oa Zwischen Liturgie und Magie: Apotropäischer Zaubergesang in niedersächsischen Frauenklöstern im späten Mittelalter

In the late Middle Ages, the liturgical antiphon Media vita in morte sumus, a well-known chant for compline and the Liturgy of the Dead, was also frequently used as a charm. In the fifteenth century it was sung in three northern German nunneries against the threats of monastic reform and military plundering. In all three cases, a close connection between magical use and liturgical background can be recognized. This connection was essential for the efficacy of the incantation. As the ethnologist Dieter Harmening has pointed out, magic worked on the basis of analogy, and this can be clearly seen from the reports of magical singing from the nunneries.