AEcerbot [Field Remedy] Ritual

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

MS Cotton Caligula, British Library A. VII, fol. 176a-178a,  

 late tenth or early eleventh century
 Translation by Karen Louise Jolly,  

 Popular Religion in Late Saxon England:  

 Elf Charms in Context  

 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), pp. 6-8.

 

 
Here is the remedy, how you may better your land, if it will not grow well or if
some harmful thing has been done to it by a sorcerer [dry] or by a poisoner
[lyblace].
Take then at night, before dawn, four sods from four sides of the land, and mark
where they were before.
Then take oil and honey and yeast, and milk of each animal that is on the land,
and a piece of each type of tree that grows on the land, except hard beams, and
a piece of each herb known by name, except burdock [glappan] only, and put then
holy water thereon, and drip it three times on the base of the sods, and say
then these words:
Crescite, grow, et multiplicamini, and multiply, et replete, and fill, terre,
the earth. In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti sit benedicti. [In the
name of the father and the son and the holy spirit be blessed.] And the Pater
noster [Our Father] as often as the other.
And then bear the sods into church, and let a masspriest sing four masses over
the sods, and let someone turn the green [sides] to the altar, and after that
let someone bring the sods to where they were before, before the sun sets.
And have made for them four signs of Christ [crosses] of quickbeam and write on
each end: Matthew and Mark, Luke, and John. Lay that sign of Christ in the
bottom of the pit [where each sod had been cut out], saying then: crux Matheus,
crux Marcus, crux Lucas, crux sanctus Iohannes.
Take then the sods and set them down there on [the crosses], and say then nine
times these words, Crescite [grow], and as often the Pater noster, and turn then
to the east, and bow nine times humbly, and speak then these words:
Eastwards I stand,  for mercies I pray,
I pray the great domine [lord], I pray the powerful lord,
I pray the holy guardian of heaven-kingdom,
earth I pray and sky
and the true  sancta [holy] Mary
and heaven's might  and high hall,
that I may this charm [galdor] by the gift of the lord
open with [my] teeth  through firm thought,
to call forth these plants  for our worldly use,
to fill this land  with firm belief,
to beautify this grassy turf,  as the wiseman said
that he would have riches on earth who alms
gave with justice  by the grace of the lord.
 
Then turn thrice with the sun's course, stretch then out lengthwise and
enumerate there the litanies and say then: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus to the end.
Sing then Benedicite with outstretched arms and Magnificat and Pater noster
thrice, and commend it [the land] to Christ and saint Mary and the holy cross
for praise and for worship and for the benefit of the one who owns that land and
all those who are serving under him.4 When all that is done, then let a man take
unknown seed from beggars and give them twice as much as he took from them, and
let him gather all his plough tools together; then let him bore a hole in the
beam [of the plough, putting in] incense and fennel and hallowed soap and
hallowed salt. Take then that seed, set it on the plough's body, say then:
Erce, Erce, Erce,  earth's mother,
May the all-ruler grant you, the eternal lord,
fields growing  and flourishing,
propagating  and strengthening,
tall shafts,  bright crops,
and broad  barley crops,
and white  wheat crops,
and all  earth's crops.
May the eternal lord  grant him,
and his holy ones,  who are in heaven,
that his produce be guarded  against any enemies whatsoever,
and that it be safe  against any harm at all,
from poisons [lyblaca]  sown around the land.
Now I bid the Master,  who shaped this world,
that there be no speaking-woman [cwidol wif]  nor artful man
[craeftig man]
that can overturn  these words thus spoken.
Then let a man drive forth the plough and the first furrow cuts, say then:
Whole may you be [Be well] earth,  mother of men!
May you be growing  in God's embrace,
with food filled  for the needs of men.
 
Take then each kind of flour and have someone bake a loaf [the size of] a hand's
palm and knead it with milk and with holy water and lay it under the first
furrow. Say then:
Field full of food  for mankind,
bright-blooming,  you are blessed
in the holy name  of the one who shaped heaven
and the earth  on which we live;
the God, the one who made the ground,  grant us the gift of growing,
that for us each grain  might come to use.
Say then thrice Crescite in nomine patris, sit benedicti [Grow in the name of
the father, be blessed]. Amen and Pater noster three times.