It's really cool to hear you speaking old English when we're so used to old Norse. The contrast becomes really apparent.

I did a graduate school paper years ago on this charm which eventually became a journal article! It is one of the most interesting texts in Old English literature that I have come across.

I remember my grandfather telling me that fennel repels Adders, so this might have been a literal instruction to prevent snakes from coming into and nesting in the rushes and grass that was used as flooring in homes back then, just an odd thought.

Greetings from an Old English specialist; thanks for the video :-)

I am listening from England. I am from Wednesbury, where I was born and still live. The Borough of Woden. The old heathen temple of Woden is well known here as it was on the top of the prominent hill on which the Christian church was built when the old religion was surpressed. Ironically it was on this same hill that John Wesley began the preaching that led to the founding of the methodist church. Local legend has it that there was a major battle between the Angles, who came here via the River Humber and the Britons, whose descendants survived and settled in Walsall, 3 miles away. Walsall means, in local legend, Little valley of the Walh. Walh being the Anglo-Saxon word for foreigner. Woden was the god of war, so I believe, but also the god of trade, which might explain how and why they all settled down relatively peacefully afterwards. I found this reading very interesting and even though I am no academic, I did recognise some of the words before your second reading in more modern English. This might be because our local dialect has retained a lot of the phrases in our common speak which many parts of the country have lost. Something English lecturers have mentioned before. I am going to listen to this again a few times, write it down and maybe show my friends when I understand it better. Fascinating.

Could also be the earliest recipe for KFC :D Anyways, I think this charm can be connected to the Vendel helmet plates showing a horseman fighting a snake, and there is also a 7th century belt buckle from the Germanic cemetery from Kölked (Hungary) showing a warrior wrestling a snake.

Need mountains in my life.

The association between "magical and medical" to me is interesting, because we don't associate medicine with magic today; rather we regard medicine as a science. It's interesting to me to contemplate the world views of a pre-modern culture without a dichotomy betweem science and magic, but wherein perhaps "magic" encompassed both, albeit in a ritualized approach that mystifies herbalism.

Interestingly, we also have the Gaulish god Esus being mentioned in a healing charm for a sore throat from De medicamentis by Marcellus of Bordeaux: "exugri conexugri glion aisus scrisumio uelor" "Leave, get out sticky thing. By Aisus/Esus, I want to spit!" Esus is often thought to be the Gaulish equivalent to Odin.

You're quickly becoming one of my top 10.

What are the chances of a video of old Norse lullabies or songs? Something that could be passed on through children

This is really fascinating. Thank you for what you do, Dr. Crawford

Interesting to note that the Benandanti - good guy werewolves - rode into battle against Hell armed with fennel staves.

Strikes me that that the cadence of old English is not dissimilar to the Scandinavian languages.

The wyrm (adder) nests in the house and bites a man. Woden (frenzy, wisdom) smites it with sticks (thyme and fennel, a repellent), or uses the sticks (wuldortanas, ullr tanas, glory sticks) to smite it into nine pieces (number of the dead, the adder or its intent dies), and the apple (crabapple, as seen in an earlier part in the charm) cures the poison from the wound. The adder seeks to not nest in the house anymore. Could this be a story to teach medicinal concoctions/instructions involving thyme, fennel, and crabapple with deeper wrym-slaying motifs?

Another great video, thank you so much. Love from Turkey

I’ll keep this in mind next time my home is vexed by great wyrms.

Sabbatical, you deserve it. Keep chugging along, and maybe one day teaching will be compensated as it should be.

Very cool. Worth the time to watch

I would love it if you considered finding a position at Stockholm university. My Old English professor retired last year, and as I'm (hopefully) finishing my English/Swedish teacher program this winter I'm hoping to get into Germanic historical linguistics. You would be an invaluable addition to my school for sure

Aside from being listed as a shared ancestor for most of the Anglo-Saxon kingly bloodlines Woden was mentioned in the Old English Maxims as one who 'worhte weos' which is he 'wrought idols' in contrast to the Lord God who created Heaven, indicating that Christians of the time regarded him as a falsely deified mortal similar to the Prose Edda's Odin of Asia.

I really do appreciate your time invested in making these videos! I'm a very visual learner and seeing the texts (in particular in the ON videos) is an extremely helpful visual aide to me & I'm sure your other viewers! 😉 Attributing what is written to hearing you pronounce the words is priceless. ♥️ Thank you so very much. 🤗

Might the "seven worlds" Woden sent the herbs into actually be a subset of nine worlds in total (i.e., he sent them into most of the worlds, but not all)? For example, into all the worlds except Múspellsheim and Niflheim? Obviously, it's easy to get into Snorri-level weirdness trying to find ways to reconcile apparent contradictions that may actually reflect differing beliefs, but this seems like a definite possibility to me.

I just read about this charm for the first time like two days ago. So timely.

I could be wrong, but given the context of this charm this could be the origins of "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". I know it says it became poison, but it could just be poisonous to bad things? Idk I'm just spitballing here lol

Insightful! The part of the snake and the apple could be another mixed up with Christian and pagan traditions? Much like what you mentioned about the Óðinn hanging himself from a tree and its parallelisms with Christ on the cross.

Songs and poems for timing and recipes for herbs, cooking and forging.

Enjoyed this very much. Can't help but wonder on this...

Great video! If you want a chuckle, turn on the Captions and watch KZfaq struggle! 😂

Brilliant. Thank you.

Great content as always. I just received my copy of Dr Crawford's The Poetic Edda

Greetings from Poland:)))

Very interesting, and fair reading. The parallels between OE and Old Norse make me want to suggest that you compare some of the riddles in the Exeter Book, and Odin's riddles?

Nice hat!!! Thanks!

Beautiful! The old english sounds nice. Really like your videos! And the scenery is just gorgeous!

Good luck in your new chapter sir.

Good luck in your future endeavors Jackson. You run a great chanel and I'm really enjoying your translation of The Poetic Edda.

It poisoned the apple just to be sure. Poor Snow white had no chance.

The version I’ve read online is slightly different. Instead of “with feondes hond and with thaes hond / with freabegde” it has “with feondes hond and faerbregde”. “Faerbregde” was translated literally to “far-braiding”, and the tentatively suggested meaning was “shape-shifting”.

TU. Very helpful.

Interesting, an apple and serpent.

1300 to one ratio. Amazing

I think the first part where it says that the worm/snake (OE orm?) means that it will never be able to enter a house although it says live in a house. Amazing how many words sound similar to their modern equivalents it is easy to see our English language in therealthough the form of the sentences are more Germanic than English.

Considering such care and attention is paid to the proper pronunciation of Old English and Old Norse, you'd think Dr C would be able to pronounce the H in herbs! :D

Thank you for the post script.... Wishing you well on your next adventure

That's a cool sponsor.

Idea: Talk about Saxo Grammaticus and differences between local Norse traditions.

Just a thought... Is there any possibility that the III and XXX are runes like Is and Gyfu, instead? It seems unlikely since the others clearly *are* Roman numbers, but maybe as a way to encode a crucial bit? It just occurs to me because third after Gyfu is Haegl, which is certainly something you might want to counter. But third after Is is Eoh, so... *shrug*

The world could use a charm against the plots of the wealthy these days ...

According to subtitles, this man is clearly a "mold murmur specialist" 😂😂

If the wyrm was struck with nine mighty sticks it should be in 10 parts, interesting how they were so obsessed with the number 9.

References to the old gods in English are definitely more obscure but still there. In the book The Lost Gods of England by Brian Branston he makes a good argument that the Old English poem ‘The Dream of the Rood’ is a poem about the death of Baldur, but disguised as a story about Christ’s crucifixion so that it could be preserved (he also brings up a 14th century charm not in Old English that seems to disguise the blind god Hodur as the Roman legionnaire Longinus). The old gods survive in English mostly in the many place names in England named after Woden, Thunor, etc (the same book provides a multitude of examples). About the “seven” worlds - English Neo-pagan authors such as Alaric Albertsson have suggested that the English didn’t consider primordial realms such as Nifelheim/Muspelheim to be actual “worlds”, hence only seven acknowledged worlds. How much of this is historical is hard to say, but I’ve come across it a few times specifically when dealing with Old English heathenism.

What would be the Modern name for ‘Woden’ be? Would it be ‘Wedne’ or ‘Weden’ pronounced as ‘Wen’?

Is nobody going to talk about how he summoned his hat out of nothing??!

A herb against 33... Sounds useful today.

I enjoyed the sponsor! Good luck in the career shift.

Wiđ is against and not with? Weird, but cool!

1.1 thousand likes to 1 dislike. Wow, lol, I don't think i've ever seen a ratio like that.

Congratulation on your promotion

Hey Doc, you have any trout in that creek behind you? Would love to catch some goldies one day.

Woden/Othin is "Wotan" and sometimes "Wodan" in german btw. . Though we use Odin most of the time today when someone speaks about him for whatever reason.

The first part with the snake and the apple........ sound familiar? i wonder if this could be a story that the story of adam and eve could find its origins in. Poison apple, forbidden fruit, rath of god, she can not live in a house/ she shal not enter the kingdom of heaven.......... there is a few parts there to at least make a persons mind draw the parallels wether they exist or not is above my pay grade. Could the time written may be influence the story in this way? Or Could the story pre date christianity?

Dr Jackson Crawford, I understand from your video that you are leaving the Old Norse and Germanic program in U of Colorado. Do you personally know of anyone who can direct postdoctoral research or guide research in the field itself other than you, especially in the North American or Northern European setting? I specialized in medieval English literature, mainly in late medieval performance and religion, for a Canadian PhD program and graduated from it quite a number of years ago (a decade to be exact). Have not been in academia since about 5 years ago, and went into an allied educational industry for work. I am looking into furthering this aspect of interest, mainly to do some research and writing, whether in a critical or creative capacity (novel writing), and would like to hear more of what you think.

It interesting to see potential overlap between pagan norse religion and xtianity in there

When I imagined the poem it went like this. Snake is killed; its blood covered the apple (poisoning it); now snakes wont bite eat apples (I know they never did it's just the story maybe); so you wont get snake bit if you pick apples😎. All that is probably wrong though I'm just having fun

Did you say you are writing a class for the Great Courses???

So I asked the old english, and they say they're dead, and so your pronunciation is close enough for them. Also, in their day, with a bit of practice they say they could pretty much make sense of norse talk anyway. Whatever this "modern" English is that you're jabbering away in, though, they couldn't have understood nearly as well, or at all. As to the content, thyme (an expectorant) and fennel (anti-bloat) are for upper respiratory and digestive problems; while crabapple (?) is used for urinary tract infections even today, as well as a vitamin C supplement. Nothing exotic there, so suitable herbs to be used "by rich and poor alike." I wouldn't be surprised to see mullein on the same traditional list or recipe. Specifically: "The apple ended poison so [illness] would never enter the house." Is that the origin of "An apple a day keeps the doctor away?!" Too funny if true. 3 & 30? I got nothing. Sounds like a reference to a list of categories of toxins that the practitioner would know about from other teachings, things that might be ingested accidentally or from food poisoning or an attempted murder. The "serpent" is symbolic, for the effects of bad "spirits" or "winds," but that's not a stretch to figure out. Perhaps why thyme and fennel are mentioned specifically, to treat clogged breathing and gas. The snake/illness may have been thought to have entered on a cold draft that wended its way through the house. Overall, it sounds like a charm (a recipe, really) against common winter's illness or malaise, a combination of a cold-virus or pneumonia, plus not-so-fresh food, combined with reduced vitamin C supply. A tea mixed of these ingredients together could be a typical tonic for the dark season. In the old herbalism [and/or vetch- or witch-craft], a charm isn't just a prayer, it's a real object or compound. The prayers are often used to time the mixing, simmering or extracting of ingredients, similar to some of the "incantations" of medieval alchemy. They didn't have wind-up clocks or timers, nor many written cookbooks, so they used verses or songs as part of the recipe itself, as well as a teaching/memory method. This is still done today in some remaining pagan family traditions. Attributing it to Odin sounds like a way of saying, "This is the old-ways medicine, a recipe handed down since before the big church took over and banned such treatments." At that time, healing people with medicines was technically illegal in christian lands, and the practitioner could be found guilty of heresy or trying to thwart god's will, to defeat divine fate. Putting a pagan god in the verses is also a way of saying, "Keep your healing work a private/secret matter." You could say that the verse/recipe isn't meant to tell us anything about Odin -- the author clearly doesn't know much about Odin themself -- but rather using the name of Odin tells us more about the recipe. I don't know if any of that helps you, but it's the connections I could figure.

Can we bring back "malscrunge"? The swine malscrunged me but luckily I was unaffected because magic is not real.

I have a theory Mr. Crawford. As a student of inigenous heritahe of Turtle Island, I have come to think that Norse and ancient American clans seem to have more in common than most of us realize. Once you strip away the specific trappings of language, culture and tradition to their most basic forms, it is easier to see these fundamental laws of life.

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Greetings Doctor Crawford. I wonder if you could make a video about the significance and the motives of Loki. What does he stand for? Why does he confront the other Gods and has sons only with their enemies, that turn out to be monstrous God animals? Why this fight within the Norse cosmogony and why does it derive from one of the Gods Itself? The strangely already known inevitability of Ragnarok and its acceptance as some noble, heroic destiny that will only bring about annihilation and death? Do the Norns survive the end of the gods and are they the entity that causes it? Is there some relation between them and Loki? Why all this grim fatalistic bloodshed that borders on self-destruction!? The Norse Myth meaning of truth is the death of the Gods and the end of their world because of a God's actions?

Way is the snake "she?"