Pécs 2007
Charms, Charming and Charmers
Conference at the Pécs Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, May 11th-13th, 2007.
The lovely South Hungarian town of Pécs turned for three days into the European capital city of magic, when the ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming held its first conference in May 2007. This international forum offered a wide range of approaches and topics and covered extensive time periods, starting with Hellenistic age, leading to the Middle Ages, Early Modern Times and reaching the contemporary Europe. Some papers represented the philological methods of studying old manuscripts, others dealt with typological issues, international spread and historical development of charm types, or offered ethnographic and folkloristic insights into modern magical practices, their social uses and interpretations. One of the key issues, handled by all participants, was the question of contextualization of charms – of finding the relevant empirical, theoretical and historical framework for the formulation of research problems and making charms meaningful as textual phenomena, religious practices or elements of culture.
A glimpse of the conference hall:
Judit Kis-Halas, Emanuela Cristina Timotin, Andrei Toporkov (1st row from the left); Tatiana Minniyakhmetova and Zuzana Profantova (2nd row); Arne Bugge Amundsen (3rd row).
Photo by Ülo Valk.
The conference, arranged by the ISFNR committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming, the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Pécs, Hungarian Ethnographical Society, The Folklore Society (London) and held in the historical building of the Pécs Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was a great success due to its clear focus and a rich variety of perspectives that were offered. Arranging the conference with no parallel sessions, with no plenary papers and offering equal amount of time to all speakers fostered the discussion in a democratic, friendly and hospitable atmosphere. Charms that were once regarded as a marginal genre of folklore have become a lively field of interdisciplinary knowledge production.
Here we should acknowledge the role of some international leaders, such as professor Éva Pócs, one of the main organizers of the conference, who has developed a strong school of research on charms, charming and witchcraft. Participants are thankful to the effective team of local organisers and to Jonathan Roper, who is the leader of the ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming and who played crucial role in arranging this international forum, bringing together scholars from many countries. The Folklore Society of London generously sponsored the wine reception of excellent Hungarian wines, inspiring dialogues and supporting participants in building networks and friendships.Ülo Valk
Tartu, Estonia
President of the Folklore Society, Will Ryan.
Photo by Ülo Valk.
The full version of this report was published in the 3rd issue of the ISFNR Newsletter.
Conference program:
Charms, Charmers and Charming
An International Conference
Friday, 11th May
10:00–11:00 Registration / Coffee
11:00–11:15 Opening of the conference
11:15–13:00 Session 1 (Chair: William Ryan)
Amundsen, Arne Bugge (Norway): A genre in the making – an analysis of the study of charms in Norway
Agapkina, Tatiana–Toporkov, Andrei (Russia): The project of charms’ index
Lielbardis, Aigars (Latvia): Charming traditions in nowadays Latvia
13:00–14:30 Lunch
14:30–16:30 Session 2 (Chair: Arne Bugge Amundsen)
Bozóky, Edina (France): Medieval narrative charms
Voigt, Vilmos (Hungary):’Báj-’. Historical development of ’charm’ terminology in Hungarian
Olsan, Lea T. (United Kingdom): The marginality of medieval charms
Stiùbhart, Domhnall Uilleam (United Kingdom): Scottish Gaelic charms and the creation of Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica (1900)
16:30–16:50 Coffee break
16:50–19:00 Session 3 (Chair: Vilmos Voigt)
Hoppál, Mihály (Hungary): Shamanic prayers or charms. Notes on the spirits in/of the text
Troeva-Grigorova, Evgenia (Bulgaria): Magical interaction with the other world. Dealing with demons
Tuczay, Christa (Austria): Up and away – the “godspeed” charm of the witches’ flight in protocols and as narrative elements in legends
Marks, Ljiljana (Croatia): ‘Not on wood, nor on stone...’ Magical formulae in Croatian legends about witches
19:30: Dinner
Saturday, 12th May
9:00–11:00 Session 4 (Chair: Lea Olsan)
Roper, Jonathan (United Kingdom): Estonian narrative charms in European context
Vaitkevièiene., Daiva (Lithuania): Baltic and Eastern Slavic charms: Typological parallels
Klyaus, Vladimir (Russia): Collation of Indoeuropean and non-Indoeuropean charm traditions (the Slavonic and Siberian material)
Minniyakhmetova, Tatiana (Austria/Russia): Charm parallels in Volga–Ural Region (Russia)
11:00–11:20 Coffee break
11:20–12:40 Session 5 (Chair: Ilona Nagy)
Bari¹iæ-Jokoviæ, Vanja (Serbia): Words that kill. Traditional curses in modern time
Profantova, Zuzana (Slovakia): Oaths, swearwords and curses (about the magic of words)
Bowman, Marion (United Kingdom): Cursing and Carma: cautious cursing in contemporary paganism
12:40–14:10 Lunch
14:10–16:10 Session 6 (Chair: Ülo Valk)
Raudalainen, Taisto-Kalevi (Estonia): The narrative (Aa-Th 803) and visual background of an Izhorian-Ingrian Finnish charm type.
Timotin, Emanuela Cristina (Romania): The nãjit (neuralgia) between prayers and charms. A study on the Romanian manuscript tradition
Bárth, Dániel (Hungary): Benediction and exorcism in early modern Hungary
Pócs, Éva (Hungary): Churchbenediction and popular charms in Hungary
15:50–16:10 Coffee break
16:10–16:50 Poster presentations
Domány, Judit (Hungary): Magic without Effect: Theocritus’ Idyll 2 reconsidered
Peti, Lehel (Romania/Hungary): The techniques of magical force in Moldavian csángó villages
Lehr, Urszula (Poland): Weather wizards and contemporary protecting resources
Dallos, Edina (Hungary): ‘The Magician and his Pupil’ (AaTh 325)
17:00–19:00 Meeting of the Collegium of ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charming and Charmers
/optional sightseeing in Pécs
19:30–20:30 Dinner
20:30 Wine reception given by The Folklore Society, London
Sunday, 13th May
9:00–11:00 Session 8 (Chair: Jonathan Roper)
Viljakainen, Maarit (Finland): The Virgin Mary in birth incantations
Ahsan, Mostofa Tarequl (Bangladesh): Charming as healing
BuŸeková, Tatiana (Slovakia): Two kinds of evil eye charms in Slovak rural tradition
Herjulfsdotter, Ritwa (Sweden): Folk therapy practices referred to in Swedish snake charms
11:00–11:20 Coffee break
11:20–12:50 Session 9 (Chair: Marion Bowman)
Kis-Halas, Judit (Hungary): Transformed tradition. The story of wax-casting women and their charms in South-Hungary
Iancu, Laura (Hungary): Magical curing of ‘bad illness’ in Moldavia (Romania)
Vivod, Maria (France): Suskálás – The ear-whispering. An example of charming from Hungary
13:00–14:30 Lunch
14:30–15:30 Session 10 (Chair: Éva Pócs)
Petreska, Vesna (Macedonia): The secret knowledge of the ’spell experts’ in Macedonian traditional culture
Butler, Jenny (Ireland): Neo-pagan charms
15:30 Closing discussion
16:00 Coffee
16:20 Visiting the Csontváry Museum
19:30 Dinner
The inaugural committee meeting of the ISFNR committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming, was held in Pecs, Saturday May 12th, 2007.
In short, the committee
1) agreed to hold one seminar on a particular topic in charms studies in 2008, possibly encounter charms (Begegnungsegen);
2) hopes to hold charms papers during the large ISFNR congress in Athens in the summer of 2009;
3) was informed that a book based on the London 2005 conference edited by J. Roper is due out in April 2008;
4) intends to produce a book based on the Pecs 2007 conference;
5) discussed forming an email discussion list on charms, charmers and charming;
6) expressed the desirability of publishing anthologies of the most typical (and most interesting) texts in bilingual editions;
7) expressed the desirability of expanding our range of contacts, especially to include specialists from southwestern Europe, classicists, and scholars from beyond Europe.