Medieval Magical Spells against Theft If you were trying to uncover a thief in 15th-century Denmark, you could make the suspect undergo a ‘cheese ordeal’. This would involve writing on the cheese the words ‘Agula igula agulet’ and feeding it to the accused. Immediately it will give a verdict: the innocent will be able to eat it normally, but the guilty will have find it “full of bitterness”, suffer pain under their tongue, and thus be unable to swallow it. Similar formulas involving cheese-as-justice can be found in other medieval texts. Like ourselves, people in the Middle Ages were concerned about protecting their goods from being stolen. If chests and locks were not enough security, they could also make use of magic. A newly published article by Chiara Benati, “Painted Eyes, Magical Sieges and Carved Runes: Charms for Catching and Punishing Thieves in the Medieval and Early Modern Germanic Tradition” offers examples of dozens of medieval magical spells and charms tha...
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