Alt fri alt ocus féith fri féith!

(joint * to * joint * and * sinew * to * sinew)

Joint to joint and sinew to sinew!

This spell to heal a broken limb is found earliest in Irish literature in “Cath Maige Tuired”. Dían Cécht replaced Núadu’s severed hand with a silver prosthesis that could move like a normal hand. But Míach, the son of Dían Cécht, was not satisfied with that. “Atréracht-sim don láim ⁊ atbert ‘ault fri halt di ⁊ féith fri féth’, ⁊ ícuis fri téorai nómaidhe.” (He came to the hand and said ‘joint to joint of it and sinew to sinew’, and he healed it in nine days.) Similar tellings are found in the various versions of Lebor Gabála Érenn, and there are several versions of the same formula in Scottish Gaelic. One of these, quoted by Macalister in the notes to his edition of LGÉ, is:

Chaidh Crìosd air muin each donn,
’S bhrist each donn a chois.
Chuir Crìosd a smuais ri smuais,
Cnàimh ri cnàimh ’s feòil ri feòil,
’S shlànaich cois each donn.

In an article in ZCP 33, Rolf Ködderitzsch gives versions of the formula stretching across Indo-European time and space from India’s Atharvaveda (IV.12) to versions similar to the Scottish one from Norway and Shetland.

Topics: Incantations & Spells