Against the Dangers of Travel: Journey Blessings and Amulets in the Medieval and Early Modern Germanic Tradition

n the Middle Ages travel often implied a great deal of fatigue and danger: whether on horseback, on foot or by sea travellers had to face the challenge represented by uneven and muddy roads, storms and bad weather and risked to be attacked by robbers, wild animals, or pirates. For this reason journey blessings and other rituals aimed at obtaining protection while on the road and at ensuring oneself or a beloved person a safe comeback. In this study, I will focus on this specific genre of blessings and amulets in the Germanic language area on the basis of a wide – possibly exhaustive – corpus of English, German and Scandinavian texts. In this, particular attention will also be paid to the insertion of these blessings and prayers in literary texts.