Bringing Protection Home: Spatially Mapping the Performance of Medieval Charms Against Thieves

Abstract

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.