Pagan Portals - Nine's a Charm : Herbs of the Anglo-Saxon Healing Poem

'A beautifully crafted, insightful book - sure to be a well-thumbed favourite on many bookshelves. It will certainly be on mine.' Thea Prothero, author of A Guide to PilgrimageNine's a Charm explores the world of the extraordinary properties of plants that are believed to be ingredients for the Galdr Healing Charm. Even today, their influence extends beyond culinary use and into the world of magic and medicine, a world the ancient peoples of the past knew much better than ourselves. While modern medicine is only beginning to unlock their medicinal value, some still perform practices intuitively connected to their mystical, magical properties. While this book concentrates on the value of the herbs themselves, Shani Oats's scholarly introduction to the historical origins and practices of the charm itself will give a more rounded view of a work that still fascinates scholars today - mostly due to the inability to accurately translate the whole text, where words and phrases are lost to the past or disguised for those who are uninitiated in the magical healing arts.