"Against a Wen" is an Anglo-Saxon metrical charm of 11th-century date, one of twelve surviving. It occurs in a blank space on folio 106v of Royal MS 4 A XIV, a 10th-century manuscript containing various religious texts. The target of the charm is a wen or cyst, which it addresses in the second person, commanding it to leave the affected body.
Analysis Along with eight of the other metrical charms, Felix Grendon classifies "Against a Wen" under class A, "exorcisms of diseases or disease-spirits". According to him, it belongs to a subset of exorcism charms that are "distinctly reminiscent of Heathendom", containing "numerous allusions to Heathen beliefs, customs, and practices". Analysing the charm, he writes, "This is a quaint charm, quite unlike any other in the A group: it lacks the epic passage and the heroic style characteristic of the poetic incantations. The exorcist first uses a command formula (lines 1–3), then adopts a persuasive tone in lines 4–5, only to return to another command in lines 6–7, and to a typical exorcism (lines 8–13) based on similitude [...] The passage includes a series of six similes, whose force rests on sympathy between the respective similes and the desired extinction of the wen."
Text
Appearances in popular culture The charm features in "Baldur", the eighteenth episode of the fifth series of Vikings, in which Queen Judith seeks the help of a witch for a breast tumour.
References
External links The Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project, including an annotated edition of the charm and an image of the MS "Seven Anglo-Saxon Charms: Notes and Translations by Karl Young" Royal MS 4 A XIV in the British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue