A Journey Charm

The so-called Journey Charm 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.[4]

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.[5]

Facsimile

References

  1. ↑ Stuart, H. (1981). 'Ic me on þisse gyrde beluce': The structure and meaning of the old english "journey charm". Medium Aevum,50, 259. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1293319409
  2. ↑ Amies, M. (1983). The "journey charm": A lorica for life's journey. Neophilologus, 67(3), 448. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1301905835
  3. ↑ Garner Lori Ann Garner. “Anglo-Saxon Charms in Performance.” Oral Tradition, 19:20-42, Lori (2004). "Anglo-Saxon Charms in Performance.". Oral Tradition (19: pg. 20-42).
  4. ↑ Heather Stuart, 'IC ME ON ÞISSE GYRDE BELUCE': THE STRUCTURE AND MEANING OF THE OLD ENGLISH "JOURNEY CHARM"', Medium Ævum, 50 (1981), 259-73 (at p. 259), DOI: 10.2307/43628610; http://www.jstor.org/stable/43628610.
  5. ↑ Rupp, Katrin (March 2008). "The Anxiety of Writing: A Reading of the Old English “Journey Charm”". The Oral Tradition 23.2, 255-266.http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/23ii/06_23.2.pdf
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