Incantesimi e rituali magici nelle tradizioni germaniche medievali: una introduzione

Abstract

The approach to charms and magical formulas of the Germanic world has developed on an evolutionary path that has from time to time favoured perspectives of different scientific categories, and has been faced on philological, linguistic, semantic-pragmatic, semiotic and historical-literary basis. Starting from different types of criteria and parameters, research has proposed in the past various classifications of charms, intended as specific textual forms, which are identified by the presence of characteristic contents and structural elements. Given the fluidity of matter, the phenomenon of charms and magical formulas of the Germanic area should be seen in a dynamic key, applying different interpretative strategies that take into account all the characteristic aspects of the texts (linguistic, diachronic, content, structural, stylistic).