The long lost sorcerer's handbook, compiled in 800 A.D. by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazzred lives on in the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft...

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Ad for a mail order copy of the Necronomicon book, the most incredible book of all time
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[–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Multiple people wrote a "necronomicon" the most famous one(Which might be this one, it looks similar), is Simon's Necronomicon. It got the most traction as a tool for chaos magic despite being panned(like every other necronomicon) as being a fraud.

So you might have a different necronomicon from a different author.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    despite being panned(like every other necronomicon) as being a fraud

    is there any indication that it was ever a real book, even apocryphally? I thought it was wholly invented by Lovecraft, did he get it from somewhere else? and if not, what does it mean to be a "fraud" of an entirely fictional book?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    I thought it was wholly invented by Lovecraft

    Yeah I think that's right. Here's a wikipedia entry. Lovecraft invented it and developed a fictional history for it, but he never wrote it as a book. It was a fictional book that made appearances in the mythos of his actual books.

    I've read a bunch of Lovecraft, and enjoyed most of it. IMO he was shit at character development, but fantastic at creating a mythos and foreboding atmosphere of evil lurking just under the surface.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Yeah fraud is the wrong word for this as there is no original book. At least Simon's was written by a guy who did practice ritual magic and was somewhat recognized in the NY occult scene. I don't know about the others so they may be more obvious cash grabs.

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