Palindromes and Letter Formulae: Some Reconsiderations
Palindromes and Letter Formulae: Some Reconsiderations

Summary/Abstract: The article is based on the collection of incantations in the Estonian Folklore Archives and it aims to provide a description of an old and less-known type of incantations in Estonia. The term “letter formulae” will hereafter be used to designate incantations based on letters or letter combinations, palindromes, other formulae connected with letter mythology, and also names which function as spells. In general it can be said that this originally old type of incantations has reached this cultural area relatively late. A majority of the formulae are more or less directly connected with cabalism, the connection is genetic and the formulae spread through the mediation of cabalism. The formulae reached Estonia through secondary manuscripts and it is not likely that at that time any Estonian folk doctors/healers would have been familiar with the cabala; neither were proper names attributed meanings and values characteristic of occult sciences.

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