Itinera Petrī: Flammae Dūcant
Itinera Petrī: Flammae Dūcant (The Journeys of Peter: Let the Flames Lead) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Robert Patirck in 2015. It tells the story of Peter, a boy who sees a vision in the mirror of a flame around his head and hears the words “Let the flames lead you.” This takes him on a fantasy adventure complete with talking animals, wild beasts, kings, and wizards. It is notable for its fantasy-adventure plot in a modern setting, and for its high word count, longer sentences, and relatively complex sentences.Available from Amazon.
Reading level
The author’s introduction states that this novella “was written for the intermediate-mid Latin student in mind.” Comprehensible Antiquity puts this novella at Level F, and gives a full review here. In his ranking of 13 novellas, John Piazza ranks it as the hardest. It was also reviewed in The Classical Outlook (vol. 91, no. 2); a link can be found here.
Diverse & Multicultural Identities
For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.Parallel cultures
No depictions identified. (Indeed, the setting and culture of the story are never given.)Gender
Features one cis male main character (Peter). Features no cis female main characters or transgender main characters.Sexual identity
No depictions identified. (Peter has a mother and father, but his father left him.)SES/class
No depictions identified.Religion
No depictions identified.Disability
No depictions identified.Language Statistics
Vocabulary
Word List
A complete word list for Itinera Petrī: Flammae Dūcant can be found here.
Glosses
This novella contains glosses in the form of footnotes with translations into English, explanations in Latin, or notes on the tenses of verbs.
Of the 482 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 23.0 of them (4.8%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 4209 total words in the text, 44.0 of them (1.0%) are glossed.
Of the 482 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 23.0 of them (4.8%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 4209 total words in the text, 44.0 of them (1.0%) are glossed.
Glossary
This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with words listed by headword only. The glossary is incomplete; some words used in the text are not found in the glossary. There are also some words found in the glossary that are not used in the text.
Syntax
The ratio of complex sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are complex sentences, on average. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence with one or more subordinate clauses or verb phrases.
Summary
Genre & Sources
This novella is in the genre of modern, with fantasy elements.
It is not an adaptation of any particular piece of literature.
It is not an adaptation of any particular piece of literature.
Complete Plot Summary
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Peter (Petrus) is a boy living with his mother; his father has left him. One morning, while looking in the bathroom mirror, he sees flames surrounding his head and hears the words “Let the flames lead you.” He goes outside and sees flames surrounding the moon and heads in that direction into the forest. He meets an old woman who gives him an amulet. She invites him to sleep in her house; while Peter sleeps he is visited by a man who tells him he must make a journey. The next day, Peter leaves the house and meets a talking red dog named Flamma (“flame”). Flamma explains that he had been visited in his dreams by the same man, who told him to find Peter. Suddenly they hear a loud noise and see animals rushing to the river: a beast is coming. They dive into the river to escape the beast. Then, Flamma’s cat friend explains that Peter must buy a substance called the Blood of the Dark Dragon in order to fend off the beast. He buys it, and the next time he is attacked by the beast, the Blood of the Dark Dragon encloses the beast in flames. Next, Peter comes upon a farm where a girl explains that her whole family has become insane. Using the amulet, Peter heals the family. The father of the family reveals that he is the king of this land, and they had been driven insane by a wizard who seized control of the castle. Peter goes to the castle and meets the wizard. The wizard says that he is Peter’s father. Peter defeats the wizard with the help of the amulet. The king rewards him by adopting him as a son and giving him the kingdom.
First 100 Words
Underlined words are glossed in the text.Ego graviter dormiēbam. Subitō māter mē ē somnīs clāmōribus ēgit. “Quid? Tū adhūc dormīs? Quid tū hodiē agis, puer ignāve? Num tōtum diem dormiēs?” Lentē, ē lectō mē agēbam. Ad balneum ego iī. In speculō ego imāginem meī vīdī. Ūnō mōmentō mē vīdī dēfessum et somniōsum, tum mōmentō proximō, mē vīdī lūcidum et fortem. Flammae circum caput agēbant! Valdē timuī! “Quid est hoc?” ego putābam. “Quid hās flammās circum mē agit?”
Subitō, vōcem audīvī: “Flammae tē dūcant.” Iterum iterumque, in mente haec vocābula audīvī: Flammae tē dūcant. Flammae tē dūcant.
Supplementary Materials
If you have resources for Itinera Petrī: Flammae Dūcant and would like to share them on LNDb, please contact me.Presentation
| Illustrations? | yes |
| Illustrator | Ivan Duong |
| Macrons? | yes |
| Font | Arial |
| Pages of story | 53 |
| Total pages | 64 |
| Chapters | 12 |
Key Information
| Publication date | September 27, 2015 |
| Publisher | Pomegranate Beginnings Publishing |
| ISBN | 069254416X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0692544167 |
