Incantesimi in inglese antico contro un dweorg

Abstract

The word dweorg with the meaning ‘dwarf’ was certainly available in Anglo-Saxon England, as attested to by the earliest glossaries, such as those of Épinal and Erfurt, where it is used to render the Latin nanus and pumilio. OE dweorg also occurs in a group of five charms and medical recipes, where it seems to designate an ailment, characterized by a strong and sudden onset of fever. Particularly, in the remedies contained in the Medicina de quadrupedibus and in the Peri didaxeon – both translations of Latin medical treatises – OE dweorg means ‘fever’. In the Old English period, the semantic value of the term shifted, ending up to denote the pathological condition itself. More specifically, in the Peri didaxeon, dweorg is used to refer to an asthmatic condition, manifested by heat in the chest and tremor, whereas in the verse charm Wið dweorh of the Lacnunga the word is used in reference to a supernatural creature, capable of exerting a negative influence on human beings, generating a state of disease. The texts in question thus show an evolution from the prescription (and representation) of an etiological therapy, that is, aimed at combating the cause of the disease, to a more advanced, or at least more pragmatic, symptomatic therapy. In the following centuries, the use of OE fefer, fefor (whence English fever) would prevail to indicate ‘fever’ both as a disease or symptom. In parallel, OE dweorg lost the meaning of ‘fever’, to maintain only that of ‘dwarf’, analogously to what happens for other Germanic languages.