lesbrigði

Transciption error.

Happens all the time in manuscripts. Copying by hand invites certain kind of errors. All of them have technical names. Of course they do. The work of the sort of people who copy by hand attracts the sort of people who study that kind of thing, and they are exactly the same sort of people: they like system and dead languages.

Handverk. Work by hand or, also, craft. Mostly craft, an activity that requires skill. Even the skilled can err. Homer nods, and all that. Even the tiniest, with the finest dainty hands, may slip and churn out nonsense.

What if, what if (a zillion-to-one) it weren't nonsense but the worst incantation, a formula, once read, that would summon the worst of monsters? The emperor of monsters. What if.

Quick -- tear out the page.