The transmission of charms in English, medieval and modern

Abstract

When speaking or writing about ‘charms’, it is necessary to make clear what one means by the word. Most speakers of English think of a ‘charm’ primarily as an object, a trinket, vaguely imagined to bring good luck. Charms of that type (more academically ‘amulets’ or ‘periapts’) are not being considered here. Nor are charms in the sense used by many nineteenth- and early twentieth-century folklorists when they referred to ritual actions, such as making cramp-rings out of offertory coins or identifying thieves with sieve and shears. Nor indeed am I concerned with charms in the sense of superstitious actions with attendant words, such as the late medieval ritual of cutting an apple into four and writing In nomine patris, etcetera, on the quarters, or writing a particular string of letters on a knife and stabbing a pig with it. Nor yet am I concerned with letters and words themselves when they were essentially inscrutable to their users, being used magically, as for example were sequences of sacred names or the Abracadabra and Sator Arepo formulae. What follows deals simply with verbal charms that have a sequence of thought, a rationale, usually describing an event or some supposed truth and making this the grounds for a claim to divine help or protection. Such charms may include invocations of God or of the evil to be countered; they may on occasion come close to being a prayer.