Contents
In its first appearance, Bloch describes the book as containing "spells and enchantments", particularly those that can summon strange entities. One such spell, included in a "chapter dealing with familiars," summons the titular "shambler from the stars"--referred to in the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game as a star vampire. The story also notes that that book contains references to "such gods of divination as Father Yig, dark Han, and serpent-bearded Byatis"--this last the first mention of a Cthulhoid entity later developed by Ramsey Campbell.
In a subsequent series of Cthulhu Mythos stories connected with Ancient Egypt, Bloch expanded on the contents of De Vermis Mysteriis. "The Faceless God" (1936) notes that Prinn "awesomely implies his knowledge" of Nyarlathotep, "the oldest god of all Egypt". In "The Brood of Bubastis", "The Secret of Sebek", and "Fane of the Black Pharaoh" (all published in 1937), Bloch refers to a chapter of Prinn's book called "Saracenic Rituals", which is said to have "revealed the lore of the efreet and the djinn, the secrets of the Assassin sects, the myths of Arabian ghoul-tales, the hidden practices of dervish cults" and "the legends of Inner Egypt". These stories use Prinn's chapter as a device to provide backstory on the cults of Bubastis and Sebek, and on the Pharaoh Nephren-Ka's worship of Nyarlathotep.
In later, non-Mythos horror stories, Bloch still occasionally made reference to his invented tome. Bloch's "The Sorcerer's Jewel" (1939) briefly mentions "Prinn's chapter on divination" as a potential source for information on "The Star of Sechmet", a mysterious crystal. The book plays a larger role in "Black Bargain" (1942), in which it is described as
- something...that told you how you could compound aconite and belladonna and draw circles of phosphorescent fire on the floor when the stars were right. Something that spoke of melting tallow candles and blending them with corpse-fat, whispered of the uses to which animal sacrifices might be put. It spoke of meetings that could be arranged with various parties most people don't...even believe in... cold deliberate directions for traffic with ancient evil....
"Philtre Tip" (1961), quite literally a shaggy dog story, cites "Ludvig Prinn's Grimoire, in the English edition", as the source for the recipe for a love potion. Bloch quotes Prinn for the first time since "The Shambler from the Stars": "The meerest droppe, if placed in a posset of wine or sack, will transforme ye beloved into a veritable bitche in heate."
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