Hybrid Healing: Old English Remedies and Medical Texts (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781526158499)

Through combinations of instructive prose and incantatory verse, liturgical rituals and herbal recipes, Latinate learning and oral tradition, the Old English remedies offer hope not only for bodily ailments but also for such dangers as solitary travel, swarming bees and stolen cattle. Hybrid healing works from the premise that the tremendous diversity of Old English medical texts requires an equally diverse range of interpretative methodologies. Through a case study approach, this exploration of early medicine offers a series of close readings tailored specifically to individual remedies, drawing from a range of fields including plant biology, classical rhetoric, archaeology, folkloristics and disability studies. Embracing the endless complexity of these Old English texts, Hybrid healing argues that the healing power of individual remedies ultimately derives from a dynamic and unpredictable process that is at once both deeply traditional and also ever-changing.

Author: Lori Ann Garner
ISBN-10: 1526158493
ISBN-13: 9781526158499
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/27/2022
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.81d