Incantatio
type: channel
description: An International Journal on Charms, Charmers and Charming
language: en
publication name: Incantatio
items: Two Parallel Fields: An Interview with Daiva Vaitkevičienė
items: ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming Conference “Syncretic Elements in the Process of Charming”, Bucharest, Romania, September 24th–26th, 2025
items: The Longue Durée and Close Reading
items: Languaging and Irruptions in a Medieval Latin Charm: A Case Study on Poetics, ‘Weirdness’, and Sense in Non-Sense
items: An Irish Charm among the Nineteenth-Century Folklore Collectings of J. J. Lyons
items: The Sophia Morrison Collection of Manx Folk Charms
items: Against Wind and Storm: A Medieval German Charm
items: Production and Reproduction of Words of Power in The Modern Digital Era: The Case of The Healing Prayer To Saint Jude Thaddeus
items: Concord and Co-operation Despite Conflicts and Catastrophes
items: “The Magical Turn? Room for Nordic Doctoral Students.” Symposium, Uppsala, April 11–12, 2024
items: ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers, and Charming 16th annual Conference “Conflicts and Catastrophes.” Helsinki, June 12th-15th, 2024
items: Conference Report on “The Materiality and Performance of Charms.” Singapore, 29th August – 1st September, 2023
items: Book reviews
items: A Degree Of Intertextuality: An Interview With Emanuela Timotin
items: Stability and Change in the Udmurt Kuris’kon Prayers
items: Chugg’s Charms: Authenticity, Typicality, and Sources
items: Verbal Magic In Contemporary Women’s Narratives About Nightmare Experiences In Estonia
items: Verbal Charm Vs. Prayer: An Emic Approach To The Lithuanian Terminology
items: The Tale Of God As A Prayer, A Charm, A Fairy Tale
items: Introduction
items: Book Review
items: Healers: Who are They?
items: Bringing Protection Home: Spatially Mapping the Performance of Medieval Charms Against Thieves
items: Intentionality and Addressness of Performative Verbs in Russian Charm Texts
items: Features of the Transmission and Reading of Incantations Among the Eastern Slavs
items: Protection Of Domestic Animals Among Bashkirs
items: Innovations in the Eastern Udmurts Priesthood
items: Cosmogonic Conceptions of the Udmurt People in Naming Stars and Their Images in Folklore
items: Time And Space in Dream Telling: The Udmurt Example
items: Udmurt Healing Rituals. Semantic Models Of The Actional Code

Two Parallel Fields: An Interview with Daiva Vaitkevičienė
type: item
description: interview
subject: Interview
  topic: section
creator: Jonathan Roper
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 152
ending page: 160

ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming Conference “Syncretic Elements in the Process of Charming”, Bucharest, Romania, September 24th–26th, 2025
type: item
description: -
subject: Conference Report
  topic: section
subject: conference
  topic: keywords
creator: Monica Bercovici-Ratoiu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 148
ending page: 151

The Longue Durée and Close Reading
type: item
description: -
subject: Book Review
  topic: section
subject: bookreview
  topic: keywords
creator: Mare Kõiva
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 143
ending page: 147

Languaging and Irruptions in a Medieval Latin Charm: A Case Study on Poetics, ‘Weirdness’, and Sense in Non-Sense
type: item
description: This paper introduces the concept of languaging and explores its relevance to charm research through the case of a little-studied eleventh-century Latin text for healing fever. The concept of languaging was developed in linguistics for the analysis of people’s use of multiple languages in interaction. Here, the concept is adapted to the study of folklore registers and genres. Irruption is introduced as a complementary concept to describe a distinct phenomenon in languaging. The text of the case study is approached as representing a metadiscursive genre that verbally communicates how to perform a ritual. The verbal components of this performance include two Old Germanic words as well as words from Greek and Hebrew, and an irruption of an etymologically opaque stretch of text or voces mysticae. A close look at the voces mysticae reveals contrasts in the semantics or associations of its constituents, which suggests syntax and that this part of the text was somehow interpreted or interpretable to users.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: charm
  topic: keywords
subject: ritual
  topic: keywords
subject: register
  topic: keywords
subject: medieval
  topic: keywords
subject: languaging
  topic: keywords
subject: irruption
  topic: keywords
creator: Frog
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 85
ending page: 142

An Irish Charm among the Nineteenth-Century Folklore Collectings of J. J. Lyons
type: item
description: Newspapers, along with other periodical forms of media, played an important role in the distribution of folklore collected in the nineteenth century. One such publication within the Irish and Irish American context that contributed to this periodical-based interest in disseminating folklore was the Brooklyn newspaper An Gaodhal, among the earliest newspapers produced predominantly in the Irish language. Included in its contributors was the Philadelphia-based Irish speaker J. J. Lyons, who published over a hundred songs, prayers, and other folk collectings that he acquired through talking to Irish informants in the United States. These efforts include a charm for the Evil Eye contributed to an 1890 issue of An Gaodhal. This and other instances of published folklore collecting are significant in that the format of nineteenth-century newspapers, with their emphasis on identifying informants to demonstrate authenticity and accuracy of the contribution, contributed to a growing ethnographic and professionalized approach to folklore that would subsequently dominate the field.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Newspapers
  topic: keywords
subject: Irish folklore
  topic: keywords
subject: Irish language
  topic: keywords
subject: Evil Eye charm
  topic: keywords
creator: Nicholas M. Wolf
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 72
ending page: 84

The Sophia Morrison Collection of Manx Folk Charms
type: item
description: Sophia Morrison (1859–1917) was the leading light of the Manx Language Revival in the Isle of Man in the 1900s and Secretary of the Manx Language Society (founded 1899). Folklorist, folk song collector, and pioneer of recording with the phonograph, she also had a deep interest in folk medicine and amongst her surviving personal papers as part of that research are some seventy charms recorded by her both in Manx (24) and English (46). This corpus adds to an earlier collection of thirteen charms gathered by Dr John Clague (1842–1908) and published in Incantatio 2 (2002). This by no means exhausts the Manx material and we still await publication of a charm catalogue in full for the Isle of Man.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Charm Collecting
  topic: keywords
subject: Early Twentieth Century
  topic: keywords
subject: English
  topic: keywords
subject: Isle of Man
  topic: keywords
subject: Manx Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Sophia Morrison (1859–1917)
  topic: keywords
creator: Stephen Miller
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 53
ending page: 71

Against Wind and Storm: A Medieval German Charm
type: item
description: This article presents a fifteenth-century German weather charm preserved in Munich, BSB Clm 26693. Entitled Contra auram et tempestatem, the text is a vernacular adjuration intended to avert wind and storm. Drawing on John 18:3–6, the charm transforms Christ’s verbal power (“I am he”) into an operative formula for calming the elements. By comparing related Latin and German materials, the study situates Contra auram et tempestatem at the intersection of ecclesiastical benediction and vernacular ritual speech, showing how medieval practitioners negotiated orthodoxy, efficacy, and linguistic adaptation within the broader continuum of Christian apotropaic tradition.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Medieval German charms
  topic: keywords
subject: Contra auram et tempestatem
  topic: keywords
subject: ste weter ste
  topic: keywords
subject: John 18: 3–6, Clm 26693
  topic: keywords
creator: Eleonora Cianci
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 38
ending page: 52

Production and Reproduction of Words of Power in The Modern Digital Era: The Case of The Healing Prayer To Saint Jude Thaddeus
type: item
description: Jude Thaddeus is associated with a sacred yet enigmatic figure, a saint and Apostle of Jesus Christ, who is venerated as “the patron saint of impossible or hopeless causes.” Due to the shared name with Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrayed Christ, Jude Thaddeus has often been overlooked or marginalized in the Christian tradition. The restitution of his veneration is closely linked, on the one hand, to a religious legend that distinguishes him from Judas Iscariot, and on the other, to a widely circulated prayer characterized by a structured form and embedded within a specific ritual context. From the perspective of charm studies, it constitutes a particularly interesting case, offering scholars not only the opportunity to examine the interconnection between “words of power” and belief narratives, but also to observe how well-known recurrent patterns related to taxonomies and distinctions such as charm vs. prayer, official vs. unofficial, accepted vs. unaccepted are produced and reproduced in the modern digital era. The paper traces the dissemination and veneration of the prayer to Saint Jude Thaddeus, drawing on oral and digital testimonies from its performers in contemporary Greece. At the same time, it lays the groundwork for a potential cross-cultural comparative study, as variants of the same text and similar performative contexts are attested today in many Christian countries around the world.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Saint Jude Thaddeus
  topic: keywords
subject: prayer
  topic: keywords
subject: apotropaic magic
  topic: keywords
subject: belief narratives
  topic: keywords
subject: words of power
  topic: keywords
subject: charm
  topic: keywords
subject: digital transmission
  topic: keywords
subject: modern religiosity
  topic: keywords
subject: popular/lived religion
  topic: keywords
subject: New Age
  topic: keywords
creator: Haralampos Passalis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 10
ending page: 37

Concord and Co-operation Despite Conflicts and Catastrophes
type: item
description: -
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Tuukka Karlsson
creator: Siria Kohonen
creator: Aleksi Moine
creator: Ilona Tuomi
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 7
ending page: 9

“The Magical Turn? Room for Nordic Doctoral Students.” Symposium, Uppsala, April 11–12, 2024
type: item
description: Conference report
subject: Conference Report
  topic: section
creator: Alessandra Mastrangelo
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-27
publication date: 2025-06-27
starting page: 147
ending page: 150

ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers, and Charming 16th annual Conference “Conflicts and Catastrophes.” Helsinki, June 12th-15th, 2024
type: item
description: conference report
subject: Conference Report
  topic: section
creator: Eleonora Cianci
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-27
publication date: 2025-06-27
starting page: 136
ending page: 146

Conference Report on “The Materiality and Performance of Charms.” Singapore, 29th August – 1st September, 2023
type: item
description: Conference Report
subject: Conference Report
  topic: section
creator: Jonathan Roper
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-26
publication date: 2025-06-26
starting page: 133
ending page: 135

Book reviews
type: item
description: Review of The Language of Magic, edited by Eleonora Cianci and Nicholas Wolf. E. Cianci – N. Wolf (cur.), The Language of Magic – Milano, LED, 2022 ISBN 978-88-7916-996-7 – https://www.ledonline.it/Il-Segno-le-Lettere/996-language-of-magic.html By: Lea T. Olsan A deep insight into Latvian charms. A review of Aigars Lielbārdis Latviešu buramvārdi. Teksti, tradīcijas, konteksti [Latvian charms. Texts, traditions, contexts]. Rīga: LU Literatūras, folkloras un mākslas institūts, 2024. 264 pages By: Toms Ķencis
subject: Book Review
  topic: section
creator: Lea T. Olsan
creator: Toms Ķencis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 125
ending page: 132

A Degree Of Intertextuality: An Interview With Emanuela Timotin
type: item
description: In the third in our series of interviews with charms scholars about their scholarly lives, we present an interview with Emanuela Timotin, the new Chair of the ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming. The interview was conducted remotely in February 2024, then subsequently by email.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: interview
  topic: keywords
creator: Jonathan Roper
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 115
ending page: 124

Stability and Change in the Udmurt Kuris’kon Prayers
type: item
description: In Udmurt prayers, the texts have been slow to change in the last century. Although data are not complete, and we have only fractions of data about their evolution after the Revolution and during Soviet times, we know enough to understand that changes were introduced scarcely. In the last decades, especially in the two last decades, many changes have been introduced and the rhythm is increasing. This is the question this paper endeavours to explore, on the basis of a corpus gathered in Bashkortostan, region where the Udmurt ethnic religious practice is still very much alive and even thriving in the second decade of the 21st century.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Udmurt prayers
  topic: keywords
subject: stability
  topic: keywords
subject: change
  topic: keywords
subject: war
  topic: keywords
subject: Udmurtness
  topic: keywords
creator: Eva Toulouze
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 91
ending page: 114

Chugg’s Charms: Authenticity, Typicality, and Sources
type: item
description: This contribution describes the collection and contents of a set of charms from early twentieth century Devon, and takes that as a stepping stone toward questions about the reliability of the orally-collected data many charms scholars rely on.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Devon
  topic: keywords
subject: England
  topic: keywords
subject: Henry Williamson
  topic: keywords
subject: source criticism
  topic: keywords
subject: verbal charms
  topic: keywords
creator: Jonathan Roper
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 81
ending page: 90

Verbal Magic In Contemporary Women’s Narratives About Nightmare Experiences In Estonia
type: item
description: The focus of this article is on the contemporary use of verbal magic in situations interpreted in personal experience narratives as nightmare (old hag) attacks whereby the emphasis is on women’s perspective. First, the author gives a general overview of the outputs of protective verbal magic in contemporary Estonian material to situate more specific verbal magic used for warding off the supernatural attacker during the nightmare experiences. The author concludes that the topic of nightmare attacks as well as verbal magic against them is still relevant in modern folklore. Although elaborated long charms are rare, contemporary verbal magic against nightmare in general is even more heterogenous as in older tradition. Expectably, new international trends of verbal magic have influenced contemporary tradition but some key elements from older tradition are still present, combined with protective objects and rituals from older folklore as well as diverse new sources.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: contemporary beliefs and practices
  topic: keywords
subject: maranightmare
  topic: keywords
subject: personal experience narratives
  topic: keywords
subject: verbal magic
  topic: keywords
creator: Reet Hiiemäe
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 63
ending page: 80

Verbal Charm Vs. Prayer: An Emic Approach To The Lithuanian Terminology
type: item
description: In 20th-century folkloristics, it was commonly held that prayer was a religious phenomenon, while verbal charms were associated with magic. However, this dichotomy formed by scholars is often not accurate or useful in practical terms when attempting to differentiate between these genres. In Lithuania, verbal charms and prayers form a common text corpus, and the emic terms užkalbėjimas “verbal charm” and malda “prayer” do not align with the etic system of folklore classification, which categorizes them as separate genres. In an emic perspective the Lithuanian word malda encompasses a broad category of texts, which includes prayers, verbal charms, and any other texts intended to establish communication with non-human entities such as gods, plants, animals, etc. This category also includes Christian prayers. The article reveals that in Lithuania the relationship between a prayer and a verbal charm is not binary (religion vs. magic), but complementary: malda is the text of the charm, while užkalbėjimas is a charming ritual that involves both the text and the process of its recitation, complemented by ritual actions and performed by a qualified person (a charmer).
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian folkloristics
  topic: keywords
subject: emic terminology
  topic: keywords
subject: folklore genre
  topic: keywords
subject: verbal charm
  topic: keywords
subject: prayer
  topic: keywords
subject: Lithuanian gods
  topic: keywords
creator: Daiva Vaitkevičienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 32
ending page: 62

The Tale Of God As A Prayer, A Charm, A Fairy Tale
type: item
description: The goal of this article is to epistemologically discuss the couple “folk prayer” and “charm” in the specific case of the narrative incantations whose main protagonist is a holy figure. In this regard, I have chosen a certain structure known among Romanians as “The Tale of God”, “The Mother of God prayer” or “The Mother of God charm”, which agglutinates episodes from Virgin Mary cycle of apocrypha legends together with images that depict scenes of divination and bibliomancy performed in a consecrated but uncommon space (e.g., a church with nine altars). The text also presents structural and functional similarities with the “Dream of the Mother of God”, especially as respects the Passions disclosure and the formalized ending demands for ritual delivering the ‘story’ under certain conditions of time, space and performance. In the beginning, the analysis focuses on those aspects that predispose this prayer to embed references to charming incantations and practices, as well. Then, based on ethnographic references, the discussion goes towards the process of putting the ‘prayer’ in practice within a story telling event which, at its turn, is assigned with devotional purposes and magic finalities. In the end, emic terms of ‘faith’ and ‘emotion’ are taken into consideration as pertinent parameters to (self)evaluating of faith, sacred communication and expectations that go beyond both theological and ethnological etic distinctions.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: folk prayer
  topic: keywords
subject: narrative charm
  topic: keywords
subject: fairytale
  topic: keywords
subject: storytelling
  topic: keywords
subject: Mother of God
  topic: keywords
subject: Romanian folklore
  topic: keywords
creator: Laura Jiga Iliescu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 11
ending page: 31

Introduction
type: item
description: This journal issue comprises several parts and presents various studies on the theme of activities in charming and related fields. It includes five research articles, an interview and reports on books and conferences. It is largely based on and thematically framed by the conference "The Canonical and Non-Canonical in Charming Texts and Practices”, held at the National Library of Latvia in Riga on 6–9 September 2022. However, it also contains articles not presented at the conference as well as an interview with a researcher studying charming; such interviews are becoming a tradition for Incantatio.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Aigars Lielbārdis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Incantatio
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
starting page: 7
ending page: 10

Book Review
type: item
description: -
subject: Book Review
  topic: section
creator: Liisa Vesik
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 119
ending page: 120

Healers: Who are They?
type: item
description: The article discusses changes in healers’ healing tradition, explanatory models, use of written and published traditions. During the past century, healers used and integrated knowledge from different schools. Another significant trend rising to the fore highlights the importance of local folk medicine, which emphasises traditional values and creates novel cultural interpretations. To characterise the changes, the article introduces four healers, ranging from a half-mythic witch-herder to the healers-innovators of medical methods and local culture.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: explanatory models
  topic: keywords
subject: published books of magic
  topic: keywords
subject: charm
  topic: keywords
subject: folk medicine
  topic: keywords
subject: healer
  topic: keywords
creator: Mare Kõiva
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 99
ending page: 118

Bringing Protection Home: Spatially Mapping the Performance of Medieval Charms Against Thieves
type: item
description: This article examines charms against thieves in medieval English manuscripts that make explicit mention of the domestic residence and its environs. In doing so, it considers a particular medieval anxiety around transgression of the property’s boundary lines. By identifying instructions for the practitioner contained within the texts and their associated rubrics, the article imagines how the performance of these charms may have looked in practice, and how, in some cases, there is a parallel with the parish ritual of ‘beating the bounds’. It argues that the performance of these charms creates a relationship between the practitioner, the words of the invocation, and the space in which the charms are recited, and that this performance is a means of asserting ownership and exerting control over the domestic residence, as well as averting the danger posed by potential thieves.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: charms against thieves
  topic: keywords
subject: performance
  topic: keywords
subject: theft
  topic: keywords
subject: domestic property
  topic: keywords
subject: medieval
  topic: keywords
creator: Heather A. Taylor
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 84
ending page: 98

Intentionality and Addressness of Performative Verbs in Russian Charm Texts
type: item
description: The performativity of charm texts as sacred ritual texts is well studied in folk studies, ethnography and linguistics. The core of performative texts is performative verbs. However, there is no clear boundary between performative verbs and other verbs in performative use. There are performative verbs (‘I beg,’ ‘I conjure,’ ‘I swear,’ ‘I curse’) and non-performative verbs (‘I tie,’ ‘I cut,’ ‘I drive out,’ I clear’) in сharms. In this article, I distinguish between them using two concepts of Speech Act theory: Intentionality and Addressness. A result of my work is the classification of Russian ‘charm verbs’. The material is Russian charms in compilations from 1860s till 2000s.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Performative verb
  topic: keywords
subject: charm
  topic: keywords
subject: spell
  topic: keywords
subject: Speech Act theory
  topic: keywords
subject: intention
  topic: keywords
subject: illocutionary act
  topic: keywords
subject: illocutionary goal
  topic: keywords
subject: illocutionary force
  topic: keywords
subject: ritual communication
  topic: keywords
creator: Ekaterina Kulikovskaya
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 71
ending page: 83

Features of the Transmission and Reading of Incantations Among the Eastern Slavs
type: item
description: This article examines the characteristicss of charms transmission among East Slavic healers. The tradition of passing on charms from the older generation to the younger, both inside and outside the family, and the trend of transferring magical knowledge for free, as well as the practice of limiting the transfer of especially important fragments of incantations (the so-called ‘locks’ or ‘fixings’) is highlighted in this piece. In the second part of the article, the author explores the rules of the healer’s treatment with a charm as a magic tool: the attitude to a verbal charm as a material object, the practice of restoring the power of charms, the types of healer, as well as the regulations governing the choice of incantation object.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: verbal charms
  topic: keywords
subject: healer
  topic: keywords
subject: types of healer
  topic: keywords
subject: connections between healer and patient
  topic: keywords
creator: Tatiana Agapkina
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 59
ending page: 70

Protection Of Domestic Animals Among Bashkirs
type: item
description: The aim of the research is to study and analyse the magical means of protection of domestic animals among the Bashkirs on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the middle of the twentieth and early twenty first centuries. In this article the author considers various types of magical means of protection of domestic animals amongst the Bashkirs living in the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Bashkirs used amulets, metal objects, natural stones, etc. to protect pets from evil spirits and diseases. It has been revealed that magical items and amulets, which appeared in the deep past, are firmly rooted in the ritual practices of the Bashkirs and have not lost their significance even till the present day. As the author’s field materials were collected from different territorial groups of Bashkirs have shown, at present they continue to preserve traditional ways of magical protection of livestock. In recent decades, the Bashkirs have started to use various means and amulets found on the Internet.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Bashkirs
  topic: keywords
subject: domestic animal
  topic: keywords
subject: magic
  topic: keywords
subject: amulets
  topic: keywords
subject: verbal charm
  topic: keywords
creator: Zifa F. Khasanova
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 49
ending page: 58

Innovations in the Eastern Udmurts Priesthood
type: item
description: This report, based on the author’s field materials, is devoted to the consideration of the current state of the priesthood of the Trans-Kama (Eastern) Udmurts. It is shown that since the 1990s, with the revival of religious traditions, significant changes have taken place in the organization of the priests’ activities, dictated by the modern realities of life. The main criterion for their choice was the presence of positive moral qualities, in some cases their belonging to the “priestly family”.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: traditional religion
  topic: keywords
subject: priests
  topic: keywords
subject: contemporary situation
  topic: keywords
subject: Eastern Udmurts
  topic: keywords
creator: Ranus Sadikov
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 39
ending page: 48

Cosmogonic Conceptions of the Udmurt People in Naming Stars and Their Images in Folklore
type: item
description: The cosmogonic concepts of the Udmurt people can be detected through the names of stars, the names of which are usually based on mythological cognition. Additional and very significant information about space objects is contained in folklore texts. The images of stars are included in a stable triad of heavenly bodies along with the sun and moon. Their constant feature is ‘bright’ light, opposed to images of negative energy, forces of darkness – diseases or sorcerers. Therefore, images of stars are frequently used in charms, where they are presented as an insurmountable barrier to those who do evil. The stars, along with the sun and moon, became metaphors and comparisons in the song culture, prayers and charms of the Udmurt people. They are used as analogies in the characterization of family and kinship ties, testifying the relationships within the clan. The stars and constellations, when seen as symbols of unattainability and indivisibility, are a kind of guarantor of stability of the world.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: stars
  topic: keywords
subject: stars in folklore
  topic: keywords
subject: cosmogonic concepts
  topic: keywords
subject: naming of stars
  topic: keywords
subject: charms
  topic: keywords
subject: triad of heavenly bodies
  topic: keywords
subject: the Udmurt people
  topic: keywords
creator: Tatiana Vladykina
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 21
ending page: 30

Time And Space in Dream Telling: The Udmurt Example
type: item
description: Dreams and the telling and retelling of dreams are popular customs in people’s daily lives. This study focuses on the process of dream telling, which implies time and space, and how the situation of telling a dream becomes ritualistic. The content of a dream is very important (it can be good or evil) and therefore it is believed and perceived that dreams are signs that both dreamers and listeners will follow. The article will consider these ideas according to the traditional worldview of the Udmurts.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: dreams
  topic: keywords
subject: telling of dreams
  topic: keywords
subject: meaning of dreams
  topic: keywords
subject: ime and space in dream telling
  topic: keywords
subject: Udmurts
  topic: keywords
creator: Tatiana Minniyakhmetova
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 31
ending page: 38

Udmurt Healing Rituals. Semantic Models Of The Actional Code
type: item
description: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the actional code of the Udmurt healing rite, considered as a cultural text. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the ritual actions of the healing rite are classified into groups according to the particular method of achieving the goal involved, something which takes into account the semantics of its actional component. The proposed classification is based on the system developed by E. E. Levkiyevskaya in her study of Slavic protective amulets. As a result of the analysis, the author has identified the main semantic models manifested in the elementary semantic units and motifs. The semantic models under consideration are divided into three groups: the first group combines ritual actions aiming at establishing contact, the second one contains actions intended to have impact on the source of the disease; and the third encompasses actions aimed at giving a patient an invulnerability to the disease. The analysis of folklore and ethnographic material reveals that motifs of the semantic models belonging to the second group were the most widespread ones, something which is accounted for by the fact that the concept of the fight between two opposing forces underlies most Udmurt healing rituals that involve performing an incantation against the disease.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Udmurt folk medicine
  topic: keywords
subject: healing rite
  topic: keywords
subject: actional code
  topic: keywords
subject: semantic model
  topic: keywords
subject: semantic motif
  topic: keywords
subject: incantation
  topic: keywords
creator: Tatiana Panina
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Incantatio
date: 2024-07-12
publication date: 2024-07-12
starting page: 10
ending page: 20