«De Vermis Mysteriis»: Ludwig Prinn; book and analysis.

De Vermis Mysteriis (The Mysteries of the Worm) is a forbidden book belonging to the apocryphal library of the Cthulhu Mythos, whose most recognized volumes are The Necronomicon, Cultes des Goules, The Book of Eibon and the Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

Technically we should speak of the De Vermis Mysteriis as an apocryphal grimoire. Its creator was the American author Robert Bloch, and its first appearance occurred in the 1935 story: The Shambler From The Stars, published in the magazine Weird Tales, although it was previously mentioned, without further references, in The secret in the tomb (The Secret in the Tomb). There, one of the protagonists manages to read some pages of De Vermis Mysteriis, immersing himself in a kind of extradimensional nightmare.

This first mention of the De Vermis Mysteriis also coincides with a very curious death.

Robert Bloch, then a promising young author, wrote a letter to HP Lovecraft, requesting permission to murder him in the story. The skinny man from Providence not only willingly agreed to this narrative crime, but also suggested to Robert Bloch that he change the original title of the book: The Mysteries of the Worm, for a Latin translation more in line with the atmosphere of the story. This is how De Vermis Mysteriis was born.

This first exchange definitively installed Robert Bloch in the Lovecraft Circle. The skinny man from Providence also composed the first Latin invocation of the De Vermis Mysteriis, which Robert Bloch diligently reproduced in the story already mentioned:

The supposed author of De Vermis Mysteriis was Ludwig Prinn, an alchemist and necromancer who managed to extend his life to unsuspected limits, presumably thanks to the spells and incantations in the book. He was eventually captured by the Holy Inquisition and burned alive in Brussels, Belgium, at the beginning of the 16th century.

Robert Bloch meticulously develops the first capture of Ludwig Prinn, which occurred in 1271, during the Ninth Crusade. The old sorcerer, who had acquired necromantic knowledge from him in Alexandria, Syria and Egypt, is said to have inhabited an ancient Roman tomb near Brussels, which functioned alternately as a temple to perform blasphemous rituals on him.

At the beginning of its apocryphal life, De Vermis Mysteriis was just a compendium of spells and incantations that alluded to strange creatures from an incalculable past. Very soon, the concept of the book progressively branched out. Then, gradually, all kinds of inconceivable entities began to emerge, among them: Yig, the Dark Han and the serpent Byatis, and, of course, Tsathoggua.

Then the founding myth moved to Egypt, which would end up being the source par excellence of the De Vermis Mysteriis. In the 1936 story The Faceless God, Robert Bloch announces the new Egyptian origin of the book, and associates it with the terrible cult of Nyarlathotep.

Later, De Vermis Mysteriis acquires a terrifying chapter called: Saracen Rituals, which recounts the birth of Ghouls, Ifrits, Djinns and other races of vampires.

HP Lovecraft possessed a greatness rarely recognized in his biographies: adopting the creations of his circle of friends. De Vermis Mysteriis was no exception, and Lovecraft himself mentions it in the story: The Haunter of the Dark, nothing less than the continuation of The Stellar Vampire. There De Vermis Mysteriis is alluded to as a worn and diabolical book hidden in a library in Providence. Finally, in The Shadow out of Time, the skinny man from Providence forces his protagonist, Wingate Peaslee, to read and make disturbing notes and discoveries about this cursed book.

But this was not the end of De Vermis Mysteriis. His appearances in literature, more or less veiled, continued to pepper the Cthulhu Mythos. Henry Kuttner mentions a descendant of Ludwig Prinn, Abigail Prinn, in The Salem Horror. Additionally, Kuttner returns to De Vermis Mysteriis in the 1939 short story, The Invaders, where the serious admonitions that hang over the book are negligently dismissed by the protagonist, provoking the wrath of the shapeless creatures that dwell beyond time. .

August Derleth did his part by placing the De Vermis Mysteriis as one of the most abhorrent grimoires in history in his 1950 story: The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders.

To add further confusion to what was already considered a real book at that point, Robert Shea and Robert Anton published The Illuminatus Trilogy, which mentions Ludwig Prinn and De Vermis Mysteriis as part of the Illuminati’s secret plot.

Stephen King was, perhaps, the one who best captured the myth of the book, including it as the title of the 1978 book: The Mysteries of the Worm (Jerusalem’s Lot), a kind of prequel to the vampire novel: The Mystery of Salem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot). )

Appointments could be extended indefinitely. Such is the force, and perhaps the dark will, that sustains the conception of this insane volume. An apocryphal book is not built with a single hand. A man’s ingenuity is not enough to give him strength. De Vermis Mysteriis was adorned by the most notable horror masters of the 20th century, something that is clearly perceived when retracing the path of its history.

Banned books. I Books of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The summary and analysis of Ludwig Prinn’s book: De Vermis Mysteriis (The Mysteries of the Worm) were carried out by . For reproduction, write to us at