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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The thistle-mistle formula in the Viking Age and Nordic Middle Ages – Form, function, and symbolic value

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description

The paper aims to shed new light on the thistle-mistle formula in the famous Bósa saga and in a series of younger runic inscriptions, including some hitherto unpublished runic scribbles on a churchwall in Denmark. The author explores different graphological representations and disgui¬sed variants of this runic formula to get to grips with its positive and/or negative content. Thus, the thistle-mistle formula in the Nordic Viking Age and Middle Ages is identified as a clear-cut case of the written, visual formula which may be deliberately disguised for magical reasons. Based on Harris (1975) and Mitchell (1998), the author argues that this is a prototypical fertility formula which can be charged positively or negatively. The background of the thistle and the mistle in terms of folklore, medieval medicine and cultural history is drawn into this discussion as well. The bottom-line is that this runic formula fulfilled a spectrum of diverse functions: from potential fertility charms via protective- apotropeic blessings to charms of impotence and infertility. This interpretation is supported by the belief that several plants and trees in older times (e.g. the thistle and the juniper) deter the dead from returning and keep the person in question down. A case in point is the use of curses in Bósa saga.