What do you do when your bees are flying away, strange worms are making you ill, and your horse can no longer walk? In the early Middle Ages, people could turn to animal incantations: short texts that use the power of words to control, expel, and heal animals. In this way, they could tell their bees to sit still when swarming, combat disease-causing worms with the Book of Job, and heal horses by inscribing pentagrams and the Crede on amulets.
This thesis examines incantations for bees, worms, and horses in early medieval Latin manuscripts (ca. 750 – ca. 1050) from continental Europe. It asks what these incantations were meant to accomplish, how they used different techniques to achieve those goals, and what their manuscript contexts reveal about the people who produced, copied, and used them in their everyday lives.
Based in part on sources newly uncovered by the MINiTEXTS-project, this thesis reappraises animal incantations as products of early medieval intellectual culture. These texts show how early medieval clerics creatively blended a wide range of expertise to create effective remedies. These experts drew on the Bible, medical manuscripts, and local knowledge to live alongside the bees that provided them with wax, the worms that threatened their lives, and the horses that they used for transport.
Tim Sebastiaan Hertogh successfully defended his thesis on 5 June 2026.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: Medieval (critical) animal studies and the early Middle Ages.
Evaluation committee
- Senior Lecturer Richard Sowerby, University of Edinburgh (first opponent)
- Professor Sophie Page, University College London (second opponent)
- Professor Anders Winroth, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
- Associate Professor Caitlin Ellis, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Ildar Garipzanov, University of Oslo
- Carine van Rhijn, Utrecht University