Textual Magic: Charms and Written Amulets in Medieval England

“Charms extend the boundaries of our knowledge of medieval respect for the power of language and of the many forms that power could take,” contends Hindley, an English professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in her meticulous debut. Based on a review of more than 1,100 written and spoken charms, she argues that they reflect a uniquely medieval view of language in which words “could be deployed to physically change the world, providing healing to the sick or protection to the vulnerable.” Hindley notes that charms were believed to “transmit power differently,” so that spoken charms were less effective when written down, and to work independently of the practitioner’s ability to understand the words. Charms were also often thought to draw their power from God or Christian saints, Hindley explains, suggesting that Latin incantations would have held associations with church services and that the inclusion of the Lord’s Prayer in many charms blurred the boundary between sacred and profane. Though the scrupulous dissection of dozens of charms can be a bit dry, the thought-provoking look at the distinctive ways medieval English people viewed language intrigues. It’s an enlightening deep dive. Photos. (June)