Charmers and Charming in England and Wales from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID8934576
AuthorsOwen Davies (0000-0001-6905-5753, Chestnut Hill College, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume109
Issue1-2
Pages41-52
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.1998.9715960
OpenAlexW1973485296
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited32

Charmers have long been recognised as an important aspect of folk medicine. Unfortunately, however, they have usually been conflated with cunning-folk and consequently the welldefined tradition of charming has been rather obscured. Charmers were quite a diverse group of healers but, in general, they all shared several characteristics that separated them from other practitioners of folk medicine. Popular faith in charmers was undoubtedly very strong, and several traditional forms of charming have continued up till recently. The present article not only examines the question of who the charmers were, but also explores their practices and their place in a wider religious and medical context. It is a companion-piece to the author's previous article published in Folklore 107 (1990):19–31

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Conflation · Context (archaeology · Faith · Folk medicine · Folklore · Linguistics · Literature · Theology · Traditional medicine · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Medicine · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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