Thank you very much, Paul.
My apologies if what follows is too rambling for the list, but
I'm trying to work out the origin and semiotics of crossed fingers
for a section of an essay I'm writing.
I was actually skimming through the Anglo-Saxon Monasteriales
Indicia yesterday in the hopes of finding something useful,
but all I found were a couple signs for requesting a cross: laying
one's index fingers across each other and putting up a thumb or a
pinky depending on the size of cross wanted.
In that vein, I was hoping, faintly, for something more like the
charms and recipes in the Lacnunga and Bald's
Leechbook, something that puts holy signs and
objects to uses closer to what we think of as magic or popular
religion--though anything surviving in MS form passed through some
form of learned vetting. It seems likely to crop up in guides to
monastic communication only as a warning against perverting the
signs to vulgar use, or in a rule or penitential handbook. It
would be nice if it popped up in Aelfric Bata's Colloquies
with some of the other bad behavior, but alas.
Thank you for the Bruce article. It's a lovely introduction, and he does mention warnings against using the signs at certain times, but doesn't say anything about specific sign restrictions. I'll have to look in his monograph again. It may be that such things would have constituted such an egregious breach that rule writers didn't think they need not be mentioned. Or they didn't want to give people ideas.
Gerald of Wales' description of the Canterbury refectory riotous
with signs is delightful, but he's satirizing excess and
hypocrisy, not the misuse of any particular sign. (Giraldi
Cambrensis Opera Omnia 4.39-40)
--
More generally, I would expect the sign to be older: it would
have made an easy, private Christian cross, though there may not
be any traces of it, and might have appeared in other cultures as
well since it's such an easy gesture to make, one that does seem
to lend itself to notions of warding or union of opposites or
even, as Panati suggests, a trapping or keeping close, as well as
any other meanings common to pre-Christian crosses.
It makes natural sense as a wishing gesture since it can be
private or selectively shared (as can the lying mode), much like a
wink. One often doesn't want to wish in a grandiose way, so its
nice to have a small gesture. Also, you can vary the pressure,
squeezing more tightly to impart extra power to the wish without
causing any disturbance. I suppose this also works for lying: the
greater the lie, the more you squeeze, perhaps adding your other
hand as well.
Are there other instances, early or late, of crossed fingers? The OED (I sometimes forget they have phrases) is still my best source:
I can't figure out how to make IC XP with my hands with my
fingers crossed, so I can't tell if it's the usual middle finger
over index cross, and the 1773 quotation sounds more like a
descriptive use of crossing the figures and so not much use to me.
Otherwise, 1889 is the earliest citation for a lucky use, and 1895
for a lying use.
Thanks again to anyone who can help!
Steve
On 7/22/2018 1:55 AM, Paul Chandler wrote:
[log in to unmask]"> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and cultureSteve, there is a fairly large literature on monastic sign language, where you may, or may not, find something of help. There is a good starting bibliography in the wikipedia article (I know, I know -- I used to forbid students to use it, too):
This work on Cistercian sign language (the last to survive as an living form of communication, I think), is well-regarded:Robert Barakat,The Cistercian sign language : a study in non-verbal communication, (Cistercian Studies Series; 11), Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications, 1975.
Also: Scott G. Bruce, "The Origins of Cistercian Sign Language", Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses 52 (2001), which is online here:
There is no doubt much more, and more specific to your question, but I hope this may be a start. -- Paul
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On 22 July 2018 at 14:56, Stephen Barker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture******************************
Hello all,
I’ve been lurking on this list for a number of years. I’m a doctoral candidate at Ohio State, studying shamelessness in Anglo-Saxon England, but this is a non-dissertation query. I’m trying to find early primary sources that refer to crossed fingers, particularly as used to avert the consequences of lying, though instances of more general warding, wishing, and blessing would also be welcome. Not the sign of the cross, unless it seems relevant, just crossed fingers.
I haven’t been able to find any scholarly articles in the usual places (university library, WorldCat, IMB, L’Année Philologique). All I’ve been able to find are poorly sourced claims in Wikipedia and various internet articles that seem to trace back to a couple paragraphs in Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati (infamously credulous of the spoon-bending psychic Uri Geller), which is also seemingly unsourced and quite fanciful. I include it here to establish the state of the field, at least in the popular presses.
He claims the gesture was originally a two-person operation:
The popular gesture grew out of the pagan belief that a cross was a symbol of perfect unity; and that its point of intersection marked the dwelling place of beneficent spirits. A wish made on a cross was supposed to be anchored steadfastly at the cross’s intersection until that desire was realized. The superstition was popular among many early European cultures. […]
Originally, in crossing fingers for good luck, the index finger of a well-wisher was placed over the index finger of the person expressing the wish, the two fingers forming a cross. While one person wished, the other offered mental support to expedite the desire. As time elapsed, the rigors of the custom eased, so that a person could wish without the assistance of an associate. It sufficed merely to cross the index and the middle fingers to form an X, the Scottish cross of St. Andrew.
Is there anything solid in this confection? I could imagine an icthys finger gesture like he’s describing, but I’ve never heard of one.
Thanks for any leads!
All best,
Steve Barker
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