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The ''Necronomicon'' is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound",〔("The Hound", by H. P. Lovecraft ) Published February 1924 in "Weird Tales". YankeeClassic.com. Retrieved on January 31, 2009〕 written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in Lovecraft's "The Nameless City".〔Though it has been argued that an unnamed copy of the ''Necronomicon'' appears in the 1919 story ''The Statement of Randolph Carter'', S. T. Joshi points out that the text in question was "written in characters whose like (narrator Randolph Carter) never saw elsewhere"--which would not describe any known edition of the ''Necronomicon'', including the one in Arabic, a language Carter was familiar with. S. T. Joshi, "Afterword", ''History of the Necronomicon'', Necronomicon Press.〕 Among other things, the work contains an account of the Old Ones, their history, and the means for summoning them. Other authors such as August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith also cited it in their works; Lovecraft approved, believing such common allusions built up "a background of evil verisimilitude." Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it; pranksters have listed it in rare book catalogues, and a student smuggled a card for it into the Yale University Library's card catalog.〔L. Sprague de Camp, ''Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers'', p100-1 ISBN 0-87054-076-9〕 Capitalizing on the notoriety of the fictional volume, real-life publishers have printed many books entitled ''Necronomicon'' since Lovecraft's death. ==Origin== How Lovecraft conceived the name ''Necronomicon'' is not clear—Lovecraft said that the title came to him in a dream.〔(Quotes Regarding the ''Necronomicon'' from Lovecraft’s Letters )〕 Although some have suggested that Lovecraft was influenced primarily by Robert W. Chambers' collection of short stories ''The King in Yellow'', which centers on a mysterious and disturbing play in book form, Lovecraft is not believed to have read that work until 1927.〔Joshi & Schultz, "Chambers, Robert William", ''An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia'', p. 38〕 Donald R. Burleson has argued that the idea for the book was derived from Nathaniel Hawthorne, though Lovecraft himself noted that "mouldy hidden manuscripts" were one of the stock features of Gothic literature.〔Joshi, "Afterword".〕 Lovecraft wrote〔H. P. Lovecraft - Selected Letters V, 418〕 that the title, as translated from the Greek language, meant "an image of the law of the dead": ''nekros'' - ''νεκρός'' ("dead"), ''nomos'' - ''νόμος'' ("law"), ''eikon'' - ''εικών'' ("image").〔H. G. Liddell, Robert Scott - Abridged Greek-English Lexicon〕 Robert M. Price notes that the title has been variously translated by others as "Book of the names of the dead", "Book of the laws of the dead", "Book of dead names" and "Knower of the laws of the dead". S. T. Joshi states that Lovecraft's own etymology is "almost entirely unsound. The last portion of it is particularly erroneous, since ''-ikon'' is nothing more than a neuter adjectival suffix and has nothing to do with ''eikõn'' (image)." Joshi translates the title as "Book considering (or classifying) the dead."〔Joshi, S.T. ''The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos'' (Mythos Books, 2008) pp. 34-35.〕 Lovecraft was often asked about the veracity of the ''Necronomicon'', and always answered that it was completely his invention. In a letter to Willis Conover, Lovecraft elaborated upon his typical answer: Now about the "terrible and forbidden books” — I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred or ''Necronomicon'', for I invented these names myself. Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and his ''De Vermis Mysteriis'', while the ''Book of Eibon'' is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith's. Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and his ''Unaussprechlichen Kulten''.... As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes — in all truth they don’t amount to much. That is why it’s more fun to invent mythical works like the ''Necronomicon'' and ''Book of Eibon''.〔 Reinforcing the book's fictionalization, the name of the book's supposed author, Abdul Alhazred, is not even a grammatically correct Arabic name. The name "Abdul" simply means "the worshiper/slave of...". Standing alone, it would make no sense, as Alhazred is not a surname in the Western sense, but a reference to a person's place of birth.〔Petersen, Sandy & Lynn Willis. ''Call of Cthulhu'', p. 189.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Necronomicon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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