The Rod of Protection and the Witches' Ride: Christian and Germanic Syncretism in Two Old English Metrical Charms

Scholars concerned with editing and interpreting the Old English Metrical Charms would all readily agree on two points. The first is that these are some of the most enigmatic texts in the corpus of Old English and indeed in the whole of the medieval English literary corpus. The second is that the charms reflect a curious kind of syncretism in which Christian formulas and prayers and what seem to be older "pagan" elements are conjoined in a deliberate synthesis. This is, in fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of these texts; in this respect they are comparable to such artistic monuments as the Gosferth Cross or the Franks (Auzon) Casket in which native (pagan) iconography is juxtaposed with Christian scenes.¹ In the present paper I would like to offer solutions to some problems in two of the most enigmatic of these texts, the "Journey Charm" and "Against a Sudden Stitch / Wið Færstice." The logic of conjoining these two studies is that the first draws upon Biblical exegesis and no less an authority than Augustine to resolve certain problems in the "Journey Charm," while the second calls attention to a hitherto unnoted parallel to the "Færstice" charm in an Old Norse Icelandic þáttr about the pagan past, providing a "Germanic" analogue to elucidate an Old English Christian text. As I hope to show, however, these categories of Christian and "pagan" are so thoroughly conflated in the metrical charms that it is hard to sort them out. We are dealing with deeply syncretic texts which transcend these simple catagories of literary and cultural history, and that is at least part of their fascination.

The terms "Germanic," "Christian," "pagan," and "syncretic" are all charged and to some degree controversial in the context of Old English studies—even when sanitized to some degree by scare quotes. In broad outline it can be said that previous generations of Old English scholars, following the lead of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, were quite comfortable with these and similar terms, even if their definitions were not always exact. In contrast, the consensus of many modern Old English scholars is that they are suspect and problematic in a variety of ways.² In my judgment, part at least of this disagreement also involves definitions. To take one of the most suspect and problematic terms, if by "pagan" or "paganism" one refers to texts and practices which were at one point part of the worship and ritual of the Germanic peoples and specifically the Anglo-Saxons before they were converted to Christianity, then our evidence for Anglo-Saxon "paganism" is very limited indeed. But if by "paganism" one simply means those aspects of the culture and literature of the Anglo-Saxon peoples which were to one degree or another significantly influenced by pre-Christian religious tradition and practice, then the scope of what we may define as Anglo-Saxon paganism is much broader. It is clear that I have qualified my definition significantly, but I would argue that it is as short-sighted to deny the influence of what one might call "cultural paganism" well after the conversion as it was to exaggerate the importance of Anglo-Saxon paganism in the latter decades of the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century.

Another term that merits at least some attention is the noun "syncretism" or the adjectival form "syncretic." In the context of the present discussion, the term simply means "blended" or "mixed," the joining of Christian and "pagan" elements in new formulas or rituals. Syncretism is sometimes taken to imply the corruption or pollution of an originally "pure" religion, and yet the adoption and assimilation of traditional "pagan" rituals, formulas, and customs is only a problem from a Christian perspective if the new customs or formulas conflict with Christian dogma. A harvest festival or other agricultural rituals, for example, do not necessarily conflict with Christian ideas about the role of God in ordering events or his benevolence as the creator of nature and the natural cycles of the agricultural year...