Pnakotic Manuscripts
The
Pnakotic Manuscripts (or
Pnakotic Fragments) is a fictional
manuscript in the
Cthulhu Mythos. The tome was created by
H. P. Lovecraft[Lovecraft referred to the Pnakotic Manuscripts in eleven of his stories—second only to the Necronomicon, which is referred to 18 times. (Loucks, "The Necronomicon and Other Grimoires".)] and first appeared in his
short story "
Polaris" (
1918). They are mentioned in many of Lovecraft's stories, including
At the Mountains of Madness (
1936),
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (
1926), "The Other Gods" (
1933), and "
The Shadow Out of Time" (1936). The manuscripts are also referred to by other mythos authors, such as
Lin Carter and
Brian Lumley.
The Pnakotic Manuscripts are noteworthy for being the first of Lovecraft's
fictional arcane books[Joshi & Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, pp. 187.].
The Pnakotic Manuscripts predate the origin of man. The original manuscripts were in scroll form and were passed down through the ages, eventually falling into the hands of secretive cults. The
Great Race of Yith is believed to have produced the first five chapters of the Manuscripts, which,
inter alia, contain a detailed chronicle of the race's history. However, others attribute them to the
Elder Things, because of certain similarities to the
Eltdown Shards.
The Pnakotic Manuscripts were kept in the Great Race's library city of
Pnakotus (hence the name). They cover a variety of subjects, including descriptions of
Chaugnar Faugn and
Yibb-Tstll, the location of
Xiurhn,
Rhan-Tegoth's rituals, and others.
The Pnakotic Manuscripts were originally held by the people of
Lomar, who studied them diligently. Later, they were passed to
Hyperborea and translated into the language of that land. Here the manuscripts were added to by the
Voormi. Another addition is known to have been made in earlier times by a scribe in
Zobna.
The Manuscripts survived into historical times, protected by a secretive cult known as the Pnakotic Brotherhood, and are thought to have been translated into a
Greek in a version known as the
Pnakotica. Rumors say that an English translation was made in the
15th century by an unknown scribe, but the consensus is that they exists only in manuscript form. The original scrolls of the Pnakotic Manuscripts are believed to be lost (nevertheless, a copy may still exist in the Temple of the Elder Ones in
Ulthar).
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* Harms, Daniel. "Lomar" in
The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.), pp. 185–6. Chaosium, Inc., 1998. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.:—"Pnakotic Manuscripts", pp. 242–3. Ibid.
*
Notes
