The Nine Plants Spell

The Nine Plants Spell
Nigon Wyrta Galdor

by
J. S. Hopkins

2024
Hyldyr
107 pp
Softcover
New

Vibrantly animistic and remarkably hypnotic, Nigon Wyrta Galdor—the so-called Nine Herbs Charm—is an Old English healing galdor that invokes nine personified plants and the pagan god Woden to defeat a serpent before exploding in a psychedelic climax.

One of the most mysterious items in the Old English corpus, and originally sang, chanted, or otherwise performed to treat an unknown malady, philologist Joseph S. Hopkins’s new translation of Nigon Wyrta Galdor provides a rare window into a living landscape from a lost time, dripping with mysticism and mystery, humming with life.

Introduced by Danielle Cudmore (Halmstad University, Sweden) and featuring illustrations by Rim Baudey and Anneke Wilder.

New to the second edition is new art from Rim Baudey and several new essays, including a dual edition of the text, making it over double the size of the first edition.