The gods’ incantations are to be understood as the source of the formula
‘bone to bone’, etc.
Many later versions of this spell have been recorded from Scandinavia and
Britain (in English and Gaelic), and one each from Latvia and Russia.^65 The
narrative opening is often preserved. One Swedish version still has Oden,
and one from Benbecula has Bride, that is, St Brigit, who goes back to a
pre-Christian goddess, but otherwise the pagan deities are replaced by Jesus.
What is most persistent is the cluster of parallel phrases of the ‘bone to bone’
type, though with variation in the actual organs named: marrow to marrow,
sinew to sinew, etc. It is attested also in Old Irish: the spell with which Míach
re-attached Núadu’s severed hand is given as ault fri halt di ocus féith fri féth
‘joint to joint of it and sinew to sinew’ (Cath Maige Tuired line 135 Gray).
Adalbert Kuhn identified a much older parallel in a passage in the
Atharvaveda:^66
yát te ris
̇t
̇ám
̇, yát te dyuttám | ásti, pés
̇t
̇ram
̇ta a ̄tmáni,
Dha ̄ta ̄ tád bhadráya ́ ̄ púnah
̇
| sám
̇
dadhat párus
̇
a ̄ páruh
̇
.
sám
̇majja ́ ̄ majjña ̄ ́ bhavatu, | sám u te párus
̇a ̄ páruh
̇,
sám
̇
te ma ̄m
̇
sásya vísrastam, | sám
̇
sna ̄va, sám u párva te; ́
majja ́ ̄ majjña ́ ̄ sám
̇dhı ̄yata ̄m, | cárman
̇a ̄ cárma rohatu;
ásr
̇
k te asna ̄ ́ rohatu, | ma ̄m
̇
sám
̇
ma ̄m
̇
séna rohatu.
lóma lómna ̄ sám
̇kalpaya ̄, | tvaca ́ ̄ sám
̇kalpaya ̄ tvácam;
asthna ́ ̄ te ásthi rohatu: | chinnám
̇
sám
̇
dhehi os
̇
adhe.
sót tis
̇t
̇ha, préhi, prá drava | ráthah
̇sucakráh
̇supavíh
̇suna ́ ̄bhih
̇.
–– práti tis
̇
t
̇
hordhváh
̇
.
What of you is torn, what of you is broken (or) crushed,
let Dha ̄tr
̇
put it auspiciously back together, joint with joint.
Together be marrow with marrow, together your joint with joint,
together your flesh’s sundered part, together sinew, together your limb;
marrow with marrow together be set, with skin skin let grow;
blood with your blood let grow, flesh with flesh let grow.
Hair with hair together fit, with hide together fit hide;
bone with your bone let grow: set the severed together, O herb.
So stand up, go on, run on (as) a chariot well-wheeled, well-tyred, well-naved.
–– Standfirm upright.(^65) A. Kuhn (as n. 60), 51–7, 151–4; Grimm (1883–8), 1231–3, 1694 f., 1868; Oskar Ebermann,
Blut- und Wundsegen (Berlin 1903), 1–24 (the fullest collection of Germanic material); Car-
michael (1928–59), ii. 18 f., 20 f.; iv. 214 f. Another variant appears in Peter Carey’s novel The True
History of the Kelly Gang, 82; in answer to an enquiry Mr Carey informed me that he found it in
an old book of Irish popular lore.
(^66) AV 4. 12. 2–6. I have adopted some variants from the Paippala ̄da recension (AV Paipp. 4.
- 1–3), following Watkins (1995), 524, and made a couple of minor sandhi adjustments for the
sake of the metre.
8. Hymns and Spells 337