The Anxiety of Writing: A Reading of the Old English Journey Charm

For my analysis of Journey Charm I am mainly interested in the manuscript, not only as physical evidence of transitional literacy but also in the literal sense of the word of writing by hand. Therefore my focus will be on the scribe's relationship with the charm's speaking subject that is silenced in the process of being written down. By the same token, the entire charm is transformed from spoken words to voiceless signs. Inescapably, a written Journey Charm replaces enchanting activities with a semiotic representation, thus losing some of its original spell.