Hand of Glory

Last updated
A hand of glory on display at Whitby Museum Hand of Glory.jpg
A hand of glory on display at Whitby Museum

A Hand of Glory is the dried and pickled hand of a hanged man, often specified as being the left (Latin : sinister) hand, or, if the person was hanged for murder, the hand that "did the deed."

Contents

Old European beliefs attribute great powers to a Hand of Glory combined with a candle made from fat from the corpse of the same malefactor who died on the gallows. The candle so made, lighted, and placed (as if in a candlestick) in the Hand of Glory would have rendered motionless all people to whom it was presented. The process for preparing the hand and the candle are described in 18th-century documents, with certain steps disputed due to difficulty in properly translating phrases from that era.[ citation needed ] The concept inspired short stories and poems in the 19th century.

History of the term

Etymologist Walter Skeat reports that, while folklore has long attributed mystical powers to a dead man's hand, the specific phrase Hand of Glory is in fact a folk etymology: it derives from the French main de gloire, a corruption of mandragore, which is to say mandrake. [1] Skeat writes, "The identification of the hand of glory with the mandrake is clinched by the statement in Cockayne's Leechdoms, i. 245, [2] that the mandrake "shineth by night altogether like a lamp"". Cockayne in turn is quoting Pseudo-Apuleius , in a translation of a Saxon manuscript of his Herbarium. [1]

Powers attributed

A hand of glory holding a candle, from the 18th century grimoire Petit Albert La Main de Gloire.jpg
A hand of glory holding a candle, from the 18th century grimoire Petit Albert

According to old European beliefs, a candle made of the fat from a malefactor who died on the gallows, lighted, and placed (as if in a candlestick) in the Hand of Glory, which comes from the same man as the fat in the candle, would render motionless all persons to whom it was presented. The method for holding the candle is sketched in Petit Albert . [3] The candle could be put out only with milk. [4] In another version, the hair of the dead man is used as a wick, and the candle would give light only to the holder.[ citation needed ]

A hand of glory on a mantlepiece, in a detail of the 1565 artwork The Elder Saint Jacob visiting the Magician Hermogenes by Pieter van der Heyden Main de gloire, detail of print (cropped).jpg
A hand of glory on a mantlepiece, in a detail of the 1565 artwork The Elder Saint Jacob visiting the Magician Hermogenes by Pieter van der Heyden

The Hand of Glory also purportedly had the power to unlock any door it came across. [5] The method of making a Hand of Glory is described in Petit Albert, [6] [7] and in the Compendium Maleficarum . [8]

Process

A papier-mache hand of glory Paper mache "Hand of Glory" Folk Lore Superstition by the Kuriologist.jpg
A papier-mâché hand of glory

The 1722 Petit Albert describes in detail how to make a Hand of Glory, as cited from him by Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry: [9]

Take the right or left hand of a felon who is hanging from a gibbet beside a highway; wrap it in part of a funeral pall and so wrapped squeeze it well. Then put it into an earthenware vessel with zimat, nitre, salt and long peppers, the whole well powdered. Leave it in this vessel for a fortnight, then take it out and expose it to full sunlight during the dog-days until it becomes quite dry. If the sun is not strong enough put it in an oven with fern and vervain. Next make a kind of candle from the fat of a gibbeted felon, virgin wax, sesame, and ponie, and use the Hand of Glory as a candlestick to hold this candle when lighted, and then those in every place into which you go with this baneful instrument shall remain motionless

De Givry points out the difficulties with the meaning of the words zimat and ponie, saying it is likely "ponie" means horse-dung. De Givry is expressly using the 1722 edition, where the phrase is, according to John Livingston Lowes "du Sisame et de la Ponie" and de Givry notes that the meaning of "ponie" as "horse dung" is entirely unknown "to us", but that in local Lower Normandy dialect, it has that meaning. His reason for regarding this interpretation as "more than probable" is that horse-dung is "very combustible, when dry". [9] [10]

In the French 1752 edition (called Nouvelle Édition, corrigée & augmentée, i.e., "New Edition, corrected and augmented"), however, this reads as "..du sisame de Laponie..", that is, in Francis Grose's translation from 1787, "sisame of Lapland", or Lapland sesame. This interpretation can be found many places on the Internet, and even in books published at university presses. [11] [12] Two books, one by Cora Daniels, another by Montague Summers, perpetuate the Lapland sesame myth, while being uncertain whether zimat should mean verdigris or the Arabian sulphate of iron. [13] [14]

The Petit Albert also provides a way to shield a house from the effects of the Hand of Glory: [9]

The Hand of Glory would become ineffective, and thieves would not be able to utilize it, if you were to rub the threshold or other parts of the house by which they may enter with an unguent composed of the gall of a black cat, the fat of a white hen, and the blood of the screech-owl; this substance must be compounded during the dog-days

An actual Hand of Glory is kept at the Whitby Museum in North Yorkshire, England, together with a text published in a book from 1823. [15] In this manuscript text, the way to make the Hand of Glory is as follows: [16]

It must be cut from the body of a criminal on the gibbet; pickled in salt, and the urine of man, woman, dog, horse and mare; smoked with herbs and hay for a month; hung on an oak tree for three nights running, then laid at a crossroads, then hung on a church door for one night while the maker keeps watch in the porch-"and if it be that no fear hath driven you forth from the porch ... then the hand be true won, and it be yours"

Cultural references

In crime

A Hand of Glory was proposed as one of the motives for an unsolved murder that occurred in wartime England some time in mid-late 1941. The case was made more mysterious by numerous graffiti that appeared later stating " Who put Bella down the Wych Elm?", referring to the woman's corpse which was found inside a tree. [17]

In literature

Severed hands in an occult context occur as early as Herodotus's "Tale of Rhampsinitus" (ii, 121), in which a clever thief leaves a dead hand behind in order to avoid capture. They also appear in early stories of lycanthropy, such as Henry Boguet's Discours exécrable de sorciers in 1590. [18]

In 1832 Gérard de Nerval wrote the short story "La main de gloire, histoire macaronique" ("The Hand of Glory, a Macaronic Story"). The same year Aloysius Bertrand published "L'heure du Sabbat" ("The Hour of the Sabbat"). [19] Guy de Maupassant made his debut with "La main d'écorché" ("The Flayed Hand") (1875) one of his first stories in the Lorraine Almanac Pont-à-Mousson under the pseudonym Joseph Prunier. Marcel Schwob wrote an uncollected short story about it: "La Main de gloire" ("The Hand of Glory"), which was published in L'Écho de Paris on March 11, 1893. [20] [21]

The second of the Ingoldsby Legends , "The Hand of Glory, or, The Nurse's Story", describes the making and use of a Hand of Glory. [22] The first lines are:

Now open, lock!
To the Dead Man's knock!
Fly, bolt, and bar, and band!
Nor move, nor swerve,
Joint, muscle, or nerve,
At the spell of the Dead Man's hand!
Sleep, all who sleep! -- Wake, all who wake!
But be as the dead for the Dead Man's sake!

Théophile Gautier wrote a poem titled "Étude De Mains" ("Studies of Hands") on the subject of the hand of the poet-thief Lacenaire, severed after his execution for a double murder, presumably for future use as a Hand of Glory. [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy de Maupassant</span> French writer (1850–1893)

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guillotine</span> Apparatus designed for carrying out executions by beheading

A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with a pillory at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass; the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below.

French literature generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in the French language by citizens of other nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, etc. is referred to as Francophone literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gérard de Nerval</span> French writer, poet, essayist and translator (1808–1855)

Gérard de Nerval, the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, was a French essayist, poet, translator, and travel writer. He was a major figure during the era of French romanticism, and best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu, which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie, influenced André Breton and Surrealism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Mass</span> Satanic religious practice

A Black Mass is a ceremony celebrated by various Satanic groups. It has allegedly existed for centuries in different forms, and the modern form is intentionally a sacrilegious and blasphemous parody of a Catholic Mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gibbeting</span> Display of executed criminals from a gallows-type structure

Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains".

<i>Mandrake the Magician</i> Comic strip created by Lee Falk

Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk before he created The Phantom. Mandrake began publication on June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Fantastique is a French term for a literary and cinematic genre and mode that is characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. The concept comes from the French literary and critical tradition, and is distinguished from the word "fantastic", which is associated with the broader term of fantasy in the English literary tradition. According to the literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov, the fantastique is distinguished from the marvellous by the hesitation it produces between the supernatural and the natural, the possible and the impossible, and sometimes between the logical and the illogical. The marvellous, on the other hand, appeals to the supernatural in which, once the presuppositions of a magical world have been accepted, things happen in an almost normal and familiar way. The genre emerged in the 18th century and knew a golden age in 19th century Europe, particularly in France and Germany.

<i>Letters from the Earth</i> Book of essays by Mark Twain (c. 1909)

Letters from the Earth is a posthumously published work of American author Mark Twain (1835–1910) collated by Bernard DeVoto. It comprises essays written during a difficult time in Twain's life (1904–1909), when he was deeply in debt and had recently lost his wife and one of his daughters. The content concerns morality and religion and strikes a tone that is sarcastic—Twain's own term throughout the book. Initially, Twain's sole surviving child, Clara Clemens, objected to its publication in March 1939, probably because of its controversial and iconoclastic views on religion, claiming it presented a "distorted" view of her father. Henry Nash Smith helped change her position in 1960. Clara explained her change of heart in 1962 saying that "Mark Twain belonged to the world" and that public opinion had become more tolerant. She was also influenced to release the papers by her annoyance with Soviet reports that her father's ideas were being suppressed in the United States. The papers were selected, edited and sequenced for the book in 1939 by Bernard DeVoto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Schwob</span> French writer

Mayer André Marcel Schwob, known as Marcel Schwob, was a French symbolist writer best known for his short stories and his literary influence on authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alfonso Reyes, Roberto Bolaño and Patricio Pron. He has been called a "precursor of Surrealism". In addition to over a hundred short stories, he wrote journalistic articles, essays, biographies, literary reviews and analysis, translations and plays. He was extremely well known and respected during his life and notably befriended a great number of intellectuals and artists of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceremonial use of lights</span>

The ceremonial use of lights occurs in liturgies of various Christian Churches, as well as in Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Hindu rites and customs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigi Pistilli</span> Italian actor (1929–1996)

Luigi Pistilli was an Italian actor of stage, screen, and television.

<i>Harlequin</i> (Cornwell novel) 2000 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Harlequin is the first novel in The Grail Quest series by English author Bernard Cornwell, first published in 2000. The story takes place in the mid-14th century, during the Hundred Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Brochard</span> French actor (1893–1972)

Jean Brochard was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1933 and 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villars Cave</span> French site containing prehistoric art

The Villars Cave, in French Grotte de Villars or Grotte du Cluzeau, was occupied during the Lower Magdalenian by Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers. The cave is part of the French commune of Villars in the northern Dordogne département. Besides its enormous wealth in beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and similar calcite deposits it contains cave paintings and some engravings. The Villars Cave and the Rouffignac Cave are the biggest known cave systems in the Dordogne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Herlin</span> French actor (1927–2014)

Jacques Herlin was a French character actor.

<i>La Main du diable</i> 1943 film

La Main du diable, also known as Carnival of Sinners, is a 1943 French horror film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Pierre Fresnay as a struggling artist who acquires a supernatural talisman. Eventually, however, there is a price to be paid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandrake</span> Plant root

A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus Mandragora found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as Bryonia alba or the American mandrake which have similar properties. The plants from which the root is obtained are also called "mandrakes". Mediterranean mandrakes are perennial herbaceous plants with ovate leaves arranged in a rosette, a thick upright root, often branched, and bell-shaped flowers that produce yellow or orange berries. They have been placed in different species by different authors. They are highly variable perennial herbaceous plants with long thick roots and almost no stem. The leaves are borne in a basal rosette, and are variable in size and shape, with a maximum length of 45 cm (18 in). They are usually either elliptical in shape or wider towards the end (obovate), with varying degrees of hairiness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toilet service</span>

A toilet service is a set of objects for use at the dressing table. The term is usually reserved for large luxury sets from the 17th to 19th centuries, with toilet set or vanity set used for later or simpler sets. Historically, services were made in metal, ceramics, and other materials, for both men and women, though male versions were generally much smaller. The rich had services in gold, silver, or silver-gilt. The contents vary, but typically include a mirror, one or more small ewers and basins, two candlesticks, and an assortment of bowls, boxes, caskets, and other containers. One or more brushes and a pin-cushion, often as a top to a box, are often included. The sets usually came with a custom-made travelling case, and some services were especially designed for travelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugène Lepoittevin</span> French painter (1806–1870)

Eugène Lepoittevin, also known as Poidevin, Poitevin, and Le Poittevin, was a French artist who achieved an early and lifelong success as a landscape and maritime painter. His work ranged from erotic caricatures to massive battle scenes. His works are in the collections of many museums throughout France. He made many paintings set in and around the fishing village of Étretat, and in 2020 he was the subject of an exhibition and book, L'invention d'Étretat: Eugène Le Poittevin, un peintre et ses amis à l'aube de l'impressionnisme.

References

  1. 1 2 Skeat, Walter William (1904). "Glory, Hand of". Notes on English Etymology, chiefly reprinted from the Transactions of the Philological Society. Clarendon Press. p. 109.
  2. ↑ Cockayne, Thomas Oswald (1864). "Mandrake". Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green. p.  245.
  3. ↑ "La main de gloire, & ses effets" [The Hand of Glory, and its effects] (in French). Chapter 45. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ Frazer, James G. (1923), The Golden Bough : A Study in Magic and Religion, London: MacMillan and Co, Limited, p. 31, retrieved 2021-07-18
  5. ↑ Baker, Frank (1888). "Anthropologocal Notes on the Human Hand". American Anthropologist . 1 (1): 51–76. doi: 10.1525/aa.1888.1.1.02a00040 . JSTOR   658459.
  6. ↑ Joseph H. Peterson, ed. (2006) [1782]. Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du petit Albert [The marvellous secrets of natural language and cabalism of Little Albert] (in French). Lyon: Héritiers de Beringos fratres. OCLC   164442497.
  7. ↑ Davies, Owen (2008-04-04). "Owen Davies's top 10 grimoires". The Guardian . Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  8. ↑ Francesco Maria Guazzo (2004) [1626]. "Of Soporific Spells". Compendium Maleficarum . San Diego: The Book Tree. pp. 83–90. ISBN   1-58509-246-0.
  9. 1 2 3 De Givry, Grillot; Locke, J.Courtenay (tr) (1931). Witchcraft: Magic and Alchemy. New York: Courier Dover Publications. p. 181. ISBN   9780486224930.
  10. ↑ Lowes, John Livingston (2008) [1930]. The Road to Xanadu, A Study in the Ways of the Imagination (Second ed.). London: ReadBooks. ISBN   978-1443738118.
  11. ↑ Lucius Parvus Albertus (1752). Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du Petit Albert. Lyon: Les heritiers de Beringos frates.
  12. ↑ Grose, Francis (1787). A provincial glossary:with a collection of local proverbs, and popular superstitions. London: S. Hooper.
  13. ↑ Daniels, Cora L.; Stevans, C.M. (2003) [1903]. Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World. Honolulu, HA: University of the Pacific Press(The Minerva Group, Inc). ISBN   9781410209160.
  14. ↑ Montague Summers (2012). A Popular History of Witchcraft. London: Routledge. ISBN   9781136740183.
  15. ↑ "Hand of Glory". Whitby Museum. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  16. ↑ Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Stephen (2000). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 455–456. ISBN   9780192100191.
  17. ↑ Vale, Allison (22 March 2013). "Is this the Bella in the wych elm? Unravelling the mystery of the skull found in a tree trunk". The Independent. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  18. ↑ Tricomi, Albert H. (2004). "The Severed Hand in Webster's 'Duchess of Malfi'". SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900. 44 (Spring, Tudor and Stuart Drama). Rice University: 347–358. doi:10.1353/sel.2004.0023. JSTOR   3844634. S2CID   161895389.
  19. ↑ Cámpora, Magdalena (2010). "Representaciones del imaginario medieval en el silo XIX: la mano de gloria según Nerval, Bertrand, Maupassant y Schwob" [Representations of medieval imagery in the nineteenth century: the hand of glory according to Nerval, Bertrand, Maupassant and Schwob]. Letras (61/62). Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina: 23–32. ISSN   0326-3363.
  20. ↑ De Meyer, Bernard (2004). Marcel Schwob, conteur de l'imaginaire. Peter Lang. p. 127. ISBN   3039103687.
  21. ↑ Hillen, Sabine Madeleine (1994). "La main coupée.» ou la forme d'un récit bref chez Nerval, Maupassant et Schwob" [The Hand of Glory, the Structure of Short Stories by Neval, Maupassant and Schwob]. Revue Romane (in French). 29 (1). During the nineteenth century, the image of the severed hand stimulated the production of several short fantasy stories. And "The Magic Hand" by Nerval served as support for continuations by Guy de Maupassant ("The flayed hand") and Marcel Schwob ("The Hand of Glory"). The latter two showed themselves indebted to Nerval's account of not only the recovery of some diegetic elements, but also one generic layout: Gradually a fixed number of features such as symmetry, the premonitory index and the pivot is dependent reveal the genre of the short story.Abstract Translated
  22. ↑ "Ingoldsby's Legends". Exclassics.com.
  23. ↑ Gautier, Théophil (1887). "Étude De Mains" [Studies of Hands]. Émaux et Camées [Enamels and Cameos](poem) (in French). Paris: Librairie L. Conquet. pp. 15–19. Retrieved 1 May 2010. Curiosité Depravée
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.