Wortcunning
The Old English knowledge of plants, used in healing and charm, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon leechbooks.
Also: wyrtcræft, wort-cunning, leechdom, leechbook
Wortcunning combines the Old English wyrt, plant, and cunning, in the sense of knowledge. It refers to the plant lore recorded in manuscripts such as Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga, from the ninth to eleventh centuries, where remedies are set beside prayers, chants and charms. The Nine Herbs Charm is the best-known example. The texts do not draw our line between medicine and magic: a herb is to be picked at a certain time or accompanied by a verse and prayer, and a Christian saint's name may appear beside older powers. Historians read these as a mixture of Mediterranean medical learning and local custom. They are historical sources and not guides to treatment; some plants named are dangerous.