Learnings: Magic and Medicine

Remedy against "feondes costungum" / 10th cent.

Bald's Leechbook, a 10th-century medical book, shows how magical beliefs endured in the world of medicine. The book included remedies against sicknesses caused by eleves, goblins, or the Devil himself.

If a person was suffering from "Elf Disease", they felt a pain as though they had been shot. According to some, this was because they had been shot—with an Eleven arrow.

The book also included suggestions to fend off attacks by a more canonical Christian enemy: the Devil. In this page, the Leechbook suggests a remedy against all feondes costungum: all "temptations of the devil".