43 8 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.
is the famous Merseburg charm for a lamed horse. But in the tenth-century German charm it is Balder's horse that falls, and it is Odin who effects the cure. The incantation is said on a black woollen thread with nine knots upon it, bound over the sprained limb. In a true Gaelic charm we never find such special introductions as that with which this cure begins.^^ In some very ancient charms, such as those found in the Irish manuscripts at St. Gall monastery, Switzerland, we find the names occurring of the great Irish pagan deities Goibniu, the smith or Vulcan of Celtic myth- ology, and Diancecht, the physician or healer, who was fabled to dip dead men in his Cauldron of Renovation and restore them to life and health again. " Very sharp is Goibniu's science ; let Goibniu's goad go out before Goibniu's goad," says the incantation to extract a thorn ; and in a charm against various ailments the afflicted patient says, — " May that be made whole whereon the salve of Diancecht goes. I put my trust in the salve which Diancecht left with his people."
In a charm against wounds and poisons recorded by Lady Wilde, we find " The blood of one dog, the blood of many dogs, the blood of the hound of Fliethas — these I invoke. ... I invoke the three daughters of Fliethas against the serpent," etc.-^ But this kind of direct allusion or appeal to pagan deities seems to be rare. They have been ousted, and their place and duties are amply filled by certain all-powerful saints, — St. Michael, St. Columba, and St. Brigit. It is singular how frequently the names of these last two saints, the male and female agencies, occur in Gaelic charms, Irish and Scottish. They are the great necromancers of the Gael, gifted with all powers of poetry, of prophecy, and of healing. In St. Bride's or Brigit's case the matter seems fairly well explained by remembering
^Cf. K. Meyer in Quarterly Kevietv, July, 1903, p. 27 ; George Henderson, Norse Influences on Celtic Scotland, p. 72.
'^'^ Ancient Legends etc. of Ireland, 1887, vol. ii., p. 85.
