Textual Magic: Charms and Written Amulets in Medieval England

Katherine Storm Hindley's Textual Magic is a serious work of rigorous research that offers a fascinating account of documents containing written magical formulas from Roman Britain to late medieval England. Although such an ambitious chronological scope is rarely attempted, Hindley proves more than capable of handling the massive body of evidence, much of it still in manuscripts without modern printed editions. The book begins with two chapters outlining the more theoretical aspects of categorization and cultural use. These chapters formulate an important typology for a very messy body of literary evidence. Specifically, the texts under consideration give instructions regarding what words are to be uttered in spoken charms or, of more interest to Hindley, in written charms, which claim efficacy in the very material that has been written on. The type of charm is often determined by the instructions provided: recipes for spoken charms indicate what words are to be said (and these, as Hindley shows, are usually in the vernacular), while recipes for written charms indicate what needs to be written down and what is to be done with the material containing that writing. Once written onto something, a written charm can then be worn or mixed into food or drink, for example. By isolating spoken and written charms, Hindley is able to better explore the complicated relationship between “textual magic” and religious practice. When words become tactile they have the potential to act like other tactile objects such as saints’ relics or the Eucharist, the efficacy of which comes about through some sort of physical contact. Similarly, because of the complex semiotic and theological implications of the word, Hindley can formulate a compelling theory for understanding written charms analogously as an extension of the powers of a saint, as if a written name could act like a conduit that transfers the holy power of a saint to a devotee. Words written in unintelligible languages or signs not only protected misuse of the charm by the uninitiated but also imbued them with a certain mystery that pointed further to their actual powers. For this reason, language plays an important role in Hindley's study of charms, especially as the linguistic landscapes change greatly between Roman Britain and late medieval England. In fact, Textual Magic will also be an important resource for anyone interested in medieval philosophy of language since the ideological basis behind charms that Hindley uncovers is grounded in similar medieval theological and philosophical discourses of the Word.The third to fifth chapters proceed in chronological fashion, consisting of material “before 1100,” “1100 to 1350,” and “1350 to 1500.” While these chapters tend to be more descriptive than theoretical, they nevertheless do offer important chronologically specific considerations that reveal the development of “textual magic” in England over, ultimately, 1000 years. Although the main thrust of Hindley's argument is put onto the back burner for expositions of the massive body of evidence during these three chronological chapters, she never loses sight of the more interesting “big picture” developments that mark her decision to divide the material into these three parts.The chapter “Before 1100” begins with an account of the surviving material evidence from Roman Britain up to the Norman conquest, with a focus on efficacious written charms that develop out of the spoken charms of ancient Rome. Interestingly, the earliest written charms in Britain are used not for the healing powers that they would later be associated with, but to protect the objects they are written on. They also commonly use nonvernacular languages (mainly Latin, but also Greek and Hebrew, among others), as well as runes, in the formulas. Hindley is cautious to make any firm conclusions about this linguistic choice, but suggests that the nonvernacular languages were used to add prestige to the charm, increasing belief in its efficacy. Later in the pre-Conquest period, the large corpus of Old English medical recipes, which give instructions for spoken and written charms, reveal a new use of charms for healing from disease caused by supernatural forces, such as elves or demons. This development, Hindley argues, is closely associated with religious texts and the liturgy in particular. The language of the written charms of these collections use Latin, or occasionally Greek and Hebrew, because that is the language of the Mass. This chapter also contains two intriguing sections dealing with Old English literature. One, which deals with the Pater Noster section of the Old English poem Solomon and Saturn I, works well with Hindley's overall argument—this passage uses the actual letters of a religious text to repulse the devil analogous to some of the charms of, say, the Leechbooks. Hindley also connects the cryptic inscription on the ancient sword that Beowulf finds in Grendel's mother's lair to other pre-Conquest charms that find their power in written accounts of past victories, especially from the Bible. While the argument to see the sword functioning as a charm will not convince all, the similarities Hindley draws are undeniable.The medial chronological chapter “1100 to 1350” takes up the evidence, now mainly in Anglo-Norman, with London, British Library, Sloane MS 475 as the main case study. Hindley shows that the cultural shift of this period reflects the prominence of French in England at the time. French replaces English as the main language for spoken charms, whereas Latin remains the main language of written charms. But written texts also begin to show a greater use of unknown words or characters, which were believed to have efficacy in the texts of the charms themselves. Written charms then begin to cause a certain degree of caution and anxiety, as they are thought to be inherently powerful, detached from the efficacy of the saints or the words of the liturgy. As with the previous chapter, Hindley makes a brief foray into the literary corpus, this time with the Anglo-Norman Alexander, which uses unintelligible charms as a narrative device that reflects the cultural assumptions about the inherent efficacy of these charms.The final chronological chapter, “1350 to 1500,” focuses on the effects of the emergence of Middle English on written charms. As in the previous chronological period, tension arises between the use of the vernacular (now no longer French but English) and the use of unintelligible words or characters. As is to be expected, with the increase of English, Latin remains prominent but French declines. In this context, Hindley argues that the increase in literacy allowed greater accessibility to charms. On the one hand, comprehensibility was required in charms that relied on similarities between the ailment of a patient and that in a Biblical narrative. These so-called historiolae are dependent on understanding the text. But on the other hand, wider ability to understand a magical charm demanded greater need to protect efficacious written charms through unknown languages and symbols. Hindley gives a compelling case study of fourteenth-century charms using the incomprehensible formula “thebal et guth guttanay,” itself later masked by Greek characters to protect its obscurity, thereby ensuring its efficacy. In this chapter, Hindley has two excursions into Middle English literary texts of the period: The Siege of Jerusalem, which uses charms that would be recognizable to foster ideas of Christian communal identity; and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, in which, Hindley argues, Pandarus understands a letter to Troilus by Criseyde as a written charm that is efficacious through its material nature until Troilus reads it and renders it primarily of a communicative nature.Hindley's conclusion is a substantial summary of the main thread of the argument supplemented by quantitative data. She also gives an interesting, though preliminary, discussion on the development of the attitudes towards charms in the Early Modern period, which are heavily influenced by the Reformation. Lastly, Hindley admits the limitations of her study to England and suggests comparative inquiry in other countries whose languages are more closely related to Latin. This is a fitting end to an excellent book that should generate wide-ranging interest across historical, literary, and even philosophical fields.Throughout the book, Hindley has made the wise decision to present her main narrative separately from textual samples of her evidence, which appear in “boxes,” aptly interspersed. Despite their appeal to both scholarship and the popular imagination, medieval charms can actually be a bit dull to read. By relegating them to such boxes, Hindley allows interested readers to pause the narrative of the main text and examine for themselves the medieval charm(s) under discussion; otherwise, these primary accounts can be readily skipped as to not interrupt the flow of the argument. And a final note should go to the University of Chicago Press, which has printed a book of the highest quality: there are almost no typological errors and the material production is excellent, with ample manuscript images (though without color) throughout.

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