Tim Hertogh writes…
On Friday 5 June, I defended my PhD thesis Bees, Worms, and Horses: A Study of Early Medieval Animal Incantations in Latin Manuscripts in Oslo.[1] As the title suggests, the thesis is an investigation into short texts that use the power of words to control, expel, and heal animals. Vernacular examples of animal incantations are well known, even beyond the world of medievalists. The most famous example is arguably the so-called Second Merseburg charm. This text, which was added to fol. 85r of Merseburg, Domstiftsbibliothek, Cod. 136 in the tenth century, is written in Old High German and refers to several pre-Christian Germanic gods. Needless to say, the vernacular material has attracted much interest and debate.
Their Latin equivalents, however, have received considerably less attention. My thesis, therefore, turns to many of these lesser-known sources, reappraising animal incantations as products of early medieval intellectual culture.
For the manuscript of this month, therefore, let’s consider an incantation discussed in my thesis. Arras, Médiathèque municipale, Ms 650 (569) is a manuscript from the ninth century that contains works by Hrabanus Maurus.[2] Sometime during the tenth century, the incantation was recorded as part of a short cluster of remedies on an empty piece of parchment. After treatments for rabies, dog bites, a swelling called the “little dragon” (dracunculus), and fever, we find the following incantation:
“For a lame (infundatum) horse, say: Christ and Saint Stephen, help this lame (infundatum) horse and say what its colour is and the name whose horse this is. You say once more. Christ was born before this horse was lame (infundatus) and you say once more the colour of the horse and the name of the man who owns it and say these words three times and thereafter say the Lord’s Prayer three times and you should know where this horse is or this man and thus you will be able to perform this charm +.”[3]
Image 1: The horse incantation from Arras. Médiathèque municipale, Ms 650 (569), fol. 103r.
This is probably a treatment for a condition that may be what today we call laminitis, a life-threatening condition that affects the hooves of horses.
To understand an incantation like this, we can study it like a recipe that is made up of different ingredients. To begin, Christ and St Stephen are part of a dynamic duo: in several other incantations, this pair help cure a horse from being infundatus.[4] Similarly, the importance of the colour of the horse in medical treatments can be seen in other incantations, with late antique incantations also attesting to the practice.[5] As is often the case, the procedure concludes with the Lord’s Prayer, which ends with the words “deliver us from evil” – a powerful ending to a powerful treatment.[6]
In my thesis, I studied incantations like these within their manuscript contexts and, importantly, in comparison to the many other animal incantations found in medical codices, margins, and otherwise empty spaces of early medieval manuscripts.
Bees, Worms, and Horses has been in the works for three years under the supervision of Ildar Garipzanov (Oslo) and Carine van Rhijn (Utrecht). It is therefore heavily influenced by the hard work of my colleagues in the MINiTEXTS and CEMLM projects. Their work on understudied texts and discoveries of previously unidentified marginal additions unearthed a considerable number of animal incantations. Because many animal incantations are of a medical nature, it should be no surprise that several of the sources discussed in my thesis – including the above example – can also be found in the CEMLM Handlist.
Image 2: A view of the introduction to my thesis, by Niels Weijenberg
Let’s now turn to defence itself. This public event started with a “trial lecture”, where I had to show that I can make our field of research accessible to a room of students. Two weeks in advance, my committee, made up of Anders Winroth (Oslo), Sophie Page (UCL), and Richard Sowerby (Edinburgh), provided me with the lecture’s topic: ‘Medieval (critical) animal studies and the early Middle Ages’. I interpreted this exercise as an excuse to show my audience – filled with friends, family, and colleagues – some of my favourite sources, such as the ‘vulture letter’, a short text that was transmitted in an epistolary form and that provides a series of treatments using different vulture body parts.[7]
After the trial lecture, it was time for the real Disputas (defence). Rick and Sophie each had one hour to interrogate me on matters of terminology, methodology, and anything else they found relevant. I was impressed that my opponents were able to ask precise and detailed questions, while keeping the discussion (mostly) understandable for the broader audience. It was incredible to see that they read the thesis in so much detail, and both opponents provided me with many useful suggestions that will surely improve what will hopefully be the eventual book. I have never been so tired, nor so nervous, in my life.
As is tradition in Norway, the day then ended with the Disputasmiddag (defence dinner). My friends, family, supervisors, colleagues, and opponents all gathered in a picturesque wooden house for dinner, drinks, and lots of speeches. It was, all in all, truly a magical day.
Takk, Bedankt, and Thank You!
Image 3: Me very happily receiving a gift from Oskar Lein, by Madelief Hertogh
[1] https://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/research/news-and-events/events/disputations/2026/hertogh.
[2] Bernhard Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen), 3 vols. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998–2014), no. 89.
[3] The thesis contains an Appendix with transcriptions of incantations for bees, worms, and horses recorded in Latin manuscripts on the European continent between c. 750-c. 1050. This incantation is no. 48: Arras. Médiathèque municipale, Ms 650 (569), fol. 103r. https://portail.biblissima.fr/fr/ark:/43093/mdataf34ad6bcc33e3e7940ec82ddce26e4d749b4fb77 “Ad caballum infundatum dic. Adiuua Christe et Sancte Stephane istum caballum infundatum, et dic cuius sit coloris, et nomen hominis cuius ipse caballus est. Iterum dices. Antea fuit Christus natus quam iste caballus infundatus, et iterum dices colorem caballi et nomen hominis cuius est, et dicas ista uerba tribus uicibus. Et postea dic orationem dominicam, IIIbus uicibus et scias ubicumque ipse caballus est uel ipse homo, et sic potueris carmen hoc facere. +.” Infundatus, or infusus, is often equated to laminitis.
[4] Like the famous Trierer Pferdesegen in Trier, Stadtbibliothek, Hs. Nr. 40–1018, fols 36v–37v.
[5] See, for instance, Palladius, De veterinaria medicina, 14:17, ed. R. H. Rodgers, in Palladius Opus Agriculturae, De Veterinaria Medicina, De Insitione (Leipzig: Teubner, 1975), trans. John G. Fitch, in Palladius: The Work of Farming (Totnes: Prospect Books, 2013).
[6] For a recent study of the Pater Noster in Anglo-Saxon incantations, see Leslie Arnovick, ‘The Power of Pater Noster and Creed in Anglo-Saxon Charms: De-institutionalization and Subjectification,’ in Language and Religion, ed. Robert Yelle, Courtney Handman, and Christopher Lehrich (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), 87–113.
[7] See Carine’s earlier blogpost https://cemlm.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2025/03/31/15-healing-with-vultures-st-gallen-sb-cod-sang-751/#_ftn2.