Look, a rare and valuable find!
Nov. 15th, 2007 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricWell, the last part of said essay, since the entire thing was long and boring:
3. The power of words: galdor and narrative analogy:
W. Noth defines magic as ‘neglecting the principle of independence between the sign and the “thing” referred to… There is a homology or even identity between the sign and the “thing” referred to.’[1] This is the principle which underlies magical sympathy, which I talked about in terms of the remedy for swelling, above. It is also present in the æcerbot charm, in which the four sods signify the field as a whole, and the charm is performed over them. According to Noth’s definition, there is no real difference the æcerbot charm and the Lacnunga remedy for swelling: both rely on manipulation of a sign to produce effects on the thing signified. Indeed, the collection of charms and remedies in the Lacnunga and other medical texts, without apparent discrimination, suggests that there was in fact no perceived difference in status between them.[2] Yet, however similar the two may be, there remains the crucial difference of formalised utterance. Galdor, the word used for charm, is firmly tied to the semantic fields of speech, song and incantation.[3] Charms use words to establish sympathetic relationships, rather than manipulating existing relationships. These relationships can be between the subject and a physical thing or trait, but often take the form of a narrative analogy. As an illustration, I will take the cattle-theft charm from MS. CCC. 41, Cambridge:
May nothing I own be stolen or concealed, any more than Herod could [steal or conceal] our Lord.
I thought of St Helena,
and I thought of Christ hung on the Cross.
So I think I shall find these cattle and they shall not go away far,
and I shall know where they are, and they shall not get lost,
and I shall love them, and they shall not be lead away.
Garmund, servant of God,
find those cattle and bring back those cattle,
have those cattle and keep those cattle,
and bring home those cattle,
that he never has a piece of land to lead them to,
nor a district to carry them to,
nor buildings to confine them in.
If anybody should do so, may it never come off successfully for him.
Within three days I shall know his might,
his force and his protecting powers.
May he quite perish, as wood is consumed by fire,
may he be as fragile as a thistle,
he who plans to drive away these cattle,
or to carry off these goods. Amen.[4]
The closing lines of this poem invoke physical sympathy, comparing the thief to wood and to a thistle as part of a curse upon him. However, the body of the charm, which is designed to enable the farmer to locate his cattle, relies upon narrative analogy, reinforced by triple repetitions. First, the analogy is intended to prevent theft, by establishing a link between attempted theft and Herod’s attempt on the life of the infant Christ. Subsequently, the charm addresses cattle already missing, establishing an analogy between the farmer and St Helena, who was able to find the True Cross. The third analogy takes the form of an appeal to the otherwise unknown character Garmund,[5] who can only be assumed to have some association with lost or stolen things. The appeals to St Helena and Garmund may be functioning as prayers to saints, requests for intercession, but as they are grouped with the Herod analogy, it is unlikely that intercession is their sole purpose. Rather, it seems that by establishing an analogous link between his situation and that of the Christian or heroic narrative, the farmer intends to bind the course of events to that narrative. Similarly, in the Second Merseburg Charm, the pagan example of Woden and assorted other pagan figures healing a lame foal.[6] In both cases, threefold repetition is used, with increasing force in each line, as if coaxing the effect into being.[7]
This process of narrative analogy functions similarly to the principle of sympathy, establishing the selected archetypal narrative as a sign of the process of events in the present situation. It is the establishment of this relationship which affects the course of events, rather than subsequent actions up on the sign, as sympathy operated in the remedy for swelling which I cited above. The archetypal narrative may be either Christian or pre-Christian in origin, although few (the Second Merseburg Charm being one) should be regarded as pure pagan survivals. The establishment of the analogous relationship seems to rely on the unique verbal form of the charms, which, collectively, incorporate the powerful oral formulae of Anglo-Saxon poetry and Christian liturgy, as well as passages in Latin or other garbled languages which set them apart from everyday discourse. [8]
In conclusion…
Anglo-Saxon charms represent a powerful means of controlling the course of events in Anglo-Saxon England. Once a purely oral form, they were considered important enough for preservation by the literate elite, in combination with medical texts and the best scholarship available in the day. Kieckhefer’s description of magic is difficult to directly apply to the charm corpus, not least because the Anglo-Saxon definition of magic rested upon the assumption of paganism or demonic involvement, whereas our surviving charms were written and presumably used within a firmly Christian context. His description of magic as a meeting point between the educated man and popular beliefs and practices, however, is perfectly accurate. Standing at the crossroads between orality and literacy, the charms harness the power of words to create sympathetic and analogous relationships which constrain the process of events. Words, through the charms, were the Anglo-Saxon’s way of obtaining control over the most crucial and precarious aspects of his own life.
[1] W. Noth, quoted in Cameron, ‘Anglo-Saxon medicine and magic’, p. 104.
[2] Griffiths, Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic, p. 85.
[3] Baynham, ‘The Place of Charms’.
[4] Wiþ þeofþe, ed & trans Storms, in Anglo-Saxon Magic, pp. 208-211.
[5] Storms, Anglo-Saxon Magic, p. 216.
[6] Griffiths, p. 172.
[7] Vaughan-Sterling, ‘Anglo-Saxon metrical charms’, p. 198.
[8] Vaughan-Sterling, p. 192.
if it's any consolation...
Date: 2007-11-23 11:26 am (UTC)Dosgiest essay of my essay-writing career.
I just had real trouble spelling career. But 'of my essay-writing carrier' might have been just as good, really.
I don't actually think I'll fail the whole course (depending on my presentation mark), but certainly this essay. or maybe pass. who knows.
I am rambling.
muffins,
ape - pixie
Re: if it's any consolation...
Date: 2007-11-23 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-23 11:48 am (UTC)At least.
I can probably get some.
and yet, no.
Date: 2007-12-08 03:13 am (UTC)also, sorry for running away last night. A.J. has sufficiently reprimanded me. on his birthday too.
Like how I avoid real names here?
Re: and yet, no.
Date: 2007-12-08 03:14 am (UTC)xx, pix
no subject
Date: 2007-12-08 03:45 am (UTC)I'm [we're] glad you did well in MC and OE. Yay Pixie!
Want to get a coffee sometime during the holidays? We can be poor together!