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Examples are " Abracadabra" as might be said by a magician during a trick, or the Stunning Spell in the Harry Potter books.

1 Structure

Incantations display several of the features of oral literature , including repetition, a strong reliance on performative language and formulaic composition . The earliest incantations in English are probably the Old English metrical charms. Written in Anglo-Saxon these charms are difficult to differentiate from the riddles and other short poems of the corpus of Old English poetry. However, they do rely strongly on metaphor, a relatively rare device of Anglo-Saxon poetry (except, of course, in the form of kenningThis article is about kenning as a poetic notion. See Kenning (disambiguation) for other meanings. In literature, a kenning is a compound poetic phrase substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. For example the sea in Old English could be called), and one that may be universal to the genreThe term genre refers to the traditional divisions of art forms from a single field of activity into various kinds according to criteria particular to that form. Genre" is originally a French word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type"; in grammatical terminolo of incantation. Furthermore, these charms invoke divine aid, especially in the form of the Virgin MaryThe term Virgin Mary has several different meanings: For the historical and multi-denominational concept of Mary, see Mary, the mother of Jesus. For the Roman Catholic theological and doctrinal concept of Mary, see Blessed Virgin Mary. For the issue of Ma, angels, and ChristChrist from the Greek Χριστός, or Khristós means anointed and is equivalent to the Hebrew term Messiah''. Also suitable is the approximate name pronounced at the time ,Yeshua. In the Christian religi.

A cursory examination of a cross-cultural selection of incantations reveals a few similarities.

• Most incantations are metrical in one of several poetic forms of the language in which they are written. Some use an unusual verseVerse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. Verse may also use rhyme and other technical devices that are often associated with poet form. ProseProse is any writing without a formal structure of meter or rhyme only conforming to the basic rules of grammar, just as it is plainly spoken by people. Writing which uses these structures is known as poetry. Although some works of prose may contain trace incantations are somewhat rare.
• Almost all incantations invoke the aid of a divine or semidivine being, or some other spiritual entity.
• Information packing in incantations is extremely tight. Sometimes, metaphors are difficult to understand, either because they are deliberately meaningless, or, more likely, because the author intended the metaphor to carry more semantic weight than usual.
• Many incantations contain nonsense words. These words may be mantras, "barbarous words" (in GreekThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce incantations, often badly transliterated Hebrew), or strings of vowels or other non-linguistic sounds.
• Most incantations seem to require some sort of physical action by the reciter in order for the performative act of the incantation (i.e., the act of magic) to work. These actions may be described as part of the charm. In some instances, it is difficult to tell if the description of the actions is also to be incanted as part of the charm.

Almost no formal study has been done on the literary qualities of incantation, despite abundant theory in related areas.