This article was downloaded by: [University of Sydney] On: 04 May 2015, At: 15:55 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Folklore Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfol20 The Folk-Lore of Herbals Eleanour Sinclair Rohde Published online: 14 Feb 2012. To cite this article: Eleanour Sinclair Rohde (1922) The Folk-Lore of Herbals, Folklore, 33:3, 243-264, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1922.9720550 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1922.9720550 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 15:55 04 May 2015 THE FOLK-LORE OF HERBALS. ELEANOCR SINCLAIR RORDE. THE subject of the paper I have been asked to read this evening is so vast that it is impossible to deal with it in any detail, and one can only touch on its broadest outlines. The Anglo-Saxon manuscripts on herbs alone are mines of valuable information to the student of folk-lore, and it is with these I propose to begin. The most important of these manuscripts are the famous Leech Book of Bald (Brit. Mus. MS. Reg. 12), generally believed to have been written during Alfred's reign and possibly by some one who was a personal friend of the King, the Saxon transla­ tion of the Herbarium Apuleius (Brit. Mus. Cottonian MSS. Vitellius C. Ill), the Lacnunga (Brit. Mus. Harleian MS. 585), containing the remarkable alliterative lay in praise of herbs—supposed to have been written in the tenth century but probably a copy of a much older MS.—and the Saxon translation of the IIEPI AIAASEfiN (Brit. Mus. Harleian MS. 6258). In these manuscripts one is trans­ ported to an age older than ours, and yet in some ways so young that we have lost the magic key of it. For in them we read not only of herbs and the endless uses our fore­ fathers made of them, but if we try and read them with understanding they open for us a magic casement through Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 15:55 04 May 2015 which we see the past bathed in a glamour of romance. We see "as through a glass darkly " a time when grown men believed in elves and goblins as naturally as they believed in trees, an age when it was the belief of everyday folk that the air was peopled with unseen powers of evil 244 The Folk-Lore of Herbals. against whose machinations definite remedies must be applied. Not only the stars of heaven, but springs of water and the simple wayside herbs were to them directly associated with unseen beings. I propose to take first folk-lore connected with the origin of disease, then folk-lore connected with the curing of disease, ceremonies to be performed in the picking and administering of herbs, mystic power of earth, etc. I regret that it is impossible in a short paper to touch on the comparative folk-lore of this subject. The great bulk of the folk-lore connected with the origin of disease is probably of native Teutonic origin. It would be more correct to say of Indo-Germanic origin, for these doctrines are to be found among all Indo-Germanic peoples and even in the Vedas, notably the Atharva Veda. Beliefs in connection with the origin of disease. The doctrine of the elf-shot. The ancient Teutonic races believed that disease was due to supernatural beings whose shafts produced illness in their victims. All the Teutonic tribes believed that waste places,1 and marshes in particular, were the resort of these mischievous beings. These elves were of many different kinds—mountain elves, wood elves, sea elves, water elves, etc. It is possible that the water elves were the personification of the unwholesome effects of marshy lands. These elves not only attacked Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 15:55 04 May 2015 people but also cattle, and references to elf-shot cattle are numerous. It is interesting to find in the Leech Book of Bald a charm implying an effort to bury the elf in the earth. This is to be found at the end of the charm for a man " in the water-elf disease." " If a man is in the water-elf disease then are the nails of his hand livid and the eyes tearful and he will look downwards. Give him this for leechdom 1 Also a Babylonian belief. See Campbell Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia. The Folk-Lore of Herbals. 245 a yewberry, lupin, wormwood. Sing this charm over him twice— ' I have wreathed round the wound The best of healing wreaths That the baneful sores may Neither burn nor burst Nor find their way further, Nor turn foul and fallow, Nor thump and thole on Nor be wicked wounds Nor dig deeply down ; But he himself may hold In a way to health. Let it ache thee no more Than ear in Earth acheth.' Sing also this many times : ' May earth bear on thee with all her might and main.' " For horses and cattle suffering from " elf-shot," see Leech Book I. cap. 65 and 88.1 Flying venom. Closely allied to the belief in " elf-shot " is the belief in flying venom. It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase " flying venoms " as the graphic Anglo- Saxon way of describing infectious diseases, but the various synonymous phrases " the on flying things," " the loathed things that rove through the land," suggest something of more malignant activity. The idea of the wind blowing these venoms which produced diseases in the bodies on Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 15:55 04 May 2015 which they lighted is frequently found in Teutonic folk-lore. In the alliterative lay in the Lacnunga the wind is described as blowing these venoms from Woden's magic twigs, and the evil effects are blown away by the magician's song and the health-giving effects of salt and water and herbs. In the Leech Book I. 72, we find that these flying venoms were particularly malignant " fifteen nights ere Lammas and 1 For elf-shot, see also Leech Book I. cap. 64 ; II. cap. 65 ; III. 54, 61, 62, 63, 65. 246 The Folk-Lore of Herbals. after it for five and thirty nights." See also Leech Book I. cap. 72; Lacnunga, 6; Leech Book II. 64, 65. This doctrine of the flying venom finds its counterpart in a particular class of demon frequently mentioned in the Babylonian tablets, in one of which they are described as " the bitter venom of the gods." The worm as the ultimate source of disease. Perhaps the most interesting feature in the elements of Teutonic folk­ lore to be found in these manuscripts is the doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of disease. The best example of this is in the alliterative lay in the Lacnunga. The opening lines describe the war between Woden (the supreme Teutonic god, the dispenser of victory, good health and prosperity) and the serpent. Disease arose from the nine fragments into which he smote the serpent, and these diseases blown by the wind are counteracted by the nine magic twigs and salt water and herbs, and the disease is again blown away from the victim. Worms were regarded as the source of all disease, and we have this description of an internal malady: "at whiles worms from the nether parts seek the upper parts up as far as the maw, and they also work heart disease and oppressive sensations and swoonings so that sometimes some men by gnawing of the worms die and go to the dogs." In Lacnunga (95) there is a counting-out charm given which is said to be " medicine for thee from worm and from every mischief." The doctrine of the worm is also in Babylonian Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 15:55 04 May 2015 literature, and one incantation ends—"So must thou say this : ' 0 Worm may Ea smite thee with the might of his fist.' " 1 It is noteworthy that not only in Anglo-Saxon medicine but for many centuries afterwards toothache was ascribed to a worm in the tooth. Demoniac possession. Side by side with the doctrines of the elf-shot and flying venom we have the ancient Eastern doctrine that disease is due to demoniac possession.