Curses and Hexes

The English word hex is derived from the German word Hexe, used to describe a witch or a curse. Curse is derived from the Old English term curs and is used to describe magically induced misfortune, although in modern usage it also refers to poor luck and bad language.

In the context of the human experience, curses and hexes are essentially the same and can be seen across human society; evidence for magical curses can be found in modern, medieval, antique, and primitive societies. These types of magical devices can be used for two purposes: to invoke the dead, spirits, or demons against the living or to protect the dead from the living or the living from the dead. The worldwide use of curses and hexes has led some psychologists to describe it as a subconscious rejection of humanity's inheriting mortality. This entry demonstrates this universality by describing cases from ancient Egypt, Rome, and Scandinavia, as well as medieval Britain. Cases for modern curses also are described, both in anthropological studies and in Western society, showing that they are not part of a religious experience but answer a much more basic need for control in the human psyche.

Curses and Hexes Used for Protecting the Living from the Dead

In antiquity there was a strong relationship between magic, curses, and the dead. This quotation was taken from theHervarar Saga (IV), written originally in the Old Norse language. Like the rest of the Viking sagas, it provides a valuable historical insight into Old Norse beliefs. This particular saga deals with the story of Hervör, who travels to a haunted island where her dead brothers and father were buried. She seeks the magic sword Tyrfing. Despite her father revealing the future to her, particularly the evils the sword will bring to her household, Hervör collects the weapon. Curses in Viking sagas have a series of similarities: They are usually conducted in a liminal landscape—those that divide the living and the dead, such as cemeteries or howes (barrows or barrow cemeteries, which are mounds of earth raised over a single grave or ship burial)—and they are usually curses against the dead or against the living using the dead, elves, giants, or spirits as proxies.

Curses and Hexes Used for Protecting the Dead from the Living

Protection of the dead was a very real problem in antiquity, especially if the deceased was interred with objects still valuable to the living. Indeed, most grave robbing took place in antiquity and when archaeological sites like the Egyptian Valley of the Kings were looted. Ancient Egyptian tombs were protected by a series of traps, such as pits and false doors, and also by curses. Beneath its wrappings, the mummified body was protected by amulets. Collections of funerary spells such as The Book of the Dead were painted on the walls of elite tombs; they threatened to send dangerous animals or curses to hunt down tomb robbers. Despite this protection, archaeologists have never been put off excavating ancient tombs, even after the curse of Tutankhamun became widely reported after the death of Lord Carnarvon, just 1 year after the tomb was open. Howard Carter, the archaeologist in charge for most of the excavation, lived [Page 249]another 17 years. However, the curse of the mummy entered popular culture and has since given rise to cult films like The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Curse (1944), and The Mummy (1999) and its sequels. Curses used for protection of the living from the dead are also called necromancy.

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