Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland (eBook)

This book will appeal to various specialist readerships, as well as to lay readers. The specialist constituencies will be scholars of medieval Irish, scholars of Irish folklore, and scholars of charms and magic more generally. The interdisciplinary inherent in the collection will contribute to its broad appeal, also internationally. Another possible readership might wish to learn about alternative medical practices, whether or not rooted in western traditions.

List of Illustrations and Maps
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
1. Jacqueline Borsje – European and American Scholarship and the Study of Medieval Irish ‘Magic’ (1846–1960)
2. John Carey – Charms in Medieval Irish Tales: Tradition, Adaptation, Invention
3. Cathinka Dahl Hambro – The Religious Significance of the sén 7 soladh in Altram Tige Dá Medar
4. Ilona Tuomi – Nine Hundred Years of the Caput Christi Charm: Scribal Strategies and Textual Transmission
5. Ksenia Kudenko – In Defence of the Irish Saints who ‘Loved Malediction’
6. Barbara Hillers – Towards a Typology of European Narrative Charms in Irish Oral Tradition
7. Nicholas M. Wolf – Nineteenth-Century Charm Texts: Scope and Context
8. Joseph J. Flahive – A Toothache Charm in a Manuscript Fragment of John Lysaght
9. Bairbre Ní Fhloinn – ‘The Cure for Bleeding’: Charms and Other Cures for Blood-stopping in Irish Tradition
10. Deirdre Nuttall – ‘Cahill’s Blood’: Mr Cahill Makes the Cure
11. Denis McArdle – Aisling na Maighdine: The Virgin’s Dream in Irish Oral Tradition
12. Gearóid Ó Crualaoich – An Leabhar Eoin: The ‘In Principio’ Charm in Oral and Literary Tradition
13. Shane Lehane – The Cailleach and the Cosmic Hare
14. Stiofán Ó Cadhla – ‘We’ll talk now about charms’: Knowledge as Folklore and Folklore as Knowledge
Bibliography
Index