THE PRESENT MANUSCRIPT
was delivered into the hands of the Editor by a priest who had managed to get ordained through uncanonical methods which have been entertainingly described in the several books and articles on the ecclesiastic phenomenon, the "wandering bishops". Just such an "unorthodox" prelate was Fr. Montague Summers, who wrote numerous books on demonology, witchcraft, and the like. Suffice it to say, we were rather doubtful as to the authenticity of the work before us. In the first place, it was in Greek and for quite awhile it was difficult to ascertain what it might actually be, save for the title NECRONOMICON and the many weird drawings. In the second place, after translation, we found several internal inconsistencies and some evidence that would suggest we did not possess the entire Work. There may still be some missing or the irregular monastic might have withheld certain of the chapters. As the chapters are not numbered, it is too difficult to day.
A great deal of misfortune accompanied the publication of this book. First, we went through more than one translator. The last finally absconded with his preface, describing his work in the some detail. This, we will have to do from memory in the following pages. At one point, an unscrupulous publisher from the West Coast took a copy of the initial preface and some of the miscellaneous pages in translation (including some dummies, which we were in the habit of giving potential publishers for our protection) and went off, and has not been heard from again.
At a crucial stage in the preparation of the manuscript, the Editor was stricken with a collapsed lung and had to undergo emergency surgery to save his life.
But, let us proceed with a description of the contents of the NECRONOMICON:
Within these pages a series of myths and rituals are presented that have survive the darkest days of magick and occultism. The exorcisms and bindings of the famous Maqlu text are here presented for the first time in English, although not completely: for the originals in their entirety were evidently not known to the author of the NECRONOMICON, nor are they to present scholarship; the various tablets upon which they were written being cracked and effaced in many places, rendering translation impossible. The MAGAN text, which comprises the Creation Epic of the Sumerians (with much later glosses) and the account of INANNA's "descent into the Underworld", along with more extraneous matter, is presented. The unique "Book of the Entrance" has no counterpart in occult literature, and the drawings of magickal seals and symbols are wholly new to anything that has yet appeared on the contemporary occult scene - although bearing some resemblances to various diagrams found in the ancient Arabic texts of the last millennium. Although some of the characters found in these pages can be traced to Mandaic and Demotic sources, and are evidently of a much later date than the Rites of Sumer, the overall appearance of the seals is quite unusual, almost surreal.
The Book begins with an introduction by the alleged author, the Mad Arab (the name that Lovecraft made famous, 'Abdul Alhazred' does not appear in our copy of the Ms.), and ends with a sort of epilogue by the same Arab. We have called the first part "The Testimony of the Mad Arab" and the latter "The Testimony of the Mad Arab, the Second Part." The Second Part if the most chilling. The author has, by this stage in the writing of his opus, become fearful for his soul and begins to repeat himself in the text, saying things he has already said in previous chapters as though having forgotten he had said them, or perhaps to stress their importance. The Second Testimony is riddled through with non sequiturs and bits of incantation.
He does not finish the Book.
It trails off where he would have signed it, presumably, in the Arab manner, but giving his lineage. Instead, it ends before he can name himself or even one relation. We can only imagine with horror what fate befell this noble Sage.
Another problem that confronts the Editor is the suspected frequency of the copyist's glosses; that is, there do seem to be occasionally bits of sentence or fragments of literature that would seem to be inconsistent with the period in which the text was written. However, no final word can be said on this matter. The difficulty arises in the age-old question of "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". For instance, in the MAGAN text, the final verses read though from the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster:
"Stoop not down, therefore, into the darkly shining world," which might have been of Greek origin and not Zoroastrian. It is a question for scholars.
The etymology of certain words is a game that has fascinated both the Editor and perhaps a score or more of Sumerian researches of the past. The Sumerian origin of many of the words and place-names we use today provides us with an insight into our own origins. For instance, the Sumerian word for the temple is BAR, from which we get our word "barrier", or so it is said by Waddell. This makes sense in the context with the erecting and maintaining of barriers against the hostile forces Outside.
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