The Incantation against Snakebite from Norov’s Psalmbook – Linguistic and Historical Aspects

Hristo Saldzhiev

doi:10.18778/2084-140X.14.19

Authors

Hristo Saldzhiev Plovdiv University – Paisii Hilendarski, Faculty of Philology, Department of History of Bulgarian Language and Common Linguistic; Trakia University – Stara Zagora, Faculty of Education, Department of Pedagogical and Social Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4116-6600

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.14.19

Keywords:

incantation, ecstatic speech, secret language, Norov’s Psalmbook

Abstract

The paper explores the linguistic and cultural patterns behind an oral incantation against snakebite that appears on the last page of a Middle Bulgarian book of psalms. The manuscript dates back to the 14^th century, and was created in the Eastern regions of Medieval Bulgaria, observing the orthography of the Tarnovo Literary traditions. The Russian traveller Norov found the book of psalms during a trip to the Holy Land at the beginning of the 19^th century and brought it to Russia. The incantation contains a significant number of words of unclear origin. Yatsimirskiy – the first researcher of this incantation – offers two possible explanations about the source language that allude either to its derivation from an Oriental tongue, or to local folklore practices. Modern Russian researchers maintain the hypothesis about its folklore origin and emphasise its opening words sarandara/marandara as an example of ritual nonsense speech – in their view, this could have been a popular phenomenon in the ethnic religious practices of Slavic communities. After a linguistic analysis of the text and its unclear words, I hypothesise that the words belong to one of a range at used the incantation.

Downloads

References

Anna Comnena, Alexies, [in:] Fontes graeci historiae bulgaricae, vol. VIII, ed. M. Voynov, V. Tapkova-Zaimova, L. Yonchev, Sofia 1972, p. 7–149.
Google Scholar

Anton Stefanov, Doklad za poseshtenieto na nikopolskiya episkop, [in:] Dokumenti za katolicheskata deynost v Balgariya prez XVII vek, ed. B. Primov, P. Sariyski, M. Yovkov, Sofija 1993.
Google Scholar

Fr. Petri Bogdani Bakšić, Episcopi Gallipoliensis et coadiutoris Sophiensis, de statu ecclesiae suae relatio accuratissima cum notis cuiusdam in margine adpostis L. A. 1640, [in:] Acta Bulgariae ecclesiastica, ed. E. Fermendzsin, Zagrabiae 1887, p. 68–106.
Google Scholar

Niketas Choniates, O City of Byzantium. Annals of Niketas Choniates, Detroit 1984.
Google Scholar

Paul Rycaut, Segashnoto sastoyanie na Osmanskata imperiya i gratskata tsarkva, Sofija 1988.
Google Scholar

Petar Bogdan Bakshev, Opisanie na tsarstvo Balgariya, [in:] Petar Bogdan Bakshev. Balgarski istorik i politik ot XVII vek, ed. B. Dimitrov, Sofija 2001, p. 124–148.
Google Scholar

Petar Solinat, Doklad na sofiyskiya episkop Petar Solinat do Sabornata kongregatsiya v Rim ot 1622 g., [in:] Dokumenti za katolicheskata deynost v Balgariya prez XVII vek, ed. B. Primov, P. Sariyski, M. Yovkov, Sofija 1993.
Google Scholar

Petri Siculi, Historia Manichaeorum seu Paulicianorum, Gottingae 1846.
Google Scholar

Slovo kak se poyaviha pavlikyanite, [in:] D. Radeva, Pavlikyani i pavlikyanstvo v balgarskite zemi – arhetip i povotoreniya VII–XVII vek, Sofija 2015.
Google Scholar

Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, [in:] Fontes graeci historiae bulgaricae, vol. III, ed. I. Duychev, G. Tsankova-Petkova, V. Tapkova-Zaimova, L. Yonchev, P. Tivchev, Sofija 1960, p. 226–289.
Google Scholar

Almazov A., Apokrificheskie molitvy’, zaklinaniia i zagavory’, Odessa 1901.
Google Scholar

Argirov S., Kam balgarskite tayni ezitsi. Bratsigovskite meshterovski (dylgerski) i chalgadzhiyski taen ezik, “Сборник на Българското книжовно дружество в София” / “Sbornik na Bălgarskoto knižovno družestvo v Sofija” 1, 1901, p. 1–41.
Google Scholar

Avramenko O., Paharenko V., Ukarïns’ka Literatura. Pïdruchnik dlya 10 klasu zagalnoosvïtnïh navchal’nih zakladïv (rïven’ standartu, akademïchniy rïven’), Kiïv 2010.
Google Scholar

Brockelmann C., Lexicon Syriacum, Niemeyer 1928.
Google Scholar

Budziszewska W., Z problematyki obcości w języku magii, [in:] Język a kultura, vol. IV, Funkcje języka i wypowiedzi, ed. J. Bartmiński, R. Grzegorczykowa, Wrocław 1991, p. 87–91.
Google Scholar

Çağbayır Y., Orhun Yazıtlarından Günümüze Türkiye Türkçesinin Söz Varlığı, vol. VI, İstanbul 2016.
Google Scholar

Çağbayır Y., Orhun Yazıtlarından Günümüze Türkiye Türkçesinin Söz Varlığı, vol. VIII, İstanbul 2016.
Google Scholar

Cheshko E., Bunina I., Dybo V., Kniazevskaia O., Naumenko L., Norovskaia psalty’r’. Srednobolgarskaia rukopis’ XIV veka, vol. I–II, Sofija 1989.
Google Scholar

Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, https://cal.huc.edu/ [31 VIII 2024].
Google Scholar

Georgieva I., Nestinarstvoto v Strandzha, [in:] Kulturno-istorièskoto nasledtsvo na Strandzha-Sakar, ed. V. Fol, Sofija 1987, p. 105–114.
Google Scholar

Gollancz H., Book of Protection Being a Collection of Charms, London 1912.
Google Scholar

Hillers D., Cussini E., Palmyrene Aramaic Texts, Baltimore–London 1966.
Google Scholar

Hoftijzer J., Jongeling K., Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions, vol. II, Leiden 1995.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004294240_002

Iatsimirskïĭ A., Apokrify’ i legendy’. K’’ istorïi apokrifov’’, legend’’ i lozhnyh’’ molitv’’ v’’ yuzhnoslaianskoï pis’mennosti, Petrograd’’ 1915.
Google Scholar

Jastrow M., A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London–New York 1903.
Google Scholar

Kier A., “Instruments of the Old Faith”. Magical Words in Three Medieval South Slavic Healing Rites for Snakebite, “Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne” 3, 2012, p. 75–87, https://doi.org/10.14746/pss.2012.3.4
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/pss.2012.3.4

Koić E., Filaković P., Nađ S., Ćelić I., Glossolalia, “Collegium Antropologicum” 1, 2005, p. 373–379.
Google Scholar

Levkievskaia E., Zaum’ kak raznovidnost’ ritual’noĭ rechi slavian, [in:] Slavianskie drevnosti. Ėtnolingvisticheskiĭ slovar’, vol. II, ed. N. Tolstoĭ, Moskva 1999, p. 279–282.
Google Scholar

MacKenzie D., A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary, London 1986.
Google Scholar

Moriggi M., A Corpus of Syriac Incantation Bowls. Syriac Magical Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia, Leiden 2014 [= Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity, 3], https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004272798
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004272798

Nechuĭ-Levits’kiĭ Ï., Kaĭdasheva sĭm’ia, Kiïv 2010.
Google Scholar

Notarfonso С., Il rito del kurban tra i pauliciani bulgari: le fonti missionarie (secoli XVII–XVIII), “Storicamente” 18, 2022, p. 1–41, https://doi.org/10.52056/9791254691984/44
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.52056/9791254691984/44

Payne-Smith R., A Compendious Syriac Dictionary, Oxford 1903.
Google Scholar

Plotnikova A., Fol’klornyy tekst absurd v yuzhnoslavyanskom sele XX veka, [in:] Absurd i vokrug, ed. G. Ritts, D. Vays, Moskva 2004, p. 397–414.
Google Scholar

Prostranno zhitie na Teodosiĭ Tŭrnovski ot patriarkh Kalist, [in:] Stara bŭlgarska literatura IV. Zhitiepisni tvorbi, ed. D. Petkanova, Sofija 1986, p. 443–467.
Google Scholar

Radenković, L., Apocryphal Prayers and Apotropaisms among Southern Slavs, “Balcanica” 28, 1997, p. 151–163.
Google Scholar

Sokoloff M., A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period, Ramat Gan 2002.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.56021/9780801872341

Starobalgarski rechnik, vol. I, Sofija 1999.
Google Scholar

Steingass F., A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, London 1963.
Google Scholar

Tsonkova S., Charms, Amulets, and Crisis Rites: Verbal Magic in Daily Life in Medieval and Early Modern Bulgaria, PhD Thesis, Budapest 2015.
Google Scholar

Vostokov A., Opisanïe rukopisnyh’’ i pechatnyh’’ knig’’ Slovenskih’’ prinadlezhashtih’’, G. Norovu, “Журнал Министерства Народного Просвещения” / “Žurnal Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshtenija” 11, 1836, p. 529–551.
Google Scholar

Zellmann-Rohrer М., The Tradition of Greek and Latin Incantations and Related Ritual Texts from Antiquity Through the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, Berkeley 2016.
Google Scholar