YEAR Undated.
An Anglo-Saxon Charm
45
From Readings in English History, by Edward P. Cheyney; Ginn and Company; Boston; 1922; pp. 45-6.
[Among the few remnants of early Anglo-Saxon literature that have come down to us a number of pieces are incantations or charms, to be recited in order to find lost cattle, to fertilize land, to collect a swarm of bees, or to cure snake bite. The following is a charm for bees. From Cook and Tinker, Specimens of Old English Poetry; trans. by W. O. Stevens.]
Take some earth, throw it with thy right hand, under thy right foot and say, �I take under foot, I am trying what earth
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avails for everything in the world and against spirits and against malice, and against the mickle tongue of man, and against displeasure.� Throw over them some gravel where they swarm, and say, —
�Sit ye, my ladies, sit,
Sink ye to earth down;
Never be so wild,
As to the woods to fly.
Be ye as mindful of my good as
Every man is of meat and estate.�