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9781837650286

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The book represents a major advance to our knowledge about Anglo-Saxon ritual practice, for Arthur's study permits us now to take charms and secret writing seriously as much for their theological and devotional depth as for their popular significance. Rare is the event - and to be celebrated - when one comes across a book that opens up an entire genre for new appreciation -- EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE Ciaran Arthur's overview of this fascinating corpus of literature, with each example scrutinized in its manuscript context and set against the background of a learned Latinate tradition, contributes much to our understanding of the relations between magic and liturgy in late Anglo-Saxon England. * SPECULUM * Scholars and students of Anglo-Saxon England will find this book an invaluable re-assessment of many of the Anglo-Saxon texts that have been labelled `charms', and it will also interest scholars concerned with folklore more generally. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW * Provocative and erudite [its] arguments are consistently stimulating, discerning, and persuasive. This book makes a major contribution to knowledge, as it sheds an enormous amount of light on the least well-understood corpus of writings from Anglo-Saxon England. * ANGLIA * [F]or researchers focusing on the belief systems of early medieval England, or of early medieval Europe more broadly, this must be very strongly recommended. Any university library with a collection on medieval religion needs to obtain a copy. * READING RELIGION *

Ciaran Arthur's overview of this fascinating corpus of literature, with each example scrutinized in its manuscript context and set against the background of a learned Latinate tradition, contributes much to our understanding of the relations between magic and liturgy in late Anglo-Saxon England. * SPECULUM * Scholars and students of Anglo-Saxon England will find this book an invaluable re-assessment of many of the Anglo-Saxon texts that have been labelled `charms', and it will also interest scholars concerned with folklore more generally. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW * Provocative and erudite [its] arguments are consistently stimulating, discerning, and persuasive. This book makes a major contribution to knowledge, as it sheds an enormous amount of light on the least well-understood corpus of writings from Anglo-Saxon England. * ANGLIA * [F]or researchers focusing on the belief systems of early medieval England, or of early medieval Europe more broadly, this must be very strongly recommended. Any university library with a collection on medieval religion needs to obtain a copy. * READING RELIGION *

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Ciaran Arthur is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Galway.

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