Nine Herbs Charm

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The Nine Herbs Charm , also Nine word Galdor (Engl. Nine herbs blessings or spells ) is a work of Old English poetry from the 9th or 10th century AD and describes the action and preparation of nine medicinal herbs (nine herb soup). It has come down to us in the Lacnunga manuscript, a collection of old English , mainly pagan healing methods.

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The text consists of three parts: the herbal invocation, the saying and the recipe. Nine herbs are addressed one after the other and their effects are explained. The latter often happens through analogies : The resistance of the plantain on the roadside z. B. should be transferred to the patient:

Ond þu, wegbrade, wyrta modor,
eastan openo, innan mihtigu;
ofer ðe crætu curran, ofer ðe cwene reodan,
ofer ðe bryde bryodedon, ofer þe fearras fnærdon.
Eallum þu þon wiðstode and wiðstunedest;
swa ðu wiðstonde attre and onflyge
and þæm laðan þe geond lond fereð.

Translation:

And you, plantain, mother of herbs,
open to the east, powerful inside;
Carts drove over you, queens rode over you
Brides wept over you, oxen snorted.
You resist and resist all of them;
so you also resist poison and contagion
and the hated (enemy) who drives across the land.
(Verses 7-13)

So far, the herbs have only been partially identified:

Surname new english Latin German
mucgwyrt Mugwort artemisia vulgaris mugwort
brade away Plantain plantago maior (Broad) Plantain
stun Lamb's cress cardamine hirsuta Hairy foam herb
or Corn salad valerianella locusta Ordinary lamb's lettuce
or Watercress nasturtium officinale or rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum Watercress
stiðe Nettle urtica dioica and urtica urens Large and small nettles
attorlaðe Betony , also bishopswort or woundwort stachys betonica , betonica officinalis Heilziest
or Black nightshade solanum nigrum Black nightshade
or Viper's bugloss echium vulgare Common adder head
or Cock's track grass panicum crus galli or echinochloa crus galli Chicken millet
mægðe Chamomile , also mayweed or maythe anthemis cotula chamomile
wergulu Crab-apple or wood-sour apple pyrus malus Wild apple
fille Chervil anthriscus cerefolium Garden chervil
finule Fennel foeniculum vulgare fennel

These herbs are said to help against the poison of snakes and worms and against infection.

The second part of the text tells how Wōden chopped a snake into nine pieces, and all diseases and poisons against which the herbs mentioned are supposed to help are listed in formulaic repetitions. If the blessing otherwise gives the impression of a recipe collection, the character of the old Germanic magic spell shines through here.

Wyrm com snican, toslāt he man,
ða genam Wōden VIIII wuldortānas,
slōhða þa næddran, þæt heo on VIIII tofleah.

Translation:

A dragon came sneaking up and tore a man apart
then Woden took nine branches of fame,
so struck the serpent that it fell apart in nine (parts).
(Verses 31-33)

The recipe, the last part of the text, provides instructions for preparing the nine herbs and using the resulting ointment.

reception

The identification of the herbs is the greatest challenge. Possible approaches are similarity of names as well as similarity in preparation and effects - some of the herbs mentioned (such as nettle, mugwort, chervil, chamomile) are still known today for their medicinal properties . The deciphering of mythological allusions is also a research field of science.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Recipe according to Hildegard von Bingen : https://www.br.de/br-fernsehen/sendung/ Zwischen-spessart-und-karwendel/kraeuter-suppe- rezept- hildegard-von-bingen- 100.html
  2. ↑ According to http://www.heorot.dk/woden-9herbs-i.html and http://www.galdorcraeft.de/
  3. ↑ See http://www.pagannews.com/cgi-bin/articles1.pl?60
  4. ^ Ernst Alfred Philipsson: Germanic paganism among the Anglo-Saxons , Verlag B. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1929. P. 153.
  5. ↑ Ake V. Ström, Haralds Biezais : Germanic and Baltic religion . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-17-001157-X . P. 100.

See also

Web links