The German tradition of the Three Good Brothers charm

The so called Three Good Brothers charm (in German Drei Brüder Segen) is part of a rich corpus of Medieval remedies against bleeding and wounds. The text has a bipartite structure with a dialogical historiola in which Jesus Christ reveals the brothers how to cure all kind of wounds. As it also contains the Longinus motif it is also referred to as a “Longinus charm”. The charm, whose origin is probably the Latin Tres boni fratres, has a very long and rich manuscript tradition which begins in the 12-13th century in almost all European languages. The most significant features of this text are its linguistic, geographic and time extension, and a peculiar motif-combination. The 26 German versions survive in 24 manuscripts written between the 13th and the 17th century; the central chapter of the present book deals with the description and transcription of those manuscripts. The oldest German variant of the 13th century is also known as Münchener Wundsegen “Munic wounds Charm” (Clm. 23374, f. 16v, see Chapter 2.16). The rich motifs collection and the different manuscript versions have hitherto inhibited a philological edition with traditional methods, but the difficulty to find the "original text" or the "best manuscript" should not impede a philological analysis of the text. This book advances a combination between rigorous philological analysis and investigation of the variants as a proof of the circulation of the text in everyday life. The purpose of this book is to enhance the study of the Three Good Brothers charm by inquiring into the matter of oral discourse and of variability of the text. At the same time, the book seeks to suggest a different method for editing variant-texts. The sections contained in chapter 1 focus on theoretical and methodological issues as well as on a review on other studies on this charm. The purpose of chapter 1 is to draw attention to the assumed oral origin of the text, the presumed double transmission (oral and written) and, as a consequence, to the philological problems. This chapter argues that there is no original version and therefore asserts that it does not have any sense to look for the oldest, the original, the pure text. After examining some crucial theoretical points it focuses on the method or methods which may be applied to investigate this text. The second chapter is a review of all the manuscripts containing the German version of the charm. Each one is described following the catalogues and adding personal observations. A truthful transcription of all the German versions as they are written in the manuscripts is here given for the first time, along with images of manuscripts. In chapter three all the motifs pattern are compared and analyzed. After having examined all the known German versions the concluding chapter advances a cultural and linguistic overview. At the end, an appendix files all other versions of the charm in other languages (including Latin) and all the charms which in some way resemble the Three Good Brothers charm or contain one or more of its motifs. The texts collected in the Appendix are quoted from other studies and not always have been checked in the manuscripts, but they may be useful as a comparison. The book mainly addresses scholars and students of German philology and historical linguistics but the result of my research may be also useful to medievalists and to specialists in folklore and folk narrative studies."