Penny Dreadful2014

[Ferdinand Lyle tells the story of the Verbis Diablo to the group]

Dr. Victor Frankenstein:
So you're the Chappy who's going to translate the mythical language?

Ferdinand Lyle:
Not so mythical as you think, young man. The Verbis Diablo, the Devil's Tongue, has roots as old as Aramaic, and likely much older. It was an oral tradition for the most part, like most now dead languages. We haven't entirely lost it, we've just forgotten it.

Sir Malcolm Murray:
And if I were to tell you it's spoken now? In London?

Ferdinand Lyle:
I should express surprise, but not complete bafflement. Note I said it was an oral tradition for the most part. There is one written example of the language. Relics of a sort. In a long-forgotten box deep in the archives of the British Museum, and I can't imagine anyone has looked at them in years. In the 11th century, a Carthusian monk known to us as Brother Gregory began to lose his mind. He said he was possessed by a demon, perhaps the father of all demons, the fallen angel himself. In any event, this demon spoke to him in the Verbis Diablo. Brother Gregory wrote down what it said on whatever was to hand. Having nothing like science to consult, his brothers finally pronounced Brother Gregory mad, and locked him away. But his lunatic ravings are now in the British Museum. The only existing written example of this seemingly dead language. If we seek to understand the Verbis Diablo, we must start there.