The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Anglo-Saxon and Later Recipes

Author(s): W. Bonser
Source: Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jun., 1945), pp. 254-256
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
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254
Collectanea
Some of the social customs of Elizabethan and
Jacobean
times survived
in the
country
until recent
years.
It was strict
etiquette (and
a
genuine
compliment)
that when
any
man was offered drink at a house he should
ask his hostess " to take the
top
off
",
which meant that she should
sip
a
little out of the
mug
or tankard. The mistress of the house was
expected
to walk round the table at a
country
meal and to drink from each diner's
glass.
The writer has seen the custom in use
only
a few
years ago.
Life was
rough. Wages
were
scandalously
low and labourers stole
sheep,
lambs and field
crops
for food. Bands of men would
go
from farm
to farm
quietly stealing
a few
pecks
of wheat from each and
finally spend
the remainder of the
night grinding
at one of the farm
grist-mills.
It was
not
etiquette
to steal from the farmer whose mill was used. Game-
keepers
went about in constant
danger
from assaults from
poachers
and
farmers carried
pistols
when
they
made the usual farm rounds at
night.
They
sometimes
placed milking
stools over their heads to
protect
them
from a sudden attack in the dark.
There were
rigid
rituals for all
special
occasions. The men who formed
the harvest team elected one of their number as " Lord ". He
negotiated
with the farmer on behalf of the team and exercised a considerable
degree
of
authority.
The Lord
fixed
the amount of beer to be drunk
daily,
and
demanded "
largesse
" from
strangers
who visited the harvest field. He
arranged disputes
between the
men,
and it was his
duty
to blow the
harvest horn either to call the team to work
(Norfolk)
or when each
variety
of
crop
was harvested
(Essex).
Small infractions of
discipline
were
punished by
the other men
building
the offender into a load of corn
with his head
protruding
from the back. He was
brought
home in that
undignified position, helpless,
and the butt of the harvest team. All
countrymen
could
plait
straw
figures,
and were
often
expert
at wood-
carving
or some other rural craft. The
long
winter
nights gave
them
ample opportunity
for
exercising
their skill.
The
disappearance
of
many
local customs and traditions must be
regretted by
all those who take an interest in
country life,
but the
process
is
inevitable,
and the old conditions are obsolete. The modern folklorist
can
only
collect and record
examples
such as those described before
they
are
forgotten.
L. F. NEWMAN
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS IN ANGLO-SAXON AND
LATER RECIPES.
THE
following
charm occurs in the late tenth
century Anglo-Saxon
recipe-book
called the
Lacnunga
(?+56).
It is for
night-mare,
or rather
"
against
a dwarf
",
since the dwarves were
thought
to be the cause of
evil dreams. "
Against
a dwarf one must take seven little wafers such as
are used when
making
an
offering,
and write these names on each wafer :
Maximianus, Malchus,
Iohannes,
Martinianus, Dionysius, Constantinus;
Serapion.
And hereafter one must
sing
the charm
[galdor]
which
follows,
first into the left
ear,
then into the
right ear,
then on
top
of the man's
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Collectanea
255
head. Then let one who is a
virgin go
to him and
hang
it on his neck.
Do so for three
days
:
it will soon be well with him."
The names of the Seven
Sleepers
of
Ephesus
occur in various charms of
the Middle
Ages. They
are
usually,
as
might
be
expected,
to secure
sleep,
but some cases are to be
employed against
fever. This also is
natural,
since
restlessness and delirium are
especially symptoms
of fever.
The connection is well shown in a charm
against
fever
(gedrif)
in a
manuscript (40, 5)
in Worcester Cathedral
library.
It is in a hand of the
same
period
as that of the
Lacnunga:
the instructions are in
Anglo-
Saxon,
the words of the charm in
Latin.
The connection with
sleep
appears
in the
phrase
after the seven
names,
which
again
are to be
written on wafers
:
it runs
:
"
ita sicut
requieuit
dominus
super illos,
sic
requiescat super
istum famulum dei N. coniuro
uos, frigora
et febres
",
etc.1
Other mediaeval charms
containing
the seven names are as follows.
(a) One,
for
sleep,
is to be found on the
flyleaf
at the
end
of one of the
Royal manuscripts
in the British Museum. It is in
Latin,
in a twelfth
century
hand:
"
In the
city
of
Ephesus
on Mount Celion lie the seven
holy sleepers,
whose
namrtes
are
[as above].
Because of their
merits,
and
through
their
holy intercession, deign,
0
Lord,
to free
thy
servant N.
from all evil. Amen. . . . Cause this
thy
servant N. to
sleep,
that he
may
recover from the
sleep
which he has
lost."
2
(b)
Another
example (in Latin) containing
the seven
names,
but this
time each
having
an
epithet
written above
it, appears
on the end
flyleaf
of another of the
Royal manuscripts
:
"
Against
fever : take vii
offerings,
and on each write one of the names of the vii
sleepers,
and above each of
those names those which
follow,
and
give
to the sick man to take.
[illegible]
Maximianus
+ Probus
Martinianus
+ Gaudens
Constantinus
+
Libens
lohannes
+ Clarrus
Malchus
+
Clemens
Dionisius
S
Suimans
Serapion
"3
(c)
An eleventh
century
charm
against
fevers occurs in one of the
Cotton
manuscripts (in Latin) :
"
Against fevers,
in the name
...
of the
Trinity.
In the
city
of
Ephesus
... lie vii
saints
sleeping [names
followj
:
may
God ... release me . . . from this illness and from fever
",
etc.4
(d)
Another charm for fever occurs in a fourteenth
century English
manuscript
in the
Royal Library
at Stockholm
(in Latin)
: " On mount
1
Napier (A): Altenglische
Miscellen, II.
In Archiv
fiir
das Studium
fiir
neueren
Sprachen,
Bd.
84 (1890), p. 324.
2
MS.
Royal
2. A. xx. fol. 82r.
(Unpublished.
From Dr.
Singer's collection).
3
M1S.
Royal
12. E. xx. fol.
162v.
(Unpublished.
From Dr.
Singer's collection).
4
MS. Colton Faustina A. x. fol.
136 (Quoted, Cockayne,
Leechdoms, vol. 3,
1866, p. 294).
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256
Collectanea
Selyon
in the
city
of
Epheson repose
the seven
sleepers [names follow].
Almighty
God who didst
deign
to liberate them from the hands of a
cruel
tyrant
and from the
worship
of
idols, deign
to liberate
thy
man-
servant or
thy
maid-servant N. from fevers cold and
hot, daily,
two-
daily, tertian, quartan,
diurnal or nocturnal
", etc.5
(e)
Another
example,
"
t dormiens lenius
dormiat,"
occurs in a
manuscript
dated
1361
in the
University Library
at Breslau. Here the
seven names are to be written out and
placed
under the
patient's head.6
(f)
And
finally
a
parallel
Welsh charm
"
to
produce sleep
" occurs in
the mediaeval
Physicians
of
Myddvai.
"
Take a
goat's horn,
and carve
the names of the
7 sleepers thereon, making
a knife haft of it. The
writing
should
begin
at the blade. . . . When the names are
inscribed,
lay
the knife under the sick man's head unknown to him and he will
sleep." 7
The mediaeval
mind,
like that of the
savage
before
it,
worked on a
logic
of its own. The leech
sought guidance
to indicate effective instruments
for
healing.
Thus the relics of a saint who had suffered from
gout
would
be those to which a sufferer from
gout
would be directed in order to
obtain his
release,
a sufferer from toothache would
repair
to the shrine of
a saint who had suffered
martyrdom through
the extraction of her teeth.
An
appeal
to the Seven
Sleepers
is thus
appropriate
for those
suffering
from insomnia or
any
disease in which
sleep
would be
especially
benefi-
cial. It was to
ingenious reasoning
such as this and to resultant faith
that our ancestors turned for medical aid.
The
legend
of the Seven
Sleepers
is of eastern
origin.
The earliest
known version is that of
Jacobus Sarugiensis,
a
Mesopotamian bishop
who died in
521.
It was translated into Latin
by Gregory
of Tours before
the end of the
century.
A brief
description
of the
Sleepers occurs
in the
Koran,
in the
chapter
entitled " the cave ". But the
myth
was also
known to the Teutons in
early times,
and an account is
given
at the end
of the
eighth century by
Paulus Diaconus. The
story
of the Seven
Sleepers
is also
given by
.Elfric.
He
says they slept
for
371 years
: their
holy day
is
July 29.8
It is therefore
possible
to ascribe to the
Anglo-Saxon
and later versions
an
oriental,
classical or Teutonic source.
W. BONSER
5
Holthausen (F.): Rezepte, Segen
und
Zauberspriiche
aus zwei Stockholmer
Handschriften. In
Anglia,
Bd.
Ig
(1896), p. 79.
6 MS. III.
Q. I.
fol. 95v. (Quoted, J. Klapper,
Das Gebet im
Zauberglauben
des Mittelalters. In
Mitteilungen
der schlesischen Gesellschaft
fiir
Volkskffnde,
18
(1907), p. 25.)
7
Physicians
of
Myddvai, part
2
(I86I),
? 807.
8s
Elfric
:
Homilies, vol,
2
(1844), pp. 481-99.
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