For a Swarm of Bees
Template:Short description "For a Swarm of Bees" is an Anglo-Saxon metrical charm that was intended for use in keeping honey bees from swarming. The text was discovered by John Mitchell Kemble in the 19th century.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The charm is named for its opening words, "Script error: No such module "Lang".", meaning "against (or towards) a swarm of bees".Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In the most often studied portion, towards the end of the text where the charm itself is located, the bees are referred to as Script error: No such module "Lang"., "victory-women". The word has been associated by Kemble,Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Jacob Grimm, and other scholars with the notion of valkyries (Old English Script error: No such module "Lang".), and "shield maidens", hosts of female beings attested in Old Norse and, to a lesser extent, Old English sources, similar to or identical with the Idise of the Merseburg Incantations.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Some scholars have theorized the compound to be a simple metaphor for the "victorious sword" (the stinging) of the bees.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In 1909, the scholar Felix Grendon recorded what he saw as similarities between the charm and the Lorsch Bee Blessing, a manuscript portion of the Lorsch Codex, from the monastery in Lorsch, Germany. Grendon suggested that the two could possibly have a common origin in pre-Christian Germanic culture.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Charm text
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Settle down, victory-women, sink to earth,
never be wild and fly to the woods.
Be as mindful of my welfare,
as is each man of border and of home.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Notes
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References
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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
Sources
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- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kemble, John Mitchell (1876). The Saxons in England, A History of The English Commonwealth, Till The Period of The Norman Conquest. Vol. 1. London: B. Quaritch.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Grendon, Felix (1909). The Anglo-Saxon Charms. The Journal of American Folklore.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Grimm, Jacob (1854). Deutsche Mythologie (German Mythology). Göttingen: Dieterische Bechhandlung.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1889–1921). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary with Supplements and Corrections by T. Northcote Toller.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Greenfield, Stanley B.; Calder, Daniel Gillmore (1996). A New Critical History of Old English Literature. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3088-4.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Davidson, Hilda Ellis (1990). Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-013627-4.
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