Nobody wants to tackle my argument for The Real Necronomicon?: By the blind idiot god Azathoth, Lord of All Things! Holy crap! For fans of Lovecraftian fiction and horror—there really was a Necronomicon! And copies really were floating around 18th and 19th Century New England! Although the name was slightly different, which I will explain in a moment, I am talking about the fictional book of spells, evil lore, and ancient occult knowledge that plays a central role in numerous H.P. Lovecraft weird fiction stories from the 1920s—and it was later used in the plots of a number of horror movies including the Evil Dead series in the 1980s and 90s. In Lovecraft’s writings the book contains all manner of evil and was an ancient tome written prior to the medieval period by “the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred”—ridiculous, I know. But, to my amazement I came across a reference to a similar book while researching someone who lived in late 18th century Concord and Canterbury, N.H. The source I looked at had a reference to a French and Indian War soldier from Concord having had a dream while in the army about being captured by Indians. He claims to have then looked up what the dream meant in something the writer recording the story, a Congregational minister, called “the dream book.” Note that he italicized it as if it were a title and as if people reading his account would know to what he was referring. Instantly, I went to sleuthing to find what this “dream book” could possibly have been. It appears it was a copy of a bizarre compendium of medieval Islamic dream interpretations overlaid and interleafed with Byzantine Christian writings on various prophecies and the apocalypse. Some later medieval versions were called the Oneirocriticon, or sometimes simply “the Dream Book”. It was attributed to “Achmet ibn Sereim”—probably fictional. Apparently some out-there British religious writers put out a version of the book in the 1630s and promoted it as a tool for predicting the coming of the apocalypse. Versions were floating around in England that various people mention reading as late as 1796. But the thought that such a book, undoubtedly seen as heretical at the time, was in circulation in 1750s New Hampshire, not to mention the fact that it was toted all the way to the frontier in a soldier’s knapsack was shocking to me! As was the fact that it was equally well-known to a later 19th Congregational clergyman. So, Lovecraft created a “fictional” book called the Necronomicon by Abdul Alhazred, in circulation in 19th New England, when there was in fact an actual book in circulation at the same time, of a somewhat similar arcane and supernatural nature, called the Oneirocriticon by “Achmet ibn Sereim.” I have read a lot of scholarship on Lovecraft’s influences and none mention the Oneirocriticon as an influence. But this has to be what the Necronomicon was based on. There are far too many similarities in the sound of the title and supposed author’s names for it not to be. And believe it or not, you can buy a modern translation of the Oneirocriticon on Amazon: amazon/The-Oneirocriticon-Achmet-Medieval-Interpretation/dp/0896722627
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 21:17:04 +0000
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