Appearances in Fiction and Folklore
After Agrippa's death, rumors circulated about him summoning demons. In the most famous of these, Agrippa, upon his deathbed, released a black dog which had been his familiar. This black dog resurfaced in various legends about Faustus, and in Goethe's version became the "schwarze Pudel" Mephistopheles.
Agrippa is introduced as a conjuror in The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), by Thomas Nashe. The protagonist, in the company of his master the Earl of Surrey (a fictionalised version of the English poet), watches him perform magical tricks at Wittenberg. Agrippa is also shown to have met Sir Thomas More and Lord Cromwell (Henry VIII's ministers) and impressed them with his incredible learning (The Unfortunate Traveller, Bk IV).
Mary Shelley mentioned Agrippa in some of her works. In her 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein, Agrippa's works were read and admired by Victor Frankenstein. In her 1833 short story "The Mortal Immortal", Agrippa is imagined as having created an elixir allowing his apprentice to survive for hundreds of years.
Søren Kierkegaard mentioned Agrippa's book On the Nobility and Excellence of the Female Sex, and the Superiority of the Same over the Male Sex in his 1845 book Stages on Life's Way.
Agrippa is briefly mentioned in Herman Melville's short story "The Bell-tower".
The novel The Fiery Angel (1908) by Valery Bryusov (on which Sergei Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel is based), set in the sixteenth century, features a visit paid to Agrippa by the protagonist Ruprecht who is seeking advice on the occult. In novel and opera, Agrippa is presented as being in a dangerous position with the religious authorities: he emphatically denies to Ruprecht that his research is supernatural, stating instead that it is the study of nature itself.
Agrippa is briefly mentioned in Joyce's 1916 novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as being known to the protagonist Stephen: "A phrase of Cornelius Agrippa flew through his mind".
In Václav Havel's modern rewrite of Doctor Faustus, Fistula tempts Doctor Foustka to indulge in witchcraft, noting that he has several books by occultists such as Agrippa, Nostradamus, Eliphas Levi, and Papus.
He is mentioned in Jorge Luis Borges' Labyrinths in the story "The Immortal", "Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist."
Agrippa is a major character in Alex Comfort's 1980 novel "Tetrarch", supposing that in the last few minutes of his life, he "shamanized" into the world of the novel, became an "adept" and an ally and lover to the central characters of the novel. His treatise "On the Excellence and Preeminence of Women" is particularly mentioned.
Agrippa is a major character in Steve Englehart's series of Max August novels, beginning with The Point Man in 1980, and continuing through The Long Man and The Plain Man.
Agrippa is briefly mentioned in the Harry Potter series, appearing on a Chocolate Frog card. According to his card he was imprisoned for his writings (possibly about magic) because Muggles thought they were works of evil.
A medallion accredited to Cornelius Agrippa is used in Mike Mignola's comic book short story Hellboy: The Corpse; it was mentioned as being effective against a vampire cat from Kyoto and proved valuable against a war-god/pig-man.
A fictional architect by the name C. Agrippa was charged to design and construct the great Temple of Agrippa which is one of the five major environments in the alchemy-themed adventure game Zork Nemesis.
Cornelius Agrippa is the name of one of the feudal lords and ladies who rule over the lands of Alyria in the text-based MUD, Materia Magica.
Agrippa is a key figure in Peter Straub's 2010 novel A Dark Matter.
Agrippa is a character in Frictional Games' 2010 video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In the game, his soul is trapped in an emaciated human husk where he was imprisoned by his former pupil, the Prussian Baron, Alexander of Brennenburg. He guides Daniel, the protagonist, and informs him of his past work and experience with Alexander. He can also be saved by giving him a potion made by his pupil Johann Weyer.
Agrippa is mentioned in chapter 13 of Phantastes, A Faerie Romance by George MacDonald. The character of Cosmo von Wehrstahl has a secret drawer, in which "...lay the works of Albertus Magnus and Cornelius Agrippa... ."
Read more about this topic: Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
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