Knowledge skills for Mythology

[Inky]

Christianity has a little of this too - well-known legends that are not actually from any Bible or in official church teaching. Fan-fiction, you might call it. For instance, a lot of mediaeval carols feature apocryphal or plain made-up incidents from the life of Jesus, e.g. "King Herod and the Cock" or "The Miraculous Harvest". And as some of you may know, "Lucifer" was never supposed to be another name for the devil, but somehow it stuck. And there's the legend about how Mary Magdalene may or may not have married Jesus and may or may not have settled in Provence, which maybe actually has ancient origins but, whether it has or not, seems to have been embroidered on many ways by many different people!

And then there's things that happen when magic gets in on the act - which may involve making mythology up on purpose. Going by a few odds and ends I've read, there seems to be a Germanic tradition of making spells by describing a completely made-up incident where the gods did the thing you're trying to do.

This is an example known as the Second Merseburg Charm (originally in Old High German):

Phol and Wodan were riding to the woods,
and the foot of Balder's foal was sprained
So Sinthgunt, Sunna's sister, conjured it;
and Frija, Volla's sister, conjured it;
and Wodan conjured it, as well he could:

So bone-sprain, so blood-sprain, so joint-sprain:
Bone to bone, blood to blood,
joints to joints, so may they be glued.

And this, from Norway, is apparently the same spell translated into Christian:

Jesus rode to the heath,
There he rode the leg of his colt in two.
Jesus dismounted and heal'd it;
Jesus laid marrow to marrow,
Bone to bone, flesh to flesh;
Jesus laid thereon a leaf,
That it might remain in the same place.

And here is a strange object from a book called The Long-Lost Friend, a collection of various spells and remedies by a German living in Pennsylvania.

TO SPELL-BIND A THIEF HE THAT HE CANNOT STIR.

This benediction must be spoken on a Thursday morning, before sunrise and in the open air:

"Thus shall rule it, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Thirty-three Angels speak to each other coming to administer in company with Mary. Then spoke dear Daniel, the holy one: Trust, my dear woman, I see some thieves coming who intend stealing your dear babe; this I cannot conceal from you. Then spake our dear Lady to Saint Peter: I have bound with a band, through Christ's hand; therefore, my thieves are bound even by the hand of Christ, if they wish to steal mine own, in the house, in the chest, upon the meadow or fields, in the woods, in the orchard, in the vineyard, or in the garden, or wherever they intend to steal. Our dear Lady said: Whoever chooses may steal; yet if anyone does steal, he shall stand like a buck, he shall stand like a stake, and shall count all the stones upon the earth, and all the stars in the heavens. Thus I give thee leave, and command every spirit to be master over every thief, by the guardianship of Saint Daniel, and by the burden of this world's goods. And the countenance shall be unto thee, that thou canst not move from the spot, as long as my tongue in the flesh shall not give thee leave. This I command thee by the Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, by the power and might by which he has created heaven and earth, by the host of all the angels, and by all the saints of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen." If you wish to set the thief free, you must tell him to leave in the name of St. John.