Necronomicon

The Necronomicon is a fictional magical book invented by the writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft in 1924. The name literally translates as ‘the book of the dead’. This was supposedly a volume written in the 8th century by a mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, containing dangerous information on the practice of black magic and the occult. The Pope had the book banned and ritually burned, yet copies spread around the world. All this sounded so plausible that many readers took the existence of the book for real. The hoax was helped by the reference to Queen Elizabeth’s Mage, John Dee, who had supposedly translated the book, but according to Lovecraft he had never published it. The book’s fame spread further and wider and it has become a living part of pop culture (to which we also subscribe).

See also

• Necronomicon I
• Necronomicon II