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Halloween Special in Latin #2 — Two Ghost Stories in Latin

This article has been reviewed in accordance with our editorial policy.

In this year’s Hal­loween spe­cial all in Latin, I tell you two scary, scary sto­ries from Stock­holm of cen­turies past: a ninth cen­tu­ry monk, and a haunt­ed palace.

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Latin Text

Sal­vete sodales. Hodie tractabimus ter­ric­u­la­men­ta, hor­ren­da quae olim et for­t­asse eti­am nunc Stock­holmi­ae fiunt.

Gideon

Fuit olim monachus nomine Gideon qui  saecu­lo IX fuit. Ei negotium datum est ut doc­tri­nam Chris­tianam apud bar­baros (apud Sue­tos) propa­garet et divul­gar­et. Cum mare Balticum nave sua relin­queret ut intraret lacum cui nomen est Mel­er, naufrag­ium fac­tum est. Hoc naufra­gio fac­to, undis iac­ta­tus est et aquis miser periv­it Gideon.

Post me con­spici­tis domum quae aed­i­fi­ca­ta est eo ipso loco quo cor­pus illius monachi eiec­tum est in ter­ram. Et dic­i­tur eti­am nunc, post tot saec­u­la, inam­bu­lare et con­spici in hypogaeo, sub ter­ra huius ipsius aed­i­ficii. Nul­la enim nox inter­ced­it quin con­spiciatur, nul­la nox inter­ced­it quin exau­diatur ille miser Gideon.

Palatium larvarum

Nunc ante palatium lar­varum vel ante aulam lar­varum sumus. Haec est domus totius urbis Stock­holmi­ae quae maxime a larvis inqui­etatur et infes­tatur et agi­tatur. Nul­la alia domus in hac tota urbe tot lar­vas, tot phan­tas­ma­ta noc­tu patitur.

Aed­i­fi­ca­tum est hoc aed­i­fi­ci­um ine­unte saecu­lo XVIII et voca­tum est Schef­fleri Palatium. Sed iam fere ducen­tos annos illud pri­mum nomen quod dixi ser­vat, quod est Palatium Lar­varum. Primus domi­nus huius palatii, sane ille qui vocatur Schef­flerus, dic­i­tur inclusus esse pari­ete; alius vero domi­nus huius aed­i­ficii, huius domus, tam malignus, tam malus, tam improbus, tam nefan­dus fuisse ut ipse dia­bo­lus veniret ut eum ad Infer­os secum duceret.

Hor­ren­da hic fiunt. Media enim nocte, audi­un­tur lar­vae quae rident, quae lac­rimant, quae sin­gul­tiunt. Fran­gun­tur spec­u­la, fran­gun­tur eti­am fen­es­trae, et in hoc hor­to maxime audi­un­tur ulu­ta­tus fem­i­narum. In ipsa domo sua sponte qua­si cae­ca aura exstin­gu­un­tur flam­mae candelarum.

Tan­topere haec domus inqui­eta­ta est larvis ut sac­er­dos adhibi­tus sit. Arces­siverunt igi­tur sac­er­dotem qui eiceret, qui expelleret lar­vas, lemures ex hac domo. Tamen quid fac­tum est? Ille sac­er­dos adi­u­ran­do cona­tus est expellere has lar­vas, sed ipse per fen­es­tram eiec­tus est. Lar­vae manserunt.

Sed mul­ta et mira hic viden­tur fac­ta esse, nam, inter alia, anno MCMVII inven­tum est cor­pus mor­tu­um, effos­sum est in hoc ipso hor­to. Nec satis cer­tum est quis fuer­it, neque quan­do sepul­tus sit. Sed illud vide­tur cer­tum: eum esse unum ex eis qui eti­am nunc hic coagentur.

Vel for­t­asse non.

Tran­scrip­sit Hugo Medeiros e Brasilia

Daniel Pettersson

Daniel Pettersson

Teacher and author Daniel Pettersson, M.A., is co-founder of Latinitium and is currently teaching Latin at Stockholm University, where he is also working on his Ph.D. dissertation on Humanist Colloquia. Daniel believes in the importance of Latin literature in the modern world and that you can teach yourself Latin with the right motivation, method, and material.
Written by Daniel Pettersson

Written by Daniel Pettersson

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