medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A rather tardy contribution to this line of thought, but Marjorie's memories
of the origin of sneezing put me in mind of my own father, who told me that
we bless those who sneeze because of the Black Death (it seems that memories
of the Middle Ages lasted long in Jarrow ...)!
More pointedly, in early Welsh and Irish poetry (as in many other medieval
cultures), a sneeze - particularly at the start of a journey - was a bad
omen (see Jenny Rowland, `Early welsh Saga Poetry' 628–9; E. and M.A.
Radford, `Encyclopedia of Superstitions', 314–5; J. Morris-Jones, `Taliesin'
217. What mattered was how many times you sneezed, and under what
circumstances.
Best wishes,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Marjorie Greene
Sent: 14 February 2001 15:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: exsufflation
I had the perhaps naive impression that that's why we
"bless" people who sneeze, helping them to exsufflate
that inner demon.
MG
--- "Christopher M. Mislow" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> == From John Hall <[log in to unmask]> ==
> >> Blowing out or away as an exorcism or in token of
> renunciation of the
> devil
> >> New Oxford Shorter English Dictionary 1993
> >>
> >> "Christopher M. Mislow" <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >> "Exsufflating"? This is a new term to me (and to
> my supposedly
> unabridged
> >> Random House dictionary). What, praytell, does
> it -- and the action of
> >> exsufflating idols -- denote?
>
> Please forgive the admittedly off-topic speculation,
> but perhaps this
> practice is the origin of (or kindred to) that of
> "whistling in the
> graveyard" to ward off evil spirits.
>
> --Christopher
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