Publisher's Synopsis
Magic is something unauthorised, an alternative perhaps, even a deliberate cultivation of dark, evil powers. But for the Anglo-Saxon age, the neat division between mainstream and occult, rational and superstitious, Christian and pagan is not always easy to discern. To maintain its authority, the church drew a formal line and outlawed a number of dubious practices, such as divination, spells, and folk healing while at the same time conducting very similar rituals itself. It would seem that there was a convergence of the two cultures, native and Christian and this may effect the tendency to view pagan "gods" as near omnipotent beings.;This text argues that their origin was usually ancestral, their status rising to match the organizational needs of the Germanic migrants, or to parallel the growing authority of the church and its god. In pursuit of a better understanding of Anglo-Saxon magic, a range of topics and texts are examined in this study. Seeking to constructively challenge stereotypical images of the past and its beliefs, the 36 texts are printed in their original language (eg Old English, Icelandic, and Latin) with New English translations. It includes 20 charms, the English, Icelandic, and Norwegian rune poems, texts on dreams, weather signs, unlucky days, and the solar system.
