Enchantment

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

Sometimes used to describe a spell or charm placed on someone or something. Elves and fairies were especially thought to enchant people and animals.

Enchantment

See also Fantasy, Magic.

Alidoro

fairy godfather to Italian Cinderella. [Ital. Opera: Rossini, Cinderella, Westerman, 120–121]

Bottom

under spell, grows ass’s head. [Br. Lit.: A Midsummer Night’s Dream]

Cinderella

enchantment lasts only till midnight. [Fr. Fairy Tale: Cinderella]

Circe

enchantress who changes Odysseus’s men into swine. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey; Rom. Lit.: Aeneid]

Geraldine, Lady

evil spirit who, by casting a spell, induces Christabel to bring her into her father’s castle. [Br. Lit.: S.T. Coleridge “Christabel” in Benét, 195]

Land of Oz

bewitching realm of magic and mystery. [Am. Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]

Lorelei

water nymph of the Rhine; lured sailors to their doom with her singing. [Ger. Folklore: Leach, 645]

Maugis

enchanter; one of Charlemagne’s paladins. [Fr. Folk-lore: Harvey, 526]

Miracle, Dr.

bewitches Antonia into singing despite doctor’s orders. [Fr. Opera: Offenbach, Tales of Hoffmann, Westerman, 275–276]

Oberon

fairy king orders love charm placed on wife. [Br. Lit.: A Midsummer Night’s Dream]

Orpheus

his singing opens the gates of the underworld. [Ger. Opera: Gluck, Orpheus and Euridyce, Westerman, 72]

Pied Piper

charms children of Hamelin with music. [Children’s Lit.: “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” in Dramatic Lyrics, Fisher, 279–281]

pishogue

Irish fairy spell that distorts reality. [Irish Folklore: Briggs, 327–328]

Quixote, Don

ascribes all his misfortunes to the machinations of enchanters. [Span. Lit.: Cervantes Don Quixote]

Scheherazade

spins yams for Sultan for 1001 nights. [Arab. Lit.: Arabian Nights]

Schwanda

Czech Orpheus; bagpipe music moves even Queen Iceheart. [Czech Opera: Weinberger, Schwanda, Westerman, 412]

Sirens

with song, bird-women lure sailors to death. [Gk. Myth.: Odyssey]

Sleeping Beauty

sleeps for 100 years. [Fr. Fairy Tale, The Sleeping Beauty]

Titania

experiences spell-induced fascination over Bottom. [Br. Lit.: A Midsummer Night’s Dream]

Van Winkle, Rip

returns to village after sleep of 20 years. [Am. Lit.: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.]

vervain

indicates bewitching powers. [Flower Symbolism: Flora S ymbo lica, 178]

Vivian

the Lady of the Lake, enchantress and mistress of Merlin. [Br. Lit.: Barnhart, 1118]

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

In his novel, The Rotting Enchanter (L'Enchanteur pourrissant, 1904), Merlin is immured by the Lady of the Lake, but his decaying body holds out the promise of new life.

Gandalf and Merlin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Adoption and Transformation of a Literary Tradition

Beyond its overtly political message concerning the Hanoverian claim to fulfill the enchanter's prophecy (yet related to politics), Judith Colton also suggests a very personal meaning of the Cave for the Queen, an interpretation of the structure's significance that provides insight into Lord Carteret's personal reasons for wanting to please the Queen with his deluxe edition.

Queen Caroline's Merlin Grotto and the 1738 Lord Carteret edition of Don Quijote: The Matter of Britain and Spain's Arthurian tradition

Quixote is fortunate, of course, in that the inversion of reality and illusion, affected by magicians and enchanters, is a stock device of the very romances which nourish the character's delusions about himself.

Dostoevsky's other Quixote

In Peter the Great's 1715 Military Law Code, article 1 states that if "any soldier is found to be an idol-worshipper, black magician (chernoknizhets), gun-charmer, or superstitious and blasphemous enchanter (charodei) ...

The Bathhouse at Midnight: Magic in Russia

The brothers went to the enchanter Merlin to ask him how to rescue her, and he gave them simple and explicit instructions.

Getting the golden ball

Based on the story of Swan Lake, the hero is dashing Prince Derek who is distraught when fiancee Princess Odette is kidnapped by evil enchanter Rothbart.

Swan day my prince will come; (And a froggy star is spawn in Cleese); SCREEN KIDS' VIDS

'There shall not be found among you,' declares Deuteronomy 18:10, 'any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.' Where AV has 'that useth divination', William Tyndale (1484-1536) has the rare word bruterar, which he glossed as 'a prophesier, a soothsayer'.

Tyndale's 'Bruterar' 'Prophesier, soothsayer': Welsh 'brudiwr' 'soothsayer.'

His account of his 'infatuation' with Pater's 'seductive' cadences recalls True Thomas's enthralment: 'He breathed an incantation, and from incantations one is apt to waken more coldly disillusioned than is quite fair to the enchanter' (p.

Housman's Poems

While Zorrilla's Don Juan is as selfish and lusty as his other literary counterparts, he is more an enchanter than a calculating seducer, and his vivid last-minute conversion adds a moral air to the play.

Don Juan Tenorio