Erce and Other Possibly Keltic Elements In the Old English Charm for Unfruitful Land

Abstract

FOCALPROBLEM of this discussion of the charm for unfruitful land is the identity of Erce, a name or word repeated three times at the beginning of the second metrical prayer.Whether Erce is the name of a goddess (and if so, of what nature), a verb form, or an incantation has long been debated.Specifically Irish elements in other charms have been cited by Howard Meroney;1 and it is a Keltic case that I wish to argue here, reexamining the charm in the light of its Keltic elements and analogs, especially those noted in the folklore-motif indexes of Stith Thompson ll and Tom Peete Cross 3 which have appeared since the last printed discussions about Erce.The charm, which Dobbie designates "For Unfruitful Land" exists in only one known manuscript (Cotton Caligula A vii).4It is written in an eleventh century hand and seems to have been bound with the Old Saxon Heliand manuscript sometime in the early seventeenth century, thus not in company with any other works of Old English poetry.It is a mixture of prose "recipes" and metrical prayers to be used in restoring fertility to land that may have been bewitched or will not yield well.For all its fascination, it is scarcely great poetry; its language is as mixed as its meters, and includes Keltic loanwords and church Latin as well as the basic Old English.

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