word
Spell
Speech or writing meant to effect a change. Grimoire recipes and folk charms are local crafts, not one universal spell-language.
Egyptian religion
Spell appears in Egyptian religion.
Faulkner’s Book of the Dead is a shifting corpus of funerary spells for the dead. A named Egyptian spell-speech in that tradition, not incantation as a Latin formula-word alone and not a grimoire dump.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
appears in · sourced · documented
Norse tradition
Spell appears in Norse tradition.
Snorri’s Gylfaginning seats Freyja among the teaching of seiðr to the Æsir, a named spell-craft in that prose household. Not prayer as petition alone and not a generic enchantment dump.
from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220
appears in · sourced · documented
European folklore
Hocus-pocus is used in Spell.
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable seats Hocus Pocus as the words a conjuror utters when he performs a trick — often derived from Hoc est corpus, or from Ochus Bochus the northern magician invoked by jugglers. A named Hocus Pocus in that trick-spell speech, not a bare nonsense dump alone.
from Ebenezer Cobham Brewer · Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1870 (and later PD editions)
used in · sourced · documented
sources
- Book of the Dead · Raymond O. Faulkner (translation)
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- Gylfaginning · Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda.
- Dictionary of Phrase and Fable · Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.