ANST - History of Wishing Wells
John Ruble
jruble at urocor.com
Fri Apr 24 10:19:59 PDT 1998
Wolf said, in response to Alastair's question:
> > I need some documentation on period wells such as for water or
> > wishing. Does anyone know of any sources online that might be of
> > some assistance? I have done some searching but this seems to be an
> > elusive topic at best.
>
> "wishing wells" are simply the remanant (and changed) idea of the
> sacred springs and wells of pagan europe ... look in good sources on
> celtic culture under "well's", "springs", "water" ... roman and
> christian sources (who often built temples and later churches and
> cathedrals ... not to mention "bath house's" (as in Bath in England)
> on these sacred sites) ... any good anthropology source (try Joseph
> Campbell as a start) ... archaeology (many digs come to mine ... the
> northen Bog's for example ... check out the back issues of Archeology
> magazine - remmeber seeing a couple articles over last few years)
>
This is a good start. I would add "saints" to your list. I remember reading
about more than one saint associated with healing wells. One in particular
was a man (the town drunk) who fell down a well and drowned. Later, people
who drank from it had miraculous cures, so the man was canonized. The title
of the book I cannot recall, but I think it was a translation of Gregory of
Tours works.
And don't forget Mimir's well, from who's waters Odin drank to gain wisdom.
The price? One eye...
Ulf
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