HERB - Documentation and herbs

[Kathleen H. Keeler]

Clare wrote
>Good morning
quoting from an Anglo-Saxon source,
>necessary to give instructions on making them: one leechdom states simply
>"give a wort drink" (sele wyrtdrenc). Others just use an adjective: smede
>(smooth), leohte (light), scearp (sharp), strangne (strong) to indicate the
>kind of wort drink to be given, or specify a 'suitable' wort drink.

> I'm fascinated with what herbs were used when and how...
Sure, but my time and place is different. What did your Anglo-Saxon healers
use as a philosophy?  How do you know "smooth" and "sharp"?
As a Norman, I'd use the humours, the zodiac, etc.in choosing an herb. So
they'd be wet or dry, not smooth or sharp.  To do this I have to postulate
my persona is literate--the common people's healing, unlettered verbal
traditions, are likely pretty different.

. Were there popular ones, like the St.
>John's Wort craze that's going on now.
I certainly think so. The amount of magic associated with vervain suggests
that was an important herb.  (I'm doubtful that its much of a medicinal
plant).
I don't have enough material that is time and place specific to begin to
really answer your question, although the number of lines in a medicinal
herbal seems suggestive of relative importance in some cases.
When there's a poor match to modern sources is interesting too:  plants
that receive a lot of space or are regulars in Period herbals but are
absent from modern ones--a shift in popularity (hopefully, based on
efficacy)

> What would have my persona used as opposed to what
>would a Norsewoman used?  The Anglo Saxons, whom I'm fascnated with
>currently, used all manner of things to cure people, would a Tudor woman
>living in London have used the same?
One thing noticeable in the usual herbals (Gerard, Culpeper) is little
statement of fresh vs dry.  The Chinese pharmacy is all dry, suitable for
delivering to city dwellers and readily stored.  Some at least of the
Period herbals seem to assume you can pick it fresh--implying access to
live plants (not the case in modern cities) and plants that are green most
of the year (possible in most of Europe).  The Tudor lady may have depended
a lot more on dried herbs than her Anglo-Saxon ancestor--how green were
Medieval cities by that point?  Another shift I think is that from early to
late Period there was specialization--apothecaries, barber/surgeons,
physicians, instead of your friendly local monk or herbwoman.

But heavens, the decent records are all late. I think we could find Tudor
fads documentable, but the early to middle Period stuff is so very
fragmentary.

        A problem i have with gleaning herbal stuff from nonherbal sources
is that they are frequently uninterested in the plant--Tony Hunt, Plant
names of Medieval England is a good example: his interest is in the words
found in texts, not what plant they refer to.  Likewise, I went hunting for
documentation of cranberries in Period sources, and got very frustrated
because modern writers fairly casually call things cranberries, but the
word "cranberry" is post period. They found traces of "cranberry" in a
preperiod broken jar used for brewing in Denmark.  Well, what plant was it:
there are a lot of red-berried Vaccinium species to choose from!

Agnes


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