Necronomicon in Sweden

[Thomas R. Knutsson]

Emanuel Swedenborg was an interesting man. Scientist, philosopher, occultist. The new religious movement Swedenborgianism was created because of him, and he is believed to have inspired the writing of many horror authors from Hoffman and Poe through H P Lovecraft and to Jorge Luis Borges, according to the author Rickard Berghorn, specialized on classic horror literature.

The book "Necronomicon i Sverige" ("Necronomicon in Sweden") is an anthology with texts connected partly with H P Lovecrafts authorship in with the ficticious occult book Necronomicon, partly (with the exception of Lovecraft's own The History of Necronomicon) to Sweden. The book was compiled by Richard Berghorn and Mattias Fyhr (researcher and writer focused on gothic literature, horror and other fantastic literature), and was published by Aleph 2002. (Also made into a radio drama broadcast 2004.)

In "Necronomicon i Sverige" ("Necronomicon in Sweden") you can among other things read that there is a Swedish translation of the Necronomicon (probably done by a count Magnus de la Gardie, distant relative of the considerably more famous Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie), the translation were printed in Finland 1723, that a rare printed copy of this came to Sweden as a war trophy which is in the possession of the science fiction scholar and writer Sam J. Lundwall (who has translated and published many of Lovecraft's stories in Sweden), and that Necronomicon ("The Book of the Mad Arab") must have played a significant role in the writer August Strindberg's so-called "Inferno Crisis".

The Church of the Open Word is an historic Swedenborgian church building located in the village of Newtonville, a suburb to Boston, Massachusetts. The congregation was organized in 1860 and a wooden chapel was erected on the rear of this property. The stone Gothic Revival building was erected on the front of the property in 1893. The Swedenborgian Church of North America is headquartered here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Swedenborg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Gab ... _la_Gardie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Strindberg

P.S. I might be able to add some more if I find the cassette tape I recorded the radio drama on and listen to it again, and/or if I get my local library to find me the book so I can (re-)read it.

[Thomas R. Knutsson]

Now I have got my hands on this blasphemous tome, and I will have a notepad at hand, taking down notes while reading it. Maybe I can use it as inspiration to some Swedish or Scandinavian mythos campaign for the Call of Cthulhu RPG?

[Keeper Dan]

It sounds like an amazing resource for scenario writing.