| Sumario: | Wið dweorh is one of the metrical charms in Lacnunga. Harley 585 is the sole manuscript in which the charm appears, and the text is fairly corrupt. The primary aims of the present study are to provide a fresh analysis of the multiple cruces in Wið dweorh with an eye towards establishing a viable text of the poem, and to elucidate the poem’s meaning and purpose, both of which are obscure. In order to do so, it will be necessary to look at the poem in its cultural and manuscript context. Though Grattan and Singer claim to have found a number of purely pagan charms and recipes in Lacnunga, all the texts they identify (as opposed to any preface or coda) also contain either invocations of Christ or the Christian God or are herbal recipes. The single exception is Wið dweorh, the title of which is usually translated ‘Against a Dwarf’ – though the preface of Wið dweorh places it too squarely within a Christian milieu.
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