TY - JOUR
T1 - Charmers and Charming in England and Wales from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century
AU - Davies, Owen
PY - 1998/1
Y1 - 1998/1
N2 - Charmers have long been recognised as an important aspect of folk medicine. Unfortunately, however, they have usually been conflated with cunning-folk and consequently the welldefined tradition of charming has been rather obscured. Charmers were quite a diverse group of healers but, in general, they all shared several characteristics that separated them from other practitioners of folk medicine. Popular faith in charmers was undoubtedly very strong, and several traditional forms of charming have continued up till recently. The present article not only examines the question of who the charmers were, but also explores their practices and their place in a wider religious and medical context. It is a companion-piece to the author's previous article published in Folklore 107 (1990):19–31
AB - Charmers have long been recognised as an important aspect of folk medicine. Unfortunately, however, they have usually been conflated with cunning-folk and consequently the welldefined tradition of charming has been rather obscured. Charmers were quite a diverse group of healers but, in general, they all shared several characteristics that separated them from other practitioners of folk medicine. Popular faith in charmers was undoubtedly very strong, and several traditional forms of charming have continued up till recently. The present article not only examines the question of who the charmers were, but also explores their practices and their place in a wider religious and medical context. It is a companion-piece to the author's previous article published in Folklore 107 (1990):19–31
U2 - 10.1080/0015587X.1998.9715960
DO - 10.1080/0015587X.1998.9715960
M3 - Article
SN - 0015-587X
VL - 109
SP - 41
EP - 52
JO - Folklore
JF - Folklore
IS - 1-2
ER -