Enigmarch, Day 30: BOOK
May. 5th, 2024 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tahnanCurses!
Puzzles aren't just fun, they're educational! For instance: did you know that, when books had to be written out by hand, the scribes would often include a curse to befall anyone who stole them? Sometimes they were in English, but often they were in Latin.
The following six (very real!) examples come from Anathema! by Marc Drogin. (His translations attempt to maintain the poetic form, which is cute, but I've provided a more literal translation. I think. My Latin's pretty rusty.)
(The fourth curse was originally written in three lines, with shared text in the middle and differences above and below: "Sor / Mor" first, then "te" in the middle, and so on. There's a lovely re-setting of it in this blog post. This isn't relevant to the puzzle, just to the educational part.)
Or you can flip to the end of the book and read the answer (checker) here.
Puzzles aren't just fun, they're educational! For instance: did you know that, when books had to be written out by hand, the scribes would often include a curse to befall anyone who stole them? Sometimes they were in English, but often they were in Latin.
The following six (very real!) examples come from Anathema! by Marc Drogin. (His translations attempt to maintain the poetic form, which is cute, but I've provided a more literal translation. I think. My Latin's pretty rusty.)
- Qui me furetur, / Nunquam requies sibi detur.
- Who steals me / May he never find love.
- Si maledictus per Christum, / Qui librum subtraxerit istum.
- May he be cursed by angels / whoever has stolen this book.
- Libri contractor calamis celi potiatur; / Si quis subtractor, in Avernis sic moriatur.
- May the creator of this book hold the urn of the heavens / If any remove it, may they thus die in Avernis.
- Sorte supernorum scriptor libri potiatur / Morte infernorum raptor libri moriatur
- May the writer of this book possess a share of heaven / May the reader of this book die by infernal death
- Qui te furetur, / in culum percutietur.
- Whoever steals me / will be struck on the ear.
- Qui te furetur / hic demonis ense secetur. / Iste sit in banno / qui te furetur in anno.
- Who steals you / may you be cleft by a demon's lance. / May he be banished / for a year, whoever steals you.
(The fourth curse was originally written in three lines, with shared text in the middle and differences above and below: "Sor / Mor" first, then "te" in the middle, and so on. There's a lovely re-setting of it in this blog post. This isn't relevant to the puzzle, just to the educational part.)
Or you can flip to the end of the book and read the answer (checker) here.