Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland: from the medieval to the modern by Ilona Tuomi, John Carey, Barbara Hillers, Ciarán Ó Géalbháin (review)

246 North American journal of Celtic studies ern and southern halves of Ireland (xvi), as attested by a vision experienced by Finnian of Clonard and Ciarán: A vision attributed to Finnian of Clonard saw a silver moon rise above Clonmacnoise that brought brightness and light to the mid-parts of Ireland and another vision attributed to Ciarán himself showed the shadow of the church protecting every part of the country, north and south. (xvi) In his treatment of the four saints in turn, Ó Riain aims to provide translations of Latin Lives—translations that are ‘faithful’, but ‘not literal’ (xvii). The introduction to the Life of each saint is in three parts: a depiction of the saint, a discussion of the church associated with the saint, and an analysis of the Life of the saint. Ó Riain then presents a cogent and scholarly translation of each Life, setting forth the miracle-filled lives in a book that greatly advances hagiographical research. Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland: from the medieval to the modern, ed. Ilona Tuomi, John Carey, Barbara Hillers, & Ciarán Ó Géalbháin. New approaches to Celtic religion and mythology. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-78683-492-8. xiv + 250 pp. $60.00 (paper). Katherine Leach Harvard University In general, charms have received renewed scholarly interest, but this collection is the first compilation of scholarly essays devoted to charm practices in Irish traditions. The scope of this insightful collection is vast, the dates covered ranging from the medieval period up to the modern era. The often conservative nature of a charm presents a unique perspective from which to consider aspects of the past such as religion, healing, language use, oral tradition, and knowledge transmission. To begin, Jacqueline Borsje, ‘European and American scholarship and the study of medieval Irish “magic”’, offers a valuable survey of early foundational scholarship on Irish texts that employ ‘words of power’, a term she prefers when referring to words that were believed efficacious in influencing reality in supernatural ways. She calls for a reassessment of how early Celticists engaged with Irish ‘words of power’ texts, arguing that a better understanding of the theoretical and religious frameworks that influenced early scholarly interpretations of the material can prevent modern scholarship from beKatherine Leach [katherineleach@g.harvard.edu] recently received her Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures. Her doctoral research focused on medieval and early modern Welsh-manuscript healing charms. Reviews 247 ing influenced by inherent biases in earlier studies. Borsje’s chapter is also a fantastic bibliographic source for those new to the topic or wishing to acquaint themselves with seminal studies on premodern Irish charm texts. In ‘Charms in medieval Irish tales. Tradition, adaptation, invention’, John Carey considers the continuity of several charms and magical texts found embedded in early Irish literature. His chapter demonstrates that, even though a charm may seem to represent a new creation, there are often discernible traces of older, traditional compositions lurking beneath the surface. Such texts also often incorporate elements from a broad range of shared sources. In chapter three, ‘The religious significance of the sén 7 soladh in Atram Tige Dá Medar ’, Cathinka Dahl Hambro also examines the ways in which charms and magical texts make up an important element of narrative and are used structurally to mark critical points in the narrative. In chapter four, ‘Nine hundred years of the caput Christi charm. Scribal strategies and textual transmission’, Ilona Tuomi explores the overlap of ‘charm’ and ‘prayer’ by examining the historical textual tradition of one particular charm type found in different contexts and in manuscripts of various periods. Her thorough consideration of the linguistic and literary features of all extant copies of the Irish caput Christi charm traces its development through various phases of transmission and also highlights aspects of scribal innovation. Returning to depictions of charms and similar rituals as portrayed in narrative literature , Ksenia Kudenko, ‘In defence of the Irish saints who “loved malediction”’, considers the implications of satire and malediction when used as character traits attributed to several Irish saints. Kudenko provides a fascinating discussion of satire as a metaphorical wounding of the body...