The so-called Journey Charm is one of the 12 Anglo-Saxon metrical charms written in Old English. It is a prayer written to summon protection from God and various other Christian figures from the hazards of the road. It is of particular interest as evidence for popular Anglo-Saxon Christian religion.
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Content
A Journey Charm was a Speech Act, or a performative incantation, chant or prayer that was performed before a journey to ward off evil on the journey. It mainly deals with a list of biblical characters, invoking their blessing, including everyone from Adam to Christ to Peter and Paul. The poem reflects the martial character of Anglo-Saxon Christian culture: Luke gives the journeyer a sword, Seraphim give him a "glorious spear of radiant good light", and he is well armed, with mail and shield too. The text gives us a unique insight into popular religious practices of Anglo-Saxon culture, and the particular rituals prescribed for journeys.
History
The charm survives in only one manuscript: the eleventh-century Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 41, where it is written into the margins of pp. 350-53.
This text is part of the movement from Oral Tradition to a Writing tradition, and so is marked as Transitional Literature- a type of go-between in which oral performances are copied, but some of the performance parts are lost, assumed to be inferred, or hinted at.