"DWARF FEVER:" ALONG CAME A SPIDER-WIGHT

Translation

[Purpose]

Against a dwarf (dwarf-fever, fever caused by dwarf possession):

[Instructions]

Take 7 little sacramental wafers (hosts), such as one makes offertory with, and write each of these names on each wafer (host): Maximiaus, Malchus, Iohannes, Martimiaus, Dionisius, Constantinus, Serafion (names of the Seven Sleepers). Then afterwards one must sing the incantation which is related hereafter, first into the left ear of the patient, then into the right ear, then above the crown of the person’s (patient's) head; and then let a virgin go to the patient and hang it on their neck and let it be done so for three days; the patient will soon be better.

[Incantation] (to be sung in the patient's ears and above their head)

Here came walking in a healing spirit (or spider-wight)
He had his cover in hand, said you (the dwarf) were his steed
and he would lay his ropes on your neck. 

They began to travel out of the land.
As soon as they were out of the land, his limbs began to cool.
Then came walking in the beast’s sister.

(the sister of the dwarf, or that of the spider-wight?)

Then she interceded and swore oaths
That this might never injure the patient
Nor those who could obtain this spell
Nor those who knew how to chant this spell.

Notes:

The vanishing dwarf

Some commentators claim that we shouldn’t look for a literal dwarf here, as dweorh had simply come to mean “fever”. This is based on other remedies for fever being described as wið dweorh. But here we have a spell which operates by removing a creature which is possessing the patient, so clearly the concept of dwarf-possession was still operative, making these objections spurious.

Who’s afraid of the inspidenwiht /spider-wight (the dwarf of course)

The word inspidenwiht cannot be translated as it stands. Although early readings as inspiderwiht, with a meaning of spider-creature (spider-wight), were debunked at an early stage, the spider still can’t be ruled out.

The second n is written as a correction of a letter which must be l, h or b. Only l is phonologically likely, so inspidelwiht must be considered as an alternative reading to inspidenwiht. 

Only one word starting with inspi- is know: inspinn, spindle. We know of a synonym of inspinn, spinel, so it is possible to imagine a word *inspinel, also meaning spindle. An error leading to a change from *inspinel to inspidel is possible. A spindle-creature could certainly be a spider (spider-wight).

The context of the word may be important:

………….her com in
gangan inspidenwiht ("Along came a spider" as in the nursery rhyme) 

 It is possible that the second ‘in’ is an error under the influence of the first. It may even be a result of dittography and be simply an erroneous repetition of the first. This would have to have happened in an earlier copy, as the first ‘in’ comes at the end of the line in this copy. If this is the case, then spinelwiht, without in- but still meaning ‘spindle-creature’, i.e. spider, should also be considered. So the spider is still in contention. However there is another possible emendation.

The word anspilde means ‘salutory’. It is possible to imagine a series of errors leading from anspildewiht to inspidelwiht then to the MS form inspidenwiht.

anspilde -> anspidle -> anspidel -> inspidel

The word could have become incomprehensible at stage 2 or 3, making emendation from anspidel to inspiden easier, under the influence of the series (com) in (gang)an an(spilde), which could have led to scribal error. The line-break between com in and gangan could have led to an interim error of com in/ gang in anspilde, corrected to com ingangan inspilde or something of the sort.

Alternatively, the error could have occurred not via written transmission but during oral transmission with the word anspildewiht becoming garbled and incomprehensible when passed orally from healer to healer before being written down.

The emendation to anspildewiht has the advantage of fitting with the role of inspidenwiht as a benevolent curative figure which provides the best reading of the rest of the spell. The correct combination of the adjective anspilde with wiht depends on whether wiht is feminine or neuter (it can be both). If neuter, the combination would be anspilde wiht, if feminine anspildu wiht. I choose the former as it is closer to the manuscript.

Some emendation is required, as the manuscript reading is clearly corrupt. Both “spindle-creature” and “salutory-creature” are equally possible in terms of the number of steps required for emendation. 

Coat and tie

Another difficulty is the meaning of the words hama and teage, which the wiht is carrying.

Similar to hama is M.E. hame, the collar of a draught-horse, a horse-collar. The O.E.D. says this is not known before 13th C and is distinct from hame = covering. I wonder if this word might not rather be some kind of development of ‘hem’ (as in ‘hem in’), which does not go back to hama. The meaning horse-collar is of course very suggestive, given that the spider-wight is riding the dwarf, but it is an objection that a horse-collar is used for plowing, not riding. The attested meaning in O.E. of hama is ‘covering’, which could also mean a cloak or a blanket. If this is the meaning then the wiht is throwing his cloak over the dweorh as a saddle before attaching the bridle (teage = ties). It may also be significant that the phrase is his haman and the bridle is also referred to as his teage. This indicates he is holding his own cloak/blanket, but what his own ties would be I am not sure. Note there is a word sweorclaþ, (‘neck-cloth’) found in a gloss c. 1000 which is synonymous with teah, sal (rope) glossing latin collarium (collar, horse-collar) (viz. O.E.D. sub tie). So the hama and the teage may be more closely related than we thought.

In any case, we can envision the wiht as a creature with hands (and probably legs, as he can ride), who goes around with a cloak or blanket and carrying a rope. He throws his cloak/blanket over the dwarf, ties the rope around its neck and rides it off into the distance. Presumably the cloak/blanket has some magic power which controls whatever it is thrown over.

The dwarf has a sister, who swears an oath that she will protect the patient and the spellcaster from her brother, in case of more cases of dwarf-fever.

TO VERILYB1TCH1E ABOUT GIRL WIZARDS AND HARADRIM, ETC

My two Knuts about this video essay (I put these comments about co-ed/multiracial wizarding schools and about the Haradrim in the comments section on YouTube):

1) the wizarding school in Earthsea, unlike Hogwarts, is NOT co-ed or multiracial. You go on harping about BOY wizards but give very short shrift to the fact that there are NO female students at the school in Earthsea, or that ALL the students are NOT only boys, but ALL of them dark-skinned. In making Hogwarts co-ed and multiracial, at least, Rowling was something revolutionary - or were there co-ed and/or multiracial wizarding schools before Hogwarts and Rowling? (Eskarina is the ONLY female student at UU, like Threnody at Winstermill: I didn't know that the UU had female founders like Hogwarts - and patriarchy erased that!).

2) on race in Middle-Earth: there are races in Middle-Earth like humans, dwarves, elves, halflings/hobbits, "races" in fantasy sense. You mention orcs, but NOT Haradrim: BLACK (literally pitch black-skinned) Orcs from the SOUTH (like Africa is south of Europe), who ride f-ing AFRICAN ELEPHANTS. You may have seen them in Return of the King. A lot has been said about Rings of Power having black elves and dwarves... but the Haradrim are more or less neglected, because their existence was a hot potato in Tolkieniana!

UPDATE on Haradrim: it seems (the wikis say) that these are HUMANS (not orcs), but at least they are very orclike, monstrous humans, who descend from black Numenoreans, MIND, BLOWN.

Writing in the 2000s, Alison Lurie says Hogwarts is co-ed and multiracial "in keeping with the times (the 90s/2000s)":

Hogwarts resembles a classic English boarding school—one that, in keeping with the times, is co-ed and multiracial. There are four houses, which compete intensely in the school sport of Quidditch, a sort of combination cricket, basketball, European football, and hockey played on flying broomsticks, in which Harry turns out to excel. The teachers wear black gowns and dine at a head table, and there are prefects and a Head Boy and a Head Girl.

Just as in many schools, however, the student population is roughly divided into jocks, brains, nice guys, and dangerous Goths. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in the jock house, Gryffindor, where, according to tradition, “dwell the brave at heart.” Ravenclaw House emphasizes “wit and learning,” while the kids in Hufflepuff are described as “just and loyal . . . And unafraid of toil.” The bad characters live in Slytherin House, where they “use any means / to achieve their ends.”

(In Words and Worlds, Lurie contrasts Hogwarts with previous literary boarding schools --it is unlike most classic boarding-school locations [but she omits that it was "in keeping with the times"], and expands on the ethnic and social-class origins of the students):

Unlike most classic boarding-school locations, Hogwarts is co-ed, multicultural, and multi-class: its students come from both rich and poor (and middle-class) families and include Chinese, South Asian, black, and Jewish kids. Some have wizarding parents, others do not (and others have one parent from each background, like Harry)

Here Lurie uses the same descriptors for the houses as "cliques" (Ravenclaws are "brains," Slytherins are "dangerous Goths," etc.) but also echoes the fan theory that:

In fact, Hermione seems a natural Ravenclaw and Ron a natural Hufflepuff (and Harry a natural Slytherin): authorial convenience, rather than the Sorting Hat, appears to have placed them all together (as Gryffindors).

It is no surprise than there are thousands of fics where the Golden Trio have been sorted into these houses: no longer sharing a common room, eating at different tables, but meeting at class and at recess...

I (Sandra Dermark, writing these comments on Hogwarts and quoting Alison Lurie) am fiercely proud of being not only a Ravenclaw, one of Lurie's "brains," but also F-ing Prefect for Ravenclaw (at least in the games I play). I felt I had to give my two Knuts on the subjects of gender and race in fantasy worlds that Verilyb1tch1e skirts in her video essay. Justice for the Haradrim! And there must have been a co-ed and multiracial wizarding school before Hogwarts, or was Rowling the first one?

GOD SAVE YOUR RECTUM: The Sun King's health problem and the viral craze that ensued

Imagine this: you're the Sun King, absolute ruler of France and fiercely proud of "l'État, c'est moi!", but you can't ride a horse or sit on a throne without excruciating pain because of the fistula in your rectum. You undergo the excruciating surgery, wide awake and without anaesthesia ('cause, you know, seventeenth century), but surprisingly you SURVIVE, and, as a result, rectal surgery goes viral all over France, especially among the nobility! Lords and ladies even went to Versailles to take their haemorroids removed by the royal surgeon...

Historical YouTuber Kaz Rowe now has a video essay on the craze. And of course I had to give my two sous about the procedure:

This reminds me of the series The Serpent Queen, where the titular character's uncle / guardian, Pope Clement, played by CHARLES DANCE (CHARLES F-ING DANCE, AKA TYWIN LANNISTER), likewise has a fistula removed from his rectum without anaesthesia, squealing like a wounded pig and completely out of character (I know, Tywin Lannister is Rodrigo Borgia without the Papacy, and here Charles Dance plays a Renaissance pope [not a Borgia, but a Medici, nevertheless a Renaissance pope] who has to undergo the excruciating procedure!).

In Shakespeare's All Well that Ends Well, the female lead likewise successfully operates the King of France of a rectal fistula. The play was written in 1598, and the Sun King was operated in 1686, about a century later! So Shakespeare may have prophesied the future long before The Simpsons...

2026: YEAR OF THE 'OSS (HORSE IN COCKNEY)

● 'Oss – horse ● Bogger – troublesome person ● Cob on – sulky. A cob can also mean a sandwich ● Mardeh – sulky ● Gorra – Got a ● Gawd – goodness

there was this ‘oss, and he hated
the bogger cos it always had a cob on.
But the poor sod never saw the sun!

Oo-er! Don’t be so bleddy mardeh!

Does this mean that 2026 is the Year of the 'Oss?

I first read the word during my Master's degree when translating The Magician's Nephew, where one of the main characters, Strawberry, is an East End horse, or 'oss as he calls himself, who becomes Narnia's first pegasus.

'Oss is basically "horse" dropping the H (not only a feature of Cockney, but also of Romance languages), and with a rhotic accent.

HEADCANON: ZODIAC SIGNS OF OTHELLO CHARACTERS

 So I am writing a Zodiac inspired fic series. Othello is a Scorpio

, Iago a Gemini, Cassio an Aries , Roderigo maybe a Cancer or Pisces , Bianca a Leo, Emilia an Aquarius (like yours truly). Desdemona should be a sign of Venus, but What sign?

Most votes said... LIBRA! (& Pisces For Roderigo)

(For the Zodiac signs of the Amis de l'ABC and their circle, Google "el semen de los ahorcados" or "StrixAlluka" on this very blog... Heads up: Enjolras is an Aquarius, Combeferre a Gemini, Courfeyrac a Libra, and Grantaire a Scorpio - the fic bible "why the seed of the hanged..." has the signs of everyone else!)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S (and Blog Anniversary)

Roses are red,

lilies are white,

I hope you have

a day that's bright

(Like, I say "lilies are white" because violets are... well, violet)

Happy Valentine's everyone - and happy anniversary of this blog!

SCAR THE LIBERAL, AND THE WELFARE STATE

 It comes as no surprise that Disney villains are, in general, 1) highbrow / cultured (Why does Scar say "quid pro quo" instead of a more Saxon "tit for tat," for instance?). And 2) queer (single, childless, flamboyant, seldom conforming to gender roles).

Matt Roth has an interpretation of Scar that surprised me. He interprets Scar as a liberal, who instaurates the Welfare State in the Pridelands - even though both goose-stepping Nazis and the Soviet flag (Scar becomes the hammer, and the Moon becomes the sickle) appear in the visuals of his villain song, "Be Prepared":

I think this means that both right-wing and left-wing totalitarianisms are wrong...

Referencing Leni Riefenstahl

On the other hand, Roth says Scar is not a totalitarian, but rather a liberal:

Meanwhile, Scar takes over. As the Bad Leader he brings the kingdom to ruin. Mannered and aristocratic, and clearly not producing heirs like his more manly brother, he is pointedly gay. He is also a rationalist and utilitarian, coveting the absolute power of kingship but not buying into its mystique. He exerts a corrupting influence on the young, skillfully putting all sorts of ideas into Simba's head. Worst of all, he willingly enters into an unholy alliance with the hyenas, a teeming brood of half-starved scavengers ghettoized in a "dark region" outside the Pridelands (think, for instance, of Jewish quarters, apartheid, etc). Taken as a whole, he represents that bête-noire of contemporary right-wingers, the Liberal Politician.

The hyenas speak in "street voices" provided by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin and clearly represent poor blacks and Hispanics. They are also stereotypical gang members, inherently criminal, cutthroat and mercenary — brawling with each other when not united by a common victim. As scavengers whose own neighbourhood offers slim pickings, they eagerly accept handouts. Scar provides them: he gains the hyena's loyalty by promising them a steady stream of meat, thus creating the Welfare State.

After he usurps the throne, Scar lets the hyenas out of the "dark region" and into the Pridelands, to the horror of the other species. Catastrophe follows: the lions' resources are squandered by the lazy and rapacious hyenas, who, in turn, harass the lions with petty terror. The balance of nature is upset: the herds flee, the water dries up, and the landscape soon resembles the wasteland where the hyenas have lived. The hyenas carry their blight with them; having brought down the productive ecosystem that used to provide them with scraps, their starvation only worsens. They offend Scar, who cares only about his power, by voicing nostalgia for the Mufasa regime which kept them in their place.

Demonstrating kingly mercy, Simba spares Scar — who, of course, tries one more backstab before he's done in by angry and betrayed hyenas, the very unsavoury types he has spent his years pandering to. A fitting end to the Liberal Politician.

But there to thwart this happy outcome, simultaneously trying to usurp heterosexual power and distract the hero from the heroine, is that neocon bugaboo — the gay male. In an age (the 1990s) when anti-semitism has fallen out of vogue and Communism is not taken seriously, he has to bear the full brunt of fascist animus.

At first glance, Ursula, the villain in THE LITTLE MERMAID, seems a woman; on closer inspection, however, the Sea Witch resembles a flamboyant, Divine-ly inspired drag queen. Her octopus-like lower half further renders her gender ambiguous: the first view of her tentacles emerging from the darkness is played up for shock value (not unlike a similar view in THE CRYING GAME). Ursula eventually pulls off a drag queen's coup. She takes on the appearance of a svelte brunette called Vanessa, speaks with the Little Mermaid's stolen voice (solving a chronic problem for female impersonators), and seduces the virile young prince into marrying her. She reveals the deception by literally splitting the seams of her disguise, emerging in her opulent glory; she manages to reduce the hypermasculine King Triton into a worthless worm, and only gets defeated when either Prince Eric (in the animated version) or Ariel (in the live-action) impales her with the prow of a ship, thus contrasting his erect phallus with her flaccid tentacles. Her threat to heterosexual pair-bonding and patriarchal power is thus laid to rest.

The gay villain of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is, by contrast, hypermasculine. Gaston, vain and preening, covets heterosexual status in pursuing Belle, the beauty of the title; but he constantly ignores both her and the trio of blonde bombshells that swoon over him. He is only truly interested in male gazes, and blossoms in the midst of his all-male lodge, where he sings a showstopper celebrating his own masculinity. Provided, like Foulfellow with Gideon, with an elastic, high-contact companion Lefou, he is the epitome of camp. Mainly a figure of comic relief, Lefou's hard to take very seriously. The true evil of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, in fact, lies elsewhere: in the sexual dysfunction of the hero, the Beast-Prince who suffers from what clinicians call "infantile narcissism." The witch's curse simply brings his fetishism — in which inanimate objects are endowed with ego-fulfilling life — out into the open, transforming his castle into something like Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Constant parallels between his actions and Gaston's link his condition with Gaston's more deeply entrenched sexual deviance. The Beast finally breaks the curse — defeating Gaston and restoring his realm to "normal" — by embracing a prosaic heterosexuality with Belle.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is a men's movement response to feminist nagging. It is engorged with anxiety that masculinity might be a mask for homosexuality; or that natural male narcissism might forever alienate the women that feminism has made so intolerant. In the end, it is a plea that women understand and love men's "beasts within" (their inner "wild men"), and help mother them into maturity. It is early 1990s wish fulfillment.

ALADDIN represents a surprising liberal aberration from Disney's right-wing trajectory. To be sure, the villain is still gay: Jafar is dark, effeminate, and prissily evil; Scar simply repeats Jafar in the shape of a lion. Jafar, however, very much acts the role of a gay man's gay villain, twisted by his desire for heterosexual power and his consequent self-enclosure in the closet. Advisor to the sultan, he is a Roy Cohn type with Leopold-and-Loeb overtones. He is counterpoised, moreover, to a healthier gay icon: the Genie, who, with Robin Williams's voice, flames across the screen in a one-man cabaret show. (Of course, a male genie is already sexually suspect in a culture whose TV-sitcom associations mark genies as female.) The Genie shifts gender several times and uses his transformative powers to generally wreak havoc on social categories, making street urchins into princes.

THE LION KING was made by a studio run by Jews; the music was written by gays; many of the characters were voiced by respected black actors; and the writers were liberal enough to give the film a "multicultural" veneer.

 It’s much the same theory as the ‘Circle of Life’ proposed by Mufasa in The Lion King (1994) – the ghettoised handout-dependent hyenas and their liberal, childless and urbane overlord Scar are fine, as long as they’re kept in their own sphere. When they take over, the Pridelands fall into ruin and corruption.