The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Anglo-Saxon and Later Recipes

Author(s): W. Bonser
Source: Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jun., 1945), pp. 254-256
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257008 .
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254 Collectanea
Some of the social customs of Elizabethan and Jacobean times survived
in the country until recent years. It was strict etiquette (and a genuine
compliment) that when any man was offered drink at a house he should
ask his hostess " to take the top off ", which meant that she should sip a
little out of the mug or tankard. The mistress of the house was expected
to walk round the table at a country meal and to drink from each diner's
glass. The writer has seen the custom in use only a few years ago.
Life was rough. Wages were scandalously low and labourers stole
sheep, lambs and field crops for food. Bands of men would go from farm
to farm quietly stealing a few pecks of wheat from each and finally spend
the remainder of the night grinding at one of the farm grist-mills. It was
not etiquette to steal from the farmer whose mill was used. Game-
keepers went about in constant danger from assaults from poachers and
farmers carried pistols when they made the usual farm rounds at night.
They sometimes placed milking stools over their heads to protect them
from a sudden attack in the dark.
There were rigid rituals for all special occasions. The men who formed
the harvest team elected one of their number as " Lord ". He negotiated
with the farmer on behalf of the team and exercised a considerable degree
of authority. The Lord fixed the amount of beer to be drunk daily, and
demanded " largesse " from strangers who visited the harvest field. He
arranged disputes between the men, and it was his duty to blow the
harvest horn either to call the team to work (Norfolk) or when each
variety of crop was harvested (Essex). Small infractions of discipline
were punished by the other men building the offender into a load of corn
with his head protruding from the back. He was brought home in that
undignified position, helpless, and the butt of the harvest team. All
countrymen could plait straw figures, and were often expert at wood-
carving or some other rural craft. The long winter nights gave them
ample opportunity for exercising their skill.
The disappearance of many local customs and traditions must be
regretted by all those who take an interest in country life, but the process
is inevitable, and the old conditions are obsolete. The modern folklorist
can only collect and record examples such as those described before they
are forgotten.
L. F. NEWMAN

THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS IN ANGLO-SAXON AND

LATER RECIPES.
THE following charm occurs in the late tenth century Anglo-Saxon
recipe-book called the Lacnunga (?+56). It is for night-mare, or rather
" against a dwarf ", since the dwarves were thought to be the cause of
evil dreams. " Against a dwarf one must take seven little wafers such as
are used when making an offering, and write these names on each wafer :
Maximianus, Malchus, Iohannes, Martinianus, Dionysius, Constantinus;
Serapion. And hereafter one must sing the charm [galdor] which follows,
first into the left ear, then into the right ear, then on top of the man's

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 Collectanea 255
head. Then let one who is a virgin go to him and hang it on his neck.
Do so for three days : it will soon be well with him."
The names of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus occur in various charms of
the Middle Ages. They are usually, as might be expected, to secure
sleep, but some cases are to be employed against fever. This also is
natural, since restlessness and delirium are especially symptoms of fever.
The connection is well shown in a charm against fever (gedrif) in a
manuscript (40, 5) in Worcester Cathedral library. It is in a hand of the
same period as that of the Lacnunga: the instructions are in Anglo-
Saxon, the words of the charm in Latin. The connection with sleep
appears in the phrase after the seven names, which again are to be
written on wafers : it runs : " ita sicut requieuit dominus super illos, sic
requiescat super istum famulum dei N. coniuro uos, frigora et febres ",
etc.1
Other mediaeval charms containing the seven names are as follows.
(a) One, for sleep, is to be found on the flyleaf at the end of one of the
Royal manuscripts in the British Museum. It is in Latin, in a twelfth
century hand: " In the city of Ephesus on Mount Celion lie the seven
holy sleepers, whose namrtesare [as above]. Because of their merits, and
through their holy intercession, deign, 0 Lord, to free thy servant N.
from all evil. Amen. . . . Cause this thy servant N. to sleep, that he
may recover from the sleep which he has lost." 2
(b) Another example (in Latin) containing the seven names, but this
time each having an epithet written above it, appears on the end flyleaf
of another of the Royal manuscripts : " Against fever : take vii offerings,
and on each write one of the names of the vii sleepers, and above each of
those names those which follow, and give to the sick man to take.

[illegible] + Clarrus
Maximianus Malchus
+ Probus + Clemens
Martinianus Dionisius
S
+ Gaudens Suimans
Constantinus Serapion "3
+ Libens
lohannes
(c) An eleventh century charm against fevers occurs in one of the
Cotton manuscripts (in Latin) : " Against fevers, in the name ... of the
Trinity. In the city of Ephesus ... lie vii saints sleeping [names followj :
may God ... release me . . . from this illness and from fever ", etc.4
(d) Another charm for fever occurs in a fourteenth century English
manuscript in the Royal Library at Stockholm (in Latin) : " On mount
1 Napier (A): Altenglische Miscellen, II. In Archiv fiir das Studium fiir
neueren Sprachen, Bd. 84 (1890), p. 324.
2 MS. Royal 2. A. xx. fol. 82r. (Unpublished. From Dr. Singer's collection).
3 M1S.Royal 12. E. xx. fol. 162v. (Unpublished. From Dr. Singer's collection).
4 MS. Colton Faustina A. x. fol. 136 (Quoted, Cockayne, Leechdoms, vol. 3,
1866, p. 294).

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256 Collectanea
Selyon in the city of Epheson repose the seven sleepers [names follow].
Almighty God who didst deign to liberate them from the hands of a
cruel tyrant and from the worship of idols, deign to liberate thy man-
servant or thy maid-servant N. from fevers cold and hot, daily, two-
daily, tertian, quartan, diurnal or nocturnal ", etc.5
(e) Another example, " t dormiens lenius dormiat," occurs in a
manuscript dated 1361 in the University Library at Breslau. Here the
seven names are to be written out and placed under the patient's head.6
(f) And finally a parallel Welsh charm " to produce sleep " occurs in
the mediaeval Physicians of Myddvai. " Take a goat's horn, and carve
the names of the 7 sleepers thereon, making a knife haft of it. The
writing should begin at the blade. . . . When the names are inscribed,
lay the knife under the sick man's head unknown to him and he will
sleep." 7
The mediaeval mind, like that of the savage before it, worked on a logic
of its own. The leech sought guidance to indicate effective instruments
for healing. Thus the relics of a saint who had suffered from gout would
be those to which a sufferer from gout would be directed in order to
obtain his release, a sufferer from toothache would repair to the shrine of
a saint who had suffered martyrdom through the extraction of her teeth.
An appeal to the Seven Sleepers is thus appropriate for those suffering
from insomnia or any disease in which sleep would be especially benefi-
cial. It was to ingenious reasoning such as this and to resultant faith
that our ancestors turned for medical aid.
The legend of the Seven Sleepers is of eastern origin. The earliest
known version is that of Jacobus Sarugiensis, a Mesopotamian bishop
who died in 521. It was translated into Latin by Gregory of Tours before
the end of the century. A brief description of the Sleepers occurs in the
Koran, in the chapter entitled " the cave ". But the myth was also
known to the Teutons in early times, and an account is given at the end
of the eighth century by Paulus Diaconus. The story of the Seven
Sleepers is also given by .Elfric. He says they slept for 371 years : their
holy day is July 29.8
It is therefore possible to ascribe to the Anglo-Saxon and later versions
an oriental, classical or Teutonic source.
W. BONSER
5 Holthausen (F.): Rezepte, Segen und Zauberspriiche aus zwei Stockholmer
Handschriften. In Anglia, Bd. Ig (1896), p. 79.
6 MS. III. Q. I. fol. 95v. (Quoted, J. Klapper, Das Gebet im Zauberglauben
des Mittelalters. In Mitteilungen der schlesischen Gesellschaft fiir Volkskffnde,
18 (1907), p. 25.)
7 Physicians of Myddvai, part 2 (I86I), ? 807.
8s Elfric : Homilies, vol, 2 (1844), pp. 481-99.

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