The Heavenly Field: A Reconsideration of Mother Earth in the Æcerbot Rite

Abstract

The Æcerbot is one of the famous Old English “metrical charms” that details lengthy prescriptions for ritual performances if a field fails to produce crops.1 It has attracted much debate over many decades. Scholars initially viewed it as providing evidence of surviving pagan customs in eleventhcentury England before more nuanced interpretations of it were made as a popular, perhaps heterodox, Christian performance, if not a ritual script akin to a liturgical ordine for a procession or exorcism.2 One striking feature of this field remedy that has at times been at the center of these debates is its unique triple invocation of “erce,” which is then followed by an address to “eorþan modor,” or “mother of earth.” Immediately following