The weird of the wanderer : Being the papyrus records of some incidents in one…
"The weird of the wanderer" by Frederick Rolfe and C. H. C. Pirie-Gordon is a novel written in the early 20th century. It presents an occult-historical adventure framed by an archaeological discovery, in which the papyrus records of Nicholas Crabbe—apparently the reincarnation of Odysseus and later King Balthazar—recount magic, time-slippage, and exploits in ancient lands. Expect learned pastiche, esoteric rites, and a doubling of eras as a modern seeker of wisdom is
thrust into Ptolemaic Egypt and beyond. The opening of the novel sets up its frame through letters describing a startling Armenian rock-tomb find: a perfectly preserved young mummy, an inscription linking the corpse to “Nicholas” and “Balthazar,” sealed urns holding a modern revolver and a London-made gold watch, and papyri sent to an Oxford scholar for translation. The translated papyri begin with Crabbe’s oath and confession: a modern occultist who mastered Egyptian rites, he sails the Nile, acquires a magic staff, cup, and crystal, and at Korte endures a searing ritual to summon Amenemhat, a priest of Tanis, into embodied service. Guided by him, Crabbe gains Egyptian priesthood, enters Thebes’ secret subterranean halls, crosses a dark river to a radiant white sanctuary, dispatches a grotesque ghost-warden, and attempts a greater evocation; amid agony, visions, and a cosmic procession of Egyptian gods, a Voice grants him multiple lives and casts him backward in time. Emerging from the temple into flourishing ancient Thebes under Ptolemy Auletes, he conceals his modern gear, bluffs Macedonian guards with secret signs, hires a barge despite mercenary unrest, and, after commanding crocodiles to prove his power, prepares to sail at dawn—setting the stage for the ensuing adventure. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Rolfe, Frederick, 1860-1913 |
|---|---|
| Author | Pirie-Gordon, C. H. C. (Charles Harry Clinton), 1883-1969 |
| Title | The weird of the wanderer : Being the papyrus records of some incidents in one of the previous lives of Mr. Nicholas Crabbe |
| Original Publication | London: William Rider & Son, 1912. |
| Credits | Tom Trussel, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Fantasy fiction |
| Subject | Time travel -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78126 |
| Release Date | Mar 6, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 5178 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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