"Anaal-Nath-Rakh!" - Merlin's reptilian incantation
April 2010
 
Perhaps the best rendition of the King Arthur story I have yet seen is the 1981 version called 'Excalibur', that shows Merlin wearing a skull cap and carrying a magician's staff on top of which is found a dragon. In this movie, Merlin uses an ancient incantation to summon the dragon. The incantation goes something like this:

Anaal nath rakh!
Oot vas bethut!
Doch iel dienvay!

This is a real incantation, it has a certain feel to it, you can try it if you want but be warned, you may feel something! It uses reptilian sounds, after all it is meant to be used to call a dragon. In the movie the three lines of the incantation are mentioned over and over.The very first line is quite reptilian-sounding. In the movie, Arthur is referred to as 'Arthur Pendragon'. Morgan Le Fay plays a dark character who tricks Merlin into sharing the secrets of the 'underground crystal chamber' with her. Merlin is playing the role of a human guardian, a bit like Lumukanda from Credo Mutwa's stories.

Incantation is also used very much in ancient magic. Sometimes these formulas are obtained from nature spirits, sometimes they are created by humans, using one or another basis (universal laws, kabbala, religious names etc).

As an aside, there is a British metal band called Anaal Nathrakh that fuses black metal, grind core, death metal and industrial music. So...reptilian incantation...death metal band...I suppose the two can go together quite well. A year ago (April 2009) I wrote an article about the reptilian influences in extreme forms of metal. This is one way for some incarnations to experience certain aspects of the darkside. This group likely gets its inspiration from the movie mentioned above.



(Merlin carrying the baby Arthur Pendragon. Look at the dragon on top of his staff)