The Lorscher Bienensegen is an Amulet: Using Manuscript Margins to Make Amulets

Abstract

The Old High German Lorscher Bienensegen or Lorsch bee incantation is one of the best-known examples of a text that uses the power of words to influence the behaviour of bees. During the tenth century, this text was written upside down in the margins of the ninth-century manuscript Vatican, Cod. Pal. Lat. 220. It has long been assumed that the text is a written version of an oral tradition that was recited by beekeepers in and around the abbey of Lorsch. However, this raises the question of why someone would write such a text upside down in the margins of an older manuscript. Contrary to previous scholarship, I propose that the Lorsch bee incantation was intended to be used as an amulet which was to be placed in an apiary. To make this argument, I will first discuss other Bienensegen, several of which explicitly instruct their readers to write down the text to prevent bees from fleeing. Second, I will demonstrate that in
the manuscript that contains the incantation numerous parts of the margins were cut out. Thereby, I will suggest that the resulting strips of parchment could have been used to produce amulets. In short, I will argue that the Lorscher Bienensegen is an amulet.