Ploughing through Cotton Caligula A vii: Reading the Sacred Words of the Heliand and the Æcerbot

This article contributes to current discussions of Anglo-Saxon charms and their interaction with other texts of their manuscripts. The only surviving text of the Æcerbot charm is found in London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. vii, a manuscript which also contains the C version of the Heliand, and its texts have never been discussed together. My analysis undertakes a literary approach to the manuscript and highlights the interactions between its texts through their emphasis on sacred words of power in different circumstances. This approach offers a solution to the manuscript’s inconclusive material evidence and argues that the Æcerbot was added to the Heliand by the Anglo Saxons. The article also shows how this common focus reflects the agenda of communal edification during the Benedictine Reform.