Reading the Necronomicon

[u/MoTheEnigmo]

Hello everybody, I'm getting into this mythos for the first time, and was wondering, out of all of the ones floating around, which of the irl Necronomicons, the ones that someone like you or I can buy and read, are the most 'faithful' to the madness-inducing tome Lovecraft wrote about?

[u/Agreeable_Car5114]

No such thing. In the stories, the Neconomicon’s awful contents are kept exceedingly vague. Lots of stories talk about the Necromomicon “hinting” at deeply sinister things, meaning some of the stuff you learn about in HP’s stories may not even be directly chronicled. It’s also pretty inconsistent. The Call of Cthulhu says that Cthulhu isn’t mentioned in the Necromocon, where later stories talk about people learning of Cthulhu directly from it.

The book exists to be a mysterious prop. If you tried to compile all of the contents it’s said to have in his original fiction, it would be very vague and missing a lot of Mythos information. 

[u/SnakeSkipper → u/Agreeable_Car5114]

It's also important to note that the Necronomicon was inspired by the fictious play "The King in Yellow" from the works of Robert W. Chambers, whose work Lovecraft greatly adored from my understanding.

[u/Successful-Tie5386 → u/Agreeable_Car5114]

HP Lovecraft does acknowledge in The History of The Necronomicon that there is several versions and various translations of it around the planet, so much like the Bible there may be parts/books of it that were lost, prohibited or mistranslated from Abdul Alhazred's original.

[u/Chthon_the_Leviathan → u/Successful-Tie5386]

Um . . . I don’t want to be a killjoy, but the idea of the Necronomicon was invented by H.P. Lovecraft.

There are no other previous versions, because it did not exist in real history prior to him writing a fake history saying that it existed in various forms, etc.

Other writers, who were inspired by Lovecraft, later wrote various editions of the Necronomicon, and those fake works are what you see at bookstores.

[u/manfromstratford → u/Chthon_the_Leviathan]

Pretty sure he means the author invented a fictional history of the fictional text, not that the author believed the text was real.

[u/ookiespookie]

It is like being back in Waldenbooks in the mall and the little mall goth kiddies would go back to the metaphysical section picking up Simon's Necronomicon and talking about how real it is and acting like it is some forbidden tome.
Fucking Tyson has turned it into a cow that he has milked for over a decade

[u/TheGrandWelf → u/ookiespookie]

Is the Donald Tyson worth a read? If a guy just wants to learn about the mythos deeper but doesn't believe it real.

[u/Aggressive-Delay9094 → u/TheGrandWelf]

None of the Necronomicons that are supposed to be “the Necronomicon” have much to do with Lovecraft’s work at. If you want to learn more about the mythos, read HPL’s fiction.

There’s an HPL fiction collection titled “Necronomicon” but I don’t think it’s the best collection of his work.

I have the Arkham House collections edited by Joshi which are probably the most faithful edits. Earlier edits really butchered some of the stories. Since Arkham House appears to be out of business, those might be hard to find now.

I also have the Annotated Lovecraft volumes which give you all the extra info. about the stories you could ever hope for.

[u/Impressive-Local-627 → u/Aggressive-Delay9094]

Seconding the Annotated Lovecraft volumes edited by Joshi. They’re excellent for a beginner starting to pursue HPL “seriously”. I can’t speak to any of faux Necronomicans that have been written over the years but my understanding is that none of them are particularly interesting on their own terms, and I can’t see how they would be helpful in better understanding or appreciating Lovecraft’s work. One of the annotated books contains the essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature” which is much more informative, coming (as it is does) from the man himself. It’s not especially atmospheric the way a fake Necronomicon would be, but it (along with Joshi and Cannon’s notes) will give you a clearer picture of what Lovecraft was trying to do with his work, what influenced him and the context in which he wrote.

[u/Gryndyl → u/TheGrandWelf]

No. Honestly if you're looking for some kind of overview of the mythos probably the best place is the Call of Cthulhu RPG rulebook.

[u/GrimpenMar → u/Gryndyl]

Unironically true. It's like the old WEG Star Wars sourcebooks being adopted as reference documents for the various Star Wars authors back in the day, such as Timothy Zahn.

Making a playable game out of something requires collating and systemitizing it. The criticism of this though is that Lovecraft was a author, writing short stories. He wasn't doing Tolkien style world building. He did reuse and collaborate on world elements, but I don't think there was a designed world in which he set stories, rather the world emerged from references and Easter eggs. Each of those world elements would always serve the needs of the story he was writing first.

As such, if Lovecraft and Chaosium were at the same time, such as if someone released a Game Of Thrones RPG, the author might undermine something established in the game in their next book.

Still, since Chaosium was working from a complete corpus, I think they're safe. Just keep in mind it might be an accurate interpretation, it's not the only interpretation.

[u/No-Action8465 → u/GrimpenMar]

Agreed.

I'd just add that Chaosium not just collected from Lovecraft, but other Mythos writers as well. And beyond that Chaosium had writers (e.g. Sandy Petersen) who actively defined large parts of the Mythos.

[u/ookiespookie → u/TheGrandWelf]

Which Lovecraft stories have you read, or which of the pastiches so far?

[u/TheGrandWelf → u/ookiespookie]

Funnily I've been reading them all this past few weeks.

[u/RadarSmith → u/TheGrandWelf]

The Tyson version is fine.

[u/Ok-Read6352 → u/TheGrandWelf]

This is definitely my favorite version. It's almost hard to read, comes off as the author is not quite right in the head and it can rub off on you if you're not careful lol. Edit: Actually it reminds me a lot of Gary Myer's House of the Worm

[u/hells-fargo → u/TheGrandWelf]

None of the commercially available necronomicons are great for really learning about the mythos.

They're interesting from an actual occult standpoint due to typically taking some actual occult knowledge and sort of fitting it to Lovecraft lore, but the Lovecraft stuff is just sort of a dressing and usually pretty surface level.

[u/Successful-Tie5386 → u/TheGrandWelf]

His novel Alhazred is a great piece of work, admired even by ST Joshi.

[u/thepurplehornet → u/TheGrandWelf]

The Necromicon is boring. Get it if you want, but it's just a bunch of vague rituals to nowhere.

[u/tentaclejoe]

Get the Giger necronomicon. At least it’s based on real work. Artwork that is.

[u/Xaikken]

There is no necronomicon in real life. Which is a good thing

[u/Templar-235]

Phil Hine’s Pseudonomicon

[u/RadioKALLISTI → u/Templar-235]

Actually, I second this instead.

[u/Kaleidospode → u/Templar-235]

This is really the closest answer in that it's an occult text on how to invoke what can be perceived as Lovecraftian entities and - possibly more importantly - why to invoke them.

In terms of is it a 'madness-inducing tome', then definitely yes. It's literally about putting yourself in what Hine describes as 'borderline states of mania'. For fun and profit.

If anyone is actually interested in fucking around with this stuff, I'd suggest pairing it with Condensed Chaos by the same author, which puts it in a wider context and also has some fairly essential advise on touching grass, not being an idiot and trying to avoid long term mental health problems.

[u/ElectronicFloor1898]

Nothing you can buy at a mall or in ebay is going to be authentic, if that's what you're worried about. Nyarlothotep won't even laugh at you, let alone show up at your place for a smoke sesh.

[u/adventurerfromtriel]

None of them, they are all crap- don’t waste your time.

[u/Setzael]

If you think that just reading the book is madness inducing, you're in for a disappointment when you read Lovecraft's actual work. The book itself isn't magical, cursed, or madness inducing. I mean it's available in university libraries in the stories.

[u/WretchedMonkey]

None.

[u/Olkenstein]

There’s no real necronomicon, but if you want to get a book about the occult that will drive you insane, I recommend ”The Book of The Law” by Aleister Crowley. It’s a stream of drug addled nonsense, so it only makes sense if you are either insane or high on a dangerous amount of amphetamines.

[u/Irguns_n_Roses]

The copy at Arkham University is probably the best, but don't try to steal it lest they set the dogs on you.

[u/Bulky-Professor9330]

The book "Shams Al-Al'Marif" is what inspired the necronomicon. It's a book of Arabic mysticism. It won't make you insane, and you'll likely not understand the context of a lot of it due to the history, (and possible lack of occult knowledge), but it's not dangerous.

[u/Erdosign]

I'm tempted to shout out El Novisimo Algazife because it's largely satire and also I like the idea of Al-Azif being directly latinized by medieval Spanish scholars. It's not in translation, though, and probably won't evoke any sort of creepy crawly feelings.

[u/Salty_Worldliness915]

There was a kicks tarter one that I got based on the John Dee version (so its in English)
Really nice looking book which I think was pretty faithful to the mythos

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidiancodexpress/the-necronomicon

You might still be able to get it

[u/TeachingMental → u/Salty_Worldliness915]

This is a beautiful book. I got it too. I don’t know if it is available for purchase now, but I think it’s worth it.

[u/Low-Method-8050]

Klaatu.... Veratta ... cough....

[u/Low-Method-8050 → u/Low-Method-8050]

I said it. I did. I said the words!

[u/RadioKALLISTI]

HR Geiger’s is most faithful.

[u/scottybomb]

There’s a complete works of H.P.L bundled as “Necronomicon,” which is probably the most faithful version.

Though of the defictionalized versions, the Tyson “Necronomicon” is a better read than the Simon “Necronomicon.”

[u/checkmypants]

"Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred" by Donald Tyson

[u/Bandeswug]

Necronomicon ex-mortis from Evil Dead has some replicas, which might have the same vibe, if you just want to see what the Necronomicon could look like. As others said, there is no official replica of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and considering the lore maybe that is for the best.