A Journey Charm

The so-called "Journey Charm" (Old English: Færeld Spell) is one of the 12 Anglo-Saxon metrical charms written in Old English. It is a prayer written to summon protection from God and various other Christian figures from the hazards of the road.[1] It is of particular interest as evidence for popular Anglo-Saxon Christian religion.[2]

Content

A Journey Charm was a Speech Act, or a performative incantation, chant or prayer that was performed before a journey to ward off evil on the journey.[3] It mainly deals with a list of biblical characters, invoking their blessing, including everyone from Adam to Christ to Peter and Paul. The poem reflects the martial character of Anglo-Saxon Christian culture: Luke gives the journeyer a sword, Seraphim give him a "glorious spear of radiant good light", and he is well armed, with mail and shield too. The text gives us a unique insight into popular religious practices of Anglo-Saxon culture, and the particular rituals prescribed for journeys.

History

The charm survives in only one manuscript: the eleventh-century Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 41, where it is written into the margins of pp. 350-53.[1]

This text is part of the movement from Oral Tradition to a Writing tradition, and so is marked as Transitional Literature- a type of go-between in which oral performances are copied, but some of the performance parts are lost, assumed to be inferred, or hinted at.[4]

Facsimiles and Editions
  • Foys, Martin et al. Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project (Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019-); digital facsimile edition and Modern English translation

References
  1. Stuart, Heather (1981). "'Ic me on þisse gyrde beluce': the Structure and Meaning of the Old English Journey Charm". Medium Ævum. 50 (2): 259–273. doi:10.2307/43628610. JSTOR 43628610. ProQuest 1293319409.
  2. Amies, Marion (July 1983). "The Journey Charm: A lorica for life's journey". Neophilologus. 67 (3): 448–462. doi:10.1007/BF01878311. S2CID 161523196. ProQuest 1301905835.
  3. Garner, Lori Ann (2004). "Anglo-Saxon Charms in Performance". Oral Tradition. 19 (1): 20–42. doi:10.1353/ort.2004.0089. hdl:10355/64982. S2CID 56119069.
  4. Rupp, Katrin (2008). "The Anxiety of Writing: A Reading of the Old English Journey Charm". Oral Tradition. 23 (2): 255–266. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.558.3817. doi:10.1353/ort.0.0026. S2CID 162443661.
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