I'm currently using a form of this old Anglo Saxon curse to rap the knuckles of a caretaker who was really really REALLY cantankerous when I was working. Lets put it this way..my boss almost had to call the cops on her because she was preventing an entire apartment building from voting.This woman had been rude, manipulative and overall a jerk from the getgo. Just simply showing up at her door set off her abuse. I was just doing my job. The original curse curses the person proper, but as I dislike doing that, I'm cursing her anger. I don't know how old the original curse is, but it is rather elderly. And I find it packs one heck of a wallop due to its age.
I would really REALLY make sure that your slate is clean before performing this curse. If it backfires, it can backfire in an ugly way.
Here are the two versions:
My version:
May your anger be consumed as coal upon the hearth
May your anger shrink as dung upon a wall
And may your anger dry up as water in a pail.
May your anger become as small as a linseed grain
And much smaller than the hipbone of an itchmite
And may your anger become so small that it eventually becomes nothing.
The original Anglo Saxon version:
May you be consumed as coal upon the hearth
May you shrink as dung upon a wall
And may you dry up as water in a pail.
May you become as small as a linseed grain
And much smaller that the hipbone of an itchmite
And may you become so small that you eventually become nothing.
Uranium235 - It really depends on the situation I guess. Some ways it could backfire include loss of a job, loss of friends, getting in trouble for not doing the job right..... I know I cursed my landlord once (Not this curse, about 20 years ago) and I was sure I was in the right. I ended up getting evicted that week.
You're version and the "original" seem to be almost exactly the same thing, except for a couple of things said differently but nothing major. Also, how would this be an Anglo-Saxon curse? Not criticizing but simply curious.
The earliest reference for it that I can find is from Godfrid Storms' Anglo-Saxon Magic although it appears to have been popularised by Silver Ravenwolf.
Just to clear up some things: I originally got the curse off a friend who found it in a Newspaper article. I believe it was the Winnipeg Free Press, about 10 years ago or so.
Silver Ravenwolf popularized the curse? I'm surprised. I find her very 'sunshine and bunnies' when it comes to magic.
As for me tweaking the words - words are everything.:) I'd rather cover my butt and curse the caretaker's anger than curse the caretaker.
