Necronomicon, trans. Olaus Wormius (Germany, early seventeenth
century). Accompanied by the "Whateley Trapezohedron" (for additional information
on the Trapezohedron and on the Necronomicon itself, see half-brick
from the Free-Will Church in Providence, Rhode Island, also in the
Subtly-Askew Museum). All copies of both the original Arabic and the Greek
versions of the Necronomicon appear to have been lost, and of the
later Latin translation only the copies at the British Museum, the Widener
Library at Harvard, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the John Carter
Brown Library at Brown University, the University of Buenos Aires, and
Miskatonic University remain, and of these most are defective. Originally
written by the doomed Abdul Alhazred and eventually translated into Latin
by Wormius, the Necronomicon remains the most dangerous text in
the collection of forbidden arcana that includes Falconer's Cryptomenyis
Patefacta, the infamous Culte des Ghoules of the Comte d'Erlette,
the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt, Ludvig Prinn's De
Vermis Mysteriis, the Pnakotic manuscripts, the anonymous Book of
Dzyan, and The King in Yellow. The terrible truths contained
in the Necronomicon have sufficed, on numerous occasions, to rob unsuspecting
readers of their wits. In some cases, it has been said, "er lasst
sich nicht lesen," but because of the obvious dangers, and because it contains
incantations which might be employed in attempts to recall Yog-Sothoth
and the other terrible Great Old Ones from their long exile in other dimensions
of space and time, legitimate owners of copies of the Necronomicon have
always attempted, not always successfully, to prevent its falling into
the hands of those who, whether out of ignorance or malice, might be tempted
to attempt to manipulate vast powers that, as history has repeatedly shown,
remain beyond human control. (Provenance: Whateley family, Arkham, Massachusetts.
Acquired from Miskatonic University, 1844).
Note that for obvious reasons no patron will be granted access to
the text of the Necronomicon under any conceivable circumstances.
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