Riddling Word Games and Biblical Allusions in “Against a Wen”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21533976 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karel Fraaije (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf Germany, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 141 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 581-603 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-28 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0340-5222 • E-ISSN: 1865-8938 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/ang-2023-0030 |
| OpenAlex | W4386890187 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
This article presents an in-depth analysis of “Against a Wen”, a poetic charm from twelfth-century England that personifies, banishes, and annihilates a skin blemish. The study begins with a brief overview of the text’s linguistic features and then proceeds to discuss the charm in distinct sections. Each of these concentrates on the contextualisation of a specific passage. The article assembles analogues from previous research and also offers several novel parallels from a diverse range of incantations, Scandinavian sources, medieval medical texts, and the Old and New Testament. Combining these parallels not only helps clarify obscure passages in “Against a Wen” but also sheds additional light on the composition’s background. Specifically, unveiling the charm’s intertextual connections allows pointing out that “Against a Wen” incorporates riddling and bilingual wordplay, as well as biblical allusions. These findings challenge the long-held perception of the composition as vernacular and provide insight into the literary devices and healing strategies found in early medieval verse charms
Art · Incantation · Linguistics · Literature · Old Testament · Parallels · Physics · Poetry · Pun · Vernacular · Computer Science · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
| Highly cited | No |
|---|