Abdou, Angela, ‘Speech and Power in Old English Conversion Narratives’, Florilegium, 17 (2000), 195–212. Some irritating inaccuracies: ‘Based loosely on Felix’s Vita Sancti Guthlaci, the two related poems which are known as Guthlac A and Guthlac B demonstrate the way in which...’--B surely not basedloosely (204); ‘The use of heroic diction does suggest action, a war of words, but it is the devils, not Guthlac, who choose this particular battlefield’ (204)--rubbish. Brief emph on heroic diction (of which much more than in the Latin of course—204–5). Citing Cherniss 1972, 218. ‘The two main temptations in the poem exactly recapitulate two of the temptations of Christ: they ae Guthlac’s being lifted into the air, a temptation to exalt himself in pride, and his being taken down to the gates of hell, a temptation to despair’ (205). 206–7 kind of interesting thing about Guthlac rereading events—demons say ‘we’ll take you into the air to see bad stuff; narrator says he sees bad stuff; G says ‘I saw the bright light of heaven’ c. 487; ‘Guthlac’s rereadings enable him to endure otherwise unbearable situations’ (207). Devils manipulate language (ie they lifre): 208–9. But Glc himself can use commissives, expressives and declarations—but not directives or declarations ’ cos that’s Bartholemew’s job and God’s. Speech isn’t action unless it’s god’s. (207–10).

John Abercromby, The Pre- and Proto-Historic Finns, Both Eastern and Western, with The Magic Songs, 2 vols (London: Nutt, 1898), II 356–57 (no. 215)

Abernethy, George W., ‘The Germanic Metrical Charms’ (Diss. University of Wisconsin, 1983). [Bragg 1998 calls him Abernathy—check) Eds of OE charms as in Dobbie but omits 1 and 11 cos of space; also of OHG/early MHG charms but omits 2nd merseberg charm. 1–5 re silly previous assumptions re dating and utter difficulty. Typology, refs to paganism, language etc. all in these texts no use. 8–9 dismisses ‘substitution theory’ of emending out saints’ names in charms for pagan gods instead. Obviously a rubbish theory, but perhaps should be mentioned and so distinguished from reading of saints’ narratives as serving same social functions as elves—a substitution theory of a different sort. 5–11 discussion and dismissal of efforts to take charms as ‘pagan’ in any meaningful way—whooly a part of Xian culture. Worth citing together with 1–5 (or as cf. for dating), but probably superceded by Jolly. 11–15 metre. Nothing very incisive but points up range of variation, heavy use of rhyme and allit. mixtures esp. in OHG—sounds a bit like Chron poems. Drift into alliterative prose—whatever the distinction may be. with dw. metrical bit he gives as

Re 9 herbs charm, discussion and commentary 50–79; text 17–20, trans 21–23. incl 31–35 as numbered here (p. 18):

wyrm com snican toslat he nan.

ða genam woden. viiii. wuldortanas

sloh ðaþa næddran þæt heo on viiii . tofleah

þær geændade æppel ond attor

þæt heo næfre ne wolde on hus bugan +

Looks pretty well done. Wuldortanas 67–68 lists speculation and Page JBAA 3rd ser. 27 vs this; ‘There is no reason to believe that this passage refers to runes in any way; much simpler is to take the wuldortanas to be the nine herbs themselves, with which Woden metaphorically “strikes” the wyrm’ (68). Wið ðy section noted as parallel to Bartie 18–19, geblæd section being on 19.

her com ingangan. in spiderwiht

hæfde him his haman on handa cwæð þæt þu his hæncgest wære

lege þe his teage an sweoran ongunnan him of þæm lande liþan.

sona swa hy of þæm lande coman þa ongunnan him þa lipu[sic] acolian [note 15 p. 25: ‘hīðaliþau[u over a]colian’]

þa com ingangan deores sweostaro

þa geændade[actually macron on g and no following e, n. 17] heo. and aðas swor

ðæt næfre þis ðæm [n. 18 þæ[mcr æ], above line’] adlegan [n. 18 ‘adlegan, second a corrected from n; final –n added above line’] derian ne moste

ne [n. 19 ‘ne added above line’] þæm þe þis galdor begytan mihte.

oððe þe þis galdor ongalean cuþe.

[25] amen fiað

(ed. 24–25)

Trans as ‘against a dwarf’ (26). Commentary 79–93. Goes with fever interpretation of sickness in question (79–80).

Wið fær ed. 27–28. trans 29 and goes for ‘of if it were a shot of witches’ with no comment there. Commentary etc. 93–113. likes rheumatism (93–94); headache idea possible but doesn’t leap out (94); cf.able re severity that needs to be assumed and which precludes stitch interpretation. 94–95 lays into commentators assuming its paganness and even primitive pagannessa—useful survey of past scholarship. ‘There is no real obstacle to viewing E.4 [wið fær] as an overtly Chistian charm’ (95, cf. 95–96). Habit of scholars to separate into several charms 96–98). ‘In my view it does seem reasonable to view all of the lines of E.4 as a single charm intended to overcome a sharp pain, but it must be admitted that the structure and internal logic is not particularly clear’ (98)—this claim seems to have involved sticking neck out! NB feferfuige as spelling metathesis for feferfugie (100, citing prior authorities). NB problems with beræddan—usually ‘dispossess, deprive, betray’ (104). Goes with ‘they, screaming, sent spears’, ‘cos ‘the author of the charm does not otherwise separate closely related alements across the caesura, and the phrase “they screaming” explains nicely why they were hlude, as described in l. 1’ (105). Smiths 105–107; surveys the opions for and against their friendliness; ‘Finally, Doskow (PLL 12, p. 324) argued that taking the smith of l. 14 as friendly “raises many more questions than it answers. Why should the description in the first section of the attacking forces be interrupted by the introduction of an allied force?” Doskow’s reading is perhaps the most attractive on thematic and structural grounds, but given the terseness of the allusions to the smiths and the likelihood of textual corruption in the next line (see note below) it is not possible to dertermine with absolute certainty whether the smiths are to be seen as fabricators of weapons for defense against the demonic shots, or whether they are actually part of the problem which the charm seeks to remedy’ (107). Note on semantics of hægtessan 109 (preferring ‘sorceress’), but no comment on number! 110 alas parrots the usual 2ndry refs to folklore on elf-shot re ylfa gescot.

wæterælfadl ed. 39–40; trans 36, goes for ‘water-elf disease’ (36—NB out of order in thesis!), commentary 133–43. 133–35 on semantics of wæterælfadl; some folks think it’s the same as wæterseocness, wæterbolla, wæteradl, going with ‘dropsy’, others that it’s different. in commenatry note just says ‘A triple compound of wæter + ælf + adl, i.e., “water-elf disease” ’ (137).

Commentary on bee charm 143–57 re sigewif 155–57; ‘A hapax legomenon, apparently meaning “victory-woman”. I take it to refer to the queen bee. Comparisons with the valkyries of ON myth were inevitable’ (155), good survey on and down on the idea due to no ev.  Citable if this comes up, then.

Wen charm ed. 48, from facs of Royal MS 4A.XIV folio 106b (ed. numbers lines 1–13) (see Ker catalogue p. 320; trans 49; commentary etc. 167–: 177–78 on wenchichenne, seems to like the chicken idea—lack of pal. in modern chicken is the weird thing, not the OE pal. 179–81 re nihgan berhge which seems to have cuased all sorts of problems. Weird. Goes totally for nighan as from neah and I’m with him even if this demands different quality for <hg> than in berhge. ‘A so-far overlooked possibility is that berhge may here have its other common meaning “barrow, burial place, tomb” … rather than “hill, mountain”. The former would make good sense in context since the charm-user is attempting to kill the wen’ (181). Cf. vs. Scneider’\s reading which is heavy on Norse comparisons, ‘Schneider’s interpretation has nothing to recommend it, based as it is upon textual emedation, strained readings of key words, and upon the assumption that allusive pagan Gmc. imagery could exist in a charm which shows every sign of having been composed late in the OE period. I understand the charm as follows … ll. 1–5 are an attempt to banish the wen to þan nihgan berhge (berhge perhaps having the meaning “burial mound”, an appropriate place for the wen to go to die), where his brother wen has already been sent. The brother will lay a leaf at the wen’s head, either as a cure for the wen from the charm-user’s magic, or as a burial shroud. There is a sense break at l. 56, and the magician applies three talismanic articles, a wolf’s foot, an eagle’s feather, and an eagle’s claw to the webm asserting that the wen will shrink beneath them’ (176). 182–83 re fot uolmes; ‘There is no real choice but to follow Birch et al. and take uolmes as a mistake of some kind, probably for wolves’ (183).

wenne wenne wenchichenne [note 1: ‘wenchic,henne]

her ne scealt þu timbrien [note 2: timb,rien] ne nenne tun habben

ac þu scealt north [note 3: ‘nort,h] eonene to þan nihga[a overdotted]n berhge

þer þu havest armig enne broþer

he þe sceal legge leaf et heafde

under [note 6 ‘under, d corrected from o?’] fot uolmes under veþer earnes

under earnes clea á þu geweornie

clinge þu alswa col on heorþe

scring þu alswa[overdotted a] sce[overdotted e]sne a wage[overdotted e].

and worne alswa[overdotted a] weter on anbre[?anþre—þ hard to read in this part of the microfilm; collate with other eds].

swa litel þu gewurþe alswa linsetcorn

and miccli lesse alswa anes handwurmes hupeban

and alswa litel þu gewurþe þet þu nawiht gewurþe.

German texts 185ff.

1st Merseburg charm, based on facs of Domstiftsbibliothek Merseburg Cod. 136, Bl. 85r (ed. p. 186):

Eiris sazun idisi sazun hera duo der

suma hapt heptidun suma heri lezidun

suma clubodun umbi cuoniowidi

insprinc haptbandun invar vigandun. H.

Trans 187:

Once women sat, then the high ones sat there. Some fastened shackles, some hindered an army, some picked at bonds. Escape (your) bonds. Flee (your) enemies.

Commentary 218–44; ‘Complex problems surround nearly every word of these four enigmatic lines’ (218). 227–29 re isisi; down on connection with dís and even more so on connection with valkyries. 2nd half-line gets commentary 229–36! But probably most of these dealings with mad emendors/etymologists etc.

2 charms for horses ed and trans 188–91. Clearly an issue in OHG soc. like AS. Contra vermes pecus edentes 192-3 ed. and trans. Worms again as in OE. And NB:

High German Worm Charm, based on facs of Clm. 18524, 2, fol. 203b, ed. 194:

Pro Nessia:

Gang uz nesso. mit niun nessinchilineon

uz fonna marge. in deo adra vonna den adrun in daz fleisk.

fonna demu fleiske. in daz fel. fonna demo velle. in diz tulli.

Ter Pater Norst. Similit.

[can’t be arsed with textual notes here or for other OHG texts]

Trans 195:

Pro Nessia

Go out worm, with nine little worms. Out from the marrow into the veins (?); from the veins into the flesh; from the flesh onto the skin; from the skin onto this arrow (?). Ter Pater Noster. Similit.

Old Saxon Worm Charm based on facs of Cod. 751, Vienna, folio 188v (ed. p. 196):

Contra Vermes

Gang. ût nesso. mid nigun. nessiklinon.

ut fana them. marge. an that. ben. fan themo. bene. an that. flesg

ut fan themo. flesgke. an this hud. ut fan thera. hud. an thesa strala.

drohtin werthe so.tr

Trans 197:

Contra Vermes

Go out worm, with nine little worms. Out from the marrow onto the bone; from the bone into the flesh; out from the flesh onto the skin; out from the skin onto this arrow. Lord, make it so.

Second Strassburg Blood Charm, based on Jacob Grimm, Kleinere Schriften, II, p. 29 (ed. 200):

Tumbo saz in berke mit tumbemo kint de narme

tumb heiz ter berch tumb heiz taz kint

ter heilego Tumbo versegene tiusa wunda

Ad strigendum sanguinem

trans 201:

Dumbo sat in the mountain with a dumb child in his arms. The mountain was called “dumb”. The child was called “dumb”. May the holy Dumbo bless this wound.

Ad strigendum sanguinem

380–407 lingustic/textual/metrical disucssion of ljóðatal; ed. 408–12; trans 413–15; commentary etc. 416–78.

Acker, Paul, Revising Oral Theory: Formulaic Composition in Old English and Old Icelandic Verse, Garland Studies in Medieval Literature, 16/Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 2104 (New York: Garland, 1998).

Acker, Paul, ‘Dwarf-Lore in Alvíssmál’, in The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology, ed. by Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 215-227. ‘Examining this poem as a source of dwarf-lore, the first thing one may notice about this particular dwarf is that he is interested in sex, or the prospect of it’ (215). This isn’t normal in ON (215-16). ‘But we must consider whence that image of dwarves derives. Probably our most recurrent image of dwarves in Old Norse literature is to be found in the late fornaldarsögur or legendary-heroic sagas’ where dwarves are ‘elusive and reluctant donors’ of swords and things (216). ‘From such a motif and its prevalence we can easily see how Motz would deduce an underground smith figure as the underlying archetype for all dwarves. But we need to consider this motif structurally in its narrative context. The dwarves are reluctant donors and to provide a suitable element of conflict or challenge, it is expedient that they be difficult of access, unsociable if you will. Not only are their sex lives irrelevant, but any contact with the outside world is to be downplayed’ (216). And contrast s²rla þáttr (216-17). ‘Here we see that the rules can change for the female quester. When Freryja desires something from a dwarf, she does not aggressively interpose her body: she allows the dwarves access to her body; she uses sex as a weapon. And the dwarves must be sociable, oversexed even, if the narrative function is to proceed’ (216). But it’s Alvíss on the offensive in Alvml: ‘While Alvíss’s actions may seem aberrant for a dwarf, they are very much in keeping with actions undertaken by giants in other myths’ (217). Narrative function of this 217-18. NBs that unlike Óðinn in wisdom contests, Þórr doesn’t actually need to know any answers to succeed here (218). Dvalinn as ‘delayed’, i.e. like Alvíss is (219). Circumstantial ev. towards dwarves turning to stone in the sun but none direct (218-19). But doesn’t fit Reginn or dwarves who make the mead of poetry (219). As the only dwarves who are known to have been delayed in old stuff, Dvalinn=Alvíss? (220).

Ackerman, Robert W. and Roger Dahood (ed. and trans.), Ancrene Riwle: Introduction and Part I, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 31 (Binghamton, N.Y., 1984). Consensus for composition in English with translation into French and Latin. Earliest MS Cleopatra C.VI. 1225×30, not a great copy; then Corpus Christi 402 close to it in date. Late Latin anachorita (eccles. Gk. άναχωρητής ‘one who retires from the world’).

Adams, J. N., and Marilyn Deegan, ‘Bald’s Leechbook and the Physica Plinii’, Anglo-Saxon England, 21 (1992), 87–14. Physica Plinii long-known source for Leechbook; this analyses it. Phys C5/6 compilation from Medicina Plinii from Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia xx-xxxii (89). Seems mainly concerned with Leechbook’s relevance to textual history of Phys. Yay. Also seems to have Leechbook using Medicina, tho’ I don’t see at a glance where this fits in. 113-14 list of corresponding chapters which might be useful.

Adams, J. N., ‘British Latin: The Text, Interpetation and Language of the Bath Curse Tablets’, Britannia, 23 (1992), 1–26. In texts folder.

Adams, J. N., ‘ “Romanitas” and the Latin Language’, Classical Quarterly, 53.1 (2003), 184–205. Handy survey of Roman (mainly C1 BC) attitudes to languages, including Greek, dialects of Latin from outside Rome, etc. Including some juicy material appearently covered at more length in the bilingualism book on Gaulish pottery inscriptions with potters living linguistic double lives.

Adamska, Anna, ‘The Study of Medieval Literacy: Old Sources, New Ideas’, in The Development of Literate Mentalities in East Central Europe, ed. by Anna Adamska and Marco Mostert, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 9 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 13–47. ‘In 1963 Jack Goody and Ian Watt published a classical [sic] article in which they concluded that alphabetical writing had been a determining force in the development of European culture and democracy. They argued that the ideas of social progress, including the democratisation [19] of governmental rule, and also the secularisation of mind, were absolutely impossible in societies which communicated only orally. According to Goody and Watt, oral societies are not able to develop a critical approach to information; they are also unable to select information, to distinguish between the present and past in the same way that literates do, etc. Theirs is a world without history’ (18–19), citing Goody and Watt 1963; ‘In his later works, Goody went even further, concluding that all intellectual revolutions in European history resulted from new instruments of social communication; the most important of these was writing’ (19) citing Goody 1986. ‘Nowadays, most scholars do no longer agree [sic] with Goody’s theory. We had to dwell on it however, because it inspired many historians. This was understandable, for, if it is true that the introduction of writing results in a “reorganisation” of the human mind and the ways mankind thinks, then several phenomena of social life which came into being the [sic] Middle Ages might be explained by the growth of access to written communication. However, attractive though the theory is, it has been proven to be a simplification. There is also another negative aspect, i.e. the theory’s unconscious valorisation: the cultural sustem, based on writing, is “progressive” and “positive”, whereas oral cultures are summarily dismissed as “primitive” or retarded. This valorisation may be the consequence of the old paradigm of the superiority of writing over orality, dating from the Age of Enlightenment, when social progress was associated with alphabetization’ (19). Ong broadly follows suit, with much emph on printing (20). Clanch as revolutionising this by showing the non-literate modes of communication existed and came naturally and had to be replaced slowly and pieceal by literate practices (20–21). ‘Sociologists, and even more anthropologists, seem to have no real respect for the limitations to which times and space subject human societies. Quite often they collect convenient examples to bolter an a priori hypothesis. In doing so, they nonchalantly break through traditional chronological boundaries. In many sociological studies of literacy, the real boundary is not that between the Middle Ages and Modern Times, but that between the European Ancien Régime and the “industrial” era of the nineteenth century [er, dunno where this is coming from—no refs]. Sometimes, however, an approach which at first sight seems a-historical [sic] may help to break down historical stereotypes. Thus, the study of the material features of books, irrespective of the time they were produced, has inspired the reflection that quite possibly the passage from roll to codex was as important for the history of reading, as the “revolution of print” .’ (21). 21–23 applauds slow rise of other kinds of communication in scholarship, like gestures, colours, smells and rels between text and illuminations in MSS. ‘Because of their repetition, oral cultures have been judged by literate Western scholars as primitive, retarded or barbarian. // We can easily understand what happens when writing s introduced into an oral society. Messages may now be ‘cut off’ from the personal relationship between “sender” and “receiver”; with writing, the supplementary non-verbal message disappears. We may therefore think that written texts make information more “objective”, independent from the here and now, and easier to retrieve (and change!) whenever this is deemed appropriate. These principal consequences of the introduction of writing are at the basis of the eighteenth-century paradigm of literacy’s superiority over orality’ (28). ‘A second important change in the attitude of medieval scholars is that they are finally able to appreciate the efficiency of oral communication, and that—in some spheres of social life—oral modes existed until the end of the Middle Ages and beyond’ shock horror! Surely not?! Estonian cabinet meetings now purely in chat-rooms but hardly everywhere else; frankly bizarre but telling, despite the laudable critique of modernist assumptions generally in this piece (29). maybe the necessity of citing sources, hitherto necessarily written, which automatically deprivileges conference papers, pub conversatons, or even indeed oral informants in professionally conducted oral history research, has blinded us to the fact that journalists routinely rely on oral sources, oral debate has real effects on law (justice and legislation), board meetings etc.

*Adolfsson, G. and I. Lundström, Den starka kvinnan: från völva till häxa, Museiarkeologi, 6 (Stockholm: Statens Historiska MuseumXXXXX, 1997)

Aitken, A. J., The Older Scots Vowels: A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots from the Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century, ed.by Caroline Macafee, The Scottish Text Society, 5th ser., 1 (n.p.: Scottish Text Society, 2002). 116–17 brief use of English dramatists’ representations—pass on to Judith?

Albano, Robert A., ‘The Role of Women in Anglo-Saxon Culture: Hildeburh in Beowulf and a Curious Counterpart in the Volsunga saga’, English Language Notes, 32 (1994), 1–10. Pants. Basically says hah! Hildeburg never liked Finn and like Signý was waiting to bump him off the whole time! Or somesuch. Which would be fine if he’d done it at all well.

Aldhouse-Green, Miranda J., ‘Pagan Celtic Religion and Early Celtic Myth: Connections or Coincidence?’, in An Snaidhm Ceilteach: Gnìomharran 10mh Comhdhail Eadar-Nàiseanta na Ceiltis, Imleadhar a h-Aon Cànain, Litreachas, Eachdraidh, Cultar/Celtic Connections: Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Celtic Studies, Volument One, Language, Literature, History, Culture, ed. by Ronald Black, William Gillies and Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (East Linton: Tuckwell, 1999), pp. 82–90. Points unexcitingly to a few likely continuities.

Alfano, Christine, ‘The Issue of Feminine Monstrosity: A Reevaluation of Grendel’s Mother’, Comitatus, 23 (1992), 1–16. App. reckons aglæcwif is ‘warrior-woman’ like skjöldmær—sounds fair enough off hand (Åström 1999). ‘Most Beowulf translators, motivated by contemporary biases rather than articstic impulse, produce an exaggerated version of the original ides, aglæcwif. Grendel’s mother disrupts gender conventions; to the Anglo-Saxons, this made her atol, “terrible” (line 1332), but to contemporary translators, it makes her “monstrous”. Stripping Grendel’s mother of humanity, translators transform an avenging mother into a bloodthirsty monster’ (2). Other e.g.s (good ones too) 2–3. 4–6 re aglæcwif vs. ‘monster woman’, pro ‘warrior woman’, cf. Mearns. Not so convincing on gæst as short vowelled tho’ the idea may work (6–7). Ouch, she’s half-baked on her OE grammar. Lots of foolish errors. Takes wyrgen as ‘accursed one’ not wolfy one (7), hmm… (Doesn’t seem to know ON vargr, but maybe this is a good thing) (7). Some cits for wulf as warrior (tho’ never, I note from Klaeber, in Bwf) (8). So she’s not actually a wylf in briumwylf (7–8). Fair enough. Overstated and flawed but useful ref even so for showing biases in translators, lexicographers and critics.

*Alkemade, M., ‘A History of Vendel Period Archaeology: Observations on the Relationship between Written Sources and Archaeological Interpretations’, in Images of the Past: Studies on Ancient Sources in Northwestern Europe, ed. by N. Roymans and F. Theuws (Amsterdam, 1991), pp. 267–97.

Allaby, Michael (ed.), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ecology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). s.v. fairy ring: ‘A circle of dark-green grass (in a lawn or field) in which toadstools may be found. The circle is formed as a result o the radial growth of a fungus through the soil, away from the centre of the ring; as the fungal mycelium grows it deprives grass roots of nutrients, but as it dies and decomposes the release of nutrients stimulates the growth of the grass, producing the dark coloration. Fairy rings are often formed by Marasmius oreades’.

Allan, P. B. M., The Book-Hunter at Home, second rev. edn (London: Allan, 1922). http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22716. Not sure what this is really all about, but NB: 'A useful catalogue of books on Alchemy was printed in two large quarto volumes at Glasgow in 1906. It is by Professor John Ferguson, and is entitled 'Bibliotheca Chemica,' being a list of the hermetic books in the library of Mr. James Young. The three volumes entitled 'Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England' by the Rev. Oswald Cockayne, published in the 'Rolls' series, 1864-66, contain a valuable contribution to the early medical science of this country. Dr. J. F. Payne's 'English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times' (the Fitz-Patrick Lectures for 1903) is for the most part a dissertation on that work. Some of the prescriptions of these early leeches are rather quaint. 'If a man's head burst . . . let him take roots of this same wort, and bind them on his neck. Then cometh to him good benefit.' The following is an excellent remedy for toothache: 'Sing this for toothache after the sun hath gone down--"Caio Laio quaque voaque ofer saeloficia sleah manna wyrm." Then name the man and his father, then say: "Lilimenne, it acheth beyond everything; when it lieth low it cooleth; when on earth it burneth hottest; finit. Amen."' If after this the tooth still continues to ache beyond everything, it is evident that there is a wyrm in it. For stomach-ache, you must press the left thumb upon the stomach and say 'Adam bedam alam betar alam botum.' This is infallible.'

*Allen, Grant, ‘Who were the Fairies?’, Cornhill Magazine, 63 (1881), 338ff. ‘Mr. Grant Allen illustrates his theory with great wealth of detailm especially laying stress on the fact that old burial-mounds and the like are called by elfin names, and that stone arrow-heads are known as elf-bolts’ (Macculloch 1932, 363).

*Allen, Hope Emily, ‘The Influence of the Supernatural on Language’, PMLA, 63 (1935), 1033-46

*Allen, Hope Emily, ‘The Influence of the Supernatural on Language’, PMLA, 60 (1936), 904-20

Allen, Peter Lewis, The Wages of Sin: Sex and Disease, Past and Present (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000). 1–24 re lovesickness; basically re how sex or masturation get prescribed and how this is a problem. Traces this trad to Greece and Islamic areas and sees them coming in with the C12 renaissance. Not detailed and according to intro doesn’t disagree with Wack.

Allen, Rosamund (trans.), La3amon: Brut (London, 1992). XXXXstyle. ‘Especially significant are the “supernatural” additions in the Arthurian section: the fairies who attend Arthur’s birth, the elvish smith who made Arthur’s corslet, the marvels of Britain, Arthur’s nightmare about Modred, and the mysterious Argante and the boat with two women in it which appears at his end to rake him to Avalon. Merlin figures more prominently than in Wace: he is sent for twice, to aid Aurelius and later to help Uther, and Lawman continues to refer to Merlin’s prophecies as a device to enhance Arthur’s status, after Merlin has disappeared from the narrative’ (xxxiii) Wace ditches prophecies—Lawman must have ‘em from elsewhere.

Ascanius uses ‘wicked agents’ for prophecy 136-146 < Geoff < Nennius. What’s the word for ‘witchcraft here’—interesting?

Alkarp, Magnus and Neil Price, ‘Tempel av guld eller kyrka av trä? Markradarundersökningar vid Gamla Uppsala kyrka’, Fornvännen, 100 (2005), 261–72. Finds various anomalies, but among them some evidence for what seems to be a late viking age wooden church beneath the lost north transept of the church at Gamla Uppsala.

Almqvist, Bo, ‘Scandinavian and Celtic Folklore Contacts in the Earldom of Orkney’, Saga-Book of the Viking Society, 20 (1978–81), 80–105. App. refs re mermaid types. Hmm, not really. Not really v. useful. Good ref re folks seeing everything going thru Orkney. Re Haraldr and Snæfríðr, ‘We are dealing here with an early instance of belief in the magic power of the Lapps, a Scandinavian belief that is still found in Orkney and Shetland folklore, as well as elsewhere in Britain. However, it has been demonstrated by the Norwegian folklorist Moltke Moe that the love-potion motif is of Celtic origin [ref from 1920s, hmm]. Close parallels are found in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Brittaniae and its source, Nennius’s Historia Brittonum, where the story about Hengist, the Anglo-Saxon chieftain, and Rowena, the daughter of King Vortigern, is told. [96] The sources of this part of the Snjófríðr story may then, as Moltke Moe supposes, be of Welsh origin and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s or Nennius’s work may have acted as intermediary’ (95-6). Hmm.

Almqvist, Bo, ‘Of Mermaids and Marriages: Seamus Heaney’s “Maighdean Mara” and Nuala ní Dhomhnaill’s “An Mhaighdean Mhara” in the Light of Folk Tradition’, Béaloideas, 58 (1990), 1-74 [NF2 P464.c.16]. Looks like comparatively massive survey of fairy brides. But not actually very useful. ‘As hown by Helge Holmström in his thesis on the Swan Maiden Motif in Völundarkviða and elsewhere, the Swan Maiden Legend is but one of a whole complex of migratory legends relating to marriages or supernatural or supernaturally transformed female beings. Thus he distinguishes groups dealing with marriages to fairy women (feäktenskapstyperna). another group about personified nightmares (maräktenskapstypen) and a third one [4, 3 having a plate] about acquatic beings, mermaids or seal maidens (säläktenskapstypen). While legends belonging to the first of these categories are extremely rare in Ireland, and the seocnd group, as far as I am able to ascertain, is not represe4nted at all there, the third legend type is one of those most popular in Irish tradition’ (2-4).

Almqvist, Bo, ‘I marginalen till Sejd’, in Sejd och andra studier i nordisck själsuppfattning av Dag Strömbäck med bidrag av Bo Almqvist, Gertrud Gidlund, Hans Mebius, ed. by Gertrud Gidlund, Acta Academiae regiae Gustavi Adolphi, 72 (Hedemora, 2000), pp. 237–72. Surveys Strömbäck’s main sources with new comments and bibl. 243–50; NBs reliance on emendation of síga > síða in Lokasenna (247 (cf. 247–48)), doesn’t know McKinnel’s article on Heiðr (246–47); re Kormakr Ögmundarsons Sigurðardrápa 248–50. ‘Ehuru ytmeningen av satsen [phrase] Seið Yggr til Rindar är fullt klar, lämnas [?gives] vi I ovisshet [uncertainty] om hur Oden mera [more] I detalj tänkts ha burit sig åt [intended to have behaved?] för att vinna Rind genom [thru] sejden. Strömbäck är dock [h’ever] säkerligen [certainly] på rätt spår när han (Sejd, 150 f.) sammanställer uppgiften I Sigurðardrápa med bl. a. Snorris berättelse [story] om hur den onda drottning Gunnhild (inom parentes sagt uppfostrad hos samerna) anställer sejd mot Egill Skallagrímsson, så att han inte finner någon ro [rest, peace] på Island …’ (249). ‘I Rinds fall har vi emellertid [however] serligen också mera speciellt at skaffa [obtain] med framkallande av ett onaturligt tillstånd [permission] av oemotståndlig kättja [lust], vilket kan utläsas av den parallella framställningen I Saxo Grammati[250]cus’ Gesta Danorum, till vilken Strömbäck också hänvisar, och där det med all önskvärd tydlighet heter att Othinus genom sina magiska manipulationer gjort Rinda lymphanti similem … Det är precis detta tillstånd som betecknas [characterises] med ergi när ordet användes om kvinnor’ etc. (249–50). 250–60 additional matieral (250–52 not incuding the word for certain; 252–60 including it). Seems to think there’s something interesting afoot in The war of the gadhill with the Gaill Todd 1867, 12f.; 227. Re Ota, app. queen to Thorgisl (it says on the web); investigation shows refs actually to be 12 and 226, and dead ends. She gives audiences/answers depending on MS from altar but no detail. Doesn’t seem to mention Skírnismál. In modern Icelandic folklore 261–63. ‘Den brasklapp [reservation] jag inskjutit [interjected] av ovanstående [aforementioned] mening [idea] är betingad [conditional on] av frågan om ordet sejd verkligen [really] förekommer [occurs] på runinskrifter, något som väl [well] dock [nevertheless] får [have, get; may +infin] hållas [hold] för högst sannolikt [likely], eftersom [because] flera specialister på området [area] synes vara den meningen [idea, ?interpretation]. Här kan allmänt [general] hänvisas [refer] till Danmerks runeinskrifter (1942, spalt 711 f.) och där anförd [cited] litteratur. Under förutsättning [condition, prerequisite] att ifrågavarande inskrifter är rätt lästa [read], är de av vikt [??importance] dels [partly…] därför att de torde [?] ge [?give] de äldsta beläggen [attestation(s?)] på ordet, dels för att de dessutom [moreover] synes omvittna [?make clear], att sejden inte blott [merely] varit känd I Västnorden, utan jämväl I Danmark och Sverige. Sammanställningen [collocation] av sarþi—om nu detta ord är att uppfatta som preteritum av serða, ‘pläga smlag med’ (ofta använt om den aktive partens kopulerande I homosexuella förbindelser)—och siþ, på stenen från Södra [southern] Vänge, kan också betraktas [?contemplate] som ett tidigt [early] belägg [e.g.] för förbindelselänkar mellan seiðr och ergi. Hela frågan är emellertid av så komplicerad art [sort], att en ny separat behandling av en fackkunnig [professionally-knowledgeable] runolog vore önskvärd [desirable].’ (252).

264–69 Summering. ‘Det sambland mellan sejd och ergi som övertygande [convincingly] demonstrerats I Sejd har belagts [take, occupy] ytterligare [additional], och skäl har också anförts [adduce, cite etc.] för att ergi utmärker [distinguishes] inte blott [merely] de sejdande, utan också ibland [among; sometimes] genom sejd framkallas [produce, develop] hos [with, by, among] de av trolldomsakten drabbande [befall, affect]’ (264). ‘Ett extatiskt tillstånd [condition] är väl nära nog [well nigh certainly or somesuch] en förutsättning [precondition] för flygförmåga [flight-capability]’ (265); seems to see this as reasonably well-attested feature of seiðr 265–66. Not so sure myself.

Alver, Bente Gullveig and Torunn Selberg, ‘Folk Medicine as Part of a Larger Concept Complex’, Arv, 43 (1987), 21–44. Looks dead handy re medicine and supernatural creatures/witchery. Cool.

‘The conception on folk medicine as a folk variant of academic medicine has had consequences for the approach to the issue and for an understanding of folk medicine. It has led to the use of the premises of scientific medicine in the analysis of folk concepts of illness and treatment. In this context, the terminology and concepts of scientific medicine have formed the framework for the perception of folk medicine’ (21). ‘Studies have been concerned with the examination of the biomedical effectiveness of folk medicine (for example see Honko 1963, 1978; Alver 1980). This led to the discussion of a division of folk medicine into a rational part and an irrational part (Bø 1972, selberg 1982)’ (21). ‘The conceptual limits of the category “folk medicine” are open to question. Quite possibly, folk medicine is part of a larger concept complex. Also in [22] question is whether categories of illness and health, such as they are defined and understood within scientific medicine, are delimited phenomena in a folk conceptual world. Rather, we must ask if we study illness and health as part of a central value system within the folk conceptual world’ (21-22). ‘We have found it useful to use as our starting point core values of equal importance as health. Such core values are production and reproduction. In older oral traditional material concerning man’s interaction with the supernatural, these values are especially exposed. We discuss the attitudes about hulders and witches for two reasons. They are central in Norwegian folk tradition, and they have a special significance as destructive forces in folk explanations of illness’ (22). ‘A cognitive system is a culturally learned way of seeing, thinking about, and experiencing reality. It structures ut impressions and experiences into categories and creates order in our world. To creat order from disorder is a common human need, but the categories used and the content of these categories are cultural variables’ … ‘If man thinks of his world in categories, he also has to think of the borders between categories. These borders form areas which are variously filled with tension. A border is more than a sharp line between two areas. There is also a “no man’s land” on both sides that is marginal, ambiguous and filled with tension, composed of several qualities. According to Edmund Leach, these border areas form the taboo areas in a culture. He claims that we create structure in our world by naming areas, and keep these conceptually separate by making the border areas taboo. Language gives us names to know things by, taboo inhibits the recognition of those parts of the unbroken reality which separate things’ (23). ‘Through the violation of folkways and mores, man transgresses important borders in the web of social life. When people act so as to be in a border area between right and wrong, their ideas about the supernatural are activated. In many different folk traditions, supranormal beings are customarily attributed the role of guardians of social order’ (24).

‘To use a technical term, hulders are “folk belief beings”. They are the only Norwegian folk belief beings who appear as so-called “collective beings”. They live in families, and according to tradition, their lives are described as a mirror image of human family life. In many ways, hulders are the personifications of the human dream. They have more of everything that humans have …[25] The only they do not have that humans do is the hope for eternal life’ (24-5). ‘Svale Solheim characterizes hulders as destructive in the same way as robbers, outlaws, and wild animals. We would modify this somewhat. Basically, hulders are a superior power in relation to humans, not a destructive power. According to tradition, there are rules about how humans should deal with hulders. If these rules are broken, the hulders punish. But if rules are observed, or a favor is done for the hulders, then they reward’ (25). A clearly defined category: ‘What is important for humans is that by keeping the traditional rules they maintain harmony with this superior force’ (25). This reading opposes very neatly the idea of supernatural figures as ambiguous. Rather like Efnisien, in fact. And the if you don’t go to bed the bogey-man will get you principle (NB monsters cannot penetrate a duvet). They play by the rules, albeit perhaps harsh ones.

2 kinds of witch—rich and successful, wandering vagabond. latter more common (25). ‘Te poorest and most derelict part of the population were those who most often were accused of witchcraft in Norway in the 1500s and 1600s’ (25). Destructive 25-6. ‘In contrast to hulders, wich [sic] were found in nature and “outside the home”, witches were together with humans—closer than one might believe. They represent the powers of chaos on the offensive’ (26). Hmm, do ælfe move between these categories during their existence? Kind of like the embodiment of monsters progression—except reversed with ælfe in OE medical tradition (human-looking race becomes formless demons?). High medieval elves working just like hulders? ‘The category of witches is more ambiguous than that of hulders, and they are thus perceived as being more dangerous. A witch is a human and a demon at the same time, belonging to two worlds. A witch looks like any other human, and therefore cannot be recognized on sight. They are only first recognized by their actions, and by then the damage may already have been done … Also, an important difference in folk attitudes is related to the degree to which the categories of hulder and witch may be neutralized. Hulders cannot be neutralized in the long run. They are made to disappear by quoting from the Bible, or by touching them. But at the next moment there they are again, behind the nearest bush. Witches can be neutralized. Witch burning ought to be sufficient evidence of this point…’ (26). Both cause misfortune tho’; ‘The misfortune is often related to the basis of existence’ (26). ‘The concept of the ability to cast spells has as a precondition a concept of an evil mind, which often may be seen as envy’ (28), which correlates with accusations being levelled at the poorest, see (26) ‘Svale Solheim also touches on situations where witchcraft provides explanations of misfortune and accidents. This is when those who have nothing meet those who have. The concept of witchcraft becomes relevant where the distribution of limited goods is most out of balance. Limited goods, envy, and the casting spells are interrelated’ (28). But NB rich get accused sometimes to. Neighbours usually also: limited goods conceived to circulate in a limited neighbourhood (28).

Theory of ‘limited good’ (refs 29). Concept that all things of value are limited, and the sum of good fortune constant—but distribution varies (29). Folks have to negotiate within this, seeming not to have too much and to be seen to be generous etc. maintenance of status quo all important (29-30). ‘Private initiative and diligence could lead to being suspected of witchcraft. But there was one possibility, according to Foster: one’s good fortune could be obtained outside (local) society’ (30). Treasure from mound-breaking into otherworld presumably meet this, even if not in distant land. Also shows importance of getting bride from outside court—fights over women in Arthurian bit? Arthur and Lancelot; Amis and Amiloun? All those jealous stewards? Witches can destroy goods (good fortune, etc.) so that none has them (30); deprive neighbours to enrich themselves, both individually and from whole community (30-1). Folklore hereof, mainly concerned with stealing/reducing milk/butter/cream yields 31-2. NB as with the east Anglian horse folklore the importance of control/harm re animals as well as people. Revenge motifs (again us. re livestock) 33. ‘Attitudes to witchcraft also emerge in situations where admiration is expressed. Because there was a fear of envy, people did not like it if a stranger praised their children or their domestic animals. There was considered to be little distance between praising something and wanting to have it. It was said that the sweeter the “evil tongue” was, the worse the consequences. To protect oneself against false friendship, one could respond with harsh words or an oath. The exposure of evil intent could reduce the power of the effect of envy’ (33) might explain a lot of grumpy saga characters. Also Þórgunna stuff? ‘Strangers were not supposed to have access to the unbaptized child. No one from the outside was allowed to see the infant being tended or fed because of the fear of spells being cast and of the fear of a particularly illness, rickets (“horeskjæver”). Rickets was manifested by discontent, and people thought it was caused when an immoral woman simply looked at the infant’ (34). Cf. baby getting zapped in Guðmundar saga when parents go for a shag.

‘There is a difference in the way hulders and witches punish. Even though both forms of punishment are severe, being aimed at essential values, it still seems as though the hulder’s punishment is more acceptable, since it is related to a stricter set of rules for law and order: Hulders [sic] attack because there is a reason to attack; witches attack for no reason’ (34). Elves start off bound by rules and in medical texts moved into being bound by divine intent, but, like witches, not by rules? ‘The names of such diseases as hulder bite, hulder burn, and hulder love tell us that people had related various disorders to contact with the hulders’ (34). Hulder bit a pain or sore that won’t weal 34-5; burn affects cattle—they get lost and come back with sores or changes in its coat (35); love a consumptive illness caused by meeting (implicitly sex?) with hulder (35). Need to follow Hulder rules, e.g.s etc (35-6). ‘The tradition about hulders says a great deal about borders and categories in the peasant society. As long as people stuck to the rules, the hulders were there as an invisible superior force, seeing to it that everything was as it should be. But if the rules were broken, suddenly the hulders became a visible superior force, punishing transgressors in the vital areas of health, production and reproduction. Hulders became visible for humans in the ambiguous areas, in the transitional parts of the conceptual world, where they are an important superior force’ (36). Big assocs with summer farms—marginal territories (36-8). ‘The mountain summer farm was filled with tension because it could be perceived as being both home and not-home. During the summer, this farm was home for the farm people, but at other times it was seen as home for the hulders. Staying at the summer farm longer than was considered correct could have severe consequences’ (37). Day/Night too i guess; Xmas; etc.

‘It happened about 1800. A woman from Heidi in Seljord was on the way to church to have her baby, a little girl, baptised. She took a short-cut with the baby. For some reason, she laid the baby on the ground and went behind a bush for just a moment. / When she came back and was about to pick up the baby, she was completely terrified—she didn’t recognize the baby. Her beautiful little girl had become so ugly that it was dreadful to see. Then the woman realised that the hulders had come and exchanged the baby. But she couldn’t do anything about this, so she took the baby to the church and had it baptised, and didn’t say a word to anyone about what had happened. [39] / The baby grew up; it was a girl, but not really human. She lived long, was nearly 100 when she did’ trans. by authors, quoted from Kjetil A. Flatin, Tussar og trolldom, Norsk Folkeminnelags skrifter, 21 (Oslo, 1930), p. 22 (38-9). Before a woman is blessed again after childbirth she is marginal, ‘ “impure and heathen” ’; NB re heiðni barnit or whatever it was. the danger of hulders, esp. of newborns or women just given birth, actually helps to define the rite of passage. Puts supernatural seal on it, etc.

‘Many analyses have emphasized that the function of folk belief is t maintain norms and rules in society. The violation of norms is sanctioned by supranormal forces and beings, and the violation of norms brings to the fore belief in the supranormal. This belief in supranormal beings can function as social control (see for example Honko 1962)’ (40). Cf. 40-41. Solheim 1952: 371 on the same thing. ‘The building of new houses was regulated by the hulders. People could not build just anywhere, or make arrangements without taking consideration of both other people and the hulders. If one built on a site where hulders rules, one risked certain retributions which in turn affected the well-being of the farm. The only solution was to move the house’ (41).

‘We began this article by questioning the conceptual borders of the category “folk medicine”. Our analysis has been aimed at expanding these borders, in order to bring forth a different—and in our opinion—more correct [sic re punct] understanding of the folk perception of illness and treatment’ (41). ‘In our view, there is a relationship between health, production and reproduction, all central values both for the single individual and for society as a system. In the last instance, these three central values represent the core of the issue. Balance between health, production and reproduction is necessary if “complete fortune” is to be achieved; should misfortune occur in one of these areas, the consequence is disharmony. These values can be threatened when society’s order is violated—thus supranormal punishment becomes a part of social control. Folk attitudes towards illness can be placed within this complex of attitudes’ (42). The distinctions drawn here ought to be apparent in Thomas, R&DofM too, cf. c. 611.

*Alver, Bente Gullveig and Torunn Selberg, ‘Trends in Research on Folk Medicine in the Nordic Countries’, Ethnologia Scandinavica (1987), 59-70.

Amies, Marion, ‘The Journey Charm: A Lorica for Life’s Journey’, Neophilologus, 67 (1983), 448–62. Worries about the reading of some bit with seraphim otherwise shows that although ‘certainly’ originally re jounreys, could be understood as a lorica 448–52. NBs that sigegealdor has ME reflexes which are pejorative assoc with witchcraft. Amies neophil [P700.c.136]

*Amodio, Mark C., ‘Introduction: Oral Poetics in Post-Conquest England’, in Oral Poetics in Middle English Poetry, ed. by Mark C. Amodio, Albert Bates Lord Studies in Oral Tradition, 13 (New York: Garland, 1994), pp. 1–28.

Amodio, Mark C., ‘Introduction: Unbinding Proteus’, in New Directions in Oral Theory, ed. by Mark C. Amodio, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 287 (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005), pp. 1–13. 2005 A. Names as dead important: OT 17.1 and 17.2 (2002); Richard Martin, The Language of Heroes (sociolinguistic stuff on Iliad speeches); Foley Traditional Oral Epic and Immanent Art; O’Keeffe. Emphs shift from formalism of Parry-Lord to ‘rhetorical and affective dynamics’. Stock, Listening for the Text. ‘There is, of course, tension between the oral and literate worlds, tension that even now at the beginning of the twenty-first century we continue to experience every day all around us; but it is a necessary, enriching and perhaps even sustaining tension, not the debilitating or distracting one it was sometimes thought to be. To put this another way, even in our highly literate Western culutre literacy is far from universal, and even the most highly literate members of our culture must nevertheless continually navigate their way through the layers of oral/aural culture that surround, inform, and help define contemporary Western (literate) culture. From our literate perspective it is easy to forget that the same holds true of oral culture, however broadly or narrowly one wishes to define it: literates may have easier and more direct access to the world of orality than non-literatures have to the world of literacy, but non-literates encounter literate culture [4] everywhere and the (oral) world they inhabit is necessarily infused with and to a considerable extent shaped by literacy and its attendant practices and habits of mind’ (4–5).

Amodio, Mark C., ‘Res(is)ting the Singer: Towards a Non-Performative Anglo-Saxon Oral Poetics’, in New Directions in Oral Theory, ed. by Mark C. Amodio, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 287 (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Ceenter for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005), pp. 179–208. 2005B.

Amodio, Mark C., Writing the Oral Tradition: Oral Poetics and Literate Culture in Medieval England (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004). Lots of perfectly good points, but problems with seeing orality as only oral-formulaic and contrasts with modernity. Speech must antedate writing but the inevitable succession of writing to orality not obvious (1–2). Vs the great divide model of orality and literacy 2–3. ‘As theoretical postulates, the end points of the oral-literate continuum retain considerable heuristic value for the investigation of human cognition and development, and with this in mind we now turn to consider them. But as we do so, we need t guard against uncritically accepting the notion of primary orality because it “is forever inaccessible to us (if it is not purely mythical)”. And we need to keep in mind that the same is true of pure literacy’ (4). Oral poetry as ‘inherently dynamic and ephemeral’; ‘Residing only within the collective memory of those present while it is performed, an oral poem leaves no trace once the final reverberations of the poet’s voice die [5] out. Necessarily composed (and recomposed) under the exigencies of performance, the poetry produced within a primary oral culture is, therefore highly protean’ (4–5). What’s so crap about collective memory that it can hold no trace of a poem? Likewise, skaldic verse isn’t recomposed. ‘Within a fully literate culture, both the production and reception of texts are intensely private, highly idiosyncratic, and highly unconventional (in the most technical sense of the term) endeavours’ (5)--contrast the saga where someone hears a poem and goes off and works out what it means where no-one else does? ‘...while orally produced texts are rooted in a highly specialized, conventional idiom, one shared by both poets and audiences, fully literate texts spring from the imaginative well of [6] authors who carefully mold their thoughts according to their tastes, inclinations, experiences, and abilities’ (5–6). Goes on to argue that oral poets have intentions too (thankfully) and that there is individual artistry—tradition not static (7), poets are the traditions (7), how they’re transmitted doesn’t affect what they mean (7), but seems to do so within the position established in this quote. ‘Traditional oral poetics is expressed through a specialized register, a remarkably economical, useful tool for expressing verbl art that no doubt developed as an aid to oral poets who had to compose rapidly during performance’ (8): clear statement that he thinks of oral poetry strictly in the Parry-Lord model. Why not just to help memory? And is it even always there) (As usual, skaldic verse doesn’t fit this well). ‘For the literate poet, composition remains an exclusively private and internal rather than public and communal process’ (8)--really? Footnote for this is rubbish. ‘Unlike their oral counterparts, who are unable to revise or correct metrical deficiencies or narraive infelicities because for them the acts of composition and presentation are simultaneous, literate poets have the leisure to dwell over every aspect of their creations’ (8) grrrr—both because of skaldic verse, and because it ignores the potential importance of repeated performance. Cf. the Finnegan account of an african storyteller getting more consistent in his telling over the years. Useful point that all readers individually produce the text as they real, as presumably do listeners—but that in reading, the basis for this is static (8–9). 10 accepts that just as you’d be hard put to find a purely oral society these days, a purely literate society is just a heuristic construct. He seems to think it’s a useful construct anyway, but I’m less sure. Even when he gets to ‘Textuality, Poetic Authority, and Literacy: Problematizing Oral Theory’ (12–15), HE SAYS THINGS LIKE ‘Oral poetry, in contrast, deries its authority from a very different course. While it is necessarily performative and so depends upon a poetics of presence, its authority paradixically does not derive mainly from the poets who articulate it. Just as meaning in traditional poetry inheres in the structures that constitute its expressive economy, so, too, does an oral poem’s authority lie chiefly in the tectonics of the tradition itself rather than in the person of the poet. Oral poets are responsible for the unique shape they give to their traditional, inherited materials, but they stake no claim to any sort of originary status’ (14). Skaldic verse again? I guess no-one says ‘I invented this myth’, but all the same... And if poets are not saying ‘I invented this’ but ‘this is how it is/was’, that’s not inherently oral—it’s a feature of genres which claim to be historical/factual. ‘Each piece of verbal art produced withn an oral culture is as authoritative as any other’ (14). Obviously rubbish. Cf. flytings. Though Downes’s article on Beowulf and Unferth does nicely show the usefulness of anthropological evidence—traditionality more useful than orality? ‘Because Latin’s status as a prestige language was unchallenged in both the secular and ecclesiastical spheres throughout the perod [ASE], its relationship to the vernacular is generally cast in terms of a simple and strict polarity ... Latin was the language of discourse among members of monastic and other religious communities...’ (16) dis in Bede article? ‘Whether the oral poet is one who (re)composes in performance, recites verbatim from memory, or reads aloud from a written text, the poem and the tradition body forth upon his voice. Unlike written texts, which continue “frequently to speak without voice the words of the absent”, oral texts exist only so long as they are embodied in a living voice’ (23)--a. ah, so he does believe in memorial transmission of oral work; b. why doesn’t memory count as a way for oral texts to exist?

Amos, Ashley Crandell, Linguistic Means of Determining the Dates of Old English Literary Texts, Medieval Academy Books, 90 (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1980).

Amours, F.J. (ed.), The Original Chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun: Printed on Parallel Pages from the Cottonian and Wemyss MSS., with the Variants of the Other Texts, The Scottish Text Society, 1st series, 50, 53, XXXX, 56–57, 63, 6 vols (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1903–14).Gah, vol 4 missing and that’s the important one!!

*Amundsen, Darrel W., Medicine, Society, and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (London, 1996) [med. z280 1996-A]. Collected essays job, some look cool.

Anderson, Carl XXXX

Anderson, Earl R., ‘The Uncarpentered World of Old English Poetry’, Anglo-Saxon England, 20 (1991), 65–80. 72–3 goes with Shook re Glc A beorg. Didn’t find it very useful or quoteworthy.

*Anderson, Earl R. TitleFolk-Taxonomies in Early EnglishAuthor(s)Earl R AndersonPublisherFairleigh Dickinson Univ PressPublication DateApr 1, 2003SubjectLanguage Arts / Linguistics / LiteracyFormatHardcoverPages592ISBN083863916X “A folk-taxonomy is a semantic field that represents the particular way in which a language imposes structure and order upon the myriad impressions of human experience and perception. Thus, for example, the experience of color in modem English is structured around an inventory of twelve "basic" color terms; but languages vary in the number of basic color terms used, from thirteen or fourteen terms to as few as two or three. Anthropological linguists have been interested in the comparative study of folk-taxonomies across contemporary languages, and in their studies they have sometimes proposed evolutionary models for the development and elaboration of these taxonomies. The evolutionary models have implications for historical linguistics, but there have been very few studies of the historical development of a folk-taxonomy within a language or within a language family. Folk-Taxonomies in Early English undertakes this task for English, and to some extent for the Germanic and Indo-European language families. The semantic fields studied are basic color terms, seasons of the year, geometric shapes, the five senses, the folk-psychology of mind and soul, and basic plant and animal life-forms. Anderson's emphasis is on folk-taxonomies in Old and Middle English, and also on the implications of semantic analysis for our reading of early English literary texts.” on Google print.

Anderson, J. G. C. (ed.) Cornelii Taciti: De Origine et Situ Germanorum (Oxford, 1938). XXXXstyle. MSS all derive from fragmentary Hersfeld MS C9 or 10, in Iesi Codex (lxii). > X, Y Z > extant MS recensions. App contains nothing from Germ, only Agric. ‘Auriniam W [Vindobonensis 1862] m [Monacensis 5307] h [Hummelianus] V [Vaticanus 1862] L [Leidensis (Perizonianus)] I [Vaticanus 1518] E [Aesinas, Lat. 8]; Albriniam Δ [Vaticanus 4498] et in mg.[margine] vel s.l.[supra lineam] V[Vaticanus 1862] L [Leidensis (Perizonianus)] N [Neapolitanus IV C. 21 (Farnesianus)] E (Aesinas, Lat. 8); Fluriniam N [Neapolitanus IV C. 21 (Farnesianus)]: Albrunam Wackernagel’ (no page nos). ‘All the extant manuscripts are of the fifteenth or the early sixteenth centuy’ (lxiv). Hmm, you need a better ed. than this or Much to explain MSS.

Anderson, O. S. (ed.), Old English Material in the Leningrad Manuscript of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Skrifter utgivna av kungl. humanistika vetenskapssamfundet i Lund/Acta Regiae Societatis Humaniorum Litterarum Lundensis, 31 (Lund, 1941). [500:05.c.7.24 NF3] re names 67–

*Andersson, Eva, The Common Thread: Textile Production during the Late Iron Age—Viking Age (Lund, 1999).

Andersson, Theodore M., ‘An Interpretation of Þiðreks saga’, in Structures and Meaning in Old Norse Literature, ed. bu John Lindow, Lars Lönnroth and Gerd Wolfgang Weber, (Odense: Odense University Press, 1986), pp. 347–77. [752:16.c.95.28]

Andersson, Theodore M. “Five Saga Books for a New Century”, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 103 (2004): 505–28

Andersson, Theodore M., The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (1180–1280) (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006)

Andersson, Thorsten, ‘Orts- und Personennamen als Aussagequelle für die altgermanische Religion’, in Germanische Religionsgeschichte: Quellen und Quellenprobleme, ed. by Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers and Kurt Schier, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexicon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, 5 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1992), pp. 508–40. ‘Als Erstglied theophorer Personennamen kommen gemeingermanisch die beiden Götterbezeichnungen *guða- ‘Gott’ und *ansu- ‘Ase’ häufig vor … Dagegen bezieht sich *ragina-, das z. B. in wgot. Ragnahilda, fränk. Ragnovald, awn. Ragnarr, Ragn(h)eiðr vorleigt, eher auf die gemeingermanische Bedeutung “Rat” als auf die nordische Bedeutung de Plurals, nämlich “Götter” ’ (509 citing in the latter case Janzén 1947, 87; Müller 1970, 197). NB OE Regen- (occurrence in lexical words?). ‘Gemeingermanisch sind auch die Ing-Namen …[510] Interessant ist, daß dieser Name in der altschwedischen Form Ingi-, wie L. Hellberg nachgewiesen hat, in den Landschaften um den Mälarsee in Mittelschweden in mehreren Siedlungsnamen enthalten ist’ (509-10). ‘Kennzeichnend für den nordischen Personennamenschatz ist, daß auch Namen einzelner Götter als Erstglied auftreten’ (Characteristically for the Norse personal name formation is that names also appear characteristically with gods as first elements, 510). [Janzén 235-68, 258ff. for this point]. Þórr; is donar etc. in W. Germ continental names the thunder word? 510-11. ‘Der Umstand, daß das Wort in fränk. Albthonar auch als Zweitglied erscheint, entscheidet die Frage, da in dieser Stellung ein Göttername nicht zu erwarten ist’ [in Förstemann Namenbuch] (The circumstance, that this word appears in Frankish Albthonar also as a second element, decides the question… 511). Freyr a secondary development, apparently just Norse then (511). 511-12 re Þór-; seen also as 2ndry, seems to equate it with Ás. Other god-names as 1st elements in Norse 512-15. No discussion of dís or álfr.herman

Notes –run(a) names, esp. re priestess figures as found in, e.g. Tacitus: ‘Diese Funktion liegt sicherlich in demn Zweitglied –run(a) vor, das “Geheimnis, geheime Kenntis” bedeutet. Interessant ist dabei, daß der häufigste der mit –rún zusammengesetzen Namen im Nordischen Guðrún ist und daß dieser Name deshalb wahrscheinlich als Vorbild der anderen Namen gedient hat. In Guðrún scheint eine appellativisch sinnvolle Zusammensetzung vorzuliegen, und zwar ein Bahuvrīhi-Kompositum mit der Bedeutung “eine, die die Geheimnisse oder die geheimen Kenntisse der Götter besitzt”.’ (521). Citing Janzén 110ff., 166.

‘Schließlich ist hier auf eine feminine Sonderbezeichnung hinzuweisen, nämlich awn. dís, womit weiblichne Gottheiten und übernatürliche Frauengestalten bezeichnet werden. Dieses Wort kommt vereinzelt in einigen Ortsnamen in Norwegen und Schweden vor, z. B. Disen (< -vin “Weise, Weide”) bzw. disevid (< -vi “Heiligtum” …). Auffallend ist, daß dís auch als Personenname und als Zweitglied von Personennamen (vgl. Oðindisa…) verkommt. Da ja Götterbezeichnungen in dieser Stellung sonst vermieden werden, deutet dies auf einen etwas niedrigeren Rang der dísir oder aber auf eine parallele, nicht-sakrale Bedeutung des Wortes’ (526). Citing Sandnes 1990, 91; Ström 1985, 192ff.

‘Wenn es sich um Örtlichkeiten begrenzteren Umfangs handelt, liegt es nahe, Kultstätten zu vermuten. in sakralen Ortsnamen oft begegnende Wörter wie akr, lundr, under (besonders in Norwegen) vangr bezeichnen zweifellos oft alte Kutstätten … Begrenzte Örtlichkeiten mit Sakralnamen lassen aber keinesfalls durchgehend auf eigentliche Kultstätten schließen. Wärend z. B. Disevid (aschw. Disavi) in Östergötland eine Kultstätte der dísir bezeichnet, läßt sich nicht eindeutig eintscheiden, wie Diseberg (aschw. Disabærgh) in derselben Landschaft zu verstehen ist. Hier mag Disevid vergleichbare Kultstätte gelegen haben, aber es kann sich auch einfach um einem Berg handeln, der mit den besagten Gottheiten verknüpft und deshalb verehrt wurde’ (536). No refs sadly. Nor elves anywhere here.

André, Jacues, Les Noms de Plantes dans la Rome Antique (Paris: Société D’Édition ‘Les Belles Lettres’, 1985)

*Andrén, Anders, ‘Doors to Other Worlds: Scandinavian Death Rituals in Gotlandic Perspectives’, Journal of European Archaeology, 1 (1993), 33–55. preseumably=Andrén, A., ‘Dörrar till förgångna myter—en tolkning av de gotländska bildstenara’, in Medeltids födelse, ed. by A. Andrén, Symposier på Krapperups Borg, 1 (Lund, 1989), pp. 287–319.

Ankarloo, Bengt and Gustav Henningsen (eds), Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (Oxford, 1990). looks like it’ll have some interesting articles.

Ankarloo, Bengt, ‘Witch Trials in Northern Europe, 1450–1700’, in Witchcraft and Magic In Europe: The Period of the Witchc Trials, by Bengt Ankarloo, Stuart Clark and William Monster, The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, 4 (London: Athlone, 2002), pp. 53–95

Anlezark, Daniel, ‘An Ideal Marriage: Abraham and Sarah in Old English Literature’, Medium Ævum, 69 (2000), 187–210

*Åqvist, C., ‘Hall och harg: det rituella rummet’, in Religion från stenålder till medeltid, ed. by K. Engdahl and A. Kaliff, Riksantikvarieämbetet: arkeologiska undersökningar, skrifter, 19 (Linkping, 1996), pp. 105–20.

*Arbessmann, Rudolf, ‘The Daemonium Meridianum and Greek and Latin Patristic Exegesis’, Traditio, 14 (1958), 17–31.

*Archibald, Elizabeth, Incest and the Medieval Imagination (Oxford, 2001).

d’Ardenne, S. R. T. O., Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene, Early English Text Society, 248 (Oxford, 1961).

Arent‚ A. Margaret, ‘The Heroic Pattern: Old Germanic Helmets‚ Beowulf and Grettis saga’‚ in Old Norse Literature and Mythology: A Symposium‚ ed. by Edgar C. Polomé (Austin‚ 1969)‚ pp. 130–99. (pp. 132–45)

Argyll: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, 7 vols ([Edinburgh]: HMSO, 1971–92)

Arnold, C. J., An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1997)

Arnold, Thomas (ed.), Symeonis Monachi opera omnia, The Rolls Series, 75XXXX, 2 volsXXXX (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1882–85) ?R542.30.75

D’Aronco, Maria Amalia, ‘The Botanical Lexicon of the Old English Herbarium’, Anglo-Saxon England, 17 (1988), 5-33. BORING!

Ármann Jakobsson, ‘History of the Trolls? Bárðar saga as an Historical Narrative’, Saga-Book of the Viking Society, 25 (1998), 53–71. ‘history or fiction?’ 53–60. ‘In fact, very little of what was regarded as history in the Middle Ages would pass muster in our age, e.g. Historia regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth’ (54). Disses ‘supernatural’ as paradoxical (54–55).

Ármann Jakobsson, ‘Queens of Terror: Perilous Women in Hálfs saga and Hrólfs saga kraka’, in Fornaldarsagornas struktur och ideologi: Handlingar från ett symposium i Uppsala 31.8–2.9 2001, ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, Annette Lassen and Agneta Ney, Nordiska texter och undersökningar, 28 (Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, Institutionen för nordiska språk, 2003), pp. 173–89.

Ármann Jakobson, ‘The Extreme Emotional Life of Vo[XXXXXhooked o]lundr the Elf’, Scandinavian Studies, 227-54 (2006) ‘It is also a pervasive belief—unsubstantiated by any factual examination—that brutality is a more prominent feature of the past than the present and that in the past people would have been less shocked and moved by violence’ (243)--but contrast sudy of murder rates in Freakonomics.

Armstrong, A. M., A. Mawer, F. M. Stenton and Bruce Dickins, The Place-Names of Cumberland, English Place-Names Society, 20–22, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950–52)

Arne, XXXX, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends, rev. edn by Stith Thompson (repr. London, 1966) XXXX

Arrhenius, Birgit, ‘Kinship and Social Relations in the Early Medieval Period in Svealand Elucidated by DNA’, in The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, ed. by Judith Jesch, Studies in Historical Archaeoethnicity, 5 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2002), pp. 45–58 (discussion 51–58).

Arwill-Nordbladh, Elisabeth, Genuskonstruktioner i nordisk vikingatid: Förr och nu, Gotarc: Gothenburg Archaeological Theses, Series B, 9 ([Gothenburg]: Gotarc, 1998). Glanced only at the english summary due to haste. Mainly historiographical and then Oseberg. Looks decent though.

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, Íslensk orðsifjabók ([Reykjavík]: Orðabók Háskólans, 1989)

*Ashmore, W. and A. B. Knapp, Archaeologies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectives (Oxford, 1999)

Asmark, Ulla, 'Magikyndige kvinder i islændingesagaerne--terminologi, værdiladning og kausalitet', Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 121 (2006), 113-20. Only read the abstract, but she seems to be arguing that if you're fjölkunnigr that's not necessarily bad, and that men who get cursed by witches often have that problem because of their own violence towards the woman, suggesting that 'violence towards a woman makes a man loose [sic] his honour and thus leads to unhapiness and even death. From this point of view it is the killing rather than the curse, [sic] that causes the man's disaster' [113 n. 1]. Not sure what she means here, but sounds interesting--follow up.

*Aston, Michael and Carenza Lewis, The Medieval Landscape of Wessex, Oxbow Monograh, 46 (Oxford: Oxbow, 1994)

Åström, Berit, ‘The Creation of the Anglo-Saxon Woman’, Studia Neophilologica 70 (1998), 25–34. Pretty pants really. ‘The focus of this article is on the study of pagan Anglo-Saxons, and particularly the creation of the image of women in pagan Anglo-Saxon society. I will try to demonstrate what happens where there is no questioning of the basis of the assumptions made about Anglo-Saxon society. Some of the research quoted is not recent, simply because the field has been neglected in recent years. The issue is seen as closed, the matter is seen as resolved’ (26). Oh, shut up.

Atherton, M. , ‘The Figure of the Archer in Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Psalter’, Neophilologus, 77 (1993), 653–57. Handy for psalmy refs to arrows.

Atkinson, Charles M., ‘O AMNOS TU THEU: The Greek Agnus Dei in the Roman Liturgy from the Eighth to the Eleventh Century’, Kirchenmusikalische Jahrbuch, 68 (1981), 7–30.

*Atkinson, David, ‘“Up then Spoke a Bonny Bird” of Lady Isabel’s Secret: Transformation in “The Outlandish Knight”’, Southern Folklore 52 no. 3 (1995), 231-48

Aubailly, Jean-Claude, La fée et le chevalier: essai de mythanalyse de quelques lais féeriques des XIIe et XIIIe siècles, Collection Essais, 10 (Paris: Champion, 1986).

Austin, Greta, ‘Marvelous Peoples or Marvelous Races? Race and the Anglo-Saxon Wonders of the East’, in Marvels, Monsters, and Miracles: Studies in the Medieval and Early Modern Imaginations, ed. by Timothy S. Jones and David A. Sprunger, Studies in Medieval Culture, 42 (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002), pp. 25–51. Focuses only on the Tiberius text—has Lat and OE and pictures. ‘It is worth pausing to note that the Wonders conceives of the human body in a manner different from modern conceptions of it. I would suggest that we tend today to think of a clear division between human beings and animals. In the Wonders, however, the human body could be shaded by relative degrees of humanity and “bestiality”. certain peoples might have bodies which brought together combinations of himan and animal…’ (41, cf. 41–52 citing Isidore too). Emphs how enarly everyone called homines and us. depicted speaking 42–43. But alas, response to the question a bit half-baked really. Syas they’re all humans really.

Austin, Greta, ‘Jurisprudence in the Service of Pastoral Care: The Decretum of Burchard of Worms’, Speculum, 79 (2004), 929–59

B

Baetke, Walter, Yngvi und die Ynglinger: Eine quellenkritische Untersuchung über das nordische ‘Sakralkönigtum’, Sitzungsberichte de sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse, 109/3 (Berlin: Akademie-verlag, 1964). [P500.c.110.57 NF 3]

*Bailey, Michael D., ‘The Medieval Concept of the Witches’ Sabbath’, Exemplaria, 8 (1996), 419–39; tackles Ginsburg 1991 esp. pp. 424–26.

Bailey, Michard D., ‘From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages’, Speculum, 76 (2001), 960–90. ‘Over the course of roughly one hundred years, from the early fourteenth century to the early fifteenth, heightened clerical concern over harmful sorcery and changing understandings of how magic operated combined with other factors to push authorities slowly but inexorably into accepting, defining, and promulgating the full horrors of witchcraft’ (961)--article basically about unpacking this in more detail; intellectual history approach. Read the first bits; seems to be case-studies of several dudes, starting with Bernardo Gui. Looks okay but nother very exciting. Good to say you’ve read it though.

Bailey, Richard N., ‘Scandinavian Myth on Viking-Period Stone Sculpture in England’, in Old Norse Myths, Literature and Society: Proceedings of the 11th International Saga Conference, 2–7 July 2000, University of Sydney, ed. by Geraldine Barnes and Margaret Clunies Ross (Sydney, 2000), 15–23. [Also at http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departments/medieval/saga.html] A bit of discussion of how Gosfroth isn’t syncretic and otherwise some updating. Might be handy for secondary lit too.

Baker, John T., Cultural Transition in the Chilterns and Essex Region, 350 AD to 650 AD, University of Hertford Press Studies in Regional and Local History, 4 (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2006). I've just skimmed it cherry picking bits that seem handy for place-name continuity discussion--need to come back it. Basically it's about correlating arch and place-names; doesn't seem deeply to register the concerns raised by Hills in the Higham Britons book about arch distribution being more about modern building than medieval distribution; not aware of the work on -ingas names actually maybe being old like they always used to be. Maps all topographic names, and then only those the elements attested in Cox's early names article (with a couple of additions); 'It is clear from the two maps of topographical place-names that there is no precise correlation between their distribution and that of the Germanic archaeology. This ma mean that topographical place-names are a less effective indicator of early Old English influence than current theories would suggest, always assuming that the spread of linguistic and material cultures are in some way linked together' (198); 'Having looked in detail at Old English topographical place-names it is difficult to draw firm conclusion about their worth as indicators of early Old English influence in the Chilterns and Essex region. Individually the elements are often too sparse in number for a true pattern to emerge; grouped together the picture produced by the topographical elements is unclear. This is due in part to the longevity of some of these supposedly early elements. Even if they were the first elements used by Old English place-name givers, their usage seems to have continued into the middle and later Anglo-Saxon periods. It may also be a weakness of a local study of this kind that individual elements are too few in number to display characteristics of much value' (216). Re hám names, notes that three C7 names have been lost and that 'If this case is not exceptional, then it may explain the lack of hám[actually macron] clusters to the west, especially in Buckinhamshire and Bedfordshire, since these counties are not represented by early records' (221). 222 names like -hamstead more scattered distribution than -ham names--interesting. Marginal settlements?

Bakhtin, Mikhail, Rabelais and his World, trans. by Helene Iswolsky (Bloomington, 1984) [738.27.c.95.40]. ‘A boundless world of humorous forms and manifestations opposed the official and serious tone of medieval ecclesiastical and feudal culture’ (4).

Ballard, Linda-Mary, ‘Fairies and the Supernatural on Reachrai’, in The Good People: New Fairylore Essays, ed. by Peter Narváez, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1376 (New York: Garland, 1991), pp. 47–93.

*Bamberger, Bernard J., Fallen Angels (New York, 1952)

Bamberger, Joan, ‘The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society’, in Woman, Culture and Society, ed. by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford, 1974), pp. 263–80. ‘To cast doubt, as I have just done, on the historical evidence for the Rule of Women is not the same thing as challenging the significance of the mythologies of matriarchy. The main issue would seem not to be [267] whether women did or did not hold positions of political importance at some point in prehistory, or even whether they took up weapons and fought in battle as the Amazons allegedly did, but that there are myths claiming women did these things, which they now no longer do’ (266-67). ‘Myth and rituals have been misinterpreted as persistent reminders that women once has, and then lost, the eat of power. This loss accrued to them through inappropriate conduct … The myths constantly reiterate that women did not know how to handle power when they had it. The loss is thereby justified so long as women choose to accept the myth. The Rule of Women, instead of heralding a promising futre, harks back to a past darkened by repeated failures’ (280). ‘Even the Iroquois, once a stronghold for “matriarchists”, turn out to be matrilineal only, although Iroquois society still comes the closest to representing Bachofen’s ideal “gynocratic state”, since Iroquois women played a decisive role in lineage and village politics. Yet in spite of the substantial power wielded by women, men were chosen consistently as political leaders’ (266).

*Bammesberger, A., Problems of Old English Lexicography: Studies in Memory of Angus Cameron, Eichstätter Beiträge, 15 (Regensburg, 1985)

Alfred Bammesberger, Die Morphologie des urgermanischen Nomens, Untersuchungen zur vergleichenden Grammatik der germanischen Sprachen, 2 (Heidelberg, 1990) [775.c.98.257]. 123-27 re history of i-stem inflexions. Cool.

Bammesberger, Alfred, 'The Etymology of Germanic *idis-', Nowele: North-Western European Language Evolution, 52 (2007), 81-89. 'ON dís 'woman, lady, goddess' must not be related etymologically to Gmc. *idis because the two forms do not match phonologically; on dís see Birkhan 1970:535 [Germanen und Kelten bis zum Ausgang der Römerzeit]. Since no generally accepted etymology is available for ON dís the following tentative derivation may be submitted. A stem in -s- to the root *d^hei[syllabification marker looking like an inverted breve under the i]H- 'sehen, schauen' (Pokorny 1959:243, Rix 1998:123 'ins Auge fassen') can be postulated as IE *d^hei[syllabification marker looking like an inverted breve under the i]H-s- and leads to Gmc. *deis- > *di[macron]s-; on filudeisei see in particular Casaretto (2004:286)' (85 n. 5). Argue against a 2000 etymology by Eichner which indeed looks troublesome (because of the -i- in Tacitus's idistauisto--if that is cognate with ides, and because its Gmc root would appear otherwise is OHG etar 'pale in a fence' only; 82). Bammesberger goes for IE *aid^h- (*h₂ei[syllabiciation marker under i]d^h-), 'and *idis may reflect IE *id^h-és- (*h₂id^h-és-) with zero-grade of the root' (83) cognate with Skt. édhas 'firewood' anda Gk word for 'fire, embers'. 'For the s-stem IE *h₂id^h-és- > Gmc. *id-es- > * id-is- the basic meaning can be assumed to have been 'fire, flame, burning' etc.' (83) with some sort of personification, as with Lat ignis meaning fire but also god of fire (84-85), or maybe you could go for the idea that fire defines houses (as in some semantic ev.) and houses define women (cf. domus > domina) (84). Ho hum, hardly ideal, but maybe progress!

Bandle, Oskar (ed.), The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages, Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikations-wissenschaft, 22, 2 vols (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2002)

*Bang, A. C., Norse Hexeformularer (SVSC II, nr. 1, Kra. 1901–2) ref from KLNM.

Banks, S. E. and J. W. Binns (ed. and trans.), Gervase of Tilbury: ‘Otia Imperialia’, Recreation for an Emperor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). Probably completed c. 1215 (xxxix–xl). III.86 ‘De lamiis et nocturnis laruis’; III.93 ‘De fantasiis nocturnis opiniones’

*Barley, Nigel F., ‘Anglo-Saxon Magico-Medicine’, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 3 (1972), 67–76.

Barley, Nigel F., ‘Perspectives on Anglo-Saxon Names’, Semiotica, 11 (1974), 1–31. 1-4 discusses dichotomy between motivated names (e.g. Dartmouth) and unmotivated (e.g. London)noting in fact that rarely will extremes and mutual exclusivity be found. ‘One of the most basic questioned in the study of Anglo-Saxon names has always been whether they are to be regarded as arbitrary or motivated. This, however, is a false formulation of the problem. The regularity of the Anglo-Saxon naming system is such that one cannot speak of arbtrariness. One can only discuss strength of motivation and its internal or external emphasis’ (5). ‘The set of personal names was not closed but the set of morphemes from which they were compounded apparently was’ (5). Names externally motivated by grammatical gender of 2nd element (6). NB names sometimes derive elements from mother’s name as well as tendency to allit with father’s (8). ‘As regards simple repetition of whole names within a family, it seems that for the oldest period, this does not regulary occur among these Anglo-Saxons but it should be admitted that information is somewhat limited. As time goes on, however, we note a distinct tendency towards the replacement of simple alliteration by variation, reduction of the number of elements involves and a subsequently higher number of repetitions’ (9). ‘The discrete morphemes of which the bithematic personal names are formed are linguistically [sic] meaningful and were generally intelligible to the Anglo-Saxons that bore them. This is evident from the attempts of literati to latinise their own names. Thus, Heahstan becomes Alta Petra and Wulfstan simultaneously translates and abbreviates his name to Lupus. The actual linguistic meaning of the syntagmatic constituents plays no part in the motivation of the name, however … (Hence it is most dubious to attempt to use name elements to reconstruct Old English pagan beliefs as does Dickins, 1933)’ (13). Liar! dICKINS NEVER DID! Well, not in terms of syntagmatic relations. Relation to kennings 18-25.

NB Emma becomes Ælfgyfu when she marraies Æþelred of Wessex (dad of Edward the Conf.). Shows power of naming system (9–10). 15 dithematic names as social markers.

Barnicle, Mary Elizabeth (ed.), The Seege or Batayle of Troye: A Middle English Metrical Romance, Early English Text Society, 172 (London: Oxford University Press, 1927). xxx-xxxiii reckons 1st quarter C14 mainly on ev. of arms in the poem.

Barrett, Justin L., and Frank C. Keil, ‘Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts’, Cognitive Psychology, 31 (1996), 219–47.

Barrett, Justin L., ‘Cognitive Constraints on Hindu Concepts of the Divine’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37 (1998), 608–19

*Barrow, G. W. S., The Kingdom of the Scots (London, 1973)

Bartlett, Robert, ‘Symbolic Meanings of Hair in the Middle Ages’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 4 (1994), 43–60.

*Bartlett, Robert, ‘The Miracles of St Modwenna of Burton’, Staffordshire Studies, 8 (1996), 24–26. Two walking corpses, hanging out by Drakelow, wander through village causing plague. Classic stuff and set in 1090s. Haven’t read this article yet.

Bartlett, Robert, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075–1225 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000)

Bartra, Roger, Wild Men in the Looking Glass: The Mythic Origins of European Otherness, trans. by Carl T. Berrisford (Ann Arbor, 1994). ‘White details the existence of a mythological space inhabited by wild men that are clearly distinguishable from barbarians. In contrast with barbarians, who constituted a threat to society in general and to Greek society as a whole, the wild man represented a threat to the individual. Either a s a possible destiny or nemesis, the wild man reflected a condition of a degenerate individual, far from the city, and fallen from grace. This space was peropled by human and quasi-human mythical wild men, whose links with “normal” humanity differed from the relationship between civilized man and barbarian. White clearly demonstrates that, conventionally, barbarian lands were geographically remote, and the moment of their incursion upon the frontiers of the Greek world would signal an apocalypse: the appearance of hordes of barbarians implied the fracturing of the foundation of the world and the death of an epoch. In contrast the wild man is omnipresent, inhabiting the immediate confines of the community. He is found in the neighbouring forests, mountains and islands’ (14). ‘Centaurs were important elements for structuring the relations between a wild existence nand a civilized life. They formed a myth with twin poles, one as a wild man who was humanoid and the other as a wise and just man who was bestial. Pholus and Chiron represented the nature/culture duality inscribed in the centaur’s intricate character. I further wish to incorporate an element of freat significance in the later evolution of the myth of the wild man. How can a human with wild characteristics (Chiron) represent wisdom and culture, as well as be a great educator of heroes. [sic re punct!] “The answer must lie partly, at least, with the superhuman qualities of nature itself: in the wisdom of birds and other wild creatures, from which seers like Teiresias, Melampus, and Polydus learn of the future.” Not only did nature savagely aassault civilized man, but nature also communicated the signs and symbols of a profound knowledge. This odd link between a wild nature and a prophetic knowledge becomes, as we shall see, a recurring theme under different phases in both the medieval and the modern myth of the wild man’ (16).

23 re maenads—cf. wild hunt.

33ff. re Faunus—parallel to Freyr?

39-40 good parallel to Templar initiaitions.

45ff. re Pilosi saltabunt ibi.

80 druids living in forests as cf. wild man. interesting?

83-4 distinction between man in wild state and wild being (+89-90). Hmm.

Bartrum, P. C., ‘Fairy Mothers’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 19 (1960-62), 6-8. ‘Several instances occur in Welsh folklore of families which claimed to be descended from a fairy ancestor, but in Welsh “heroic” legend examples are very rare. This, at first sight, is surprising if we compare with Irish legend, and the difference is evidently due to the entirely different manner in which the remains of Welsh heroic legend have come down to us’ (6). What about Pryderi’s ancestry!? Ceridwen, presumed mother of Taliesin acc. to Hanes Taliesin (6); Modron daughter of Afallach, one of the ‘Three blessed pregnancies’ in some triad. Peniart MS 147, pp. 10-11 (1556), legend of Rhyd y Gyfarthfa where ‘the name of the lady is not given but she is said to have been the daughter of the King of Annwn’ (7, cf. 6-7). all a bit elliptical for me, mate. Elliptically suggests a ‘hlaf-forgtten’ case in Bonedd y Saint. Hmm… (7). Actually, this is rather pants.

Bartsch, Karl (ed.), Albrecht von Halberstadt und Ovid im Mittelalter (Quedlinburg, 1861, repr. Amsterdam, 1965). Weird.

\t, Steve, ‘How the West was Won: The Anglo-Saxon Takeover of the West Midlands’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 11 (2000), 107–18.

*Bate, A. K., Waltharius of Gaeraldus (Reading, 1978)

Paul Battles, ‘Of Graves, Caves and Subterranean Dwellings: Eorðscræfe and Eorðsele in The Wife’s Lament’, Philological Quarterly, 73 (1994), 267–86

Battles, Paul, ‘Dwarfs in Germanic Literature: Deutsche Mythologie or Grimm’s Myths?’, in The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Mythology of the Monstrous, ed. by Tom Shippey, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 291/Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 14 (Tempe, AZ: Arizon Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005), pp. 29–82. Lots on German medieval texts alongside the Norse stuff etc. Don’t think itmentions the Ribe cranium. ‘Four Old Engish charms prescribe various ways of waarding off “a dwarf”, though it is not always clear whether dweorg denotes [34] the agent of a disease, its symptoms, or the disease itself. Did the Anglo-Saxons really believe that these diseases were caused by dwarfs? Or ahad this already begcome a dead metaphor, just as today the term “stroke” does not conjure up the image of an invisible being “striking someone down”? Scholars who believe the latter de-emphasize the mythological element in the Old English dwarf charms, suggesting that “dwarf” simply denotes “fever”. However, the passage from Peri Didaxeon usually cited in support of this claim is ambiguous. It reads (the reference is to an asthmatic), “hwile he riþaþ swilce he on dweorge sy’, literally “at times he shakes as if from a dwarf” [so actually not literally that at all!!]. This translates the Latin interdum et febriunt [at times they are feverish]’ (33–34). More on this to p. 35. Including transation of ad verrucas as ‘dweorg onweg to donne’ 35 n. 22.

Bauschatz, Paul C., ‘Urth’s Well’, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 3 (1975), 53–86. Citable re etymology of wyrd, urðr, verðandi, skuld. One or two dodgy bits but basically okay. esp. 55, 59–63 acceptable e.g. for equation of nornar with parcae, earlier Gk. Μοιραι [eek, is the rho there right? And hat on the first i] with a bit of discussion.

Bawcutt, Priscilla, ‘Elrich Fantasyis in Dunbar and Other Poets’, in Bryght Lanternis: Essays on the Language and Literature of Medieval and Renaissance Scotland, ed. by J. Derrick McClure and Michael R. G. Spiller (Aberdeen, 1989), pp. 162-78. ‘I find the phrase “elrich fantasyis” [<Douglas Aeneid Vi prol.] a useful label for a small group of humorous poems, preserved chiefly in the Bannatyne Manu[163]script’ (162-63). ‘It is probable that they belong to the last decades of the fifteenth or the early decades of the sixteenth century’ (163). ‘In Lichtoun’s Dreme the poet dreams that he is “tane” by “the king of farye” ’ In Kynd Kittok ‘Kittok’s adventures start when she comes to “ane elrich well” (8). Such magic wells seem to function in Scottish and Irish tradition, “as the extreme limit of the known world” ’ (163, citing Wood 1986). Re Fergus Gaist (‘essentially a mock-conjuration of a troublesome ghost’ 164) ‘the offspring of Fergus’s ghost and ‘the Spen3ie fle’ are Orpheus and queen “Elpha” ’ (163). ‘Most of these poems are included in Bannatyne’s “mirrie ballatis”, and are undoubtedly humorous. Unlike some great ballads or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight they do not draw us far into an enchanted world’ (164). ‘Dunbar, however, in The Goldin Targe (125-6) calls Pluto an “elrich incubus”. This seems to fuse god, demon and fairy, recalling Pluto’s rape of Proserpina as well as his medieval identification with thvae king of faerie’ (166). Otherwise not very useful re eldrich but good in other respects. Setting up Dunbar and his use of the devil relative to these other forms. Dunbar less jocular, more sinister, she reckons. And other things.

*Bawden, Charles R., Confronting the Supernatural: Mongolian Traditional Ways and Means: Collected Papers (Wiesbaden, 1994) [NF2 461:84.c.95.4]

Bazire, Joyce and James E. Cross (ed.), Eleven Old English Rogationtide Homilies, Kings College London Medieval Studies, 4, 2nd edn (London: Kings College London, 1989)

*Beck, H., ‘A Runological and Iconographical Interpretation of North-Sea Germanic Rune-Solidi’, Michigan Germanic Studies, 7 (1981), 69-88. 69ff re Frisian runes weladu.

*Beck, Wolfgang, Die Merseburger Zaubersprüche, Imagines Medii Aevi, 16 (Wiebaden: Reichert, 2003)

*Beckensall, Stan, Northumberland Field Names (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, n.d.).

Becker, Alfred, Franks Casket: Zu den Bildern und Inschriften des Runenkästchens von Auzon, Sprache und Litteratur: Regensburger Arbeiten zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 5 (Regensburg: Carl, 1973)

Becker, Gertraud, Geist und Seele im Altsächsischen und im Althochdeutschen: Der Sinnbereich des Seelischen und die Wörter gêst-geist und seola-sêla in den Denkmälern bis zum 11. Jahrhundert (Heidelberg, 1964) [746:25.c.95.1 NW3]Relevant re Glc A? Ah, that OS, not OE…!

Bek-Pedersen, Karen, 'Are the Spinning Nornir just a Yarn?', Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, 3 (2007), 1-10.

*Behr, C., ‘The Origins of Kingship in Medieval Kent’, Early Medieval Europe, 9 (2000), 25–52. 39–45 app. re Thunor story and argues that Eastrym Finglesham and Woodnesborough consituted a major C6 cult centre associated with Woden.

Behringer, Wolfgang, Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoecklin and the Phantoms of the Night, trans. by H. C. Midelfort (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1998). p. 63 re Joan of Arc but looks generally interesting. [UL only has German ]

*Belier, Wouter, Decayed Gods (Leiden 1991). Dunno what’s in ehre by Sjöblom cited and may be interesting…

Bell, A., ‘Gaimar and the Edgar-Ælfðryð Story’, Modern Language Review, 21 (1926), 278–87. Alas, doesn’t even summarise the story, but tackels various issues re it likely origins etc. Emphs poss of oral origins and no relation to William of Malmesnury’s account.

Bell, Alexander (ed.), L’Estoire des Engleis by Geffrei Gaimar, Anglo-Norman Texts, 14–16 (Oxford, 1960). Elftroed indexed as Ælfthryth, queen of Edgar, k. of England (298). lines 3607ff. King Edgar tells his brother Edelwold that he’s in love with ‘Elftroed la fille oRgar’ (at 3633). Then narrator says stuff and ‘Orgar juot a uns eschés, / Un giu qu’il aprist as Daneis; / Od lui [juout] Elftroad la bele, / Suz ciel n’ot tele damoisele, / E Edelwold mult l’esgardat, / Trestut un jur i demurat. / Tant l’esgardat vis e colur / E cors e mains la bele flur / Que quidat [bien] que [ço] fust fee / E qu’ele ne fust de femme nee / E quant la vit de tel belted, / Tant [par] en fud enlumined / Qu’il purpensat en sun curage, / U turt a pru u a damage, / Ne dirat mie a sun seignur / [117] La verited cil traïtur, / Ainz dirat qu’ele n’est pas si bele; / De luinz purtraist la grant puscele.’ (ll. 3649–3666, pp. 116–17).

date and place li–lii; ‘The Estoire des Engleis … was written in England by an author who had lived long enough in the country, even if not actually born there, to acquire a considerable knowledge of the native language’ (li); concludes for 1135×40

*Bell, James A., ‘Interpretation and Testability in Theories about Prehistoric Thinking’, The Ancient Mind, ed. by C. Renfrew and E. B. W. Zubrow (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 15–21.

Bennardo, Giovanni, ‘Language, Mind, and Culture: From Linguistic Relativity to Representational Modularity’, in Mind, Brain, and Language: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Marie T. Banich and Molly Mack (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003), pp. 23–59.

Bennet, Gillian, Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural (Harmondsworth, 1987). [reading room, 9000.d.2870]

Bennett, Margaret, ‘Balquhidder Revisited: Fairylore in the Scottish Highlands, 1690–1990’, in The Good People: New Fairylore Essays, ed. by Peter Narváez, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1376 (New York: Garland, 1991), pp. 94–115.

*Benozzo, Francesco, Landscape Perception in Early Celtic Literature, Celtic Studies Publications, 8 (Aberystwyth: Celtic Studies Publications, 2004). Very litty and badly language-checked, but interesting-looking.

Benson, Larry D. and Theodore M. Andersson (eds and transs XXXX), The Literary Context of Chaucer’s Fabliaux: Texts and Translations (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971). Irregang and Girregar 124–93. Elbisch: lines 648, 934, 1206, 1310; alp: lines 653, 676, 873.

Benson, Larry D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987). Shipman’s tale:

“Cosyn,” quod she,”if that I hadde a space,

As I have noon, and namely in this place,

Thanne wolde I telle a legende of my lyf,

What I have suffred sith I was a wyf

With myn housbonde, al be he youre cosyn.” (204–5, ll. 143–47/ 1333–37). Hmm, v. like WfL, cf. ‘For I may synge “allas and weylawey / That I was born,” but to no wight, quod she’ (204, ll. 118–19/1308–9) shows allusion to lyrics etc. She also uses proverbial wisdom 173–77.

Benson, Larry D., A Glossarial Concordance to the Riverside Chaucer, 2 vols (London, 1993) [NW1 719:2.b.95.7-]. Elf: MilT (1) 3479:

This Nicholas sat ay as stille as stoon, / And evere caped upward into the eir. / This carpenter wende he were in despeir, / And hente hym by the sholdres myghtily, / And shook hym harde, and cride spitously, / ‘What! Nicholay! what, how! what, look adoun! / Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun! / I crouche thee from elves and fro wightes.[’] / Therwith the nyght-spel seyde he anon-rightes / On foure halves of the hous aboute, / And on the thressfold of the dore withoute: / ‘Jhesu Crist and seinte Benedight, / Blesse this hous from every wikked wiht, / For nyghtes verye, the white pater-noster! / Where wentestow, seinte Petres soster?’ (Everyman: the meaning of these lines is obscure’ re last two).

MLT (2) 754:

The mooder was an elf, by aventure

WBT (3) 860: The elf-queene, with hir joly compaignye

WBT (3) 864: But now kan no man se none elves mo,

WBT (3) 873: For the as wont to walken was an elf

ProThop (7) 703: He semeth elvyssh by his contenaunce,

Thop (7) 788: An elf-queene shal my lemman be

Thop (7) 790: “An elf-queene wol I love, ywis,

Thop (7) 795: And to an elf-queene I me take

Thop (7) 799: An elf-queene for t’espye,

CYT (8) 751: Oure elvysshe craft, we semen wonder wise,

CYT (8) 842: In lernyng of this elvysshe nyce loore,

So only in CTs, then. Hmm. Can they be correlated with genre, status of speakers, etc.?

*Benveniste, Emile, Indo-European Language and Society (Coral Cables, 1972)

Berglund, Björn E., ‘Models for reconstructing Ancient Cultural Landscapes: The Example of the Viking Age Landscape at Bjäresjö, Skåne, Southern Sweden’, in Environment and Vikings: Scientific Methods and Techniques, ed. by Urve Miller and Helen Clarke, Birka Studies, 4 (Stockholm: The Birka Project, 1997), pp. 31–45. [595.01.c.16.4] Not much on the culture end really, more about where woods and pastures were etc.

Bergmann, Rolf, Verzeichnis der althochdeutschen und altsächsischen Glossenhandschriften, Arbeiten zur Frühmittelalterforschung: Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Frühmittelalterforschung der Universität Münster (Berlin, 1973). Seems to be complete list of gloss MSS in AHD and ALG. Ed. by Seivers and suppl. Mayer. [R785.G105 WALRUS] 85 re Junius 83! A summary catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bobleian Library, II, 2, Nr. 5194, s. 981-982. W. Braekman and M. Gysseling, Het Utrechtse Kalendarium van 1253 met de Noordlimburgse Gezondheidsregels, Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal—en Letterkunde. Verslagen en Mededelingen 1967, Aflevering 9-12, S. 575-635 (S. 575-580).

Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (London: Lane, 1967). Re reality and knowledge: ‘We need not enter here into adiscussion of the semantic intricacies of either the everyday or the philosophical usage of these terms. It will ne enough, for our purposes, to define “reality” as a quality appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as having been independent of our own volition (we cannot “wish them away”), and to define “knowledge” as the certainty that phenomena are real and that they possess specific characteristics. It is in this (admittedly simplistic) sense that the terms have relevance both to the man in the steet and to the philosopher’ (13). Discusses how although the sociologist can’t just accept reality and knowledge like the man in the street (if only cos different socieites obviously do them differently), he can’t be trying to make ultimate decisions about their validity like a philosopher (14–15). In between. ‘It is our contention, then, that the sociology of knowledge must concern itself with whatever passes for “knowledge” in a society, regardless of the ultimate validity of invalidity (by whatever criteria) of such “knowledge”. And in so far as all human “knowledge” is developed, transmitted and maintained in social situations, the sociology of knowledge must seek to understand the processes by which this is done in such a way that a taken-for-granted “reality” congeals for the man in the street. In other words, we content that the sociology of knowledge is concerned with the analysis of the social contruction of reality.’ (15). ‘Among the multiple realities there is one that presents itself as the reality par excellence. This is the reality of everyday life. … // I apprehend the reality of everyday life as an ordered reality. Its phenomena are prearranged in patterns that seem to be independent of my apprehension of them and that impose themselves upon the latter. The reality of everyday life appears already objectified, that is, constituted by an order of objects that have been designated as objects before my appearance on the scene. The language used in everyday life continuously provides me with the necessary objectifications and posits the order within which these make sense and within [36] which everryday life has meaning for me. I live in a place that is geographically designated; I employ tools, from can-openers to sports cars, which are designated in the technical vocabulary of my society; I live within a web of human relationships, from my chess club to the Unites States of America, which ae also ordered by means of vocabulary. In this manner language marks the coordinates of my life in society and fills that life with meaningful objects’ (35–36). The here and now, the world within my physical reach, the realissimum, the reality par excellence. Other parts of everyday life more distant, spacially or temporally, possibly of less interest, certainly less urgent (36–37). Emphs that although you may enter other realities, as when watching a play, in religious experience, etc., everyday reality remains paramount (39); ‘If nothing else, language makes sure of this. The common language available to me for the objectification [40] of my experiences is grounded in everyday life and keeps pointing back to it even as I employ it to interpret experiences in finite provinces of meaning. Typically, therefore, I “distort” the reality of the latter as soon as I begin to use the common language in interpreting them, the is, I “translate” the non-everyday experiences back into the paramount reality of everyday life’ (39–40); but surely it cuts both ways—language facilitates social realities? Temporality dead important 40–42.

Talks about typicifations and social interaction. The more face-to-face your experience of someone, the less anonymous and typified they are etc. (43–48). Elves are presumably pretty typified as a rule but some of the Scottish trials suggest other angles here.

Language dead important in the ‘objectivation’ of reality, 49–61. ‘The common objectivations of everyday life are maintained primarily by linguistic signification. Everyday life is, above all, life with and by means of the language I share with my fellowmen [sic]. An understanding of [52] language is thus essential for any understanding of the reality of everyday life. // Language has its origins in the face-to-face situation, but can be readily detached from it. This is not only because I can shout in the dark or across a distance … Th detachment of language lies much more basically in its capacity to communicate meanings that are not direct expressions of subjectivity “here and now”. It shares this capacity with other sign systems, but its immense variety and complexity make it much more readily detachable from the face-to-face situation than any other (for example, a system of gesticulations). I can speak about innumerable matters that are not present at all in the face-to-face situation, including matters I hever have and never will experience directly. In this way, language is capable of becoming the objective repository of vast accumulations of meaning and experience, which it can then preserve in time and transmit to following generations’ (51–52). Develops this to 54. ‘Moreover, language is capable of transcending the reality of everyday life altogether. It can refer to experiences pertaining to finite provinces of meaning, and it can span discrete spheres of reality’ (54). ‘Any significative theme that thus spans spheres of reality may be defined as a symbol, and the linguistic mode by which such transcendence is achieve may be called symbolic language. On the level of symbolism, then, linguistic signification attains the maximum detachment from the “here and now” of everyday life, and language soars into regions that are not only de facto but a priori unavailable to everyday experience. Language now constructs immense edifices of symbolic representations that appear to tower over the reality of everyday life like gigantic presences from another world. Religion, philosophy, art, and science are the historically most important symbol systems of this kind. To name these is already to say that, despite the maximal detachment from everyday experience that the construction of these systems requires, they can be of very great importance indeed for the reality of everyday life’ (55).

Berleant-Schiller 1991 in texts folder. Two main issues: ‘The first concerns the relationship between naming processes and and landscape processes, and entails a long overdue questioning and reassessment of the hallowed first principle of place name methodology—the axiom that place-names stand independently as evidence of the environments, land uses, and landscapes of the past. This axiom is seldom either questioned (but see Lind 1962) or confirmed, but this paper offers empirical evidence by which to assess it gathered from on-site observation of landscape changes and from the information given by local informants’ (93). 93–97 sort of mainly just about microtoponymy and how its original referents prove not to be as obvious as you might expect and how it’s sort of unstable. But the island only has one village, so there’s almost no macrotoponymy to speak of. 97– bla boring.

Berman, Melissa A., ‘Egils saga and Heimskringla’, Scandinavian Studies, 54 (1982), 21–50. Alas, has no real discussion of the attribution to Snorri.

*Bernheimer, Richard, Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology (Cambridge, Mass., 1952)

Bertelsen, Henrik, Þiðriks saga af Bern, Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur, 34, 2 vols (Copenhagen: Møller, 1905–11) [752.01.d.2.32] ii 324, Högni and Þiðrekr have to fight; Högni says ‘vinnum þetta einvigi með drengskap. oc fœri nu huargi aðrum ibrigzli sina œtt’. But Þiðrekr loses temper: ‘Þa mellte hann þetta er vist mikilskom er ec stendr her allan dag. oc fyr mer skal standa oc beriaz einn alfs son. Nu suarar hogni. huat ma verra von fyr alfs son en diovolsins sialfs. (ch. 391 in Haymes’s trans). But I can’t see the svartialf variant at all—check other ed.?

Best, R. I., ‘The Adventures of Art Son of Conn, and the Courtship of Delbchæm’, Ériu, 3 (1907), 149–73. Basically story about how Art’s stepmother geises him to have to marry Delbchaem daughter of Morgan (Delbcæm ingin Morgain p. 162). The stepmother herself is Bécuma, banished from the Tuatha Dé Danann who hang out in ‘The land of promise’ (Tir Thairngaire orsomesuch, dunno re endings, 150) and seem to be assoc. with sídhe (152); she herself pulls Conn, Art’s dad (despite being aiming for Conn). Cross motif index refers to Art’s efforts to win Delbchaem, apparently from the Land of Wonders (Tire na nIngnadh dunno re endings, p. 170/§28) since it says he rules this and Art takes it when he kills Morgan. So hardly a fairy lover!!

Bethurum, Dorothy (ed.), The Homilies of Wulfstan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957)

Bibire, Paul, ‘Freyr and Gerðr: The Story and its Myths’, in Sagnaskemmtun: Studies in Honour of Hermann Pálsson on his 65th Birthday, 28th May 1986, ed. by Rudolf Simek, Jónas Kristjánsson and Hans Bekker-Nielsen (Wien: Böhlaus, 1986), pp. 19–40. ‘It is striking how many motifs are used in Skírnismál which are associated not with the Vanir but with Óðinn: Hlíðskjálf (only in the prose), rune-magic, Draupnir, and indirectly perhaps also Suttungr’s supernatural mead of poetic wisdom’; collaspse of demarcation of motifs maybe showing lateness (34).

*Biddick, K., ‘Field Edge, Forest Edge: Early Medieval Social Change and Resource Allocation’, in Archaeological Approaches to Medieval Europe, ed. by K. Biddick (Kalamazoo, Mich.: XXXX, 1984), pp. 105–18.

Bierbaumer, Peter, Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen, 3 vols, Grazer Beiträge zur Englischen Philologie, 1–3 (Bern: Lang, 1975–79). Bierbaumer [NW4 768.c.97.98–100] I, 13f, II 7, III, 15 re Consolida Media.

i (re leechbook) 9–10: ÆLFÞONE: f. n-St.

Nsg. ælfþone: 24/35; 98/34; 103/24; 107/31; 108/29;

Gsg. ælfþonan: 106/12

Asg. ælfþonan: 82/20; 105/21f; 106/10; 106/13;

SOLANUM DULCAMARA L., BITTERSÜSS, ne. DOGWOOD, SWEET BITTER [SIC].

Diese Deutung wird durch die Etymologie des Pfln. nahegelegt. Die von C.(III, 311) und BT (s.v.)1) angegebene Bed. Circaea Lutetiana L. ist durch die Bed. des Grundworts -þone (=‘Ranke’) auszuschließen, wie die Betrachtung von C[ockayne]. lutetiana zeigt (vgl. Hegi, V,877). Zudem steht C. lutetiana außerhalb der germanischen Tradition, und dessen Namen wie Hexenkraut, ne. enchanter’s nightshade sind wohl durch den lat. Namen entstanden.

ETYM.: P. I, 30: ‘albho- “weiß”---lat. albus “weiß”…ahd albiz, elbiz, …[etc.] (urspr. wohl [10] “weißliche Nebelgestalten” ’. Zahlreiche ae. Krankheitsnamen stehen mit den Elfen in Zusammenhang…

-þone stellt P. (I,1065f) zur Wz. idg. +ten- ‘dehnen, ziehen, spannen’; vgl. lat. tendó[macr], -ere ‘spannen, ausdehnen’, got. uf-þanjan ‘sich ausdehnen, sich ausstrecken’, ae. þenian, þennan ‘strecken, spannen’, ahd., mhd. donên ‘sich ausdehnen’, mhd. done, don ‘Spannung’, ahd. dona, as. thona ‘Zweig, Ranke’. [cf. Kluge, F., Etymologisches Wörterbuch des deutschen Sprache, s.v. dohne] Ae. ælfþone heißt also ‘Albranke’ und ist damit gleichbedeutend mit nhd. Alfranken, Alpranken, nl. alfranken, die alle S. dulcamara bezeichnen. Das Bestimmungswort ælf- bezieht sich auf die Verwendung gegen elfische Krankheiten. Vgl. Tschirch (I,455): ‘Solche Qualmkräuter, welche vor allem die elbischen, stechenden und schmerzbereitenden Dämonen vertreiben sollten, waren…Cannabis…Bilsenkraut…Atropa Beladonna…und das uralte Nachtschaden- und Schadenkraut (Solanum).’ Vgl. dazu vor allem das 106/12ff beschriebene ‘Qualmrezept’ gegen Elfenkrankheit (ælfádl [macr]), in dem ælfþone Hauptbestandteil ist. Das Grundwort -þone bezieht sich auf die windenden Stengel der Pflanze (vgl. Hegi, V,2589).

Goes for Solanum Dulcamara then.

Dolhrúne[macr] 48; goes for Parietaria Officinalis/Pellitory of the Wall; etym ‘Wörtl. “Wundhexe” ’ (48).

None in vol 2 (other medical texts) or 3 (glosses). Lists Solanum Dulcamara nowhere else in his indices of Latin plant names in the vols (i, 159–62; ii, 152–55; iii, 326–28).

ii 125–26: WÉDEBERGE: f. n-St.

HA CXL: Asg. þe me elleborum album 7 oþrum naman tunsincg wyrt nemneþ 7 eac sume men wedeberge hataþ: 258/23;

VERATRUM ALBUM L. (s. tunsincgwyrt)

Der Pfln. wédeberge kann sonst wohl auch andere Giftplanzen wie Helleborus niger L. oder Daphne Mezereum L. bezeichnen. Vgl. Lb. s.v. ceasteræsc, DP 148 (Elleborus vedeberige uel thung), Laud 777 (Helliborum .i. yediberige) und Erhardt-Seebold, S.169. [126]

ETYM.: Vgl. Erhardt-Seebold (S.169; mit Bezug auf die Pfl. Daphne Mezereum): ‘The term wédeberge (=madberry), in its first part, undoubtedly refers to mental disorders which had been associated with the name hellebore since antiquity, while the second part clearly points to a berry-bearing plant.’ (125–26).

iii 250: WÉDEBERGE (poedibergæ, vedeberige, ~, woedeberge, woidiberge, yediberige)

ELEBORUS þung, woedeberge: Cp 755(E 120); ELIFORUS ~ [ve]l ceasteræsc: ClSt E St 243(WW 379,20); D 11, f.5v,col.1; ELLEBORUS poedibergæ: Erf 388; vedeberige UEL thung: Dur 148; ~: D 11,f.4v,col.1; ~, þung: ClSt E 25(WW 391,40); HELLEBORUS woid