony of the Spheres; when swift stroke of harvesters blade bids us join the sheaf. Those who strive for praise, strive In Vain, all accomplishments but specks, a grain of wheat or grain of sand. For in hourglass, how many like thou have passed before, just another fallen grainliii. Do not grieve, to moan, to cry; enjoy thy short-lived moment; If we are to dance oer perilous abyss, to phantasmagoric music of the mad godsliv; then why not dance joyful? Happy in that we can at least know there is no fate, but that which we invent.

27

Portico III
He was looking, he had to admit, for a kind of formula or incantation containing the frightful name Yog-Sothoth, and it puzzled him to find discrepancies, duplications, and ambiguities which made the matter of determination far from easy. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror, 1928. Of life what is visible? Only that between birth and tomb. Yet in cringing dread of unseen fates or groveling hope in unknown fortunes, shackled is common life. Fie, fie! Mendes! Rider of the shadowy bush! Vanity of vanities, saith the wise, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? xlv What phantasmagoric yoke. Fool, cease thy foolish capering. What arrogance to think the universe for such should care, to bestow a final reward or punishment on thee. A king arrayed in regal yellowxlvi, may as well hold a banquetxlvii for a grain of sand, or sentence it to dungeon keep. Such a king I would call a mad king, and such gods I would call mad gods. Life is naught but flash of star, falling bright and brief across dark firmament, born from sky on fleeting journey through chill air, and then to be buried in the dust. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: for there is no new thing under the sunxlviii. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the Old Ones abideth ceaselesslyxlix. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arosel.

Dedication

To those Dreaming.

26

For all things partake in cycles, with every eight turnings of the seasonsxxxiii is the flaming Elder Signxxxiv shownxxxv again, Ouroboros is the key to the ninth gate, where the two spheres meet in marriagexxxvi. And so idle thought rules now where terrible wisdom ruled once; but terrible wisdom soon may rule where idle thoughts now reign. Wait patient and potent, for here by labor born shall wisdoms time come againxxxvii.

Portico II
Later in that year I spent weeks - alone beyond the limits of previous or subsequent exploration in the vast limestone cavern systems of western Virginia - black labyrinths so complex that no retracing of my steps could even be considered. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time, 1934. In the deepest grottoxxxviii, beyond fathoming or eyes to seexxxix; there the marvels of the earth are tremendous and strange.

I met a traveller from an antique land It is said that cursed is such ground where slain thoughts of the past are allowed to rise. Concealed in new forms and vile thought governed by no decency.

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Yet tranquilxl is the grave where witches slumber, and tranquilxli is the night where witches are black with charcoalxlii.

Half sunk, a shatterd visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read For the soul of the witch hastens not from the earth of their shallow graves, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws at their spine; till out of this blasphemy, its life rises enflamed anewxliii,

Which yet survive, stampd on these lifeless things,

The hand that mockd them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

and these darkened hunters of the country grow crafty to vex it and swell monstrous in number to plague it. Long catacombs secretly are burrowed, and those that should otherwise crawl in shamexliv, by this may proudly swagger flaunting their evil learning of old ways.

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, --P. B. Shelley, Ozymandias of Egypt, 1818.

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

25

Ouroboros knows the ninth gate. Ouroboros is the ninth gate. Ouroboros is the keyx and guardian of the ninth gate, where solar light crowns his browxi. Past, present, future, all are one in Ouroboros, time, devourer of all thingsxii. He knows where these ancient lords rode through of old, and where they shall ride through again. He knows where they had trod earths field of dreams, and where they tread them still, and why no one can behold them as they treadxiii. In passionate dreams of living or dying, can men sometimes sense them near, but of their semblance no man suspects or thinks. Saving only in the features of those that they have worn in guise of human kin; and of those are many sorts, varying in likeness from truest masquerade to that figure devoid of spectacle or substance. Quakexiv in the cold wildernessxv hath known such ancient travelersxvi, and what man knowsxvii Quake?xviii The chill desertxix and the sunken isles of Ocean hold cyclopean stonesxx whereon their deeds are engravedxxi. But who hath seen the frosted ruinsxxii, or that water buried tower xxiii? Adorned in seaweed and barnaclexxiv, the lord of the abyssxxv there dreams his dreamsxxvi, yet even his melancholy age dimmed eye glimpses them but faintlyxxvii. In such deathly slumber eternal, what dreams may pass with time? Perchance even dreams of deaths own demisexxviii. Fie, fie! Mendes!xxix Rider of the shadowy bush!xxx In conductxxxi taintedxxxii shall ye find them. Like a yoke, their hand grips ye by scruff of neck, still ye fail to see; their habitation is even one with your guarded thoughts.

Table of Contents

About the author ___________________________________________ 5

Dedication_________________________________________________ 7

Table of Contents _____________________________________________ 9

Forward____________________________________________________ 11

Sources used ______________________________________________ 18

The poem called Necronomicon_______________________________ 23

Portico I _________________________________________________ 23

Portico II ________________________________________________ 25

Portico III________________________________________________ 26

Portico IV ________________________________________________ 28

Portico V_________________________________________________ 29

Portico VI ________________________________________________ 30

Portico VII _______________________________________________ 31

Portico VIII ______________________________________________ 32

Portico IX ________________________________________________ 34

THE KASDAH _____________________________________________ 35

I ________________________________________________________ 36

II _______________________________________________________ 39

III ______________________________________________________ 43

IV_______________________________________________________ 51

V _______________________________________________________ 57

VI_______________________________________________________ 62

VII ______________________________________________________ 65

VIII _____________________________________________________ 69

IX_______________________________________________________ 76

Notes on the KASDAH _______________________________________ 84

NOTE I __________________________________________________ 84
24

NOTE II _________________________________________________ 99

CONCLUSION __________________________________________ 110

The poem called Necronomicon

An annotated new verse rendition by Ambrose Bertram Hunter.

THE GATE WITHIN THE GATE______________________________ 113

Moon 1__________________________________________________ 113

Moon 2__________________________________________________ 115

Portico I
I suppose you know all about the fearful myths antedating the coming of man to the earth - the Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu cycles - which are hinted at in the Necronomicon. --H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness, 1930.

Moon 3__________________________________________________ 116

Moon 4__________________________________________________ 118

Moon 5__________________________________________________ 119

Moon 6__________________________________________________ 120 The hour is nigh in Carcosa, by waning moon and starlight, I put down in wordsi what they have taught, so it be known truthfully that man is not the oldest or the last of earths kings. For the ordinary substance of the earthly sphere of life walks not alone in its four elementsii; for the past, present, and future have all held court under a fifthiii that governs the four. Not in the spaces we know, but between, in those ephemeral spots, like the False Dawn that now pales across eastern firmament, between night and day, to leave dark skies where shadows play; it is there, those of the fifth harmoniously move ancient and unseen. But now comes rising dawn to pave horizons thin pathiv with yellowv, and they walk masked and impurevi, atop the high lonely places where the satyrs dancedvii, and the laments sung over the Seasons. While below submerged in misted shadow, the flood of night from valley ebbs, soaked into ground and cavern drain. The breeze is stirred with their murmuring, and the earth echoes with their clamorviii. They uproot their forest of tent poles, folding the city of emerald green cloth away, but who has seen the hand that labors, or such an ephemeral cityix.

Moon 7__________________________________________________ 121

Moon 8__________________________________________________ 122

Moon 9__________________________________________________ 123

THE TABLETS OF ENOCH __________________________________ 125 Forward by Ambrose Bertram Hunter. _______________________ 125

Tablet I _________________________________________________ 125

Tablet II ________________________________________________ 129

Tablet III________________________________________________ 131

Tablet IV ________________________________________________ 134

The Wealth of Enoch ________________________________________ 137

Revelation of the Yellow Sign__________________________________ 145

Revelation of the Yellow Sign _______________________________ 145

End Notes _________________________________________________ 153

10

23

Forward
History is a set of lies agreed upon. --Napoleon Bonaparte.

To trace the modern story of the book now popularly titled Necronomicon, that eldritch work of ancient occult lore that has since become so synonymous with forbidden knowledge, obscene rituals, and madness, we must begin with that writer of strange fiction, Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 March 15, 1937).

Lovecraft was an American author and a self-described avid book collector:

I couldnt live a week without a private library -- indeed, Id part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before Id let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.

--H.P. Lovecraft, letter to Mr. Harris, February 25 to March 1, 1929.

In his writings Lovecraft mixed fantasy, horror and science into single narratives. Creating fantastic tales with a style that also drew upon unusual dream inspired imagery, and the use of exotic sounding words to convey an otherworldly mood.

It was with the love of such exotic sounding words and names that Lovecraft claimed to have coined the Greek title Necronomicon, an invention of necessity, since due to its antiquity, like so many old manuscripts of great age, the anonymous work originally lacked an official attributed author or cover title of its own. As Lovecraft wrote in a letter to Willis Conover:

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 or Necronomicon, for I invented these names myself.

--H.P. Lovecraft, letter to Willis Conover, July 29, 1936.

Past censors generally grouped the work that came to be known as the Necronomicon in with collections of other such minor unnamed openly blasphemous, heretical and or pornographic manuscripts. Such anonymous books with blatant self-damning obscene content did not require any official ruling in order to consign such devilish works, when found, to the flames of the many purges in past and recent literary history.

22

11

in code to chosen pupils and friends, while tactfully skirting around the suppressed openly lurid content of the original (were all mad here.). The unknown edition that inspired Lovecraft to adopt elements of its lore into his works (some have speculated this as yet undetermined edition may have been the exceedingly rare untitled edition known only as the 1500, the name derived from the imprinted year given upon the front plate). Since Burton already penned an embellished lengthy rhyming rendition, so it was chosen rather to render this new presentation in a simplified dry English, the sections have been purposefully shortened keeping only what could be correlated between multiple sources, with no attempt to artificially shoehorn lines into a flowery rhyme, stretch a section, or fill them with eldritch words in the style of Lovecraft. Instead, by studying the correlations between the available sources, this work by way of a reduced plain English, endeavors to approach closer the meaning contained in the original lost foreign verse, as best as understanding and scholarly research could construe from the fragments currently available. However, certain manuscripts differ so widely, that it is difficult to determine the original state of the text with total confidence in all cases. Sadly due to other pressing matters, the work on the first early draft of this investigation is not as comprehensive as would otherwise have been wished, it is hoped these preliminary pages of collected notes will suffice, till a latter opportunity provides more leisure time and perhaps new yet undiscovered leads and clarifications to help complete the work on this project. Pending conclusive results from ongoing research into the applicable copyright and obscenity laws, and also to keep this PDF file small, details from plates and diagrams are only reproduced where absolutely necessary for sake of educational clarity; this limited use is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law.

Figure 1: seal from The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, founded in 1873, it was a successful book burning group located in the United States, dedicated to the suppression of material and the elimination of elements not instep with its prescribed social views, by its actions, it aided legal authorities in rounding up and prosecuting individuals, and the destruction of forbidden materials. The societies founder Anthony Comstock, boasted his actions were directly responsible for the deaths of at least 15 persons, whom by persecution he had ruined and driven to suicide. One notable among these deaths is that of the occultist author Ida C. Craddock (Died October 16, 1902). From the viewpoint of our own modern society, which we like to think is free to artistic expression without primitive taboos, such violent and oppressive behavior may seem shocking, however even today if you are unlucky to get caught in connection with the wrong type of comical cartoon drawings that offends the wrong people, you can still be jailed, your life ruined, or if you are really unlucky, even outright killed over such drawings.

Needless to say, it was common for the Necronomicon to often go by alternate names, and some editions of the book to even have occasionally been purposefully disguised incognito with false misleading names and attributions, a device that Lovcraft used in the story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward:

Mr. Merritt turned pale when, upon taking down a fine volume conspicuously labeled as the Qanoon-e-Islam, he found it was in truth the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, of which he had heard such monstrous things whispered some years previously

--H.P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, 1927.

Sadly, the rebirth of the tome into popular fiction generated unexpected public curiosity and notoriety, making any historical edition of the already near extinct, rare hard to find book, all the more so.

The varied older editions held by the more libertine libraries, slipped away one by one, embezzled into the iron clutches of unscrupulous collectors and the
21

12

 De Vermis Mysteriis (the serpents mysteries unbound manuscript). El club Dumas (The Club Dumas, novel by Spanish writer Arturo PrezReverte). The Art of Dreaming (novel by Carlos Castaneda). The Manuscript of necrotic fragments (printed pamphlet, Lovecraft supposedly coined the exotic spelling Pnakotic since the normal spelling did not look alien enough). The City Enoch (Copied decoded fragments of a coded work purported to be by John Dee). The wasp in a wig (also known as the wasp in yellow purported to be the censored story fragment by Lewis Carroll). Alices Adventures in Wonderland (novella by Lewis Carroll). Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (novella by Lewis Carroll). Sources that I specifically would like to have consulted, but have been unable to locate or obtain access to. the Delomelanicon (the early Greek copy of an older Hebrew edition, no recorded sight of an original Greek copy has been reported since the rumored 1662 confiscation and burning of William Potters collection of forbidden documents in colonial New Haven, Lovecraft changed this date and place in his fictionalized history to that of the better known colonial witch trials of 1692 Salem). the Azif (the Arabic copy from the Greek Delomelanicon edition, translated work tentatively attributed by some scholars to Omar Khayam). The edition/editions used by Sir Richard Burton, and later believed to have been burnt by his widow. The multiple editions that are rumored to have been in the Vaticans secret archive. The Cyrillic version of supposedly Russian Oprichnik origin, rumored to have had influenced some of the research Wilhelm Reich conducted with Orgone energies, and to have been hidden or purposefully destroyed before it could fall into the hands of government agents. The unknown edition that inspired Lewis Carroll to include in his two most famous works, many encoded references to metaphysical practices connected or directly derived from the mad lunacy poem (the Necronomicon), supposedly this was done so he could convey the lore
20

modern religiously motivated morality police censors, the available collections have long since been gone over with fine tooth combs.

For Lovecraft, what had initially started as an in-joke, a seemingly harmless allusion only decipherable to those who had closely studied the work and could spot the parallels in the quotations, had unexpectedly drawn a bit too much notice, perhaps wishing to avoid scandalous public association with such forbidden and luridly shocking books, Lovecraft would disavow knowledge, and passed the whole affair off as nothing more then a mythical fancy which came to him in a dream.

Lovecraft was known to lament over his own lack of originality, for example the following correspondence:

Even when I break away, it is generally only through imitating something else! There are my Poe pieces & my Dunsany pieces -- but alas -- where are my Lovecraft pieces?

--H.P. Lovecraft, letter to Elizabeth Toldridge, March 8, 1929. That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange ons death may die.

Lovecrafts three adapted quotations from the Necronomicon, are as follows:

--H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City, 1921.

(Later versions of this same quote always appear as even death may die.)

The nethermost caverns are not for the fathoming of eyes that see; for their marvels are strange and terrific. Cursed the ground where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earths pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.

--H.P. Lovecraft, The Festival, 1925.

Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earths masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old 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

13

 Pale lunacy- the book of moons (printed pamphlet). the Nine gates through the valley of shadows (printed pamphlet). the novena requiem for ways long ceased (printed pamphlet, lavishly illustrated with pornographic erotic woodcuts of a quality that exceeds some of the other editions). The Gate within the gate (printed pamphlet, literal translation into English from an undetermined German edition). Knocking on cyclopean doors (printed pamphlet, poorly translated). Au Clair de Lune (by light of the moon, printed pamphlet, Latin translation from unknown edition, with commentary in French, accompanied with photographic plates that some speculate to have originally been produced by Lewis Carroll). Lesser Fragmentary and or unconfirmed sources of additional clues, info, and rumor that were of exceptional value in this study. Listed in no specific order. The Nameless City (short story by Howard Phillips Lovecraft). The Festival (short story by Howard Phillips Lovecraft). Fungi from Yuggoth (sonnet sequence by Howard Phillips Lovecraft). The Book (unfinished story fragment by Howard Phillips Lovecraft). The Dunwich Horror (short story by Howard Phillips Lovecraft).

where They had trod earths 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 mans 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 engraved, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. I! 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.

--H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror, 1928.

Lovecraft created a fictionalized history for the Necronomicon to fit his own fictional stories, the device of attributing authorship of the original to a fake mad Arab, was undoubtedly intended as a tip of the hat to the work done by Sir Richard Francis Burton.

Lovecrafts fictionalized history of the Necronomicon is as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

History of the Necronomicon

by H. P. Lovecraft

The infamous Potter fragments (Copies of coded journal entries purportedly written by Helen Beatrix Potter, the originals were supposedly expunged with other Lost or edited entries, the claim is totally unsubstantiated, but I personally find little reason to doubt it based on the content, and her known fondness for sheep). The Great God Pan (novella by Arthur Machen). The King In Yellow (novel by Robert W. Chambers). The Lychgate fragments (incomplete incunabulum). Liber Chronicarum (incunabulum, Book of Chronicles better known as The Nuremberg Chronicle). The Yellow Wallpaper (short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman). Deciphering the mystery of the Nod stones (a version of the Tablets of Enoch with additional commentary, printed pamphlet). Le citt invisibili (Invisible cities novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino).
19

Written 1927. Published 1938.

Original title Al Azif -- azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) supposd to be the howling of daemons.

Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sana, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of

14

published and widely circulated, concealed under the invented title of The Kasida Of Haji Abdu El-Yetzdi. After his death, to protect the reputation of her late husband, Burtons widow Isabel burnt many of his papers, including extensive journals and even a new unpublished translation of The Perfumed Garden that was to be called The Scented Garden. Burtons copies and notes on the Necronomicon are believed to have perished in this rash burning, a sad fate that makes it hard to determine with precision exactly which edition or editions he had used as inspiration for his own new flowing rendition of the verse, though some suspect a possible rare early Greek edition, or with his travels and connections, an Arabic copy as he claimed, would not be unreasonable to consider. Many occultists still regard his reimaging of the original poem portion, into an embellished flowing English verse, as the definitive modern English edition of the Necronomicon-incognito.

Arabia -- the Roba el Khaliyeh or Empty Space of the ancients -- and Dahna or Crimson desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif) was written, and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

Sources used
The main sources consulted during the compiling of this presentation are as follows. Full manuscript editions, Listed in no specific order. the Noctiluca (incunabulum, name derived from verse in the final 9th section, ab luce noctiluca, veni, venias tenebrae). the Liber nocte tenebrae; ab luce noctiluca (the book of nights shadow from light of shining moon a more recent and in some ways inferior Latin work, it draws heavily on the work of the above incunabulum Noctiluca). the Necronomicon (Vetus Latina edition, untitled volume of several occult works bound into one tome, called the Necronomicon as it is the opening poem of this thick collection). the Liber IX Mortis (incunabulum, book 9 of Death, from which the corrupted name Necronomicon Liber Ex Mortis most likely was derived. Notable in this edition is the boarder decoration around the illustration for the compass alter chamber, which is comparable to the descriptions of the yellow wallpaper and attic room found in the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman). the Alte Knige der neun Tren. (old kings of the nine doors, printed pamphlet, appears to be a direct literal translation into German, though from what language or edition it fails to cite, a problem common among the cult published pamphlets). De viis inferni (The Pathways of Shades incunabulum, name derived from the verse de viis inferni, qui portas sereas confregisti) the Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi (embellished English translation).
18

In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable tho surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon. For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin translation later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice -- once in the fifteenth century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) and once in the seventeenth (prob. Spanish) -- both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time and place by internal typographical evidence only. The work both Latin and Greek was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation, which called attention to it. The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius time, as indicated by his prefatory note; and no sight of the Greek copy -which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550 -- has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem mans library in 1692. An English translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from the original manuscript. Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key, while another (17th cent.) is in the Bibliothque Nationale at Paris. A seventeenth-century edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, and in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the library of the University of Buenos Ayres. Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a fifteenth-century one is persistently rumoured to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumour credits the preservation of a sixteenth-century Greek text in the Salem family of

15

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------THE MASK CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask. STRANGER: Indeed? CASSILDA: Indeed its time. We all have laid aside disguise but you. STRANGER: I wear no mask. CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask! The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Let the red dawn surmise What we shall do, When this blue starlight dies And all is through. Verse at the beginning of the story The Yellow Sign. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R. U. Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926. The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organised ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R. W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his early novel The King in Yellow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From this we may deduce that Lovecraft clearly recognized a similarity between parts of R. W. Chambers book The King in Yellow and the work that came to be known today as the Necronomicon.

A few notable quotes from R. W. Chambers novel The King in Yellow (published in 1895) are as follows.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Along the shore the cloud waves break,

The twin suns sink beneath the lake,

The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

It is the work done by Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (March 19, 1821 -October 20, 1890) that we have to thank for preserving and disseminating in modern literature, a full, albeit disguised modern rendition of the Necronomicon, from what would have otherwise been relegated to the dustbin of historical obscurity. His life defies a simple description. As a linguist and avid explorer, Burton was also both a brilliant scholar and a rogue of a swordsman. He delighted in shocking the prudish Victorian morals of his contemporaries, his explicit translations of the Arabian Nights and various Indian and Persian erotic literature scandalized society.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.

What more prudish contemporaries would have shunned and condemned, Burton viewed with a more open mind and zeal, this led him to delve into the lurid cults and exotic religious groups of the day, for example (described in his book The City of the Saints 1861) he visited Brigham Young and examined polygamy among the Mormons (the religious sexual rite of polygamy between consenting adults, even today is still viewed as a sinful sex crime in most western cultures, and is banned, outlawed, and heavily persecuted). In 1880, forty-four years before Lovcraft coined its modern fictional name, Burtons own adapted embellished translation of the Necronomicon was
17

Cassildas Song in The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.

16