Emittente, destinatario ed esecutore nei testi di carattere magico in inglese antico

Abstract

Old English magical texts are an integral part of speech acts aimed at healing people or repairing any kind of damage. They involve a sender (the sorcerer/expert healer), an addressee (a disease or a patient) and a performer. Sometimes the sender is the performer of the magical acts, but, on other occasions, sender and performer are two different participants in the same magical act. Indeed, imperative verb forms, such as Old English wrīt, cweð, sing, gang swīgende, imply the presence of a sorcerer/magician addressing a performer with directives and instructions in order to provide patients with some help and face a disease or a negative situation. Moreover, the performer can sometimes become a new sender with his own addressee(s). The present paper aims to highlight the relationships among the participants in magical speech acts in Old English magical texts and to show how this can contribute to identify the various magical text genres.