May 3, 2020
The first episode of History and Folklore Podcast looking at how Anglo-Saxons viewed elves and how to heal a disease caused by elf-shot.
Transcript:
For a sudden
stitch:
They
were loud, yes loud when they rode over the land,
THey were fierce when they rode
over the land.
Shield yourself now, that you may
escape this evil.
Out, little spear, if herein
you be.
Stood under linden, under a light shield,
Where the mighty women readied their power,
And sent their screaming
spears.
I
will send another back to them,
A
flying dart against them in return.
Out
little spear, if herein it be.
Six
smiths sat, war spears they made.
Out
spear, not in spear!
If
herein be a bit of iron, hag’s work,
It shall
melt.
If you were in the skin shot, or were in the
flesh shot,
Or were in the blood shot,
or were in bone shot,
Or were in limb shot, may
your life be never torn apart.
If
it was aesir shor, if it was elf shot,
If
it were hag’s shot, now I will help you.
It
fled there into the mountains. No rest it had.
Whole be you know. Lord help
you.
Now take the knife and dip it into the
liquid.
Hello, welcome to History and Folklore, where we look at different folk beliefs through history and how these beliefs have shaped people’s perceptions of nature through time. As this is the first episode I just want to introduce myself, my name’s Holly. I have a degree in history, focussing on social and religious aspects of Anglo-Saxon and early medieval England. I focussed on this subject as I was really interested in folk beliefs and stories and what these tell us about how people interacted with and understood the world around them. I also have a Master’s degree in Museum Studies and, for the past ten years have worked in history and museum education.
Today we’re looking at elves in Anglo-Saxon
England, particularly looking at charms against elves that turn up
in Anglo-Saxon medical texts.
Before we go into too much detail, we need to
look at what an elf was to the Anglo-Saxons. The modern idea of
elves is usually similar to a Tolkein elf; human-like, graceful,
immortal and magical creatures that live in their own society away
in the wilds of nature, the forests or mountains. It is fairly well
known that Tolkein borrowed a lot of his ideas from Anglo-Saxon
and
Norse mythology, and so his version of elves are quite similar to how an Anglo-Saxon person may have thought about them.
They were generally seen as human-like creatures, who were usually invisible to humans, or at least hard to see, and they lived in their own communities separate from humans. They also seem very tied to nature, with various references to different types of elves including water, mountain, wood, down, sea and field elves. From this it can be assumed that elves were associated with wild places, separate from human civilisation. What I find particularly interesting then, is how Anglo-Saxons perceived elves and what this says about how they perceived the natural world around them. If you are walking through a forest that you believe is inhabited by invisible beings, how you feel about those beings will very much affect how you feel about the forest.
It is apparent from a lot of existing texts
that elves were seen as unpredictable and generally hostile towards
humans. In the epic tale of Beowulf elves are listed as being part
of the group of monsters who sided with Cain after he murdered his
own brother. As punishment for this, they were driven away from
mankind, denied the promise of heaven and were probably quite
bitter towards humans because of this. However there are hints that
elves were not seen as entirely evil. For example, the Old English
‘aelf’ is often used as a prefix to old English names to represent
beauty, light or wisdom. Names like Aelfred or Aelfwynn mean elf
councilled and elf joy respectively, which shows a rather more
positive perception of elves. Although on a side note, if you have
read any of Terry Pratchett’s books, in Lords and Ladies he does
point out that the fictional elves of the Discworld are glamorous
because they project glamour, they are enchanting because they
weave enchantment and they are terrific because they beget terror.
Although those descriptions are seen as positive none of them are
synonyms for nice, and it might be a good idea to keep this idea in
mind.
One issue that we do have in learning about Ango-Saxon elves is the arrival of Christianity. Christian missionaries in England were not interested in completely destroying the beliefs and culture of the Anglo-Saxons, but wanted to take elements of the culture and give it a more ‘Christian’ slant. Churches, for example, would be built on holy sites as people were already accustomed to going there to worship. Festivals would be celebrated at the same time of year, and in the same way, but the meaning for the celebration would be shifted to focus on Christianity.
Karen Jolly, who has written a brilliant book about elf cures, has pointed out that Anglo-Saxon folklore and Christian religion became so entwined that it is almost impossible to tell the extent to which Christianity shaped Anglo-Saxon culture and and to which Anglo-Saxon culture shaped Christianity. Elves are a particularly good example of this. In many sources where elves are mentioned they are often represented as the equivalent to Christian demons, which is understandable as most sources were written by Christian monks. However, during conversion the Anglo-Saxon people would have had a better understanding of elves than demons, so it is likely that demons would have been explained by comparing them to elves, causing demons in modern Christianity to have partially been shaped by the idea of elves 1,500 years ago. For this reason, elves and demons, formal religion and magic existed very comfortably side by side in the mind of the average Anglo-Saxon person.
Some of the most interesting sources where this is shown are the ‘elf charms’ that are found in medical texts such as Bald’s Leechbook and the Lacnunga, both written after the conversion to Christianity. It was believed that some illnesses were caused by ‘elf-shot’, an attack by a hostile elf on a human or animal, and this is an idea which lives on in modern language when we describe a stabbing or shooting pain and elf charms told the reader how to cure these diseases.
Unfortunately, most of these
charms do not give any real information about the symptoms caused
by elf shot, as it was assumed the reader of the charm would know
how to identify the illness. However, one of the elf charms that I
particularly like is the cure for ‘water elf disease’, which some
historians have argued is actually chicken pox. This charm does
list some symptoms, which apparently include livid fingernails,
tearful eyes and, strangely, ‘looking down.’ Although no markings
are listed in the symptoms, the cure involves making a poultice of
herbs and placing this on the wound caused by the
arrows.
A
lot of charms against elf shot call for creating a potion or
poultice of herbs to purge the evil of the elf shot out of the
body. The most common herbs used in these charms were lupin,
bishopwort, fennel, cropleek, garlic, hassock, pennyroyal, rue and
wormwood. These were all herbs that were used in treating symptoms
associated with psychological and mental afflictions such as
demonic possession, nightmares, fever and hallucinations which
gives an idea of the type of symptoms that may have been seen in
diseases associated with elves.
Most cures for elf shot varied
between what we would now see as very superstitious and very
religious, again showing the amalgamation between folk, pagan and
Christian belief that was occuring at this time. One cure calls for
writing on a Eucharist dish and washing the words off with running
water. Another, named ‘for a sudden stitch’ which I read out at the
start of the episode, calls on prominent figures of the Anglo-Saxon
pagan religion. It tells a story of how the old gods, the Aesir,
and elves would attack while referencing other mythological figures
such as hags and smiths. The story culminated in a phrase that
would be said by the healer, with the story giving confidence
to both healer and patient as it shows the words being used
effectively against powerful mythological figures in a similar
situation. This is the sort of power you might feel you need to
call on when trying to drive out a poison caused by an attack from
a magical invisible assailant.
With
all of this in mind it is likely elves were respected, but not
beloved, by the people of Anglo-Saxon England. It is easy to see
how this could reflect their attitude towards the wild spaces that
surrounded them. The wilderness is beautiful, awe inspiring, but
also incredibly dangerous, especially if you forget to treat it
with the proper respect.
I hope you have enjoyed the first episode of
History and Folklore. Please let me know if you did, or let me know
what I can improve on in future episodes. Also get in touch if
there are any topics that you would like me to focus on in future
episodes. My email is historyandfolklorepodcast@gmail.com
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and folklore. Thanks for listening, and I hope to see you next
time.