This volume is a valuable reworking of a useful but heretofore rather inaccessible text. The original author of Zecchiah’s String is unknown. The original copy here in the library of Annalum has received more attention than it is due, in the opinion of some, given the elementary nature of the material. Despite decades of inquiry and analysis, the so called “code of Zecciah" has yet to be cracked. Or, perhaps, materialize.
It appears that finally someone at Nimus Animae decided that the current trend of requiring exact reproduction of parent texts--from not correcting obvious grammatical errors, up to carefully mimicking ink-blots and pen trials in the margins of pages--is the mind-numbing, tradition degrading madness that some of us have been saying it is for a long time. Perhaps this illuminated version of Zecciah’s String will encourage more logical thinking in our colleagues. Reason seems to be speaking still into the ears of some scholars at Nimus Animae.
The illuminated String was copied from the other Nimus Animae copy of the text, an “unbroken String" (as they are so quaintly called) which notes indicate was a gift from Manu Tenere. The text is divided into standard chapters, with a half-page image at the start of each illustrating the well known events of these tales, such as the tale of Zecchiah & the string from which the book takes its name. The young apprentices assigned to study this version of the book would of course be deprived of the experience of puzzling out the magical parables of the tales from the endless chain of characters found in the original and its subsequent renditions. Think of the eye strain and headaches those poor young scholars will miss! The character building feelings of frustration and irritation they’ll be so rudely forced to do without. Really, what was this scribe thinking? The eye-catching images and clarity of the story lines, giving their well known messages and advice about use of the various forms and techniques will be such a low source of challenge for the apprentices of Nimus Animae. Why they might actually learn something about magic from reading this text!
The greatest drawback of this version is that the scribe took the liberty of adding their own inspiration. Tacked on to the classic teaching stories of the String are several strange mish-mash superstitious folk tales involving animals such as monkeys and wolves. It casts a pall over the purity of the work. Magisters might be well advised to take the spirit of this artisan to heart—perhaps other illustrated editions of the String should be made—but other elementary texts found in this library such as the Light of Shadows or, of course, the Black book of Lem might better serve their filia.
--by a Scholar of Annalum.
If it is alright with Jenn, I
If it is alright with Jenn, I'm thinking this is a book that Gi might scribe/write. Especially given the encounter with the monkeys.
Now why do I suspect that the
Now why do I suspect that the author has some very bad memories of being forced to read the unillustrated version back in his-or-her apprenticeship?
And probably some bad memories of being forced to scribe an unbroken string, as well.
Meant to ask.
Do we know who Zecchiah is?
"The original author of Zecch
"The original author of Zecchiah's String is unknown."
So presumably it's a pseudonym. It might be fun to see if we can figure out who s/he is, assuming that Em had no particular secret author in mind.
Zecchiah's string is the firs
Zecchiah's string is the first of the stories in the book. The author is unnammed. Edit made to reflect that. : )
Nope, I'd no idea who wrote it.
The string
I've been imagining, and I'm not sure why, I think it was the scholar's remark about stray ink spots and practice lines, that the text of an unbroken string is made even more difficult to read by a wandering line, which starts at the begining of the book, wanders along each line of the text (sometimes below the line of text, sometimes above, sometimes cutting across), wraps from page to page, and eventually runs over the edge of the back cover. When you scribe a new copy of the string, you start your line by holding the original next to yours, and continuing the line. I imagine that the supposed secret code relates to the meaning of the line, and of how it relates to the text.
Oh, and unless Barry wants it, I call the unbroken string as my next book.
indeed
When you scribe a new copy of the string, you start your line by holding the original next to yours, and continuing the line...
Madness. Sounds perfect!
Stretch-marks for books
Which means, of course, that you can often tell approximately how often a copy of the 'unbroken string' has been scribed from one of these books, because the very end of the "string" on a book which has been scribed from often would get all thick and blotchy with the accumulated build-up of all of those trace-overs from each scribe who ran a pen along the end of the line to carry it over into the new copy...
I love it. It's like stretch-marks for books!
On monkeys and wolves
It's perfectly all right with me, not to mention amusing.
The only problem being is that he couldn't have scribed it just yet as he hasn't had time since the founding of Nimus Animae--since there are mentions of wolves and monkeys I assume it is something he's to have written upon reaching Gaetan.
He could possibly scribe it this coming winter. I'm sure the ice and snow will make it unlikely he'll venture far from the covenant and so he will become restless enough to do such a thing. In fact, I suspect he's planning to familiarize himself with the library this winter as 1) he's the librarian and 2) he spent 20 years with only maybe five books and a couple of monographs.
done then.
Wow, cool! I didn't remember that he was the librarian. My thought was, too, that the book probably doesn't exist yet in your timeline. I can completely see Giles looking at the ridiculousity that is the unbroken string and saying "hey, this would actually make a useful book, with just a few slight modifications..."
OT
I'm going to be late with my submission this week. I'm sorry.