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The Anglo-Saxon Charms

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The Anglo-Saxon Charms ifS: r« ?*• ! mi' j^v;:;' 5i >#!^;;^J:i:: Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/anglosaxoncharmsOOgren ^riS_Mzoj^ i'fihAR>( ANGLO -SAXON- CHARMS BY FELIX GRENDON / ^./xS ^^ 0«-#.^^t^C ^^\^^ » ANGLO -SAXON- CHARMS IN SPECULUM BY FELIX GRENDON THE ANGLO-SAXON CHARMS BY FELIX GRENDON CONTENTS The Manuscripts and Editions 105 General Characteristics of Spells no Classification of Channs 125 Christian Elements in the Charms ....... 140 Table of Abbre\'iations 160 List of Channs not included in the Text 162 Chronologicai List of Editions 165 Text and Translation 164-165 Notes 214 JAN 2 6 1963 )c: Lmt^Ki 23849 ANGLO - SAXON- CHARMS IN SPECULUM BY FELIX GRENDON THE ANGLO-SAXON CHARMS^ BY FELIX GRENDON CONTENTS The Manuscripts and Editions 105 General Characteristics of Spells ... no Classification of Charms 123 Christian Elements in the Charms 140 Table of Abbreviations 160 List of Charms not included in the Text 162 Chronological List of Editions 165 Text and Translation 164-165 Notes 214 THE MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS No complete and separate edition of the Anglo-Saxon charms has yet been published, nor has any interpretative work been issued which covers the field ; but texts of all the known charms have been printed, and many of the poetical incantations have been singly and minutely treated from a linguistic as well as from a literary point of view. The present publication aims to furnish a detailed treatment of the subject. All the Anglo-Saxon metrical incantations are presented in the text, as well as all prose charms with vernacular or gibberish formulas; while exorcisms with Christian liturgical formulas, and Old English recipes involving charm practices, are represented by typical specimens. In the critical treatment of the exorcisms no attempt has been made to cover either the general European or the more limited Germanic field; but while a searching investigation has been made only among the Anglo-Saxon charms, incidental illustrations from othe sources — European and Asiatic — are introduced whenever needed to support an argument. The earliest English charms extant are undoubtedly those in a British * I desire to thank Professor George Philip Krapp of the University of Cincinnati for the kindness with which he gave me the benefit of his scholarship and special knowledge Witherly at every turn in this investigation. I am also indebted to Professor William Lawrence of Columbia University for many helpful suggestions and criticisms. io6 Museum manuscript (Regius 12 D xvii) which dates from the second half of the tenth century. This manuscript (described by Leonhardi [" Kleinere Ags. Schrift." p. no] and also by Cockayne [ii, xx ff.]), known as the "Leech Book," is a compilation of recipes drawn, in large part, from Greek and Latin sources. Some herbal, * and most of the trans- ferential, amulet, and remedial charms in the following pages are taken from the Regius Manuscript. Nearly all the amulet and remedial charms not in the "Leech Book'* are found in Harley 585 and in Harley 6258 b, both manuscripts in the British Museum. Harley 585, a Northumbrian manuscript of the late eleventh century, is described by Leonhardi (p. 157). It contains two collections of recipes, — the one which Cockayne called "Lacnunga," and the so-called "Herbarium.'' Harley 6258 b, a manuscript of the middle of the twelfth century (minutely described by Berberich, in his edition of the "Herbarium," pp. 1-4), furnishes another text of the "Herbarium" remedies. This Anglo-Saxon "Herbarium" is really a free translation — with interpolations from Germanic folk-lore — of a book of medical recipes ascribed to Lucius Apuleius (born about A. D. 125). Some exorcismal and herbal charms appear in the foregoing manu- scripts, but a majority of the A and B spells are scattered through sixteen manuscripts variously preserved in the British Museum, in the Cam- bridge Corpus Christi Library, and in the Bodleian and Hatton Libra- ries at Oxford. These manuscripts are named and dated in the Table of Abbreviations (p. 160). Humphrey Wanley was the first to print an Anglo-Saxon charm. In " his Antiquae Literaturae Septentrionalis, Liber Alter" (Oxford, 1705), he included texts of A 14, A 16, and A 21. The collations were fairly accurate, but were unaccompanied by textual or other comments. Eighty years passed before the text of another spell, A 13, was published by Erasmus Nyerup, in "Symbola? ad Literaturam Teutonicam Anti- quiorem editae sumtibus P. Fr. Suhm. (Havniae, 1787)." Another gap of sixty years ensued. Then, from the time that B. Thorpe ("Anaiecta Anglo-Saxonica" [London, 1834]) and T.Wright ("Reliquiae Antiquae" [2 vols., London, 1841]) included one or two conjurations in their respec- tive volumes, critical notices and editions began to appear. A pioneer in charm criticism was Jacob Grimm, who, in 1842, cited a few of the poetical incantations in his "Deutsche Mythologie" (Gottingen, 1835), chapter on " Spriiche und Segen," and in a later edition of the same work made other citations in the "Anhang" under "Beschworungen." The * The spells here collected (pp. 164-213) are arranged in five groups, designated A, B, C, D, and E respectively. For an explanation of the grouping, see p. 123. All the minor spells not here printed are indicated by double letters : AA, BB, CC, etc. A list of these follows the Table of Abbreviations (see p. 162). I07 charms in the 1842 edition were accompanied by emended forms and brief critical passages, but those in the " Anhang" were printed without comment. Grimm was of course deaHng with the Germanic field in of general ; yet in his discussion magic formulas he gave considerable space to Anglo-Saxon material ; and while his emendations were not always happy ones, his work is noteworthy for the prominence given to exor- cismal lore, for the first German renderings of EngHsh spells, and for the first printed appearance of any of the prose charms.^ The five chrono- logically succeeding editions each contain from one to six of the charms, copied from Grimm. These editors were J. M. Kemble ("The Saxons in England" [2 vols., London, 1849]), who translated some of the formulas; L. F. Klipstein ('^Anxilecta Anglo- Saxonica" [2 vols., New York, 1849]); L. Ettmiiller (''Engla and Seaxna Sc6pas and Boceras" [Quedlinburg, 1850]), who first suggested improvements on Grimm's readings ; K. W. Bouterwek (" Caedmon's des Angelsachsen biblische Dichtungen" [2 Telle, Giitersloh, 1854]); and Max Rieger ("Alt- und angelsachsisches Lesebuch " [Giessen, 1861]). So far, no recognition had been given to the charms as a separate body of Old English material. In 1864, however, T. O. Cockayne published " " his Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England (3 vols., London, 1864), containing the surviving medical books of the Anglo- Saxons, and two sections entitled " Charms." With four exceptions, this book included all extant Old English conjurations, although these were not all arranged consecutively. Indeed, the two sections of charms com- prised but a fraction of the whole body of spells, the majority of which were scattered through the several books of recipes. Cockayne did not attempt any interpretative treatment of the incantations, but confined himself to a discussion of the Greek and Latin sources from which many Anglo-Saxon charms were borrowed. After Cockayne, texts of single charms were issued in reading-books, anthologies, and periodicals. Editions appeared in the works of Rask- Thorpe ("A Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Tongue," 2d ed., revised and translated by B. Thorpe [London, 1865]); Henry Sweet ("An Anglo- Saxon Reader" [Oxford, 1876]); W. de Gray Birch ("On Two Anglo- Saxon MSS. in the British Museum" [in "Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature," 2d series, xi, 463 ff., London, 1878]); R. P. Wiilker ("Kleinere angelsachsische Dichtungen" [Halle, 1882]); H. Berberich ("Das Herbarium Apuleii" [Heidelberg, 1902]); and J. M. McBryde, Jr. ("Charms to Recover Stolen Cattle" [in "Modern Lan- guage Notes," xxi, 180-183]). In Berberich's book the charms are not designated as such, but merely form part of the recipe collection. Mr. McBryde, in his extended criticism of A 15, points out the separation of * translation of the The charms are retranslated into English in J. S. Stallybrass' fourth edition of Grimm's work, Teutonic Mythology (4 vols., London, 1883). — io8 Parts I and II into "formula proper** and "legal oath." In analyzing Part I, moreover, he is the first to distinguish the recurrent Anglo-Saxon charm motives on the principle adopted by O. Ebermann ("Blut- und Wundsegen" ["Palaestra," xxiv, Berlin, 1903]) in investigating German conjurations. A newly collated edition of the " Leech Book " and the " Lacnunga*" already published in Cockayne's work — was issued by G. Leonhardi ("Kleinere angelsachsische Denkmaler, I") in Wulker's "Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Prosa," Bd. vi (Hamburg, 1905). Leonhardi printed all the prose incantations belonging to the A group, and, with few exceptions, all the B, C, D, and E charms, as well as eighty out of the eighty-four charms and charm remedies referred to, but not printed, in the present edition. The spells are not specified as such, not being dis- tinguished from the rest of the collection of recipes in Leonhardi's book. There is no critical commentary, but variant readings and linguistic notes are appended to the text. An elaborate philological analysis and criticism of an Old English (" charm (viz. A 4) was first undertaken by J. Zupitza Ein verkannter englischer Bienensegen" ["Anglia," i, 189 ff., 1878]). In another paper, "Ein Zauberspruch " (ZfdA. xxxi, 45, 1887), the same editor similarly discusses A 3. Both articles included texts and German translations of the formulas under examination. In the footsteps of Zupitza followed (" " J. Hoops tJber die altenglischen Pflanzennamen [Freiburg i. B., 1889]) and O.
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