ABSTRACT
A very interesting verse charm, “Seynt Iorge our lady knyghth”, is to be written in a “bylle” and hung in the mane of a horse to protect it against the nightly riding of the “nightmare.” The rubric which accompanies the charm also advocates the use of another magical object, familiar in later times, “a flynt stone that hath an hole thorow of hys owen growyng” hung over the stable door. The charms were the stock in trade of practising physicians, cunning men, charmers, and wise women, as well as being available for private use. The formal characteristics of the Middle English charms are similar to those of the many European charms recorded for centuries. The “flum Jordan” charm, or the “Jordan-segen” as it is known to German folklorists, appears again and again in various forms in Middle English manuscripts, goes into later manuscript collections, and survives in modern folk-tradition.
