Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland

J. Carey

Description

This is the first book to examine the full range of the evidence for Irish charms, from medieval to modern times. As Ireland has one of the oldest literatures in Europe, and also one of the most comprehensively recorded folklore traditions, it affords a uniquely rich body of evidence for such an investigation. The collection includes surveys of broad aspects of the subject (charm scholarship, charms in medieval tales, modern narrative charms, nineteenth-century charm documentation); dossiers of the evidence for specific charms (a headache charm, a nightmare charm, charms against bleeding); a study comparing the curses of saints with those of poets; and an account of a newly discovered manuscript of a toothache charm. The practices of a contemporary healer are described on the basis of recent fieldwork, and the connection between charms and storytelling is foregrounded in chapters on the textual amulet known as the Leabhar Eoin, on the belief that witches steal butter, and on the nature of the belief that effects supernatural cures.

List of Illustrations and Maps
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
1. Jacqueline Borsje – European and American Scholarship and the Study of Medieval Irish ‘Magic’ (1846–1960)
2. John Carey – Charms in Medieval Irish Tales: Tradition, Adaptation, Invention
3. Cathinka Dahl Hambro – The Religious Significance of the sén 7 soladh in Altram Tige Dá Medar
4. Ilona Tuomi – Nine Hundred Years of the Caput Christi Charm: Scribal Strategies and Textual Transmission
5. Ksenia Kudenko – In Defence of the Irish Saints who ‘Loved Malediction’
6. Barbara Hillers – Towards a Typology of European Narrative Charms in Irish Oral Tradition
7. Nicholas M. Wolf – Nineteenth-Century Charm Texts: Scope and Context
8. Joseph J. Flahive – A Toothache Charm in a Manuscript Fragment of John Lysaght
9. Bairbre Ní Fhloinn – ‘The Cure for Bleeding’: Charms and Other Cures for Blood-stopping in Irish Tradition
10. Deirdre Nuttall – ‘Cahill’s Blood’: Mr Cahill Makes the Cure
11. Denis McArdle – Aisling na Maighdine: The Virgin’s Dream in Irish Oral Tradition
12. Gearóid Ó Crualaoich – An Leabhar Eoin: The ‘In Principio’ Charm in Oral and Literary Tradition
13. Shane Lehane – The Cailleach and the Cosmic Hare
14. Stiofán Ó Cadhla – ‘We’ll talk now about charms’: Knowledge as Folklore and Folklore as Knowledge
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Histoire
• Ireland
• History
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786834935
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

New Approaches to Celtic Religion and Mythology

CHARMS, CHARMERS AND CHARMING IN IRELAND

NEW APPROACHES TO CELTIC RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY

Series Editor Jonathan Wooding,University of Sydney

Editorial Board Jacqueline Borsje,University of Amsterdam John Carey,University College Cork Joseph F. Nagy,University of California, Los Angeles Thomas O’Loughlin,University of Nottingham Katja Ritari,University of Helsinki

New Approaches to Celtic Religion and Mythology

CHARMS, CHARMERS AND CHARMING IN IRELAND FROM THE MEDIEVAL TO THE MODERN

EDITED BY ILONA TUOMI, JOHN CAREY, BARBARA HILLERS AND CIARÁN Ó GEALBHÁIN

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS 2019

© The Contributors, 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardi CF10 3NS.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CIP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78683-492-8 e-ISBN: 978-1-78683-493-5

The right of the Contributors to be identiîed as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset by Marie Doherty Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham

C

Preface Table, Illustration and Maps List of Abbreviations Notes on Contributors

Introduction

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European and American Scholarship and the Study of Medieval Irish ‘Magic’ (1846–1960) Jacqueline Borsje

Charms in Medieval Irish Tales: Tradition, Adaptation, Invention John Carey

The Religious Signiîcance of thesén⁊soladhinAltram Tige Dá Medar Cathinka Dahl Hambro

Nine Hundred Years of theCaput ChristiCharm: Scribal Strategies and Textual Transmission Ilona Tuomi

In Defence of the Irish Saints who ‘Loved Malediction’ Ksenia Kudenko

Towards a Typology of European Narrative Charms in Irish Oral Tradition Barbara Hillers

Nineteenth-Century Charm Texts: Scope and Context Nicholas M. Wolf

A Toothache Charm in a Manuscript Fragment of John Lysaght Joseph J. Flahive

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CONTENTS

‘The Cure for Bleeding’: Charms and Other Cures for Blood-stopping in Irish Tradition Bairbre Ní Fhloinn

10‘Cahill’s Blood’: Mr Cahill Makes the Cure Deirdre Nuttall

11Aisling na Maighdine: ‘The Virgin’s Dream’ in Irish Oral Tradition Denis McArdle

12An Leabhar Eoin: TheIn PrincipioCharm in Oral and Literary Tradition Gearóid Ó Crualaoich

13TheCailleachand the Cosmic Hare Shane Lehane

14 ‘We’ll talk now about charms’: Knowledge as Folklore and Folklore as Knowledge Stiofán Ó Cadhla

Bibliography Index

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he study of charms is now again a burgeoning îeld, with research net- T works exploring the transnational phenomenon of charms and words of power across Europe and beyond. The richness of Celtic tradition is a byword, so many people would see Irish Studies as a natural participant in these networks. Access to the Irish sources is challenging even for special- ists, however, and Celtic Studies has moreover only recently emerged from a period of fraught reection on the nature – even the validity – of oral tradition, as well as upon the diversity, or otherwise, of early Irish religious culture. The contributions in this volume, however, demonstrate the great strength of work now being done on Irish charms, as well as the energy that Irish studies of religion have recently derived from collaborations with Europe. Many of the contributions in this volume also bear witness to the advances that have been made in cataloguing the material collected by our predecessors. Jacqueline’s Borsje’s further proposal, in her open- ing contribution, that we should now seek to reassess the theorising of religion by the pioneering scholars who gathered so much of our primary data is a timely one. I hope prospective contributors to this series will rise to her challenge, which chimes strongly with our manifesto. An especially attractive aspect of the study of charms is the unarguably performative character of the genre. As performative texts, whilst often found in a literary context, charms remind us that much of what comes down to us on the page cannot be solely conîned to it – which is a salutary reminder in the context of some recent approaches to Celtic Studies. In the context of the editors’ stated aim to ‘encompass the medieval and modern traditions equally’, we should also celebrate the diachronic richness of this collection. Charms, being formulaic and conservative in form, oer something for those who still wish to reach beyond the present text into the mentalities of the past. They are a data-set over which medieval phi- lologists can meet with folklorists, to their mutual beneît. All the studies in this collection, by an international selection of scholars of Irish culture, folklore and literature, oer both a vision of the potential of this data set, as well as excellent models for the approaches required to it.

Jonathan M. Wooding, Series Editor

TABLE, ILLUSTRATION AND MAPS

7.1 Medical-theme charms found in nineteenth-century texts, arranged by function

8.1 The manuscript fragment, containing a toothache charm, in the hand of John Lysaght

11.1Aisling na Maighdine: Distribution of both redactions throughout Ireland

11.2Aisling na Maighdine: Distribution of both redactions in Clare, Galway and Mayo

11.3Aisling na Maighdine: Gender of informants

11.4 ‘Google My Maps’ interface forAisling na Maighdine

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