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| Schimpf, Stefan |
Known as the mad cobbler of Mainz; author of the Krankenhammer, one of the books in Prospero's library [The Face in the Frost, 2].
The Krankenhammer is thought to be a parody of H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Necronomicon, written by Abdul Al-Hazred, who is generally referred to as as the mad Arab or the mad Poet, thereby solidifying the connection.
Composed by Abdul Al-Hazred, a mad poet of Sanaa, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. "He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia - the Roba al Khaliyeh, or "Empty Space" of the ancients and "Dahma" or "Crimson" desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years, Al-Hazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif) was written, and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told."
The online Museum of Hoaxes has another theory about the mysterious manuscript, that Lovecraft used the Voynich manuscript as the model for his fictional book. Oddly, some feel the Voynich manuscript was the inspiration for the mysterious grimoire Melichus reads from during The Face in the Frost.
Schimpf would be German for "insult," while we're at it. For another likely spoof, see Bellairs' Clotilde, the Mad Nun.
And what of Mainz? "In the Middle Ages, this city on the Rhine probably loomed a bit larger than it does nowadays," suggests Bowen, as modern industrial cities like Stuttgart and Dusseldorf would not have amounted to much back then. Myers has visited the city and says it's a rather pleasant town: "like so many German cities it was bombed to rubble in WW II and rebuilt in its old medieval image. Therefore it has the charm without the grime."
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The Necronomicon Anti-FAQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainz |
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