Myths and mandrakes
Others, however, began to wonder whether the possession of roots might not bring them success in other areas as well—wealth, popularity, or the power to control their own and other people’s destinies, and took to wearing them as good luck charms.
Anaphrodisiac Charms in the Nordic Middle Ages: Impotence, Infertility, and Magic
This essay, however, looks to explore, not this seductive form of charm magic, but rather its opposite, ie charm magic that prevents the consumption of a relationship, or that makes a fruitful union impossible.
The Beginning of Card Games
Records of card playing begin to appear in Europe about the year 1300. The cards in use in the preceding century were in the
hands of the wandering gypsies who came across the mountains of southern Europe, from whence no one knew.
Drauginir: Revenants in Old Icelandic Sagas
It is this humanity in a monster that helps to show why these draugar fascinate us so much. The “others” that exist outside the boundaries of society: the weird old ladies that people label as evil witches, the misshapen, the “freaks” that Tod Browning made famous are funhouse mirror images of ourselves.
Nordic Witchcraft in Transition: Impotence, Heresy and Diabolism in 14th-century Bergen
Within the orbit of witchcraft, what is the relationship between sexuality, heresy, and diabolism?
Odin, Magic and a Swedish Trial from 1484
If we are to believe any number of histories, spiritual life in medieval Scandinavia, and especially the conversion to Christianity, is readily summarized: paganism collapsed against Christian conversion efforts in dramatic fashion at a meeting of the Alþing, or when a missionary bore hot iron, or an exiled king had a deep religious experience, or when a pagan revolt was finally overcome, and so on.
Angelic Demons: Witchcraft and Sorcery in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
In Chaucer’s tales regarding magic and sorcery, three stand out in particular: The Franklin’s Tale, the Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale.
Pagan traces in medieval and early modern European witch-beliefs
The aim of this research is to explore how pre-Christian beliefs, cults and popular traditions may have indirectly survived in early modern and medieval European witch-beliefs.
Plant hallucinogens as magical medicines
Did witches once soar through the night sky on broomsticks? Or were they hallucinating after eating or touching certain plants? Angelika Börsch-Haubold explains how modern pharmacology helps us to understand the action of many toxic plants – some of which are still used in medicine.
Reflections on The Malleus Maleficarum in Light of the Trial of Joan of Arc
Although Joan’s trial took place in France and The Malleus Maleficarum was published in Germany, they are suitable for comparison because this text became the definitive manual for witchcraft inquisitors across Europe.
Imagining the Witch: A Comparison between Fifteenth-Century Witches within Medieval Christian Thought and the Persecution of Jews and Heretics in the Middle Ages
This paper will examine how the prominent image of the witch in Christian thought during the early modern period emerged from earlier images of the non-Christian Other, Jews and heretics for example.
Clerical Conceptions of Magic and the Stereotype of the Female Witch
One of the specific aspects of witchcraft that has seen considerable attention in recent years is its relationship to gender. Both Bailey and Broedel have made admirable contributions to uncovering the historical development of a feminine witch concept.
Seduction, Abandonment, and Sorcery in Middle English Lyrics
My purpose in writing this article is to expose a different view of romantic relationships that exist in medieval literature, a view that is in opposition to courtly love.
“The World on the End of a Reed”: Marguerite Porete and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations – a reassessment
Central to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete „fit‟ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not „fit‟ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period.
The Saints of Epilepsy
It will be seen below that many of the legendary happenings on which belief in the curative powers of saints was based were ridiculously improbable or impossible.
Seeking the Supernatural: The Exorcisms of John Darrell and the Formation of an Orthodox Identity in Early Modern England
This thesis examines the questions raised by Darrell‘s exorcisms and the ways in which they were shaped by relations of power. I hope that it will shed new light on the ways in which people formed their religious and ideological identities in this pivotal period in English history.
Fossils as Drugs: pharmaceutical palaeontology
The present paper surveys the medicinal applications of a number of fossils which were well known in classical, mediaeval and renaissance times….
Dreaming of dwarves: Nightmares and Shamanism in Anglo-Saxon Poetics and the Wid Dweorh Charm
Psychological and psychiatric ailments must have baffled early medical practitioners.