Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland: From the Medieval to the Modern

Description

This collection surveys the rich tradition of ‘words of power’ – prayers and varieties of verbal magic, both spoken and written – together with associated rituals, in Ireland from the early Middle Ages until the present day. Presenting the work of a broad array of scholars and field researchers, it is the first book to cover the full range of the topic. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Table, Illustration and Maps List of Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Introduction 1. European and American Scholarship and the Study of Medieval Irish ‘Magic’ (1846–1960) 2. Charms in Medieval Irish Tales: Tradition, Adaptation, Invention 3. The Religious Significance of the sén 7 soladh in Altram Tige Dá Medar 4. Nine Hundred Years of the Caput Christi Charm: Scribal 5. In Defence of the Irish Saints who ‘Loved Malediction’ 6. Towards a Typology of European Narrative Charms in Irish Oral Tradition 7. Nineteenth-Century Charm Texts: Scope and Context 8. A Toothache Charm in a Manuscript Fragment of John Lysaght 9. ‘The Cure for Bleeding’: Charms and Other Cures for Blood-stopping in Irish Tradition 10. ‘Cahill’s Blood’: Mr Cahill Makes the Cure 11. Aisling na Maighdine: ‘The Virgin’s Dream’ in Irish Oral Tradition 12. An Leabhar Eoin: The In Principio Charm in Oral and Literary Tradition 13. The Cailleach and the Cosmic Hare 14. ‘We’ll talk now about charms’: Knowledge as Folklore 205 and Folklore as Knowledge Bibliography Index Back Cover