How did people heal in a world without a pharmacy? With herbs, with knowledge – and with a charm to go with it. An Old English poem, the Nine Herbs Charm, opens a window into Germanic healing: nine healing plants stand beside the god Woden, who slays a serpent with nine twigs. Medicine and magic were one and the same.
The Nine Herbs Charm (Old English Nigon Wyrta Galdor) is an Old English spell recorded in the 10th century. It stands in the manuscript Harley 585 of the British Library, a collection of medical recipes known as the Lacnunga. The charm names nine healing plants, usually listed as mugwort, plantain, lamb's cress, betony, chamomile, nettle, crab-apple, chervil and fennel – and accompanies their preparation with spoken words.
In the middle of the charm a god appears. It is one of only two clear mentions of Woden in Old English poetry:
“Ða genam Woden nigon wuldortanas” – “Then Woden took nine glory-twigs, smote the serpent so that it flew into nine parts.” Nine Herbs Charm, Lacnunga (Harley 585), Old English original text, public domain
Some scholars suspect the nine “glory-twigs” were little rods, each inscribed with the initial rune of a plant – herb and rune, healing and sign thought together. The numbers nine and three, meaningful in Germanic belief, run through the whole charm.
The charm is a hybrid: ancient heathen at its core, but handed down and lightly reworked by Christian hands. The translator R. K. Gordon called it “clearly an old heathen thing which has been subjected to Christian censorship.” That is exactly what makes it so valuable: it shows how Germanic healing really sounded before the monasteries smoothed it over.
One plant deserves special attention: the leek. In the North it counted as a sign of growth, thriving and healing power – so much so that a whole rune is named after it: laukaʀ, the leek sign, which was carved on amulets. Herbs and runes, garden and spell lay close together. More about these power-words is in our piece on rune magic.
Much of this healing was real experiential knowledge: mugwort, plantain and fennel are still recognised medicinal plants today, and archaeobotany finds such herbs in Viking-age settlements. Other parts were ritual and hope. Both belonged together – whoever healed also spoke.
The Nine Herbs Charm is an Old English metrical charm of the 10th century, preserved in the Lacnunga (British Library, Harley 585). It names nine healing plants (including mugwort, plantain, chamomile, nettle, fennel) and contains one of two clear mentions of Woden in Old English poetry. The numbers nine and three are present throughout; one reading sees the “nine twigs” as rune-inscribed rods. The text is Old English (West Germanic), thus related to, but not identical with, the Old Norse world.
“The Vikings had a secret herbal lore” is too romantic. The Nine Herbs Charm is Old ENGLISH, not Old Norse – it shows the shared Germanic root, not specifically “the Vikings.” And it is preserved in a Christianised reworking; how much is exactly heathen remains scholarly interpretation. What is certain are the plants (attested archaeobotanically) and the Woden verse in the text – not a demonstrable magical effect.
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