Animula Vagula Blandula...

Notes on Jingles, Nursery-Rhymes and Charms with an

Excursus on Noththe's Sisters
Author(s): A. A. Barb
Source: Folklore , Mar., 1950, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Mar., 1950), pp. 15-30
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1257299

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 ANIMULA VAGULA BLANDULA...

NOTES ON JINGLES, NURSERY-RHYMES AND CHARMS

WITH AN EXCURSUS ON NOTHTHE'S SISTERS
BY A. A. BARB

AN EMPEROR'S POEM

IN that queer late Roman compilation known as the Scriptores Historiae

Augustae the biographer of Hadrian, calling himself Aelius Spartianus,
quotes in full a poem which (according to him) the emperor was told to
have composed on his death-bed:
Sweet little soul, fickle, yet cuddlesome,
My body's guest in close companionship,
Into what regions art thou flitting now,
Thy little self so naked, pale and cold-
Forgetting all the fun we used to have!
Aelius Spartianus adds with scathing criticism that Hadrian composed
much the same sort of poems and not much better ones also in Greek
(" tales autem nec multo meliores fecit et Graecos ").1
The great Isaac Casaubon was puzzled as to why Spartianus so un-
kindly judged what appeared to him to be " dimetri mollissimi et melioris
saeculi elegantia dignissimi " and he could not help trying to translate
the little poem into Greek.2
Since Casaubon, almost three and a half centuries of classical scholars
have admired this poem, consciously or subconsciously translating it into
something like the above attempt and not paying much attention to the
sneer of Aelius Spartianus.3 But " Spartianus " should be credited with
having had a clearer judgement on how it sounded to his contemporaries,
1 Vita Hadriani, XXV, 9= Script, Hist. Aug., ed. D. Magie (The Loeb classical
Library, 1922-32), I, P. 78 ; ed. E. Hohl (Biblioth. Teubneriana, 1927) I, p. 27.
2 Isaaci Casauboni in Aelium Spartianum etc. emendationes ac notae, Parisiis,
16o3, P. 91.
' Cf. the ecstatic words about " those five lines of purest and most simple
music " by B. W. Henderson, The Life and Principate of the Emperor Hadrian,
London 1923, p. 246 and the anthology of translations he gives here and p. 253 f ;
also : J. W. and A. M. Duff, Minor Latin Poets (The Loeb classical Library) p. 440
f. and (quoted there) Translations . . . of Dying Hadrian's Address to his Soul,
collected by D. Johnson, Bath 1876. For the variety of interpretations contri-
buted by different philologists towards elucidation of these five verses see lately
Henry Bardon, Les empereurs et les lettres latines d'A uguste & Hadrian, Paris 1940,
pp. 417-19.
15

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 I6 Animula Vagula Blandula .
who spoke and thought in colloquial Latin and had no need to transl
the poem:
Animula vagula blandula
Hospes comesque corporis,
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula rigida nudula
Nec ut soles dabis iocos!

Does not this accumulation of diminutives sound slightly infant

rather like a nursery rhyme for goody-goody little children? There
e.g. a medieval latin cradle-song, aptly chosen by the German Romantic
Arnim and Brentano, as a tailpiece for a collection of children-songs:
Dormi Jesu, mater ridet,
Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,
Dormi Jesu blandule.
Si non dormis, mater plorat,
Inter fila cantans orat:
Blande veni somnule.4

Here we have the same (admittedly generally popular) folk-tune of

" dimetri mollissimi ", the same oddly infantile diminutives (somnule!)
and the addition of rhyme5 completes the resemblance to the familiar
lilts of today's nurseries such as " Jack and Jill ", " Simple Simon ", etc.
And so (after all that has been discovered about the " Scriptores Historiae
Augustae " during the last fifty years6) suspicions may arise: Already
earlier in the biography, Spartianus produced an exchange of teasing
verses between the emperor and a poet in the same metre, which I should
call a pair of Latin limericks with a strong flavour of school-boyish
ragging.7 Is it not possible that he now took some generally familiar,
aDes Knaben Wunderhorn. Anhang: Kinderlieder. Heidelberg I8o8. Here
also we find plenty of (German) diminutives in -lein and -chen, corresponding to
the Latin -ulus and hardly to be imitated in English.
5 So also in the popular sequences of the Roman Church like Stabat mater or Dies
irae ; but here the diminutives--characteristic for our case--do not appear.
6 See now the latest statement of the question and the bibliography (by Schehl)
in the Oxford Classical Dictionary 1949, p. 431 f. I would add: On Hartke's
theory see E. Hohl, Berl. Philol. Wochenschrift 1942, 236 ff. and A. Alf61ldi, Die
Kontorniaten, Budapest and Leipzig 1943, P. 59 ; ibid., p. 64, Alf1ldi again rejects
the theory of N. H. Baynes.
7 The poet Florus wrote : Ego nolo Caesar esselAmbulare per Brittanos/ [Latitare
per Germanos?]/Scythicas pati pruinas. Hadrian answered : Ego nolo Florus essef
Ambulave per tabernas/Latitare per popinas/Culices pati rotundas. (Script. Hist.
Aug., ed. Magie, p. 50; ed. Hohl, p. 17). Even Henderson, op. cit., p. 244, wonders
how " time has thought fit to preserve this fatuous exchange of complimentary
abuse! " But should we really trust an Aelius Spartianus? And do these verses
deserve all the philological efforts (cf. H. Bardon, op. cit., p. 416 f.) spent on them?

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 Animula Vagula Blandula ... 17
silly jingle-tune and faked in its likeness a travesty purporting to be th
last poem of Old Emperor Hadrian? This hypothesis would accoun
satisfactorily for the insidious sneer of this elusive author. But is this
only a very hypothetical possibility or are we able to substantiate it by
additional evidence? I think we are, although by rather roundabout and
little trodden ways, which will require some patience on the part of th
reader, but might afford also an opportunity for a variety of observation

II

NURSERY-RHYMES, JINGLES AND INCANTATIONS

Unfortunately there is not much left of nursery-rhymes from the

Ancient World. The little sample in the New Testament (Matt. xi, 17 ;
Luke vii, 32) serves to show that they were not really very different from
those of our days. We know quite a lot, however, of other popular verses
of a closely related kind: incantations. That many children's rhymes
are the last remains of old incantations, gradually disfigured and (as is
the German expression for the same process in folk-songs) " zersungen "
(sung to pieces) into more or less meaningless jingles, is widely known.8
Three examples of ancient children's verses (from Horace, Ars poet.
417 ; Pollux ix, 123 and 127) have been claimed by R. Heim as having
originally been incantations.9 Many examples could be given from more
recent times. The idiotic jingle
Peter stands at the gate
Waiting for a buttered cake'0

is the last stage of dilapidation from a once very popular class of charms,
starting with

St. Peter sat at the gate of Jerusalem ...

where we hear that our Lord " passed by " and asked him about his
troubles, which he then eventually healed." The childish prayer
8 H. Carrington-Bolton, The counting-out rhymes of children. A study in folk-
lore, London 1888, and Journal of American Folk-lore, I, 1888, p. 31 ff.-C. G.
Leland, " Children's rhymes and incantations ", ibid., II, 1889, p. I13 ff.-Hand-
w6rterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens IV, 1931/32, col. 136o f.-L. B6ckheler,
Das englische Kinderlied, Leipzig 1935, p. 28 ff.
9 R. Heim, " Incantamenta magica ", Philolog. Jahrb., Suppl. I9, 1892, p. 512 ff.
to J. O. Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England, 4th ed., 1846, p. 84, clx;
cf. also the same, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, London 1849, p. 209.
" W. G. Black, Folk-Medicine, London 1883, p. 77 ; Handwdrterb. d. deutsch.
Abergl., II, 1460; cf. also Anglia XIX, 1897, p. 79, No. iob: " Adportam Galylee
iacebat Petrus. Venit dominus et interrogavit eum . . . " I think that this type of
incantation (cf. also the Spanish charm " Apollonia was at the gate of heaven, etc."
Black,
B
op. cit., p. 93) can be traced back ultimately to the prayer of Seth the son

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 I8 Animula Vagula Blandula...
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Guard the bed that I lie on!
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head!
One to watch, one to pray,
And two to bear my soul away.1
is a very innocent relic of what was known in Chaucer's times as the
" White Pater Noster "13 and can be traced through the Celtic half-magic,
half-Christian " loricae "14 and Jewish cabbalistic prayers against the
" terrors that threaten by night "'i to ancient Babylonian incantations.16
of Adam, at the gates of Paradise, in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (Descent
into Hades, ch. 3-4), cf. M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p. 126 f. Seth
and Eve praying at the Gate of Paradise occur also in the Book of Adam and Eve
(Apocalypse of Moses), 36, 2 : cf. Ch. C. Torrey, The Apocryphal Literatur (O.T.),
1945, p. I32.
12 Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 86, clxvii; Popular Rhymes, p. 210 f.
13 Chaucer, The Milleres Tale, 3483 f. Cf., the notes in W. W. Skeat, Work
G. Chaucer, p. 1i6. The full text of the Patendtre Blanche as still alive in Fra
in the early nineteenth century occurs also in Victor Hugo, Les Misgrables,
partie (Cosette) 6me livre, ch. 5. (" Distractions "). To the very comprehens
list of literature on the White Paternoster given by G. L. Kittredge, Witchc
in Old and New England, 1928, p. 526, n. 64 I should add E. Rolland, Rimes
jeux de l'enfance, 1883, pp. 51-3, and Milusine, IX, 1898-99, col. 51-2, viii-ix
would be an interesting and not too difficult task to show, how in these te
almost all the current types of medieval incantations have left some " mem
disiecta ". Very similar are the Lithuanian magic prayers, V. J. Mansikk
Litauische Zauberspriiche, FF Comm. 87, 1929, pp. 113-6, nos. 236-9.
14 So called because like armour they were supposed to protect from all dir
tions. Cp. L. Gougaud, " Etudes sur les Loricae celtiques." Bulletin d'ancie
littirature et d'archdol. chritiennes I, 1911 and II, 1912--Ch. Singer, " The Lo
of Gildas the Briton." Proc. of the R. Society of Medicine, XII, 19ig.-Import
instances from continental Western Europe, illustrating this " disir d'etre prot
dans tous les directions " are given by W. Deonna, Genava, XXII, 1944, p. I i8, n
The church seems to have at least tolerated these old formulae. The so-called
Prayer of St. Patrick, a typical " Lorica ", is still popular in this country.
15" i At my right Michael, at my left Gabriel, before me Uriel, behind me
Raphael " : J. Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, 1939, p. I56. These
formulae were obviously imported into Western Europe from the Near East.
The astrological ideas from which they originated are well defined, e.g. in arabic-
hellenistic magic, as shown by H. Ritter, " Picatrix ", Vortrage der Bibliothek
Warburg, 1921-1922, p. 117. For late Greek texts, very similar to, but much more
elaborate than, the Jewish charm quoted by Trachtenberg cp. A. Vassiliev,
Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina, I, 1893, PP. 343, 344; Catalogus Codicum Astrolo-
gorum Graecorum, VII, 1908, p. 105, 18-20o; A. Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia I,
1926, p. 623, 2-5, and 25-7, p. 624, 3 ff. See also F. Pradel, Griechische und
sifditalienische Gebete, Beschw6rungen und Rezepte des Mittelalters, 1907, p. Ioo.
About " les quatre grands archanges et les quatre parties de l'horizon " cf. P.
Perdrizet, " L'archange Ouriel ", Seminarium Kondakovianum, II, 1928, p. 246 ff,
where further similar prayers are quoted. For old-Egyptian, Coptic and Syriac
parallels see A. M. Kropp, AusgewAhlte koptische Zaubertexte, III, Bruxelles 1930,
p. 77, n. I.
1e " Shamash before me, behind me Sin, Nergal at my right, Ninib at my lef
etc.: Trachtenberg, op. cit., l.c.; R. Campbell Thompson, The Devils and

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 Animula Vagula Blandula ... I 9
The most widely-known example perhaps is the internationally
familiar jingle of the " Ten Little Nigger-Boys" who are graduall
annihilated. Fifty years ago (and perhaps still today) they played
most important part in the Balkans as nine brothers or demons
diseases1; numerous incantations were in use, all built up on the schem
From nine to eight, from eight to seven,
from seven to six, from six to five, etc.

till they were all laid.'s Just so the following charm was used in Englan
in Anglo-Saxon Times :19'

Nine were Noththes2o sisters,

Then the nine became eight,
And the eight became seven,

And the two became one,

And the one became none.
This may be a remedy for thee against a furuncle
and scrofula and worms and every kind of evil.

A century earlier already, we find that a Latin codex, containing the

spurious " Medicina Plinii ", gives against tonsilitis the following " prae-
cantatio ad faucium dolorem " :

Spirits of Babylonia, I, 1903, p. 15, 1. 143 ff. A real " lorica " is the Old Babylon-
ian charm Maqlu, VI, 1-8, see the translation by H. A. Francfort, The Intellectual
Adventure of Ancient Man, Chicago, 1946, p. 133.
17 Also in North-East Europe, cf. about the " Nine Diseases " W. Krohn,
Magische Ursprungsrunen der Finnen, FFComm. 52, 1924, p. 155 ff. In Lithua-
nian charms we hear that Job had nine " worms " which are one by one reduced to
none : V. J. Mansikka, op. cit., p. 83, nos. 87-88.
18 See F. S. Krauss, " Medizinische Zauberspriiche aus Slavonien, Bosnien, der
Herzegovina und Dalmatien ", Mitteilungen der Anthropolog. Gesellschaft in Wien
XVII, 1887, Sitzungsber, p. 60 if, esp. p. 63 ; the same: Volksglaube und religi6ser
Brauch der Sfidslaven, Miinster i.W. 1890, p. 44 if, esp. no. 3.-The nine demons of
disease, children of the same parents and thus brothers or sisters, appear also (with
their names) in the religious tradition of the gipsies : see H. v. Wlislocki, Volks-
glaube und religi6ser Brauch der Zigeuner, Miinster i.W. 1891, p. 19 iff.
19 0. Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England (Rolls
Series, 1864-1866), III, p. 63, no. 95.-G. Storms, Anglo-Saxon Magic, The Hague,
1948, p. 150 ff. Cf. also the " nine ugly poisons ... nine exiles from glory .., nine
flying vile things " in the charm of the nine healing herbs, Cockayne, op. cit., III,
p. 37 ; Storms, op. cit., p. 189. A " reminiscence of this division of the ills .. . into
a system of nines " we find, as Ch. Singer pointed out (The Chemist and Druggist,
Special Issue, June 30, 1928, p. 826) in Shakespeare's King Lear (Act 3, Scene 4,
line 13o : " He met the nightmare and her nine-fold "). Storms seems to ignore
this as all the other parallels mentioned in notes 17-18 above and 22 below.
so On Noththe and his sisters see the Excursus p. I14 ff.

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20 Animula Vagula Blandula...
vii tusella, vi tusella, v tusella,

i tusella (nulla tusella).n

And this unholy family of sisters, brotherse or tonsils was similarly
exorcised in Roman times.

III

MARCELLUS OF BORDEAUX, CALLED THE EMPIRIC

At the beginning of the fifth century A.D. Marcellus Empiricus (or

Burdigalensis, after his supposed birth-place Bordeaux) advises in his
book " De mendicamentis "-that " extraordinary mixture of tradi-
tional knowledge, popular (Celtic) medicine, and rank superstition "23-
the following to exorcise the tonsils (glandulas) : (The action should take
place in the morning, if the days are getting shorter, or in the evening, if
the reverse is the case).
Novem glandulae sorores,
Octo glandulae sorores,
Septem glandulae sorores,

Una glandula soror;

Novem fiunt glandulae,
Octo fiunt glandulae,
Septem fiunt glandulae,

Una fit glandula,

Nulla fit glandula.24

Here, apparently, two different versions of the same charm are welded

21 Heim, Incantam. magica, p. 557.

22 This idea of a family of demons explains the various " sisters " and " brothers"
turning up abruptly in certain dilapidated charm-jingles. Cf. Storms, op. cit.,
p. 157, who fails to understand charm No. 4, 4 (brother) and No. 7, 16 (" deores
sweostar "); the latter charm ends with a motif familiar in Hebrew, Greek,
Rumanian, a.o. charms, where the female demon is made to take an oath not to
hurt anybody who uses the charm : cf. e.g. H. A. Winkler, Salomo und die Karina
Stuttgart 1931, pp. 107-17). The corruption of the texts (but there is also a very
old tradition that the evil Demon is a sister of the exorcising Saint, cf. Winkler,
op. cit., p. 127 ff.) makes of the brother or sister of the Demon a brother or a sister
of the Saint : " Christ passed by his brothers doorf Saw his brother lying on the
floor . . ." (Black, op. cit., p. 77) ; " ffor nyhtes uerye the white paternoster/
Where wentestow, seint Peters soster? " (Chaucer, loc. cit.,-see above note I3.
To connect this " soster " with St. Petronilla, as Skeat suggests, seems very far-
fetched indeed).
23 G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, I, 1927, p. 291.
24 Marc. Emp., XV, 102.

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 Animula Vagula Blandula .. . . 2 I
together. Instead of polishing off the " una glandula soror ", the whole
thing starts all over again, now without reference to the familiar bond
between the " glandulae ". But after all, to speak of nine tonsils is an
overstatement already, which can only mean that this charm, originally
covering (as still obvious in the Anglo-Saxon version) some family or
corporation of evils,25 was forcibly adapted for the special use against a
couple of tonsils.
This kind of crude adaptation is still more evident in another charm,
which Marcellus gives immediately before the one above, with fairly
identical instructions. Now the first line of this charm resembles in a
curious way the first line of the alleged poem of Hadrian:
Albula glandula,
Nec doleas, nec noceas,
Nec paranici(a) facias,
Sed liquescas,
Tamquam salis in aqua.26
I do not stress that here, in contrast to the abundance of nine tonsils,
only one tonsil is addressed. But it is clearly beyond the activities of any
tonsils to cause whitlow-that is " Paranici(um) ".27 Here we have a
charm which seems " zersungen " to a such degree that it is already
more a children's jingle than an incantation.
The " glandula " in this rhyme makes no sense at all and may easily
have been misunderstood for an original " blandula ". With this small
emendation already the charm could be found sensible, as charms go:
" Albula ", rather unusual as adjective,28 occurs often as a name of water-
25 Cf. notes 17-18 above.
6 Marc. Emp., XV, Ioi. Cf. the edition by M. Niedermann, Corpus Medicorum
Latinorum, V, Leipzig, 1916, p. 120.
27 E. Miiller-Graupa, Berl. Philol. Wochenschrift, 62, 1942, col. 334 f., traces the
etymology of the medical term panaritium (whitlow) over panaricium to the
Greek paronychion with *paronicium assimilated to *paranicium leading from the
Greek to the Latin term. For panaricium Miller only knows one quotation:
Ps. Apuleius, Herbarium, c. 42 ; but see also: Theodorus Priscianus, ed. Rose,
p. 294, 17 ff, and index p. 529; Dioscurides latinus, as quoted by A. Souter,
A Glossary of later Latin, Oxford 1949, p. 284. For paranicium Milller gives no
quotation, but see again Theod. Prisc., Index, p. 529, and (quoted by Souter, op.
cit., p. 286) Diosc. lat., 4, 39 (paranicia) besides the paranici(a) of our Marcellus
charm. Both the Paris and London codices of Marcellus have paranici, only the
cod. Cornarius, used for the ed. princeps gives paniculas, obviously an attempt of
the copyist to make sense of the difficult paranici. It seems desirable to get this
matter clear at last, as Souter, op. cit., s.v. while translating paranicia (p. 286) " a
whitlow ", still gives for panaricium (p. 284) " a skin trouble (?) ". For the
medical side of the question Miiller quotes M. Saegesser, Das Panaritium, 1938, a
book I was not able to consult.
28 "' Albula propter assonantiam ex alba corruptum esse videtur ": Heim,
Incant, mag., p. 545. But see Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, I, 1900oo, col. 1501.

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 22 Animula Vagula Blandula...
nymphs29 and may well be connected with the German " Alb
(" Elfe "), English " Elf ". One of these (usually malignant) litt
which were believed to cause all kind of diseases,30 is here sup
responsible for the whitlow. It is addressed politely (" blandul
always seemed advisable with dangerous people,u is admoni
cause pain and harm,32 and exorcised to dissolve33 like salt34
very element, with which the Latin " albulae "35 are conne
more than the air, the water-preferably the sea-was alwa
the abode of evil spirits. Now we know from the better eviden
recent centuries that every popular charm exists in dozens of
varying versions. If " albula " is taken as an evil " spirit " causi
then this word might have been replaced in some versions of
by "'animula ", a word which was used in the times of Ma
a similar sense.36 But whether we accept the beginning of the
Albula glandula ... or emend it, as I suggested, to
Albula blandula37 . . . or accept a version like
Animula blandula ...

29 Cf. Forcellini-Perin, Onomasticon totius latinitatis, I, 1913, p. 80.

30 Cf. Storm, op. cit., p. 50 f (generally), p. 158 ff (water-elf disease), p. 22
(elf-sickness or elf-disease), p. 248 (elf-shot), etc.
31 Cf. e.g. a German incantation against such demons of disease: " Ihr k
Leut'/ Ihr liebe Leut'/ Alle die Ihr seid/ Geht hinaus aus dem Haupt/ Geht hi
aus dem Leib und Bein/ etc." (H. Frischbier, Hexenspriiche und Zauberb
Ein Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Abergl. i. d. Prov. Preussen, 1870, p. 74). The words
" kleine " und " liebe " together are fairly equivalent to " blandula ".
32 With the general spreading of antiseptic hygiene whitlow (panaritium) is not
causing the amount of pain and harm it used to cause. But compare e.g. A. Kuhn,
" Indische und germanische Segensspriicke ", Zeitschrift f. vergleichende Sprach-
forschung, XIII, 1864, p. 144 and still recently the IIth ed. of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica (1910-1911), vol. 28, p. 609.
33 Compare with our Latin charm the similar English and Scottish charms
quoted by Kuhn, op. cit., 1. c., (and Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., ii, p. 968)
from Chambers, Popular Stories, p. 37, against the whitlow, here addressed as
" Ringworm " : " Ringworm, ringworm red!/ Never mayest thou either spread
or speed " (cf. " ne doleas, ne noceas ")/ " But aye grow less and less,/ And die
away among the ase (ashes) " (cf. " sed liquescas ... in aqua ").
34 For the sympathetic use of salt cf. Heim, op. cit., p. 556, 21 : " quemadmodum
hic sal seritur et ad nihilum reducitur, sic mea lippitudo coalescat ". Similarly
Alexander Trallianus II, 585, quoted by Heim, op. cit., No. 88 (and No. 167). See
also Cockeyne, op. cit., III, p. 37: " . . . seas may dissolve all salt water ... "
35 See Forcellini as quoted above, note 29. For " Alba " as some kind of worm
causing disease cf. Grimm, op. cit., I, p. 382 and II, pp. 898, 968.
36 Ammianus Marcellinus, 28, I, 7.
37 H. A. Winkler, " Die Aleph-Beth-Regel. Eine Beobachtung an sinnlosen
Wbrten in Kinderversen, Zauberspriichen und Verwandtem " (Oriental. Studien,
Enno Littmann i4berreicht, Leiden 1935, PP. 1-24) has noticed the preference in
charms and jingles to begin the first word with a vowel (a) and change to a labial
consonant (b) in the beginning of the second word. This peculiarity would appear
in "albilla blandula " as well as in " animula blandula ", but not in " albula
glandula"

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 Animula Vagula Blandula ... 23
(it must have been hard to make out, from hearing only, which of t
it was) there is a striking resemblance to
Animula vagula blandula ...

IV

MORE INCANTATIONS

Still, if people reading the " poem " of Hadrian should forcibly have
been reminded of a familiar jingle, similarity of more than the first line,
say at least of the first two lines, was desirable. But while the tonsils-
or whitlow-charm of Marcellus Empiricus, after a short apostrophy in
line one, starts immediately with exorcising in line two, the alleged
Hadrianic poem adds to the " arsis " (as it were) of the first line a " thesis "
of appositions in the second line:
Animula vagula blandula
Hospes comesque corporis ...
This scheme, very common in more elaborate address, is familiar in
incantations also :

Domina Luna,
Jovis filia,

Quomodo lupus non tangit te,

Sic et renes meos dolor non tangat.38

Or-to return from the kidneys in the above charm into the already
familiar region of the tonsils-against inflammation and swelling of the
uvula :39

Uvae regina,
Orci filia,40
Adiuro te per inferos et per superos,
Ut tuo loco tu redeas.

The " Precatio Terrae Matris " starts:

Dea sancta Tellus,

Rerum naturae parens,
Quae cuncta .. 41
** Heim, op. cit., p. 558, 29 ff ** Ibid., p. 557, 30 f.
o0 Cp. note 50 below.
41 J. W. and A. M. Duff, Minor Latin Poets (The Loeb Classical Library) p. 342.
It has been shown by E. Norden that this " poem " as well as the similar " Pre-
catio omnium herbarum " are actually " charms " and only partly in verses:
" Ueber zwei spAtlateinische precationes ", Festschrift zur Jahrhulidertfeier der
Universiteti zu Breslau, 191T1, pp. 517 ff.

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 24 Animula Vagula Blandula . . .
This kind of incantation, usually addressed to some magic herb, is
old. We find it in Hellenistic magic, in the hymns of the Kyranide
and also in Babylonian charms from cuneiform texts.43 For my pu
I want to dwell particularly on one charm of this kind, used ag
menorrhagia, of which I know three fairly identical texts.44 It run
Herbula Proserpinacia,
Horci45 regis filia,
Quomodo clausisti mulae partum,46
Claudas undas sanguinis huius.

The " herbula proserpinacia " (also " proserpinacea " and per
identical with the " herba proserpinalis " mentioned by Marc
Empiricus)47 is the powerful magic herb " polygonum ".48 It seems
have been mixed up occasionally with the familiar medical herb " s
lus " (serpulum, polion, etc.4"). But " proserpinacia" is rather a mou
for a popular rhyme. Although a connection of Pro-serpinatia
Proserpina and so with the netherworld may originally have se
fitting with the mention of Orcus, king of the netherworld (but Pros
was his wife, not his daughter!) this connection was not essential, a
above quoted " Uvae regina, Orci filia " serves to show.50
Now there is a popular name for the herb serpyllus which lik
"2 E.g. Cyranides, ed. Ruelle, p. 6, I5, or ibid., p. 8, II ; 8, 19 ; I I, II, et
3 See the three texts (Surpu IX, 1-25) in H. Zimmern, Beitritge zur Ken
der Babylonischen Religion. I. Die Beschw6rungstafeln Surpu (1896), p.
F. Ohrt, " Herba, Gratia Plena " : Die Legenden der 4lteren Segenspriiche uib
g6ttlichen Ursprung der Heil-und Zauberkrfuter (FF Comm. No. 82), 192
failed to note these striking parallels.
* For (I) and (2) see the quotations Heim, op. cit., p. 488, no. 91 and p. 5
for (3) see Corpus Medicorum Latinorum, IV, 1927, p. 289, XVIII, 8.
45 Horcus (as the older form?) occurs often for Orcus. Cf. Roscher, Mythologis
Lexikon, III/I, col. 944, 58 ff.
46 The barrenness of the female mule is a frequent theme in ancient magi
Audollent, Defixionum Tabellae, (g9o4), No. 271, I6. A. Delatte, Anec
Atheniensia I, p. 121, 7 f. See also the classical mentions of " mulae partus
prodigium, collected by Heim, op. cit., p. 493, note I.
" See the references for both names in Forcellini-De Vit, Lexicon, IV, 1
P, 948.
48 Cf. 1. c., and ibid., p. 723.
4" Ibid., V, 1871, p. 469 f.
so The idea that the magic herbs are the offspring of Kronos (the Lord of the
Netherworld) is Egyptian according to the magic papyri (cf. Preisendanz, Papyri
Graecae Magicae I, p. 168 =P. IV, 2978 ff.). But just so, certain diseases are also
mentioned as children of Kronos-Saturnus (Theodorus Priscianus, ed. Rose, p.
250 f.) or Orcus, as we saw in the charm against the inflammation of the uvula
quoted above, and according to Vergil (Aen. VI; 2730) " primisque in faucibus
Orci .., pollentes ... habitant Morbi ". To the nine diseases correspond the nine
magic herbs in the Anglo-Saxon charm-cf. above notes 17-19.

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 Animula Vagula Blandula ... 25
proserpinacia was used for women's ailments. This name, as S
of Seville tells us, is : " (matris) animula ".1> If we substitute th
into the above charm the result is something like this:

(Matris?) Animula herbula [blandula],

Horci regis filia,
Quomodo ...

Compare with this:

Animula vagula blandula,

Hospes comesque corporis,
Quae nunc ...

CONCLUSION

A. Kuhn observed a century ago52 how Russian incantations were

transplanted by Lithuanian nursemaids into east-German nurseries,
simultaneously turning from charms into nursery-rhymes. I could
imagine that similarly Gaulish or Spanish nurses in the age of Marcellus
Empiricus (which-at least roughly-was also the age in which the
Historia Augusta was compiled) brought things like the above charms
into the nurseries of Italy. If so, and if Roman children played to sounds
like " Albula blandula . .. " or " Animula herbula . . . ", then certain
grown-ups must have relished immensely the " poem" of good old
emperor Aelius Hadrianus, produced with so undisguised a sneer by a
certain " Aelius Spartianus ".
With this if I must conclude my indictment. Convictions on circum-
stantial evidence are hardly ever beyond any doubt, even when dealing
with quite recent events. How much more so, when some fifteen hundred
years have elapsed between offence and indictment. I wonder whether,
as judge, I could advise the jury to pronounce a clear " guilty " against
Spartianus. But by all means I would have filed the evidence brought
forward amongst the documents of the case " Historians v. Historia
Augusta ". And the reader of this paper may find (just as after listening
to a session in court) that even if he did not hear a clear verdict he heard
some information, new-and perhaps useful-to him.

62 See the quotations Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, II, 89 s.v. Animula 3.

62 Kuhn, op. cit., (see above note 32), p. I53.

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 26 Animula Vagula Blandula..
VI

ExcURSUS : NOTHTHE'S SISTERS AND THEIR NEXT OF KIN

Commenting on the charm of Noththe and his nine sisters (s

p. I9) G. Storms writes :53 " The occurrence of the name of No
whom nothing is known except that the form looks entirely Ge
a strong argument in favour of the Germanic origin of th
There also occurs in the ninth century another " Germani
against disease, both in an Old Saxon and an Old High German5
dealing with a demon Nesso and his family of nine : " Go out N
your nine little ones (nessiklinon), out from the marrow to the b
the bone to the flesh, from the flesh to the skin ... etc." Storms
Nesso as " worm ", but this is to anticipate a later develop
Originally Nesso (or, as the Latin texts have it, Nessia) is the pro
of the Demon of Disease. In contrast with the above two charm
he or she appears with nine anonymous " little Nessos ", there
charms where she is accompanied by six demons with more or l
names as Nagedo (corrosion), Stechedo (stitch), Troppho, Cramph
Gigihte, (gout), Paralisis.56 It has been suggested that here
influence changed the original Germanic " mystical " nine to th
iastical " seven (including Nesso herself).57 I think the convers
proved.
In the apocryphal Coptic " Book of the Resurrection of Christ ",
purporting to be written by the Apostle Bartholomew, " Death " (the
" Destroyer " : Abaddon, cf. Rev. ix, II) descends into the underworld
(Amente) with his six sons Gaios, Thryphon, Ophiat, Phthinon, Sotomis,
and Komphion. He enters the tomb of the crucified Christ to take pos-
session of His body-and is disastrously defeated." The seven demons
53 Storms, op. cit., p. 152.
"4 See Handw6rterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, IV, col. 1013 f., s.v. Nessia.
Storms, op. cit., p. 149 quotes only the Saxon version.
5" See Handw6rterbuch d. d. Abergl., loc. cit.
56 Ibid.-Winkler, Salomon und die Karina, p. I20, No. 44-5. Winkler is at a
loss to explain the name " Agrippa " by which Nessia is addressed and which also
occurs in Coptic magic papyri for demons. " Agrippa " is here just abusive
(abuse of the demon is common in exorcism) and means " miscarriage ", " pre-
ternatural deformity ", something like " monster ": cf. Plin., N.H., 7, 45 and
the other quotations in Thesaurus Lingue Latinaae, I, col. 1430, I, 13 ff.; also
Berl. Philol. Wochenschrift, 62, 1942, col. 335, note 2. See also below note 66.
"I Karl Weinhold, " Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen ", Abhandl. d.
preuss. Akad. d. Wiss., 1897, p. 25, note I.
58 E. A. Wallis Budge, Coptic Apocrypha in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, 1913,
pp. i8o-I and 187. M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p. 186, dates the
work about fifth to seventh century. The Brit. Mus. Ms. is a twelfth-century copy.

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 Animula Vagula Blandula ... 27
" wriggle " like worms and were apparently imagined in the
worms.59 We meet this family again in a recently publishe
magic text (ca. 900 A.D.)60 using this formula thrice: "
Trophos (or Trochos, Trephops), Kimphias (or Aphonos, Ke
Psothomis (or Pesphokops, Psothemis), and Plemos, and Oliat: th
(the names of) the six powers61 of Death, these which bring ever
upon every man, these which bring every soul out of every
Here, then, we have Nesso-Nessia with her six little ones (t
" worms ") and the wriggling family of Abaddon the Destroyer
really doubt that the " Germanic " charm is derived from
Egyptian sources?63 That the Troppho of the Nesso-family is A
son Tryphon-Trophos, who resisted the philological skill of the G
translator, just as his brother Paralisis remained untranslated f
Greek, seems evident. The Coptic translator of the lost Gre
nals had already had similar difficulties.64 Then perhaps th
Nesso65 and Noththe are both to be traced to the root of Greek N

65 The Coptic word (cf. Budge, op. cit., p. I8o, n. 3) seems corrupt fr
sk6likion =the " little worm ".

60 J. Drescher, " A Coptic Malediction ", Annales du Service des A ntiquitis d

l'Egypte, XLVIII, 1948, p. 267 ff.
61 While in the Brit. Mus. manuscript of Ps. Bartholomew (Budge, op. cit.,
p. I81) " Death " (Abaddon) addresses " his son Plague ", the Paris fragmen
(op. cit., p. 217) has " his power Plague "; the same fragment (op. cit., p. 218
twice speaks of " Death " accompanied by his six " Dekans " where the Brit.
Mus. text has " sons ". The " Dekans ", divine rulers of the Graeco-Egyptia
zodiac, show the connection with old oriental medico-astrological conceptions.
82 Drescher, op. cit., pp. 270-2. 63 Budge, op. cit., p. xvii.
64 O. v. Lemm, Bull. Acad. Imp. Sciences, St. Petersburg, 6e s6r., t. IX, 1915
p. 209 suggests for OPHIATH Greek ophis (snake) with Semitic ending -ath (there
is also a Hebrew word for snake, the " hissing one ", which sounds similar) ; to
SOTOMIS Lemm compares the sinful city of Sodoma. Drescher, op. cit., p. 270
n. I seeks in GAIOS (Kouchos) the Greek Chaos. PHTHINON is more likely just
Greek phthindn (the Consumer, Destroyer) than phthonos (Malice). In TRYPHON
(Trophos) I should see (cf. the Greek verb trypha6) the demon of " Lust " (wha
classical and ecclesiastical Latin calls " Luxuria "). For KOMPHION Lemm
suggests gomphios (the Grinder-tooth), Drescher thinks of gnophos (Darkness).
But as one of Drescher's formulae replaces KOMPHION (Kimphias, Kemphias)
by APHONOS, which is evidently Greek for " dumb ", I wonder whether we
should not see in the equivalent KOMPHION (etc.) Greek kcphos, used both as
synonym for " dumb " and for " deaf ". It is obvious to think here of the
" dumb and deaf spirit " (alalos kai k6phos pneuma) exorcised by Christ (Marc.
ix, 25).
65 E. v. Steinmeyer (Die kleineren althochdeutschen Sprachdenkmiler, Berlin
1916, p. 375) follows V. J. Mansikka (" Ueber russische Zauberformeln ", Helsinki
1909, pp. 50-53) in deriving Nesso-Nessia from late Latin Nescia (see now also
Souter, op. cit.-above note 27-p. 265) for Greek ischias (sciatica). But this
equation does not work out, still less so if with Mansikka we extend it to the
demon of disease " Neid ", a name familiar in Bogomil charms (cf. e.g. Mansikka,
op. cit., p. 57 : " Thou devil Nelid, captain of all diseases "!). The etymology of
Nefid still seems doubtful: cf. Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien und

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28 Animula Vagula Blandula...
" destroying, killing " disease (cf. Lat. neco, noceo, Greek nyky
Classical tradition already knew of a group of brothers (or rath
Nosos is feminine) : Disease, Death, Misery, etc., children o
and Night.67
It will, I think, hardly be contended that some German
went to Egypt and wrote the Coptic " Resurrection of C
taught Egyptian magicians what a really good maledictio
sound like. But, for those who might cling to some st
independent parallel development of similar ideas in the
North and the Graeco-Egyptian South-East, I have a Germ
charm, still in use in recent times, which gives definite evide
the Noththe and Nesso Charms were derived from the Christi
ryphal text.68 It runs : " Der Herr Petrus liegt im Grab, 9
hat er bei sich, 8 Wtirmer hat er bei sich, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,
hat er bei sich, keinen Wurm hat er bei sich (The Lord Pet
in his tomb, 9 worms are with him, 8, 7, . . . no worm i
der Herzegovina VI, Sarajevo 1899, p. 662 and W6rter und Sachen, II, 1
I rather would connect it with Nessos-nosos-nekys than with isc
Does perhaps the centaur Nessos belong to the same group? See
comments on centaurs mentioned Aen. VI, 286 (" Vergilius, Aeneis,
2nd ed., 1916, p. 215, cf. also note 50 above). Later material abou
centaurs is found in P. Perdrizet, Negotium perambulans in tenebris, S
1922, p. 26; cf. also the " onokentauroi " (ass-centaurs) among oth
monsters in Isaias, c. 34 (Septuagint).
66 Still found e.g. in Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, 8th ed.
1929), s.v. nosos and nekys. I wonder whether it was right to ab
etymology for the " ignoramus " of more recent works. Cf. also t
nociva " in the charm Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., III, p. 3
also the demon of the unhealthy Southwind Notos, whose name Aristo
connected with nosos and who was thought responsible for many fever
cf. W. H. Roscher, " Das von der Kynanthropie handelnde Fragmen
cellus von Side " (Abhandl. d. phil.-hist. Klasse d. s&chsischen Ges
Wissenschaften, 1896, 17/3) p. 83 ff. Another possibility might
Noththe for a transcription of Greek nothi (femin. from nothos), the "
" base-born " ; that would come rather near the name " Agrippa ",
above note 56, as used for Nesso-Nessia. There is a good deal of
Greek to be found in Anglo-Saxon magic : cf. Ch. Singer, " Early En
and Medicine ", 1920 (Proc. Brit. Acad., IX), p. 30 f.
67 " fratres et sorores, qui a genealogis antiquis sic nominantur,
Metus [Morbus] Labor Invidentia Fatum Senectus Mors Tenebrae Miseria
Querella Gratia Fraus Pertinacia Parcae Hesperides Somnia, quos omnes Erebo
et Nocte natos ferunt " : Cicero, De nat. deor., III, 44; cf. also Roscher, Mythol.
Lexikon, III, col. 457 ff, esp. 466 f. and A. Perosa, " Febris ", Journal of the
Warburg Institute, IX, 1946, p. go f. All these " monstra " (so Cicero calls them)
have their abode in the underworld: Cf. note 50 above and Norden, op. cit.,
Aen. VI, 273 ff. Similarly Abaddon and his family dwell in Amente, the Egyptian
equivalent for the underworld.
68 Cf. above note ii and the examples for verbatim quotation from the Apocry-
phal Protoevangelium I gave in " St. Zacharias the Prophet and Martyr. A study
in Charms and Incantations ", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,
XI, I948.

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 Animula Vagula Blandula ... 29
him) ".69 The development seems clear enough: Christ's conque
of Death was embellished by apocryphal details and additions.
conquest applied in the form of the apocryphal narrative was expect
to conquer disease and death again and again, as a powerful charm. H
then, some scruples (ecclesiastical or other) led to leaving out the na
of Christ from a rather unorthodox incantation and to substitu
St. Peter, 70without regard to the fact that then the " tomb "
not make sense any longer. Job was substituted in other "wor
charms " 71more logically, as he, after all, had some authentic connec
with worms and disease. But the really uncompromising anti-cle
and national magician would have tried to do without any " fore
biblical elements-and that is how these " original pagan Germani
Celtic) " charms originated, comparatively late and not without
logical connections to early national reaction against the Ro
Church. But, on closer investigation, these charms appear neverthel
deeply rooted in those very same magical conceptions which, origina
in the ancient Near East, had been developed and passed on througho
the Roman Empire during its last centuries.
Old Babylonian astrological speculation already knew of " seven
spirits of ANU . . . the ABUBU-Demon with his six ministers
probably the prototype of our Coptic ABADDON-Family. But, occasi
ally, the Babylonian counted them as nine demons.73 Simil
nine and seven are substituted for one another in Greek mythology
Schultz has sought to prove that the nine is the older version fo

69 E. Stemplinger, Antike und moderne Volksmedizin, 1925, p. 88. Mansi

op. cit., p. 83 f., dealing with the charms of the scheme 9, 8, 7 ... 2, I, o r
also to those charms where " Hiob, Peter or the Lord lies in the tomb and
worms ". Storms, who only knows the charm quoted by Stemplinger, w
(op. cit., p. 155) : " The combination of worms and the grave is natural and
tempting to think of an original identity " (viz. of the Noththe's Sisters C
and the St. Peter's Worms Charm) " with Noththe replaced by St. Peter u
Christian influence ". I should think we can safely replace the " replaced by
this statement by " replacing "-and discard the " Christian influence ".
10 There are many charms where " St. Peter " was substituted for the orig
" Christ " of the older versions.
71 Cf. above, notes 17 and 69, Handw6rterbuch des deutschen A berglaubens, IV,
col. 68 ff.

72 Fritz Hommel, Aufsitze und Abhandlungen, II, 1900, p. 267.-R. Campbell

Thompson, The devils and evil spirits of Babylonia, I, pp. 63, 77, 91, and passim,
generally p. xlii ff. : occasionally " they creep like a snake on their bellies " (p.
xlv)-just as our " worms ". Rightly Thompson recognizes them in the " seven
accursed brothers, accursed sons, destructive ones, sons of . . . destruction "
(op. cit., p. xliv) of Syriac charms still in use.
73 Hommel, op. cit., 1. c., note 2.
74 W. H. Roscher, Enneadische Studien, Leipzig 1907, passim.

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30 Animula Vagula Blandula...
seven.75 That may be true in a sense, but it can hardly be applied s
to periods and regions where more primitive peoples absorbed
tions of higher civilizations and adapted them to their own us
side by side with the " nine tonsil-sisters " (gladulae sorores) of Ma
Empiricus76 the " seven tonsils " (tusillae) in the " Medicine Pl
are exorcised, and while the mediaeval church practised or a
tolerated the exorcism of the demons causing feverish diseases as "
sisters ",78 Anglo-Saxon magicians exorcised " Noththe's nine sister

56 W. Schultz, " Gesetze der Zahlenverschiebung im Mythos ". Mittei

der anthropologischen Gesellschaft Wien, XL, 191, pp. 101-15o ; LIII, 19
266-297.
76 See above p. 19.
77 See above p. 19.
78 A. Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen im Mittelalter, II, 19o9, p. 47
p. 482 : " coniuro vos, frigores et febres, VII sorores sunt ... " or p. 483 : "
vos frigores, VII sorores, una dicitur ... " (the seven cryptographically
names of the seven sisters were ingeniously interpreted by F. Ohrt, H
Blitterfiir Volkskunde, XXIV, 1925, p. 38 ff.).
79 Cf. also the examples in notes 17-19 above.

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