For Delayed Birth

The so-called "For Delayed Birth" is an Old English poetic medical text found in the manuscript London, British Library, Harley
585, ff. 185r-v, in a collection of medical texts known since the nineteenth century as Lacnunga (‘remedies’). The manuscript was
probably copied in the early eleventh century, though its sources may have been older.

The text is in fact a set of prose instructions which include a series of short poems which should be recited as part of one or more
rituals. The text is an important witness to non-orthodox Anglo-Saxon Christian religious practice and to women's history:[1] it is
unique among Anglo-Saxon medical texts for being explicitly for use and recitation by a woman.[2] However, 'this charm is
perhaps misnamed, because it deals, not with delayed birth as such, but with the inability of the wifman [woman] for whom it is
written to conceive at all, or to bring a child to term without miscarriage.'[3]

Text
As edited by Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie but with long vowels marked with acute accents, the text runs:[4]

Se wífman, se hire cild áfédan ne mæg, gange tó Let that woman who cannot nourish her child walk
gewitenes mannes birgenne and stæppe þonne to the grave of a departed person and then step
þríwa ofer þá byrgenne and cweþe þonne þríwa three times over the burial, and then say these
þás word: words three times:
þis mé tó bóte þǽre láþan lætbyrde, this as my remedy for the hateful late birth,
þis mé tó bóte þǽre swǽran swǽrbyrde, this as my remedy for the oppressive heavy
þis mé tó bóte þǽre láðan lambyrde. birth,
this as my remedy for the hateful lame birth.

And þonne þæt wíf séo mid bearne and héo tó And when that woman is with child and she goes to
hyre hláforde on reste gá, þonne cweþe héo: bed beside her husband, then she should say:
Up ic gonge, ofer þé stæppe I walk up, step over you
mid cwican cilde, nalæs mid with a living child, in no way with a killing one,
cwellendum, with a fully born one, in no way with a doomed
mid fulborenum, nalæs mid fǽgan. one.

And þonne séo módor geféle þæt þæt bearn sí And when that mother perceives that the child is
cwic, gá þonne tó cyrican, and þonne héo tóforan alive, she must then walk to church and when she
þán wéofode cume, cweþe þonne: comes before the altar, she should then say:
Críste, ic sǽde, þis gecýþed! To Christ, I said, has this been made known!

Se wífmon, se hyre bearn áfédan ne mæge, genime héo Let that woman who cannot nourish her child
sylf hyre ágenes cildes gebyrgenne dǽl, wrý æfter take in person part of her own child's grave,
þonne on blace wulle and bebicge tó cépemannum and then wrap it in black wool, and sell it to
cweþe þonne: merchants, and then say:
Ic hit bebicge, gé hit bebicgan, May I trade it, may you trade it,
þás sweartan wulle and þysse sorge corn. this black wool and this seed of grief.
 Se wífman, se ne mæge bearn áfédan, nime þonne Let that woman who cannot nourish her child
ánes bléos cú meoluc on hyre handæ and gesúpe then take the milk of a cow of one colour in her
þonne mid hyre múþe and gange þonne tó hands and then drink it with her mouth, and then
yrnendum wætere and spíwe þǽr in þá meolc and walk to running water, and spit the milk into it,
hlade þonne mid þǽre ylcan hand þæs wæteres and then ladle a mouthful of that water with that
múð fulne and forswelge. Cweþe þonne þás word: same hand, and swallow it all. She should then
Gehwér férde ic mé þone say these words:
mǽran magaþihtan, Wherever I transported the noble powerful-
mid þysse mǽran meteþihtan; bellied stomach
þonne ic mé wille habban and hám gán. with this noble powerful-bellied food;
Þonne héo tó þán bróce gá, þonne ne beséo héo, then I wish to have myself and to go home.
nó ne eft þonne héo þanan gá, and þonne gá héo in Then she must walk to that brook when no-one
óþer hús óþer héo út oféode and þǽr gebyrge can see her, nor [see her] when she returns from
métes. there, and then she must go into another house
than the one she departed from and bury the
food there.

References
1. L. M. C. Weston, 'Women's Medicine, Women's Magic: The Old English Metrical Childbirth Charms', Modern
Philology, 92 (1995), 279-93, https://www.jstor.org/stable/438781.
2. Marie Nelson, 'A Woman's Charm', Studia Neophilologica, 57 (1985), 3-8 (at p. 3);
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00393278508587899.
3. Keefer, Sarah Larratt (1990) A Monastic Echo in an Old English Charm. Leeds Studies in English, n.s. 2. pp. 71-
80; http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/id/eprint/289.
4. The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ed. by Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective
Edition, 6 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942), pp. 123-24

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This page was last edited on 13 January 2019, at 09:15 (UTC).

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