For a Swarm of Bees
For a Swarm of Bees is an Anglo-Saxon metrical charm that was intended for use in keeping honey bees from swarming. The text was discovered by John Mitchell Kemble in the 19th century.[1] The charm is named for its opening words, "wiþ ymbe", meaning "against (or towards) a swarm of bees".[2]
In the most often studied portion, towards the end of the text where the charm itself is located, the bees are referred to as sigewif, "victory-women". The word has been associated by Kemble,[1] Jacob Grimm, and other scholars with the notion of valkyries (Old English wælcyrian), and "shield maidens", hosts of female beings attested in Old Norse and, to a lesser extent, Old English sources, similar to or identical with the Idise of the Merseburg Incantations.[3] Among some recent scholars the term has been theorized as a simple metaphor for the "victorious sword" (the stinging) of the bees.[4]
In 1909, the scholar Felix Grendon recorded what he saw as similarities between the charm and the Lorsch Bee Blessing, a manuscript portion of the Lorsch Codex, from the monastery in Lorsch, Germany. Grendon suggested that the two could possibly have a common origin in pre-Christian Germanic culture.[5]
Charm text
Sitte ge, sīgewīf,Cite error: A
<ref>tag is missing the closing</ref>(see the help page). and it is related to the Sigel (Sowilo) rune.</ref>
sīgað tō eorðan,
næfre ge wildeCite error: A<ref>tag is missing the closing</ref>(see the help page). Wilde means wildly, whereas wille means willfully, as well as a literal or figurative stream.[1]</ref>
tō wuda fleogan,
beō ge swā gemindige,Cite error: A<ref>tag is missing the closing</ref>(see the help page). </ref>
mīnes gōdes,
swā bið manna gehwilc,
metes and ēðeles.Cite error: A<ref>tag is missing the closing</ref>(see the help page). </ref>Settle down, victory-women,
never be wild and fly to the woods.
Be as mindful of my welfare,
as is each man of border and of home.[1]- ^ Greenfield (1996), p. 256.
Notes
References
- 1 2 Kemble (1876), pp. 403-404.
- ↑ Bosworth (1889).
- ↑ Davidson (1990), p. 63.
- ↑ Greenfield (1996), p. 256.
- ↑ Grendon (1909).
Citations
- Kemble, John Mitchell (1876). The Saxons in England, A History of The English Commonwealth, Till The Period of The Norman Conquest. 1. London: B. Quaritch.
- Grendon, Felix (1909). The Anglo-Saxon Charms.
- Grimm, Jacob (1854). Deutsche Mythologie (German Mythology). Göttingen: Dieterische Bechhandlung.
- Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1889–1921). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary with Supplements and Corrections by T. Northcote Toller.
- Greenfield, Stanley B.; Calder, Daniel Gillmore (1996). A New Critical History of Old English Literature. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3088-4.
- Davidson, Hilda Ellis (1990). Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-013627-4.