Textual Magic: Charms and Written Amulets in Medieval England

by Katherine Storm Hindley

An expansive consideration of charms as a deeply integrated aspect of the English Middle Ages.
 
Katherine Storm Hindley explores words at their most words that people expected would physically change the world. Medieval Europeans often resorted to the use of spoken or written charms to ensure health or fend off danger. Hindley draws on an unprecedented archive of more than a thousand such charms from medieval England—more than twice the number gathered, transcribed, and edited in previous studies and including many texts still unknown to specialists on this topic. Focusing on charms from 1100 to 1350 CE as well as previously unstudied texts in Latin, French, and English, Hindley addresses important questions of how people thought about language, belief, and power. She describes seven hundred years of dynamic, shifting cultural landscapes, where multiple languages, alphabets, and modes of transmission gained and lost their protective and healing power. Where previous scholarship has bemoaned a lack of continuity in the English charms, Hindley finds surprising links between languages and eras, all without losing sight of the extraordinary variety of the medieval charm a continuous, deeply rooted part of the English Middle Ages.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Historical

312 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2023

Reviews

[Rosa]

Really interesting history with an impressive basis in the manuscript sources. I liked the attention Hindley paid to differentiating between spoken and written charms, and the boxes with charm examples in them are extremely fun.

A warning for nonspecialists like myself: Hindley does not translate Middle English.

[hope h.]

CRAZY EXCITED FOR THIS