HIT: Book Curses!

[Eileen Culkin <eculkin@INTER-LAKES.K12.NH.US>]

Thanks to SO very many people who responded to my request for the medieval
book curse.  There were equally as many people who wrote to have the curse
posted or sent to them, so here it is ( and more! thanks to Linda!)  (and
Dan who posted it last year and again to me on Friday!)
Thanks again to all...............will this year never end?  Eileen
***************************************************************
 About a year ago, during a discussion of overdue problems, Dan Robinson,
of H.W.Wilson, provided us with a wonderful medieval book curse
 The curse:
 "For him that Stealeth, or Borroweth and Returneth not, this Book from its
Owner, let it change into a Serpent in his hand & Rend him. Let him be
struck with Palsy, & all his Members Blasted. Let him Languish in Pain
crying aloud for Mercy, & let there be no Surcease to his Agony till he
sing in Dissolution. Let Bookworms Gnaw his Entrails in token of the  Worm
that dieth not,, & when at last he goeth to his final Punishment, let the
flames of Hell Consume him for Ever."
 The attribution:
 The quote is in The Old Librarians's Almanack which is itself a brilliant
and very funny forgery by Edmund Lester Pearson. For details see, Wayne A.
Wiegand, "The History of a Hoax: Edmund Lester Pearson, John Cotton Dana,
and the Old Librarian's Almanack." Beta Phi Mu Chapbook No. 13. Thanks to
Ken Miller for pointing this out.]

 Here are a few more curses from the same book (in case you'd like to tempt
the censorship gods yourselves):

 "May the sword of anathema slay
 If anyone steals this book away."

 "All those who do not books return
 Are thieves, not borrowers, and earn
 The punishment Justice demands;
 Their sacrificial loss of hands.
 May God, therefore as witness see
 That it be done unswervingly."

 Linda


Eileen Culkin, Media Generalist
Inter-Lakes Jr. Sr. High School
1Laker Lane
Meredith, NH 03253
ecullkin@inter-lakes.k12.nh.us

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