Elf-shot in Anglo-Saxon England
If you have
ever felt a sharp, stabbing pain, hallucinated or had a nightmare then you have
been a victim of an Anglo-Saxon elf.
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| No real examples of Anglo-Saxon elves exist, but they may have looked like this. Photo: Magnus the Great via Flickr |
Anglo-Saxon
elves were shadowy creatures. Invisible to humans, or at least very difficult
to see, they were originally associated with the god Freyr who ruled over
Alfheim. Elves survived as part of popular folklore after the adoption of
Christianity, and appear to be classified alongside creatures such as demons or
fallen angels who wish to cause harm to humans. In Beowulf, elves are mentioned
among Cain’s kin, as creatures who battle against God.
What to do if you have been shot by an elf:
Elves were
blamed for causing a number of human and animal illnesses, either by ‘shooting’ arrows
or spears at their targets, or by altering the mind of their victim with magic.
Luckily, there were a number of cures to heal elf-shot, most of which involve
making a drink or salve out of herbs and saying a charm or prayer to draw out
the healing powers of the herbs. Some of the most common herbs used in these
remedies include feverfew, garlic, pennyroyal, hassock, rue, wormwood and
fennel.
My favourite cure,
for its simplicity and story-like quality, appears in the Anglo-Saxon medical
text known as the Lacnunga. It
involves boiling feverfew, red nettle grown in grain and plantains in butter to
make a salve. The salve is applied to the affected area with a knife and a
charm is spoken:
Lacnunga: Wið færstice (for a sudden stitch)
Feverfew and the red nettle that grows into a house [or "in the
grain"] and waybroad; boil in butter.
Loud were they, lo
loud, when they rode over the mound,
they were fierce when they rode over the land.
Shield yourself
now that you may escape this evil.
Out, little
spear, if herein you be!
Stood under
linden, under a light shield,
where the mighty
women readied their power,
and they
screaming spears sent.
I back to them again will send another,
a flying dart against them in return.
Out, little
spear, if herein it be!
Sat a smith, forged he a knife,
little iron strong wound.
Out, little
spear, if herein it be!
Six smiths sat, war-spears they made.
Out, spear, not in, spear!
If herin be a bit of iron,
hag's [haegtesse]
work, it shall melt.
If you were in the
skin shot, or were in flesh shot,
or were in the blood
shot, or were in bone shot,
or were in limb
shot, may your life never be torn
apart.
If it were ’sir
shot, or it were elves' shot,
or it were hag's
shot, now I will help you.
This your remedy for
’sir shot, this your remedy for
Elves' shot;
This your remedy for
hag's shot; I will help you.
It fled there into
the mountains. . . . no rest had it.
Whole be you
now! Lord help you!
Then take the knife; dip into liquid.
(Transl. by Karen Louise Jolly)
Sources
Beowulf. trans. Lesslie Hall [online]. (2005) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-h/16328-h.htm
Hall, A.T.P., The Meaning of Elf and Elves in Medieval England [online]. (2004) http://www.alarichall.org.uk/ahphdful.pdf
Jolly, K. L., Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context (Chapel Hill and London, 1996)
