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BOHLAU VERLAG KOLN WEIMAR WIEN

Laszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication in late Anglo-Saxon England

The question how divination was perceived in medieval Western Europe has several different, sometimes even contradictory answers, depending on how divination was defined at any given time, what location and period is focused on, and what sources are selected. If a specialist in homilies or the literature of penance, for instance, were asked how divination was perceived in eleventh-century England, the answer might be that it was strongly rejected, because this is the impression given by the sources that are commonly queried by such scholars. Indeed, church canonists, authors of penitentials and homilists of this time were united in their denunciation of divina­tion, even if the nature of the divination they denounced varies from one author to another, and even if some of the practices they mentioned were inherited from older sources, and may not have been current in their own time. If! were asked, however, I would reply that operating alongside clerical denunciation, there was a lively inter­est in divination on the part of the clergy who denounced it, on the part of their audience, and on the part of the scribes who had been entrusted with the task to disseminate the proscriptions. The reason for this answer is that there is a consider­able corpus of prognosticatory and divinatory practices transmitted at the same time as, or together with proscriptive measures. This is only logical, because it makes sense to forbid something that is topical rather than inexistent, but the interesting thing is that the clergy acting against divination had first-hand knowledge of the phenomenon; and conversely, that the producers of divination were at home in proscriptive literature, and may have belonged to the same circle as those who made the rules. In the present case study, I will demonstrate that norm and practice did not necessarily clash on the subject of divination in eleventh-century England, but that they engaged in a dialogue, manifest in vernacular writings from both the denunciatory and divinatory ends of the spectrum.!

The present article is introductory and presents ideas developed in more detail elsewhere. Fur­ther reading on divination and prognostication in early medieval England, and a close reading of the relationship between the Old English and Latin prognostics under discussion: Liszlo Sandor CHARDONNENS, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics, 900-1100: Study and Texts (= Brill's Studies in Intel­lectual Hisrory, vo!. 153), Leiden, Boston 2007; Laszlo Sandor CHARDONNENS, JElfric and the Authorship of the Old English De diebus malis, in: Concetta Giliberto, Loredana Teresi, Limits of Learning: The Transfer of Encyclopaedic Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages (= Storehouses of Wholesome Learning, vo!. 3), Paris, Leuven, Dudley, forthcoming.

52 Utszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

1. Proscription

A striking feature of tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon normative writings on divination is that there are only a few words in the vernacular that reflect the divinations practiced in England at the time. To be sure, there is an extensive voca­bulary for divination, but much of it either concerns Scriptural prophecy, or trans­lations of concepts encountered in Classical and Late Antique writings. There are about sixty words for divination in general, for astrology, for dream divination, for the observation of signs and times, for omens and for sortilege.2 On the basis of these numerous terms, taken from glossaries, homilies, penitentials and law codes, the semantic field of divination would seem to be broad. The high numbers, howe­ver, are deceptive, since out of these sixty words, some are variants of the same word, such as hl(i)et, h/ot, and hlyt for "lot" (used in sortilege).3 Other words are idiosyn­cratic responses to unfamiliar Latin terms. The Old English wigbedwiglere (one who divines from altars), for example, is a nonce-formation based upon a mistaken in­terpretation of the first element of the Latin (h)ariolus (diviner) as ara (altar).4 More revealing, however, is the fact that fifty-six words are either rare, or used as glosses to unfamiliar Latin terms, or both. This seems to imply that most of the words for divination do not describe uses commonly known or practised in late Anglo-Saxon England, or the vocabulary would probably have been put to more intensive use.

It may be tempting to ignore the vernacular vocabulary of divination altogether, but four words are found with some frequency: cepan (to keep, pay due attention to, a proper time or season; to regulate by), wiglere (diviner), wiglian (to divine), and wiglung (divination).5 The first term stresses the kind of observation common in prognostication, whereas the last three refer to divination. The verb cepan and the words for divination are encountered in the work of the Anglo-Saxon author lElfric of Eynsham (c. 955-c. 1010), who wrote prolifically on the proper observation of Christian doctrine as a way to salvation.6 lElfric's voice, though not the only one to criticise divination and prognostication, is one of the prime sources of clerical

2 CHARDONNENS, Prognostics (see note 1), pp. 107 ff. 3 An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, ed. Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toiler, Oxford 1898, pp. 543

(s.v. hlit), 544 £ (s.v. hlot) , 546 (s.v. hlyt); An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Supplement, ed. T. Northcote Toiler, Oxford 1921, p. 553 (s.v. hlit, hlot).

4 Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, 2 vols, ed. Thomas Wright, Richard Paul Wiilcker, London 1884, vol. 1, p. 108; Dictionary, ed. Bosworth, Toiler (see note 3), p. 1220 (s.v. wigbed­wiglere).

5 Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form: A-F on CD-ROM, Toronto 2003, S.v. cepan B.1.c; Dictionary, ed. Bosworth, Toiler (see note 3), pp. 1221 £ (s.v. wiglere, wiglian, wiglung); Supplement, ed. Toiler (see note 3), p. 746 (s.v. wiglere, wiglung).

6 lElfric's life and writings are introduced by Helmut GNEUSS, lElfric von Eynsham und seine Zeit (= Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschafren, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte 2002, vol. 1), Munich 2002.

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication 53

proscriptive attitudes in late Anglo-Saxon England. In the homily De auguriis, for example, lElfric warned:

EaU swa ge1ice se oe ge1yfO wiglungum oooe be fuge1um oooe be fnorum oooe be horsum oooe be hundum, ne bio he na cristen, ac bio forcuo wioersaca. Ne sceal nan man cepan be dagum on hwilcum da::ge he fare, oooe on hwylcum he gecyrre, foroan pe god gesceop ealle oa seofan dagas, pe yrnao on pa::re wucan 00 pysre worulde geen­dunge?

Here, lElfric listed an array of divinations, and warned against prognostication, because these practices were deemed un-Christian and were founded upon miscon­ception. To what extent lElfric, basing himself on older, Continental sources, re­sponded to superstitious practices in his own time is uncertain8

, but other writings by lElfric demonstrate that he was greatly worried by people practising prognosti­cation and divination. In the homily Octabas et circumcisio Domini, for instance, lElfric also cautioned against cepan and wiglian:

Nu wigliao stunte men menigfealde wigelunga on pisum da::ge, mid micclum ged­wylde a::fter ha::oenum gewunan ongean hyra cristendom, swilce hi magon heora lif gelengan, oooe heora gesundfulnysse mid pam oe hi gremiao pone a::lmihtigan scyp­pend. Sind eac manega mid swa micclum gedwylde befangene, pa::t hi cepao be oam monan heora fa::r, 7 heora da::da be dagum, 7 nellao heora ping wanian on monanda::ge, for angynne pa::re wucan, ac se monanda::g nis na fYrmest daga on pa::re wucan, ac is se ooer, se sunnanda::g is fYrmest on gesceapenysse 7 on endebyrdnysse, 7 on wurpmynte.9

As in the passage from De auguriis, this excerpt shows that lElfric favoured a two­pronged approach: divination and prognostication should be avoided because they

7 lElfric's Lives of Saints, Being a Set of Sermons on Saints' Days Formerly Observed by the Eng­lish Church, 2 vols, ed. and transl. Walter W. Skeat. (= Early English Text Society, original series vols 76,82,94,114), London 1881-1900, vol. 1, p. 370. "Likewise, he who believes in divina­tion either from birds, or snores, or horses or dogs, he is no Christian but a wicked apostate. Neither must anyone observe particular days on which ro depart, or on which to return, because God created all seven days which succeed each other in the week until the end of this world" (all translations are mine).

8 See, for instance, Audrey L. MEANEY, lElfric and Idolatry, in: Journal of Religious Studies 13 (1984), pp. 199 ff.; Audrey L. MEANEY, lElfric's Use of His Sources in His Homily on Auguries, in: English Studies 66 (1985), pp. 477 ff.; Malcolm GODDEN, lElfric's Catholic Homilies, In­troduction, Commentary and Glossary (= Early English Text Society, supplementary series, vol. 18), London 2000, pp. xxxviii ff.

9 lElfric's Catholic Homilies, The First Series, Text, ed. Peter Clemoes (= Early English Text So­ciety, supplementary series, vol. 17), London 1997, p. 229. "Now foolish men practise many divinations on this day [1 January], with great error, after heathen custom, against their Chris­tian faith, as if they could prolong their life or their health, and thereby provoke the almighty Creator. Many are also possessed with such great error that they regulate their journeys by the moon and their acts according to days, and will not bleed themselves on Monday, because it is the beginning of the week, even though Monday is not the first day of the week, but the second. Sunday is the first in creation, in order and in dignity."

54 Laszl6 Sand or Chardonnens

are un-Christian, and also because they result from faulty logic. It is unclear which

consideration weighed heaviest in l:Elfric's eyes, unless the (wilful) application of

faulty logic is an un-Christian act in itself. Later in the same homily on the Octaves,

l:Elfric again admonished his audience:

Nis pieS mannes cristendom naht pe mid deoflicum wiglungum his lif adrihO; he is gehiwod to cristenum menn, 7 is eatm h;epengilda, swa swa se ylea apostol be swyleum cw;eeJ: le wene p;et ic swunce on ydel pa oa ic eow to gode gebigde. Nu ge cepao daga 7 monoa mid ydelum wiglungum. Is hw;epere ;efter gecynde on gesceapenysse ;ele lichamlic gesceaft pe eoroe aceno fulre 7 m;egenf;estre on fullum monan ponne on gewanedum. Swa eac treowa gif hi beoo on fullum monan geheawene hi beoo heatd­ran 7langf;erran to getimbrunge 7 swipost gifhi beoo uns;epige geworhte. Nis pis nan wiglung ac is gecyndelic ping purh gesceapenysse.!O

l:Elfric draws a clear line between cepan and wiglung on the one hand, and a rule of

nature (gecyndelic ping) that is the result of Creation, on the other. In other words, l:Elfric makes a deliberate contrast between divination and prognostication, and

practices that resemble them but that are not identical because they are part of na­tural science. A similar strategy is adopted in De auguriis when l:Elfric speaks of

sortilege:

Nu alyse ic me sylfne wiO God, and mid lufe eow forbeode, p;et eower nan ne axie purh ;enigne wiccecr;eft be ;enigum oinge oooe be ;enigre untrumnysse, ne galdras ne sece to gremigenne his scyppend; foroan se oe pys deo, se forlyso his Cristendom, and bio pam h;eoenum gelic pe hleotao be him sylfum mid o;es deofles cr;efte pe hi fordeo on ecnysse; and butan he ;elmyssan and mycele d;edbote his scyppende geoffrige, ;efre he bio forloren. Hleotan man mot mid geleafan swa peah on woruldoingum butan wiccecr;efte, p;et him deme seota, gifhi hw;et d;elan willao; pis nis nan wiglung, ac bio wissung foroft.!!

10 Homilies, ed. Clemoes (see note 9), p. 230. "The Christianity of a man who lives with devilish divination is void. He appears Christian, but is a wretched heathen, just as that same apostle [Paul) says about such a man: I believe that I laboured in vain when I turned you to God. Now you observe days and months with vain divinations [Gal. 4:10-11]. However, every bodily crea­ture in creation, which the earth brings forth, is, according to nature, fuller and stronger in full moon than when the moon is waning. Therefore, trees also, if they are felled during full moon, are harder and more lasting for building, and especially if they are made sapless. This is no divi­nation, but it is a natural thing through creation."

11 Lives, ed. and trans!' Skeat (see note 7), vo!. 1, pp. 368, 370. "Now I deliver myself to God, and with love forbid you, that any of you should enquire through any witchcraft: concerning anything, or concerning any sickness, or seek enchanters to anger his Creator; for he that does this, he forsakes his Christianity, and is like the heathens who cast lots concerning themselves by means of the devil's art, which will destroy them forever; and unless he offer alms and much penance to his Creator, he shall be lost eternally. Nevertheless a man may cast lots, in faith, in worldly things, without witchcraft:, to determine his portion, if men wish to divide lands; this is no divination, but can very often serve as gUidance."

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication 55

Here, 1Elfric distinguished between divination and practices that are similar but that escape sanction because they fall within the accepted Christian view of natural science. He called unaccepted practices "the devil's art"; acceptable practice, in con­trast, he regarded as divine "guidance". When 1Elfric wished to emphasise the di­stinction between divination and natural science, he used the phrase pis nis nan wiglung(this is no divination). 1Elfric, then, is a good example of an author who was not only concerned with Christian moral rectitude, but who also made effective use of a specific vocabulary and contrastive rhetoric to bring out the wrongfulness of divination and prognostication.

Clerical responses to divination were severe throughout the medieval period, and 1Elfric's stance was by no means exceptional. In view of the treatment of divination in contemporary law codes, penitentials and church canons, 1Elfric's homilies were pro­bably in line with clerical efforts to suppress divination. Interestingly enough, the fact that he repeatedly concerned himself with the distinction between divination and Christian ideas about natural science seems to mean that there was only a thin line to separate them, and that this line was often quite hard to distinguish.

1Elfric warned those who practised divination and prognostication of the de­structive effects of their activities, but the practitioners were not contextualised: that is, their position in society is unclear. Archbishop Wulfstan I1 of York (t 1023), homilist, canonist and legislator, in the homily De fide catholica, placed diviners among the evildoers awaiting eternal damnation upon Judgment Day:

Dyder sculan mannslagan, 7 aider sculan manswican; aider sculan <ewbrecan 7 aa fu­lan forlegenan; aider sculan mansworan 7 morawyrhtan; aider sculan gitseras, ryperas 7 reaferas 7 woruldstruderas; Oider sculon peofas 7 aeodscaaan; ayder sculon wiccan 7 wigleras, 7, hr<edest to secganne, ealle pa manfullan pe <er yfel worhton 7 noldan ge­swican ne wiG God pingian.12

Wulfstan situated diviners among some of the worst enemies of the faith; but, given that there were many forms of divination in all layers of society that were never written down or remarked upon, who were targeted as the people most likely to practise or come into contact with divination? In fact, the audience, unlikely as it may seem, must be sought within the same religious community, which, after all, had access to all kinds of codified divinations. Research into 1Elfric's references to

superstitious practices has revealed that the people he addressed were his fellow clergymen, indicating that the art of divination was not alien to late Anglo-Saxon

12 The Homilies ofWulfstan, ed. Dorothy Betherum, Oxford 1957, p. 163. "Thither shall go mur­derers, and thither shall go traitors; thither shall go adulterers and foul fornicators; thither shall go perjurers and murderers; thither shall go misers, robbers, plunderers and spoliators; thither shall go thieves and criminals; thither shall go wizards and diviners, and, to put it simply, all the wicked who performed evil before and do not want to stop nor pray to God."

56 LElszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

monastic communities. 13 The presence of prognostication, divination and magic in manuscripts produced in religious foundations across England, moreover, shows that these practices were well-known, and not just among the scribes who produced this material. One might think this was a matter of status; that is, that higher church officials, such as abbots, denounced practices that were condoned or even promoted by the lower clergy, but there is considerable support to conclude that status or rank is not the issue here. The most persuasive evidence is furnished by the surviving manuscripts themselves. Several manuscripts produced for, or owned by, prominent church officials or monastic scholars contain sizable collections of prognostics, for example.14 These people might have shared lElfric's views on divination, yet they did not find fault with the divinatory texts themselves.

lElliic himself is known to have had some understanding of the kinds of prognosti­cation current in his time, as shown by verbal echoes of such practices in his homilies. When he asserted, for instance, that many people "will not bleed themselves on Mon­day, because of the beginning of the week", he referred to the belief in Mondays on which bloodletting was thought to be extremely dangerous (the so-called three Egyp­tian Days). 15 Texts identifYing the three Egyptian Days were transmitted in large num­bers in the medieval West, and were among the most popular types of prognostication known in late Anglo-Saxon England. It would seem, then, that lElfric was familiar with superstitious practices that were transmitted in writing in his own time.

2. Practice

The preceding overview demonstrates that divination and prognostication were proscribed by late Anglo-Saxon clergymen, as was the case in Western Europe throughout the medieval period. It would be a shortcoming, however, to let this study end here, because texts of divination and prognostication were transmitted not by wizards or heretics, but by the religious communities that brought forth the likes of lElfric and Wulfstan. In these communities, such texts were copied on a large scale, in manuscripts to be used within a monastic setting, and in manuscripts produced by, or for, prominent church officials. Some books even contain works by lElfric together with the divinations and prognostications he disapproved of so ve­hemently. If normative writing adapted itself to the existence of divination and prognostication in late Anglo-Saxon England, it seems reasonable to investigate if

13 Malcolm GODDEN, New Year's Day in Late Anglo-Saxon England, in: Notes and Queries, new series 39 (1992), pp. 148 ff.; Roy Michael LIUZZA, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics in COntext: A Survey and Handlist of Manuscripts, in: Anglo-Saxon England 30 (2001), pp. 181 ff.; CHAR­DONNENS, Prognostics (see note 1), pp. 126 if.

14 CHARDONNENS, Prognostics (see note 1), p. 53. 15 CHARDONNENS, Prognostics (see note 1), pp. 99 if.

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication 57

and how these practices, in turn, were adapted to normative proscription. If church officials denounce divination, a possible response is for it to vanish or to go under­ground. This was not the case, however, and indeed the opposite seems to have happened. For example, in the same period in which writers such as JElfric actively inveighed against divination, the dissemination of divinatory and prognosticatory texts increased substantially.16 At the same time, such texts came to be translated from Latin into Old English.

The survival of translations into the vernacular makes it possible to see how texts were adapted, a case in point being the Old English text De diebus malis, adapted from a Latin text on the twenty-four Egyptian Days. These twenty-four days, two per month, were known as evil days on which bloodletting and the application of medicine were lethal. They were called Egyptian because th.ey were thought to be the days of the plagues visited upon the Egyptians in Exodus. 17 The Old English De

diebus malis dates from the first quarter of the eleventh century, shortly after JElfric's efforts to suppress divination and prognostication. It will be seen to incorporate prognosticatory knowledge from the source text, together with JElfric's views on divination and natural science. De diebus malis is preserved in three manuscripts, the earliest of which also contains the Latin source text: London, British Library, Harley 3271, fols. 90v-91r (Old English) and 122rv (Latin).18

The relationship between the Latin source text and the Old English De diebus

malis is complex. De diebus malis is a six-part text, consisting of (1) an explanation of the Egyptian Days, (2) a list of the Egyptian Days, (3) a justification for the start of the new year in March, (4) a prohibition to let blood on certain days of the moon, (5) a prohibition to let blood on All Saints' Day, and (6) a dietary injunc­tion. The Latin source, on the other hand, contains (1) a list of the Egyptian Days, (2) a dietary injunction, (3) an account of the Dog Days, and (4) a prohibition to let blood on certain days of the moon. The mismatch between the two lists makes it clear that the Old English is not an exact translation from the Latin, and even when certain sections are similar (e.g. part 2 of De diebus malis and part 1 of the source), the contents diverge. The adaptor rearranged the information available in his source, added freely from several other sources, and offered his own views as well, as the discussion below of the contents of De diebus malis will demonstrate. 19

16 Laszl6 Sandor CHARDONNENS, Context, Language, Date and Origin of Anglo-Saxon Prognos­tics, in: Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, Kees Dekker, Foundations of Learning: The Transfer of Encyclo­paedic Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages (= Storehouses of Wholesome Learning, vo!. 1), Paris, Leuven, Dudley 2007, pp. 317 if.

17 CHARDONNENS, Prognostics (see note 1), pp. 330 if. 18 The Latin text is included in rhe appendix. 19 Readers who would like an in-deprh discussion of rhe relationship between rhe source text and

rhe translation are strongly advised to read CHARDONNENS, De diebus malis (see note 1), which contains a more exhaustive and rhoroughly documented comparison.

58 Laszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

Part 1 of De die bus malis introduces the phenomenon of the Egyptian Days:

DE DIEBVS MALlS. Pa ealdan lxcas gesettan on ledenbocun: pxt on xlcum monCle beoCl xfre twegen dagas pe syndan swyCle derigendlice xnigne drenc on to Clicgenne: oClCle blod on to lxtenne: forClan pe an tid is on xlcum pxra daga gif man xnige xddran geopenaCl on pxre tide: pxt hit biCl his lifleast. oaae langsum sar; pxs cunnode sum lxce. let his horse blod on pxre tide. 7 hit lxg sona dead. 20

The opening lines incorporate the closing line of part 4 of the source text: Autenti­

corum in his medicorum cohibentur diuersorum potionum dictione. seu jlebotomatum

usus adibendi ("on these [days] they are deterred from various potions or the prac­

tice of the application of bloodletting on the assertion of genuine doctors"). Addi­

tionally, the adaptor consulted other texts on the Egyptian Days for information

about the dangerous hours, which did not appear in the Latin original, and he tried

to heighten the authority of the text by including a reference to a medical experi­

ment. But the adaptor did more: he also used specific words uniquely or mostly

used by lElfric in his vernacular writings, to wit the Old English compound leden­

bocun (Latin books), that replaces the Latin dictione, the collocation langsum sar

(protracted pain), and the word lifleast (death). This seems to indicate that the ad­

aptor was familiar with the writings of lElfric, and that he was aware of more texts

dealing with the Egyptian Days. Part 2 of De die bus malis lists of dates on which the Egyptian Days occur:

Nu synd hit pas dagas swa swa us seicgap bec:-se forma dxg on martio pxt is on hlydan monpe. 7 se feorpa dxg xrpam pe he fare aweg. on pam opran monpe pe we apriles hatat: se tyopa dxg is dergendlic: 7 se endlyfta dxg xr his utgange; eft is on pan monpe pe we maios hatet se pridda &g dergendlic: 7 se seouepa xr his ende. On iunius se teopa 7 xr his ende se fifteopa. On iulius se preotteoCla 7 xr his ende se teCla. On augustus. se forma: 7 xr his ende se oCler. On september se Clridda. 7 xr his ende se teoCla. On october. eac se Clridda: 7 xr his ende se teoCla. On nouember. se fifta: 7 xr his ende se pridda. On december. se twelfta: 7 xr his ende se seofanteoCla. On ianuarius. se forma: 7 xr his ende se seofoCla. On februarius se feorCla: 7 xr his ende se Clridda:21

20 "The Evil Days. The doctors of old wrote in Latin books that there are always two days in each month on which it is very hurtful to drink any [medicinal] potion or to let blood, because there is an hour in each of these days in which a vein that is opened will cause death or protracted pain. A doctor knew this and bled his horse on such an hour, and it fell dead immediately."

21 "Now these are the days as the books tell us: The first day in March, that is in the month hlyda, and the fourth day before it [the month] ends. In the second month, which we call April, the tenth day is hurtful, and the eleventh day before its end. Next, in the month that we call May

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication 59

The Old English is a reworking of part 1 of the Latin source text. The Latin lists the Egyptian Days in three different ways: in mnemonic hexameter verses that list the dates in formulaic fashion (the first counted from the beginning of each month, and the second from the end, as in Martis prima neeat euius sic euspide quarta est ("the first of March kills, and the fourth of this month is thus [i.e. also kills] with a spear"»; in a formulaic prose enumeration ([i]n prineipio mensis martii. dies primus.

[ ... ] & ante eius exitum dies quartus ("in the beginning of the month of March, the first day, [ ... ] and before its end the fourth day"»; and in explanatory glosses in Roman calendar format (hoc est kl martii, [ ... ] hoc est v. kl aprilis ("that is, 1 March, [ ... ] that is, 28 March"». The adaptor chose to translate the prose enumeration, but changed it and expanded it. The most marked change consists in a reorganisation of the order of the months, starting with March instead ofJanuary, as explained in part 3 of De diebus malis. Notable additions are the reference to book learning at the head of the list (swa swa us seiegaj bee ("as the books tell us"», and the mention of the vernacular name hlyda for the month of March; both are used almost exclusively by lElfric.

Part 3 of De diebus malis justifies the start of the year in March:

We gesetton on foreweardan on pysre endebyrdnesse pone monap martius pe menn hatat hlyda forpan he is angin a::fter rihtum getele ealles pa::s geares 7 se a::lmihtiga god on pam monpe gescop ealle gesceafta;22

This paragraph has no counterpart in the Latin source text, which does not require a justification of this kind. The adaptor clearly felt the need to explain why he rear­ranged the order of the months, and that he did not do so without precedent. The proper beginning of the year was of considerable import, because different people were known to commence the year differently. Some held, however, that for Chri­stians, it should start on the day that day and night are divided equally and the seasons are created: on the fourth day of Creation, in other words, 21 March, the calendric date of the equinox. Someone who took a strong interest in the start of the year was lElfric, who in his homily on the Octaves and in his computistical work wrote of 21 March as the proper first day of the year, in view of God's creation. The arguments about propriety and the moment of creation are central to the order of

the third day is hurtful, and the seventh before its end. In June the tenth [day], and before its end the fifteenth. In July the thirteenth, and before its end the tenth. In August the first, and before its end the second. In September the third, and before its end the tenth. In October also the third, and before its end the tenth. In November the fifth, and before its end the third. In December the twelfth, and before its end the seventeenth. In January the first, and before its end the seventh. In February the fourth, and before its end the third."

22 "We put the month March, which is called hlyda, first in this account, because it [the month] forms the beginning after the proper reckoning of the entire year, and almighty God created all creatures in this month."

60 Laszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

the months in De diebus mal is, and to lElfric's opinions on the start of the year. It is also to be noted that the gloss hlyda is used again in this paragraph.

Part 4 of De diebus malis is a prohibition to let blood on certain days of the

moon:

Nu ;eft be pam monan is miclum to warnienne p;et mon on fYuwer nihtan monan oppe on fif nihta men blod ne l;ete swa swa us secgao bee ;erpan pe se mona 7 syu s;e beon anr;ede.23

This is a garbled reading of part 4 of the Latin source text, which also warned

against bloodletting on certain days of the moon. The adaptor reduced the number

of dangerous days to two, and added an lElfrician appeal to the authority of writing

by stating that bloodletting is dangerous on these days swa swa us seegao bee ("as the

books tell us"). The final comment, on the agreement between the moon and the

sea is not found in the source text, and is probably to be regarded as another appeal

to authority, this time to natural science. The source for the comment is hitherto

untraced, but it may be an overly simplified interpretation of the rather complex

relationship between the moon and the tides, explained in Latin by Bede (c. 673-735), and in Old English by lElfric.24

Part 5 of De diebus mal is is a prohibition to let blood on All Saints' Day (Hal­

lowmas):

eae we gehyrdan seggan sumne wisne man p;et nan man ne lyfode pe him lete blod on ealra halgena m;essed;eig oppe gif he gewundad w;ere; Nis pis nan wigelung ae wise men hit afundan puruh p;ene halgan wisdom swa swa him gedihte godd.25

This prohibition is not in the Latin source text, nor am I aware of another text that

could have served as a source. The only justification that springs to mind is that All

Saints' Day is a liminal moment in time, during which the world of the living and

the dead overlap. It may be that illness or invasive medical procedures were deemed

dangerous at such a time for this reason. The most interesting feature in the Old

English, though, is the statement that this is no divination. The phrase [n]is pis nan wigelungwas lElfric's way of distinguishing between divination and natural science,

as the homilies cited above illustrate, and here the phrase is used by the adaptor of

De diebus malis to assert that we are not dealing with divination, but with God's

wisdom, a conclusion that lElfric would have frowned upon.

23 ''Again, on the subject of the moon, it must be warned that one does not let blood on the fourth night of the moon, or on the fifth night, as the books tell us, before the moon and the sea are in agreement."

24 For full references, please see CHARDONNENS, De diebus malis (see note 1). 25 "We have also heard a certain wise man say that no one will live who is bled or has been wounded

on All Saints' Day. This is no divination, but wise men discovered it through holy wisdom just as God revealed it to them."

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication 61

Part 6 of De diebus malis is a dietary injunction:

gyt her to eacan is to warnienne pa::t man ne picge gosefla::sc on pane a::ftemestan da::i hlydan monpes ne on pa::ne a::ftemestan da::ig december monpes gosefla::sc byp a::fre unhalwende pam untruman swa swa ma opra metta pe we ne magan her secggan.26

This injunction is, in a slightly mangled fashion, taken from part 2 of the Latin

source, where it is explained that the consumption of goose meat is dangerous on

three Mondays per year. These three Mondays, incidentally, are the three Egyptian

Days also referred to by JElfric when he spoke of people who nellaiJ heora ping

wanian on monandd!ge ("will not bleed themselves on Monday"). The adaptor

garbled his Latin source, and added the observation that there are more types of

food not listed here, a fact he may have culled from the hygienic rules related to

health and diet regiments circulating in Europe at the time. The adaptor, further­

more, changed the reference to March in his source text to Old English hlyda, a

word also found in parts 2 and 3 of De diebus malis.

When the results of this brief comparison are tabulated, it becomes clear what

the adaptor of De diebus mal is aimed to achieve when he turned the Latin text on

the twenty-four Egyptian Days into Old English:

Dediebus sources (in addition to adaptor's own changes and additions malis design)

pan 1 - final sentence of part 4 of the - appeal to book learning Latin - appeal to medical experi-

- other texts on the Egyptian Days ment - lElfric's writings

part 2 - selections from part 1 of the Latin - vernacular name of March - lElfric's writings - appeal to book learning

part 3 - lElfric's writings - vernacular name of March - appeal to God's creation

part 4 - part 4 of the Latin - appeal to book learning - lElfric's writings - appeal to computistical - computus knowledge

part 5 - lElfric's writings - denial of divinatory content - appeal to God's wisdom

part 6 - part 2 of the Latin - appeal to health and diet - lElfric's writings rules

- vernacular name of March

26 "Moreover, one should take heed not to consume goose meat on the last day of the month hlyda, nor on the last day of December. Goose meat is always unhealthy for the weak, as are more types of food that we cannot list here."

62 Laszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

me adaptor's aim was to augment his text by appeals to authority in the fields of book learning, medicine, computus, and religious doctrine, probably to increase the credibility of his claim that this was no divination. He did this, not by incorpora­ting material from learned Latin sources, but by exploiting the knowledge available in the vernacular writings of lElfric, an author whose works were disseminated in the period that De diebus malis was written. However, rather than using lElfric's words and ideas to proscribe divination, the adaptor used them to authorise divina­tion. The final question is whether the adaptor andlElfric were two different people. The answer, I would say, is yes, since the adaptor clearly endorsed divination, and he had a much shakier command of Latin than lElfric had. The adaptor, neverthe­less, was thoroughly familiar with lElfric's ideas and logic, as both the verbal echoes from lElfric, and the line of reasoning adopted by the author of De diebus malis make clear.

3. Conclusion

This paper was written to show that divination and prognostication were proscri­bed in a culture that endorsed and disseminated such practices at the same time. This stands to reason, since proscription is usually a reaction to practices undesi­rable to the people who have the power to rule against it. In other words, clergy­men who determined matters of religious doctrine, such as lElfric and Wulfstan, took a stand against forms of divination and prognostication that were current in their own culture, or that they wanted to prevent from becoming more wi­despread. The argument I would like to make, however, is more subtle, in that those who proscribed and those who disseminated proscriptions belonged to the same intellectual milieu as those who transgressed by copying and spreading texts on divination and prognostication. Furthermore, the comparison of De diebus malis and its Latin source demonstrates that producers of divination and progno­stication were thoroughly at home in proscriptive rhetoric, and incorporated its words and ideas with a twist.

Appendix27

The Latin source of the Old English De diebus malis

[1] VERSVS AD DIES AEGYPTIACOS. INVENIANDAS. IANI PRIMA DIES ET SEPTIMA. FINE TIMETVR. IANVARIVS.

27 The text is taken from the manuscript but emendations have been made silently to avoid edito­rial clutter. CHARDONNENS, De diebus malis (see note 1) provides a more authoritative edition.

Norm and practice of divination and prognostication 63

In principio mensis ianuarii dies primus. hoc est Id ianuarii. & ante eius exitum dies sep­timus. hoc est viii. Id februarii. AST FEBRVI QVARTA EST. PRECEDIT TERTIA FINEM. FEBRVARIVS. A principio mensis februarii dies quartus. hoc est ii. NON februarii. & ante eius exitum dies tertius. hoc est iiii. Id martii. MARTIS PRIMA NECAT CVIVS SIC CVSPIDE QVARTA EST. MARTIVS. In principio mensis martii. dies primus. hoc est Id martii. & ante eius exitum dies quartus. hoc est v. Id aprilis. APRELIS DECIMA EST. VNDENO A FINE TIMETVR. APRILIS. A principio mensis aprilis. dies decimus. hoc est iiii. id aprilis. & ante eius exitum dies undecimus. hoc est xii Id mai. TERTIVS EST MAlO LVPVS EST ET SEPTIMVS ANGVIS. MAlVS. A principio mensis maii dies tertius. hoc est v. NON. mai. & ante eius exitum. dies septi­mus. hoc est viii. Id iunii. IVNIVS IN DECIMO. QVINDENVM FINE SALVTAT. IVNIVS. A principio mensis iunii. dies .x. mus hoc est Hii. id. iunii. & ante eius exitum dies quintus decimus. hoc est xvi. Id iulii. TREDECIMVS IVLII DECIMA INNVIT ANTE KALENDAS. IVLIVS. A principio mensis iulii dies xiii.mus hoc est iii. idus iuliL & ante eius exitum dies .x.mus hoc est xi Id agusti. AGVSTI NEPA PRIMA FVGAT DE FINE SECVNDA. AGVSTVS. In principio mensis agusti dies primus id est Id agusti. & ante eius exitum dies secundus. hoc est iii. Id septembris; TERTIA SEPTEMBRIS VVLPIS FERIT A PEDE DENAM. SEPTEMBER. A principio mensis septembris. dies tertius hoc est iii. NON septembris. & ante eius exi­turn dies decimus id est xi. Id octobris. TERTIVS OCTOBRIS GLADIVS DECIMO ORDINE NECTIT: OCTOBER. A principio mensis octobris. dies tertius hoc est v. NON. octobris & ante eius exitum dies decimus. hoc est xi. Id nouembris. QVINTA NOVEMBRIS ACVS VIX TERTIA MANSIT IN VRNA. NOVEMBER. A principio mensis nouembris dies .v. hoc est NON nouembris. & ante eius exitum dies .iii. us hoc est iiii. Id decembris. DAT DVODENA COHORS SEPTEM INDE DECEMQVE DECEMBRI. DECEM­BER. A principio mensis decembris dies .xii. mus hoc est ii. id. decembris & ante eius exitum dies .xvii. mus hoc est xviii. Id ianuarii [2] Super omnes hos: sunt etiarn isti obseruabiles. Ab initio mensis agusti dies primus lune insuper & de martio ac decembre dies nouissimi eiusdem feri(( in quibus & esus cuiuslibet anseris prohibetur. [3] DE DIEBVS CANICVLARIBVS. Est etiarn istorum temporum obseruanda ratio: ne forte a quopiarn e((dem suprascript(( medicin(( incautius exerceantur. hoc est ab exortu canicul((. qui est a xv. Id agusti. usque in. NON septembris. dies .1. numero. Solet namque id sepissime contingere. ut in his flebo­tomati infirmitates non minuant: sed eas grauissimis doloribus augeant: adeo ut plerosque periculosa mors per hec subsequatur;

64 Laszl6 Sandor Chardonnens

[4] Sunt etiam he lunationes summa cum diligentia adtendendf(: Ne in eis suprascripte cause exerceantur. id est quarta quintaque luna. necne. decima. ac quinta decima uiges­sima quoque necnon .XXffi"v. ca tricessimaque Autenticorum in his medicorum cohibentur diuersorum potionum dictione. seu flebotomatum usus adibendi.