An A-Z of Legendary, Lost and Magical Books
By Hayley Morgan (@writeonmorgan) The Babylonian Oracles have survived in fragmentary texts from the 2nd century. They consist mainly of critical commentary on a single mystery-poem. The authors did not dispute that the incantation worked in its objective, which was to evoke immortality, but opposed its informal structure, and the fact that it did not rhyme. Belle de Paris is an Old French romance, written in the 13th century. The hero is in love with a queen whose heart is made of ice, and eventually dies of unrequited love. It is said that those who read it are cursed to a similar fate, lusting obsessionally, and fatally, over members of the monarchy. The Bloodstone Books: see main entry. The Ancient Egyptians stored many books in “Houses of Life”, libraries within temples. The Book of de Nile is a popular how-to on death, written both for surviving relatives and the deceased. It includes practical instructions on passing on, such as what to pack, and how much to tip the boatman. The Celestial Intelligencer is a handbook of the occult and ceremonial magic used in espionage, such as shapeshifting, teleportation and poisons. The Clay Tablet of Destiny, though made of clay, is a permanent legal document, conferring upon the possessor supreme authority as ruler of the universe. The Cloister is a collection of creepy German folklore and fairy tales, originally written for children. It is supposedly cursed book, and its stories have long been banned across the continent. The memories of these tales are still passed orally from generation to generation, causing misfortune. The Codex Illuminus: see main entry. The Elemental Ciphers are a collection of magical initiation rituals corresponding to the four elements. They are resistant to water and fire damage, weigh less than a feather and provide a prosperous, fertile mulch if used for compost. The Fraternitatis describes the secret work of the Dudes of the Lodge. It describes a secret vault of seven sides and three levels filled with miraculous objects. In the centre of the vault lies a man whose body is perfectly preserved, even after the passing of over fifty years. His identity is unknown. The Highland Huntsman, written by a former King of Scotland, approves and supports the practice of witch hunting in selected areas of forestland with the appropriate permits, for “conservation reasons.” The Honourable Clam is a pan-dimensional Ottoman era cosmography, written in very flowery prose, arranged chronologically running from the “time before time” to the aftermath of the Apocalypse. It is said to be so boring and insufferable that those who can complete it gain the ability to transcend the illusion of time altogether. Impressions of a Goodfellow Soul is a parable of the occult, mixed with a series of anecdotal stories about a “very well known Englishman” whose identity has long been speculated. The Infernal Calendar is an illustrated book on demonology, organised in hellish hierarchies and highlighting sixty-nine explicit demons of the underworld in various states of undress. Inventio Fortunata is a lost seafaring book dating from the 14th century, containing descriptions of phantom isles that do not appear on standard maps, illustrated with excessively colourful sea serpents and erotically-charged mermaids. The Lesser Keys is an anonymous grimoire and song book providing magical sheet music for the organ. When played, these funereal tunes summon the demons of the black keys. My Chemical Theatre is a compendium of early alchemical treatises, essays, poems, notes, and writings from various sources. It contains instructions for creating human life, turning copper into gold and most importantly, creating psychedelic visual effects during concerts. The Office of Spirits lists eighty demons employed in underworld government and provides their contact information in case of a complaint. |
FEATURED VOLUMES
THE CODEX ILLUMINUS
BY LUCAS CURD THE BLOODSTONE BOOKS
BY HAYLEY MORGAN The Secret Beauty Books are witch-crafted compilations of magic formulae that also contain household hints on perfume making, fragrant incense and cosmetics. They explain why practitioners of magic, both male and female, have such shiny hair.
The Secret Lives of the Necromancers or An account of the most eminent persons in successive ages who have claimed for themselves or to whom has been imputed by others the exercise of magical powers, is a biography of notorious figures in the body-raising business, such as Maggot Man, Corpse Husband and Flesh Puppet. The Secret of Soy is a 19th-century treatise on soy and tofu-based magic, including the now-notorious Bean Curd Golem spell responsible for destroying Tokyo on three separate occasions. Secretum Secretorum outlines a hidden science, which only a person with no formal education and a poor grasp of traditional logic can understand. The Sibyl Chronicles are a collection of prophecies written in Greek hexameters and ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations while under the influence of some kind of hallucinogenic natural gas. On their advice, two Greeks and a Gaul were buried alive in the marketplace every day for nine years. They also predicted the second term of George W. Bush. The Sortes was a popular Greco-Roman fortune-telling guide. The reader threw lots, or sortes, which were used to look up prewritten sentences via a numerical index. Similar to I Ching or a Magic 8 Ball, the reader received a randomly-chosen destiny that was often vague and dependent on their privilege. The Vast Documents of the Yoogle was an encyclopaedia commissioned by the Chinese Emperor Yoogle, surpassed in size only by Wikipedia. The fate of the original manuscript is unknown, but there are several hypotheses: burnt in the Palace of Artistic Purity, hidden in the walls of the Forbidden City, or buried with the Emperor himself. Your Old Pal Ableman is a book published by a Pennsylvania Dutch healer named Ableman, containing folk-remedies for conditions such as Foot Rot, Head Fog, Heart Bolt, Gut Knot and Snow Hair. |
If you have an entry for our A-Z, or a story about a particular book, please send it to Fiction Crowd. If we like it, we'll publish it here in a future issue.
thefictioncrowd @ gmail . com |