The Nine Herbs Charm (Nigon Wyrta Galdor) is an Old English healing spell that combines herbal medicine, pre-Christian as well as Christian mythology, and is highly relevant to scholars interested in European cultural history.

Found within the Anglo-Saxon medical text known as the Lacnunga (“remedies”), this charm dates to the 9th or 10th century CE and is preserved in the Harley MS 585 manuscript housed in the British Library. It provides valuable insights into the healing practices, religious beliefs, and cultural traditions of early medieval Europe, a literary example of how pagan and Christian influence became intertwined in medieval Europe.

The charm originates from a pre-Christian Germanic context, reflecting pre-Christian cosmological aspects relating to sorcery and magic. It invokes the German Woden (Odin in Norse mythology), who has a strong association with magic as shown by scholars such as Stefan Brink and Neil Price. There he is described as using nine “glory-twigs, again demonstrating a possible belief in scared numbers.

This act symbolizes the charm’s protective and curative powers against poison and disease.

As Anglo-Saxon England transitioned to Christianity, many pagan practices were adapted to align with the new religious framework. The Nine Herbs Charm, while retaining its pagan roots, incorporates Christian elements to fit theological frameworks. This syncretism reflects how cultural traditions were preserved even as they were reinterpreted within a Christian worldview.

The charm is both poetic and practical, blending invocation, herbal knowledge, and ritual practice. It calls upon Woden and personifies nine herbs as powerful entities capable of combating poisons and infections. These herbs—mugwort, plantain, watercress, betony, chamomile, nettle, crabapple, chervil, and fennel—were believed to possess unique medicinal properties.

Medicinal Properties of the Herbs

The Nine Herbs Charm reflects an advanced understanding of herbal medicine for its time. Each herb was carefully chosen for its medicinal properties:

• Mugwort:
• Plantain:
• Chamomile:
• Nettle:
• Fennel:

The combination of these herbs suggests a level of sophistication of early medieval herbal medicine.

The charm highlights the integration of spiritual and physical healing in Anglo-Saxon culture. By invoking divine assistance alongside herbal remedies, it bridges the gap between faith and medicine. Even after Christianity became dominant state religion, such practices persisted, however, often alongside Christian Saints in order to align with Christian beliefs. The inclusion of references to Christ alongside Woden in the charm exemplifies this blending of traditions, offering a unique perspective on how pagan and Christian elements coexisted.

The Nine Herbs Charm sheds light on the worldview of early Germanic cultures, where magic was deeply integrated into daily life and healing practices. It reflects a time when natural elements were believed to hold supernatural power and when rituals and incantations were considered essential components of medicine. It is possible that such practices were later seen as witchcraft, sharing elements that would eventually be reframed in the context of religious and societal changes.

Contemporary Research Regarding the 9 Herbs Charm

A research paper entitled The Representation of Magic in the Germanic Literature of the Middle Ages by Nahia Cantalapiedra Arana (2020) explores how magic and sorcery has been recorded in medieval Germanic literature. It compares representations of magic in texts from England, Germany, and Scandinavia, analyzing their content, structure, characters, and cultural significance.

The study examines the integration of magic into daily life and its role in healing, protection, and spiritual practices.

Comparing literary sources it demonstrated that beliefs in sorcery and magic were deeply embedded in medieval Germanic culture, often serving practical and spiritual purposes. A key theme is religious syncretism, where Christianization influenced and reinterpreted pagan elements in these texts.

The Author of this research paper discusses The Nine Herbs Charm which integrates Christian elements with herbal remedies and invocations to Woden, as well as the Merseburg Charms which demonstrates – as one of very few written sources – ties to pre-Christian mythology, and finally the Stone of Eggja which emphasizes Nordic traditions of runic inscriptions and their connection to magical practices.

The study finds shared themes across Germanic literatures, such as the use of magic for healing, protection, and controlling natural forces. Sacred numbers like nine appear frequently, and the texts reveal a gradual blending of pagan traditions into Christian interpretive frameworks.

See Additional Sources:

Peter Stride, Anglo–Saxon Medicine and the Nine Herbs Charm in the twenty–first century, INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH : Volume-7 | Issue-10 | October-2017

Bailey, M. D. (2001). From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages. Speculum, 76(4), 960–990. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903617

Grattan, J. H. C. and C. Singer. 1952. Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine Illustrated Specially from the Semi-Pagan Text ‘Lacnunga’, Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, new series 3 (London: Oxford University Press). Edition and translation.

Medieval Manuscripts Database: https://dlmm.library.jhu.edu as well as https://www.digipal.eu/digipal/manuscripts/996/