RECENZIJE IN POROČILA O KNJIGAH / RECENSIONI DI LIBRI / BOOK REVIEWS RECENZIJE IN POROČILA O KNJIGAH / RECENSIONI DI LIBRI / BOOK REVIEWS 268 268 
tribes; Sarolta Tatár researches the Buryat 
folk religion; Vilmos Tánczos introduces 
the religious world of Moldavian Csángó 
man. Finally. Julia Gyimesi writes about 
the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis at 
the turn of the 19
th
 and 20
th
 centuries and 
reveals the connections between spiritualism, 
parapsychology, and psychoanalysis.
This book gives a nuanced picture of the 
notions of body and soul associated with the 
Judeo-Christian tradition and other religions, 
denominations, and alternative practices; 
it can be concluded that the essays give a 
good insight into the folklore and literary 
representations of these concepts.
Monika Kropej Telban, Ljubljana 
Év a Pócs (Ed .), c harms and c harming . 
s tudiEs on m agic in EvEryday LifE . 
LjubLjana: ZaLožba ZRC, ZRC SaZu 
(Studia mythoLogiCa SLaviCa – SuppLe-
menta 15), 2019, 311 p., iLLuStRationS. 
This book focuses on the verbal aspects of 
everyday magic. The authors devote their 
attention to phenomenological and theoretical 
studies of incantations and discuss various 
topics, including charms and ancient magical 
practices and their reception and diffusion. 
The studies of 18 renowned researchers fo-
cusing on charms, incantations and prayers, 
and their studies cover a wide spectrum 
of countries, from the United Kingdom to 
Russia and Iran are presented.
The book is subdivided into two parts; 
in the first, the range of roles these verbal 
magic played in everyday life is resear-
ched, from healing practices to the charms 
that repel witches and demons. Svetlana 
Adonyeva discusses contemporary magic 
practice in Russia, specifically magical 
writing and sending letters to the forest 
king or leshyi. Olga Khristoforova also 
presents contemporary Russian witchcraft 
through the terms of power. Evelina Rudan 
and Josipa Tomašić present Croatian folk 
prayers that are practised as charms next to 
a person’s deathbed, and work as clarifica-
tion of blurry and dangerous state between 
“here” and “there”. Valer Simion Cosma 
researches the role of Romanian priests 
as enchanters. Daniver Vukelić dedicated 
his study to the uroci – evil charms and 
spells in Croatian tradition. Davor Nikolić 
discusses folk prayers and verbal charms 
as irrational discourse through the spectre 
of rational argumentation. Tomas Kencis 
presents Latvian witchcraft against witches, 
Zsuzsa Závoti focusses on the aspect of 
mental disorder in Anglo-Saxon England 

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in the context of medical charms; Louse 
Milne researches dreams, nightmares, and 
charms in belief-systems from a wide range 
of time and places to explore certain tena-
cious semiotic structures in the charms. 
Finally, Alevtina Solovyeva researches the 
mythological world of Mongolian charms 
and the diverse world of their rituals.
The second part of this book is comprised 
of essays that offer phenomenological and 
theoretical explorations of verbal charms 
as a genre of textual folklore, their broad 
thematic range, such as the generic boun-
daries of incantations and their connections 
with other genres. Distinctive textual motifs, 
transference, reception, and dissemination 
are studied. Magic practices with charms as 
performance and its relation to non-textual 
rituals, and even the magic tied in with ima-
ges and objects are also researched. Henni 
Ilomäki researches oral charms and literal 
notes and discusses whether an oral charm 
performed at the request of an outsider can 
be considered the same as one recited in the 
moment of urgent need. Maria Eliferova 
discusses charms within non-charm texts; 
Eszter Spät presents Yezidi sacred objects 
as symbols of power, tools of healing and 
seals of divine favour; Éva Pócs researches 
Hungarian incantations between Eastern and 
Western Christianity; Saša Babič researches 
the role of location in charms, and stresses 
that the locations in incantations can be 
understood not only as descriptions of the 
landscape but also as the human body and 
body parts that are inhabited or taken by 
evil or disease. Inna Veselova dedicated 
her article to the magic of turning “just 
words” into “reality-transforming agents” 
and to the role of personal names in ritual 
speech. The sources and the symbolism of 
the images in Russian charms are discussed 
by Liudmila Fadeyeva, and also in the final 
paper in which Vilmos Voigt researches 
Russian metal icons and their “eye-power”.
This book aims to strengthen the co-ope-
ration among the researchers from the various 
relevant disciplines, employing a range of 
parallel and divergent methods to study verbal 
charms, and simultaneously contributes to 
the understanding of international verbal 
magic tradition. 
Monika Kropej Telban, Ljubljana