The so-called "For Delayed Birth" is an
Old English poetic medical text found in the manuscript London, British Library,
Harley 585, ff. 185r-v, in a collection of medical texts known since the nineteenth century as ''
Lacnunga'' (‘remedies’). The manuscript was probably copied in the early eleventh century, though its sources may have been older.
The text is in fact a set of prose instructions which include a series of short poems which should be recited as part of one or more rituals. The text is an important witness to non-orthodox Anglo-Saxon Christian religious practice and to women's history: it is unique among Anglo-Saxon medical texts for being explicitly for use and recitation by a woman. However, 'this charm is perhaps misnamed, because it deals, not with delayed birth as such, but with the inability of the ''wifman''
oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
for whom it is written to conceive at all, or to bring a child to term without miscarriage.'
Text
As edited by
Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie
Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (May 9, 1907 – March 23, 1970) was an American scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature who taught English at Columbia University.
Early life
Dobbie was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1907.
Education and academic ca ...
but with long vowels marked with acute accents, the text runs:
[The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ed. by Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition, 6 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942), pp. 123-24]
References
Editions
* Foys, Martin ''et al.'
''Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project''(Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019-); digital facsimile edition and Modern English translation
Anglo-Saxon metrical charms
Old English medicine
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