Hey, Professor Mitchell!

With Halloween just around the corner, FM is keeping an eye out for any charms or hexes that might bewitch the undergraduate community (leaving you free to worry about more important issues, such as how to turn a teddy into a Halloween costume: see this week’s 15 list for hints). We turned to Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore and Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology Stephen A. Mitchell for some tips.



“An… item, carved some time before 1248, was unearthed in Bergen on a small wooden stave... It reads: ‘You will f**k Rannveig the Red. It will be bigger than a man’s pr*ck and smaller than a horse’s pr*ck.’ There can be little doubt but that one of the individuals whose fate was conjured on this charm—its 2nd person ‘you’—believed the inscription capable of directing the future (and especially the object of the owner’s lust)....



Let me close with another runic charm, perhaps more appropriate to Halloween, this time one for protection: “[I] practice witchcraft against the spirit, against the walking [spirit], against the riding, against the running, against the sitting, against the sinking, against the travelling, against the flying. Everything shall loose its vitality and die.”





FM’s note: combining the two will allow you to make the most of that teddy and watch your back at the same time.