Perception of Disease in Late Middle Ages and Rhetoric of Verbal Interaction with It (Based on the Material of Middle High German Medical Incantations of the 15th Century)

Abstract

This article examines methods of verbal interaction with disease in Middle High German medical incantations on the material of three charms of the 15th century aimed at healing fever, apoplexy and purulent disease. The analyzed texts are of special interest since they have never been discussed in such types of research before and have never been translated into Russian, whilst they may provide some useful material for typological studies within the German charm literature as well as within the Germanic and Indo-European traditions. In addition, they demonstrate a characteristic mixture of the old pagan and new Christian mentality, in which disease (and, therefore, the fear of death) is depicted as an element of the gloomy archaic Lower World (represented, however, by the Devil), and the hope of salvation (healing) is associated with miraculous power of Christianity (that is, monotheistic religion), represented by the names of Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary and the holy evangelical apostles. Thus, Christian authorities and relics occupy the place of the old pagan Upper World in this hybrid picture of the world, manifested in incantations. All the texts are printed in the original in the transcription by V. Holzmann (Holzmann V. “Ich beswer dich wurm und wyrmin…”: Formen und Typen altdeutscher Zaubersprüche und Segen. Bern, 2001, 322 S.) with our translation into Russian and necessary comments. In this article we speculate upon the specifics of the perception of disease in Medieval German charms as heterogeneous and hostile substance originated in the Lower World and propose our typology of Middle High German medical incantations, which is based on three main types of communicative strategies supplied with text examples. The conclusions arrived at may interest specialists in the German language history and literature as well as folkloristic, culture studies and medicine of the Middle Ages.