Open AccessMaria Lactans and the Three Good Brothers
Author(s) -
Cianci Eleonora
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
incantatio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2228-1371
pISSN - 2228-1355
DOI - 10.7592/incantatio2012_1_cianci
Subject(s) - oath , motif (music) , german , charm (quantum number) , literature , trace (psycholinguistics) , art , middle ages , history , philosophy , linguistics , aesthetics , theology , physics , quantum mechanics
This paper investigates a single motif embedded in the German version of the Three Good Brothers Charm: the oath on Mary’s milk. The charm for wounds has a very rich manuscript tradition and an incredible number of different versions in several languages due to a (plausible) parallel oral tradition; however, although each manuscript seems to arrange the motif pattern in a different way, it is possible to trace a kind of recurring layout. The reiteration of Mary’s milk in the different versions reveals a very old cultural tradition and a developing symbolic meaning of the Virgin in the Middle Ages.