ERRATA

Wherein we admit to sundry errors made in the Necronomicon Files.

Nobody's perfect, and we're no better than most. Some errors crept into the Necronomicon Files, and we didn't catch them before publication. We offer them up for your education and amusement. If you find another, or (horrors!) if you sent us one earlier and we haven't put it up, let us know.

Weiser Edition

p. 21: ...inserted a paragraph in a publication advertising the Necronomicon for $1.49.

The identity of this publication has been uncovered. "They were almost on the point of falling for that spoofing item in The Phantagraph & sending $1.49 for a copy of the Necronomicon!" (Lovecraft, Letters to Franklyn Searight, West Warwick, RI, Necronomicon Press, 1992)

Thanks to Louis-Pierre Smith Lacroix for this information.

p. 29: ...even though it was deliberately contradicted by Lovecraft's original story...

Strike "deliberately" from this sentence. As Lovecraft died nearly sixty years before my Encyclopedia appeared, he could not have contradicted it deliberately.

Thanks to Louis-Pierre Smith Lacroix for this information.

p. 46: Agbatana (Ecbatana), an 8th-century town of the Medes...

I omitted B. C., and further investigation has shown that this was a town of the 6th century B.C.

p. 46: ...the [color] scheme in the Necronomicon does not reflect Herodotus, being closer to the Queen color scheme utilized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

In fact, it is much closer to that hypothesized by Rawlinson for the Temple of Nebo at Borsippa, as Simon outlines in Dead Names. Of course, Rawlinson's color scheme was mostly incorrect.

pp. 51-52: Fraternitas Saturni ("Brotherhood of Saturn"). This group was a branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis...

It was not. It is perhaps more accurate to say that the OTO and the Pansophical Lodge overlapped a great deal in membership, and that many of the members who left these bodies after the Weida Conference later joined the FS.

Thanks to Theo Paijmans for this information.

p. 112: ... a pentagram lined with neon tubing.

This should be a pentagon.

p. 134: ...Khem Caigan claims that Avon Books used his art from the Magickal Childe edition without giving him any credit...

This is incorrect. Khem is credited in the Necronomicon for his art. The art for which Khem received no credit was in the Necronomicon Spellbook.

p. 148: Second, while there was a real city of Kutu in Babylonia... its only association with the underworld was that its patron deities were Nergal and Ereskigal...

In Dead Names, "Simon" makes a case for "Cutha" being the site of a vast necropolis. We have verified this information independently.

p. 158: First, cthonic is pronounced "thah-nick"; the "ch" is silent (at least in English).

The initial "ch" in "chthonic", as per the Oxford English Dictionary, can indeed be pronounced as a "k."

Thanks to Simon for this information.

p. 257: ... a "promised one" (who bears a marked resemblance to Bruce Campbell)...

The picture in the book actually appears in Evil Dead II, not Army of Darkness.

Night Shade Press Edition

p. 46 - ...the Indian epic The Rig-Veda.

Az0th, a magician mentioned in John's section of the book, notes that the Rig-Veda is not necessarily an epic poem.

p. 52 - ...The hoax was concocted by David A. Wollheim...

Someone pointed out in our guestbook that this was Donald A. Wollheim. Don't ask me how he became David...

p. 62 - ...a limited edition of 666 copies was published under the Schlangekraft ("Serpent Power") imprint in December of 1977.

I couldn't read a word of German to save my life, so I relied on another source for this particular piece of information. However, I am assured that "kraft" does not equate to "power". An on-line translation engine yielded the result "strength". However, I'd much appreciate a German speaker's opinion on this. (Later: There seems to be some debate on this topic.)

p. 69 - ...later, in an article written in the Saint John's Eve 1984 issue of the fanzine Crypt of Cthulhu, Wilson gave the real story behind the Necronomicon.

Steven Marc Harris has pointed out that Wilson also stated that the book was a spoof in the article "The Mythos Writers: Colin Wilson", published in Fantasy Macabre magazine in 1980 (pp. 18-21). Still, I think my point about Wilson not letting people know stands. Neither Steven nor I had even heard of the magazine before he obtained it, even with all our contacts in the fan community.

p. 71: Fraternitas Saturni ("Brotherhood of Saturn"). This group was a branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis...

It was not. It is perhaps more accurate to say that the OTO and the Pansophical Lodge overlapped a great deal in membership, and that many of the members who left these bodies after the Weida Conference later joined the FS.

Thanks to Theo Paijamas for this information.

p. 331 - In the top-right corner [of the manuscript of "History of the Necronomicon"] appears the dedication "To the Curator of the Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, with the Curator's (?) compliments." This suggests that it was first sent to Lovecraft's friend Clark Ashton Smith...

S. T. Joshi, the world's foremost Lovecraft scholar, noted that the Curator mentioned above was actually HPL's young friend Robert H. Barlow, who wanted to save much of Lovecraft's writing, and who was eventually appointed his literary executor.

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