Week 6 Story: Knowledge is Power

There once was a young man named Nour, who spent his days reading the ancient records in the House of Life. He loved to read the scrolls and books and the inscriptions on the walls because he wanted to learn as much as he could. One day when Nour had gotten completely lost in his readings, an older priest came up and tapped him on the shoulder.

“I am so sorry to have startled you!” The priest apologized to Nour, who had jumped, “You just remind me so much of a man who used to come here many years ago when I was a much younger priest. His name was Nefer-ka-ptah and he too loved to come here to read the ancient records.”

“I know that name! Written next to his name was the name of his wife and his child and the date his name was registered but nothing else. What happened to him?” Nour asked the priest.

“His death was not registered here in the House of Life. The gods do not like people to know what happened, but I will tell you his story anyways. One day when Nefer-ka-ptah was visiting the House of Life, a priest told him he could gain great power from the Book of Thoth which was guarded by many boxes, crawly creatures, and snake that no man could kill. Nefer-ka-ptah knew he could get this book so he convinced his wife and son to travel with him to the Southern Land where it was located. He defeated the snake no man can kill, he froze the crawly creatures with a spell, and opened all the boxes until he got to the Book of Thoth. As soon as he opened the first page, he was overwhelmed with great power. Immediately, he began to write the spells down, then wash away the words with beer, and drink the beer, so that he could learn the spells. Thoth was enraged that someone had found his book so he punished Nefer-ka-ptah by drowning his son and then his wife. Nefer-ka-ptah realized what Thoth was doing and tied the Book of Thoth to himself before he jumped into the river and drowned himself. The book remained tied to him until his body was found on the shores of the Northern Land, where his father, the King, decided that the book would be buried with his son and it has remained there since then.”

Nour sat in silence for a minute, thinking about the story of Nefer-ka-ptah and the Book of Thoth. He had so many questions that he didn’t know where to start.

“What is so special about the Book of Thoth?” He decided to ask.

“Thoth wrote the book himself and it contains all the magic of the world. The first page contains a spell that allows you to talk to animals and the second page contains a spell that allows you to perceive the gods themselves.” The priest answered.

Nour talked to the priest about the Book of Thoth for a few more hours and when night fell, he left the House of Life and headed home. For some reason, he took a different path than usual, which found him walking past the North Land shore; the final resting place of Nefer-ka-ptah and the Book of Thoth. Curiosity got the better of the young man and followed the trail that led to the Egyptian prince’s tomb. He could feel the magic from the book getting stronger with each step he took closer to the tomb, like it was drawing him to the tomb. Before Nour reached the entrance, he turned around and ran home because he knew what he had to do.

Nour spent the rest of the night and all the next day working on his creation. When the sun set, he set out for the tomb again, but this time he was prepared. Just like the night before, the Book of Thoth’s magic called to him and this time he let it pull him all the way to the entrance. He walked into the tomb and up to the coffin where prince and the book were supposed to stay sealed in for all eternity. Nour pushed off the heavy metal lid of the coffin and grabbed the Book of Thoth. The ghost of Nefer-ka-ptah appeared before the young man and tried to seize the book back from the young man.

“Give me the book! The power it contains is not worth the price you will pay!” The prince yelled at him.

“No! I’m putting this book back where it belongs!” Nour dug around in his bag for his creation. He hadn’t opened the book even though he was tempted too but he knew what the prince said was true. The knowledge contained in the pages of the Book of Thoth was too great for humans to have.

Nour pulled his creation out of the bag and presented it to the ghost. It was a small box, just big enough for a book, with a latch and lock on the side. He placed the Book of Thoth into the box, shut the lid, and locked it up. He knelt to the ground and held the box up to the sky.

“Oh, great and powerful Thoth, god of knowledge, please take your book and hide it once more. The contents of this book are too much for any human to know.” Nour called out.

A bright light started to appear causing Nour to squeeze his eyes shut. When he opened them, the box in his hands was gone, the ghost of Nefer-ka-ptah was no where in sight, and the lid to the coffin was firmly back in place. Everything had been returned to how it was before, but for some reason Nour felt different. He just shrugged it off and headed home, deciding to investigate more in the morning when he would make his daily trip to the House of Life.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Author’s Note: This is based off the story The Book of Thoth which I gave a summary of in the story above. I felt that in the original story, Thoth came after the prince for no reason because the prince never said or even implied that he was going to use the power he gained for evil. He was died very soon after reading the book so we never got to see him in action. I wanted to retell this story with the main character being intrigued by the knowledge of the book and not the power that it could give them. I decided to have Nour not open the book because I felt that it would have ruined the message I was trying to get across. If he had gotten the power of the book and then given it back to Thoth with the reason that it’s not for mortals, it would have come across that he is better than other people who have come before him. He is a person who has a passion for knowledge and for him to not open the book I think reveals a lot more about him anyways than if he had opened it. I also decided to leave the ending open for more adventures in case I get the chance to write another story.

Bibliography. The Book of Thoth by Donald Mackenzie, link to Part One.