In tenth- and eleventh-century England, Anglo-Saxon Christians retained an old folk belief in elves as extremely dangerous creatures capable of harming unwary humans. To ward off the afflictions caused by these invisible beings, Christian priests modified traditional elf charms by adding liturgical chants to herbal remedies. In Popular Religion in Late Saxon England, Karen Jolly traces this cultural intermingling of Christian liturgy and indigenous Germanic customs and argues that elf charms and similar practices represent the successful Christianization of native folklore. Jolly describes a dual process of conversion in which Anglo-Saxon culture became Christianized but at the same time left its own distinct imprint on Christianity. Illuminating the creative aspects of this dynamic relationship, she identifies liturgical folk medicine as a middle ground between popular and elite, pagan and Christian, magic and miracle. Her analysis, drawing on the model of popular religion to redefine folklore and magic, reveals the richness and diversity of late Saxon Christianity.
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Provides unique and valuable insights into popular culture in late Saxon England.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and needed scholarship,
By A Customer
This review is from: Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context (Paperback)
Karen Jolly has produced a wonderful source of information on Anglo-Saxon charms. She makes a powerful case for the charms as elements of Anglo-Saxon popular religion, and explodes many of the myths of a pagan/Christian dichotomy that flooded the field during the age of patristic readings, and that have returned under the guise of neo-paganism in our own popular culture. One cannot claim to be a scholar of the Anglo-Saxon charms without having read this book.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sure to be a classic,
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This review is from: Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context (Paperback)
In this work, Karen Jolly uses the Elf Charms from the Lacnunga and Bald's Leechbook as a window into popular religion in late Anglo-Saxon England, The book provides a great deal of information on the elf-charms themselves, but its significance goes well beyond that.
The full value of Jolly's work is found through the way she explores Anglo-Saxon popular religion, the process of conversion to Christianity, and tensions between formal and popular religion, and the tensions between magical and religious elements. This is a far more important work than the title suggests, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Anglo-Saxon times.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting look at Anglo-Saxon religion,
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This review is from: Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context (Paperback)
Not as mind blowing as 'Elves in Anglo-Saxon England', but an interesting book none the less. I like the more accurate translations of some of the same texts in Alaric Hall's book better. Also the emphasis on christianity is not as interesting to me, although I like how she shows the difference between 'popular' religion, the world of the folk, and that it was quite different from what the Bishops and Reformers believed was going on. Also how she points out the 'privileged' view of things was not necessarily what was really going on. The Middle Ages was not really the Age Of Faith that we all think it was, At least in the British Isles, most people were barely christian till well into the early modern era.
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First Sentence:
Consider the following ceremony for blessing the fields, found on a few folios from the late tenth or early eleventh century, and ponder the contexts in which it was developed, performed, and written. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
housel dish, elf charms, elf disease, flying venom, charm remedies, twelve masses, lent disease, middle practices, medical manuscripts, religion populaire, nine herbs, parochial system, formal religion, classical medicine, formal church, popular religion, medical remedies, conversion events, spiritual agencies, liturgical elements, spiritual ills Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Locating the Charms, The Late Saxon Religious Environment, Middle Ages, Domesday Book, Field Remedy, Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon Herbal, East Anglia, Anglo-Saxon Christian, God Almighty, King Alfred, Gregory of Tours, Lay of the Nine Herbs, Bald's Leechbook, Handbook of Byrhtferth, Jesus Christ, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Leofric Missal, Nancy Hulbirt, Penitential of Egbert, Trinity College New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Consider the following ceremony for blessing the fields, found on a few folios from the late tenth or early eleventh century, and ponder the contexts in which it was developed, performed, and written. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
housel dish, elf charms, elf disease, flying venom, charm remedies, twelve masses, lent disease, middle practices, medical manuscripts, religion populaire, nine herbs, parochial system, formal religion, classical medicine, formal church, popular religion, medical remedies, conversion events, spiritual agencies, liturgical elements, spiritual ills Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Locating the Charms, The Late Saxon Religious Environment, Middle Ages, Domesday Book, Field Remedy, Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon Herbal, East Anglia, Anglo-Saxon Christian, God Almighty, King Alfred, Gregory of Tours, Lay of the Nine Herbs, Bald's Leechbook, Handbook of Byrhtferth, Jesus Christ, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Leofric Missal, Nancy Hulbirt, Penitential of Egbert, Trinity College New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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15
books
cite this book:
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- From Magic to Science: Essays on the Scientific Twilight by Charles Singer on 6 pages
- Medieval Popular Culture (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture) by Aron Gurevich on 5 pages
- Magic in the Middle Ages (Canto) by Richard Kieckhefer on 4 pages
- The Implications of Literacy by Brian Stock in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Domesday Book (Penguin Classic): A Complete Translation (Penguin Classics) by G. Martin in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 100 books this book cites
- Disability in Medieval Europe: Thinking about Physical Impairment in the High Middle Ages, c.1100-c.1400 (Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture) by Irina Metzler in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- A Comparative Sociology of World Religions: Virtuosi, Priests, and Popular Religion by Stephen Sharot in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Religion of Macho: Racial Integration, the World-Wide Crime Wave and the Left by Richard London in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Scyld and Scef: Expanding the Analogues by Alexander M. Bruce in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Text and Picture in Anglo-Saxon England: Narrative Strategies in the Junius 11 Manuscript (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England) by Catherine E. Karkov on page 176, and Back Matter
See all 15 books citing this book
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