WHY DID C.S. LEWIS CREATE “THE BOOK OF INCANTATIONS AND MAGIC SPELLS?”
The Book of Incantations was a magic book kept in the possession of the fallen star Coriakin. The book contained many magic spells and incantations which could be read only by Coriakin, or by a young girl.
The book’s origin is unknown. Possibly Coriakin created the book, writing down all the magic he knew. In all it’s known history, the book is kept on the table at the center of his library, on his island in the Eastern Sea. At some point around or before the 2200’s Coriakin used a spell from the book on his servants the Duffers to alter their appearance. Shortly after, a duffer girl called Clipsie used the book to make all the inhabitants of the island invisible. In 2206, Queen Lucy the Valiant used the book to undo the former invisibility spell. She also incanted a spell to know what others thought of her.
The book held many spells, including the following:
A spell to cure warts (by washing ones hands in a silver basin by moonlight)
A spell for curing a toothache
A spell for curing cramps
A spell for dealing with a swarm of bees
A spell for finding buried treasure
A spell for remembering things
A spell for forgetting things
A spell to know whether someone was telling the truth
A spell for conjuring or preventing weather patterns including: Wind, fog, snow, sleet or rain
A spell for producing an enchanted sleep
A spell for turning a human head into a donkey’s head
A spell for making oneself beautiful beyond the lot of mortals
A spell for knowing what others were thinking of you
A spell for the ‘refreshment of the spirit’
A spell to make things invisible
A spell to make hidden things visible
A spell for changing the appearance of persons
A spell to cure warts (by washing ones hands in a silver basin by moonlight)
A spell for curing a toothache
A spell for curing cramps
A spell for dealing with a swarm of bees
A spell for finding buried treasure
A spell for remembering things
A spell for forgetting things
A spell to know whether someone was telling the truth
A spell for conjuring or preventing weather patterns including: Wind, fog, snow, sleet or rain
A spell for producing an enchanted sleep
A spell for turning a human head into a donkey’s head
A spell for making oneself beautiful beyond the lot of mortals
A spell for knowing what others were thinking of you
A spell for the ‘refreshment of the spirit’
A spell to make things invisible
A spell to make hidden things visible
A spell for changing the appearance of persons
The book was very thick, and kept closed by means of two lead clasps. The inside was written by a clear hand, ‘with thick downstrokes and thin upstrokyes’, and every page was crisp and smooth and had a nice smell. To accompany every spell, there were a number of pictures. All of the pictures were vivid and colored, and many (if not all) of them moved. The pictures demonstrated the possible results of the spell being said. Some of these pictures included sound so that the spell-sayer could hear, as well as see, the results of their actions.
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