Am reading a work on poetry and Christianity by Amos Wilder. He early on establishes the connection between oracles, priests, and poets. The "the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter" of Isaiah 8; incantations, etc.
In making his argument, he wrote that "to put it in latin terms the poet was the vates and the poem the carmen (charm)..." I'd known that "carmen" meant song/poem, but this charm thing, that's cool...so I checked the dictionary and:
Etymology: Middle English charme, from Middle French, from Latin carmen song, from canere to sing -- more at CHANT
Date: 14th century. Oooh, the wonders of Ecceliastic latin.
That was all cool, but what blew my mind was this: two paragraphs down he uses the word "shaman" to speak of tribal priests...and he uses coolly and collectedly, without pointing out any connection to the word "charm." I am feeling a bit tantalized: he must have meant for the reader to discover it on his own, but if he didn't, then I just did some nifty detective work...if I'd been writing that book, you can be sure I'd not have left that tidbit so humbly unmentioned.
Anyway, "shaman" is not amerindian, as I'd thought, but Persian/Hind, so part of the indo-european language group...so related to "charmer."
Cool.
In making his argument, he wrote that "to put it in latin terms the poet was the vates and the poem the carmen (charm)..." I'd known that "carmen" meant song/poem, but this charm thing, that's cool...so I checked the dictionary and:
Etymology: Middle English charme, from Middle French, from Latin carmen song, from canere to sing -- more at CHANT
Date: 14th century. Oooh, the wonders of Ecceliastic latin.
That was all cool, but what blew my mind was this: two paragraphs down he uses the word "shaman" to speak of tribal priests...and he uses coolly and collectedly, without pointing out any connection to the word "charm." I am feeling a bit tantalized: he must have meant for the reader to discover it on his own, but if he didn't, then I just did some nifty detective work...if I'd been writing that book, you can be sure I'd not have left that tidbit so humbly unmentioned.
Anyway, "shaman" is not amerindian, as I'd thought, but Persian/Hind, so part of the indo-european language group...so related to "charmer."
Cool.
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