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0:42

The Beatles said it best noting that sometimes

0:45

if we hope to get by, we're going to need

0:47

little help from our friends. And that was

0:49

the situation an archaeologist found himself

0:51

in back in the late nineteen twenties.

0:54

He had two objects on his desk that were

0:56

found one hundred miles apart, but

0:58

they were somehow connected. One

1:00

was a golden ring found by a farmer

1:03

way back in seventeen eighty five in an

1:05

area of England that had once been occupied

1:07

by the Romans. The other found many

1:09

years later and many miles away at the site

1:11

of an old Celtic temple was a tablet,

1:14

and yet both of them had the same person's

1:16

name on them, Senecaiannis. The

1:19

archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler,

1:21

wanted answers to their miss serious connection.

1:24

But he needed someone who was better with translating

1:26

old Latin than he was. So he called

1:28

in his friend John, who, among other

1:30

career highlights, had worked on the Oxford

1:33

English Dictionary. And as Wheeler

1:35

predicted, John was able to shed

1:37

light on the mystery. The tablet's

1:39

message translated as Silvianus

1:41

has lost a ring, among those

1:43

who bear the name of Senecaianus to

1:46

none grant health until he bring

1:48

back the ring to the temple. It

1:50

turns out the ring had originally belonged

1:52

to a Roman Mahnke named Sylvienus, but

1:54

was stolen by another guy named Senekianus.

1:57

And while the thief carved his name onto

1:59

his precious prize, the old owner

2:02

had carved something else, not just

2:04

a memo, but a cursed tablet.

2:06

It's an ancient idea, but one that held

2:09

on for thousands of years. When

2:11

in need, a curse could be written down

2:13

and offered up in just the right way,

2:15

bending the threads of fate to their wishes,

2:18

often for nefarious reasons, like

2:20

keeping misfortune upon a thief.

2:23

But sometimes those curses have featured

2:25

something that has the power to shake people

2:27

to their core, to alter their world,

2:30

and leave them feeling powerless. I'm

2:32

talking, of course, about love.

2:36

I'm Erin and this

2:39

is lore.

2:54

It's at the center of so many parts of life.

2:57

It's been the cause of war, the path

2:59

to peace, and the reason for communities to

3:01

stick together through difficult times. No

3:03

matter where you go around the world or

3:05

who you talk to, it has proven to

3:07

be a universal value. Love.

3:10

And just like everything else that humans have wanted

3:13

or needed over the millennia, like

3:15

food, resources, safety, and

3:17

good health, the desire for love

3:19

has driven people to find ways to control

3:21

it. Enter the love

3:23

spell. The

3:24

earliest known example of love magic is

3:27

pretty old dating back over four thousand

3:29

two hundred years. It's found on a

3:31

clay tablet from an area of Iraq

3:33

that was once home to the ancient city of Kish,

3:36

and its message is surprisingly timeless.

3:39

By Ishtar and Ishara, I conjure

3:41

you, so long as his neck and your

3:43

neck are not entwined, may you not

3:45

find peace. It's an example

3:48

of what's known as a binding spell. Words

3:50

designed to control and constrain the actions

3:52

of another person. And of course, it

3:54

was an idea that didn't stay in Mesopotamia.

3:57

Centuries later, it was alive and

3:59

well in ancient Egypt too. One

4:02

Egyptian love spell begins by hailing

4:04

the gods, naming the man's love interest

4:07

and then requesting that she be drawn to him

4:09

and I quote, like a cow

4:11

after grass, which, yeah,

4:14

doesn't sound that romantic. I know. But

4:16

cows love grass. They need it

4:18

actually. So logically, it

4:20

does make sense. It's an example

4:23

that leans on the emotional side of love,

4:25

evoking desire and need. But

4:27

most Egyptian love spells actually ignored

4:29

things like affection, and instead focused

4:31

on controlling the circumstances that kept

4:33

them apart. Factors like family,

4:36

social station, and politics all

4:38

got in the way of love So naturally,

4:40

these spells try to manipulate that.

4:43

Even the ancient Greeks got in on the fun.

4:45

Now there were two primary types of love

4:47

magic in their culture, Eros

4:49

and Phylia. The best way to differentiate

4:52

them would be to say that Eros dealt with the physical

4:54

attraction and desire, while Phylia

4:56

focused on romantic affection. Two

4:59

sides of the same coin that most people were

5:01

looking for. Love magic that

5:03

leaned toward the Eros side of things was

5:05

practiced mostly by men, The goal was

5:07

to induce lust and passion in the person

5:09

they were interested in. And it's worth pointing

5:11

out that ancient Greeks viewed erotic love

5:13

as a disease inflict upon humans

5:16

by gods like Pan and Aphrodite. So

5:18

love spells with that focus tended to have

5:20

intense, sometimes even violent language.

5:23

Aero's love spells sometimes use

5:25

charms known as a go gay. And

5:27

fruit, oddly enough, things like apples

5:30

and quince. Because, well, why

5:32

not? Right? And on the phthalia

5:34

side of things, the language was more centered

5:36

around faithfulness and affection. These

5:38

were love spells primarily used by women

5:41

to keep their partners' interest did and stayed together

5:43

and were usually implemented when they noticed

5:45

that their partner was starting to stray. This

5:48

side of love magic for the ancient Greeks

5:50

had amulets of its own, and a lot

5:52

of the focus was actually on beautification, sort

5:55

of a magical cosmetic industry

5:57

in a way. Echoes of a hope that if one

6:00

was able to make themselves more attractive, their

6:02

partner wouldn't wander away. But

6:04

all things change as time goes by. And

6:07

love spells have been no exception. As

6:09

culture shifted in different places, the

6:11

ways in which love magic was used also

6:14

shifted with it. And a good example of this

6:16

is in the Italian renaissance. All

6:18

of a sudden, marriage had become a major

6:20

foundation for society not because

6:23

of romance mind you, but because marriage had

6:25

become the glue that connected businesses

6:27

and political alliances. This

6:29

was a time when the success or failure

6:31

of a marriage could determine the success

6:33

or failure of an entire community, which

6:36

meant that love magic had to adapt.

6:39

Gone were the spells that aimed at physical

6:41

attraction or feelings of affection, and

6:44

in their place arrived a new focus,

6:46

removing the obstacles to that important

6:48

alliance. Love Mahnke of that era

6:50

tried to help people climb the social ladder

6:53

or encourage one family to accept

6:55

a husband or wife for their heir that they

6:57

might have overlooked. Which of

6:59

course leads to the inquisition as

7:02

all roads do. Yes, it's most

7:04

often associated with witchcraft and heretics,

7:07

But through these socially manipulative love

7:09

spells, all of a sudden women were

7:11

vying for power through means that were

7:13

seen as supernatural. Because

7:16

the assumption was if a woman was

7:18

in control, there had to be a

7:20

devilish reason why.

7:35

A little bit of context first, there's an

7:37

collection of Greek magical spells from

7:39

the Second Century BC that really

7:41

shows off the scope of this folklore. It

7:43

might not be the most story driven content,

7:46

but it'll be fun for you to share with friends

7:48

at a party someday. One

7:50

object described in this manuscript is

7:52

the love doll. Think of these as the stereotypical

7:55

voodoo doll, except their purpose was to

7:57

inflict romance and desire instead

7:59

of pain and suffering. A person would

8:01

craft a doll that looked like their love interest,

8:03

and then anything they did to that doll

8:05

would be transferred to that person, sort

8:08

of a remote control romance, I guess.

8:10

But a lot of the elements described in the manuscript

8:13

dealt with a concept called sympathetic magic.

8:16

This is where the ingredients or amulets

8:18

that resemble a thing affect that

8:20

thing magically. For example, asparagus

8:23

was often fed to grooms before their wedding

8:25

night to serve as an aphrodisiac, because

8:28

if plants help the body part that they look

8:30

like, then asparagus, oh well,

8:33

you get the point. There was also

8:35

Spanish fly. Otherwise known as the blister

8:37

beetle. The wings of the bug could be dried

8:40

and crushed into a powder and then used

8:42

in tonics as anaphrophyseac. And

8:44

folks certainly did feel a bit flush and warm

8:46

from this stuff, but that's because it was poisonous.

8:49

As little as thirty two milligrams could

8:51

shut down a person's kidneys. Oh,

8:53

and don't forget, periwinkle flowers

8:55

crushed up with worms or stolen

8:58

sacramental bread from the Catholic church.

9:00

Or human elements such as blood,

9:03

sweats, and other bodily fluids usually

9:05

baked into a cake of some kind. Which

9:08

should sound familiar, if you remember the story

9:10

of Lavoisen, the French woman who served

9:12

the social elites of Paris in the sixteen

9:15

seventies, She was said to have created

9:17

loved potions by crushing up the bones and

9:19

blood of infants, which obviously

9:21

wasn't looked upon too kindly once people

9:23

found out. And how far did

9:25

her human flesh based potions go?

9:28

All the way to the top, it seems, King Louie

9:30

the fourteenth's own mistress, madame de

9:32

Montaspan, bought the stuff from Lavo's

9:34

end for over a decade, adding it

9:36

daily to the king's meals in an attempt to

9:38

win his affections and become his queen.

9:41

But remember what I said about how society

9:44

and more specifically the church viewed

9:46

women who used love magic to get ahead

9:48

in life, Mahnke de Montaspan was

9:51

viewed as overly ambitious and power

9:53

hungry, which led to an investigation and

9:56

the arrest of her supplier, LaFazen,

9:58

Whether Matus Ban's motive was anything more

10:00

than a simple desire for love though,

10:02

will forever be a mystery. And

10:05

then there's Ann Berlin. When

10:07

King Henry VIII abandoned Catherine

10:09

of Aragon, folks would have assumed that

10:11

it would be for political reasons, a

10:13

better alliance or some other union that

10:16

delivered power to the crown. But

10:18

instead, he married Anne, a woman

10:20

with no political clout at all. Naturally,

10:23

rumors started because, well, that's

10:25

what people do. They whispered that Anne

10:27

had bewitched the king, that she had used

10:29

magic or the dark arts to entrap

10:31

him. And those lies weren't helped by the

10:34

fact that Anne had six fingers on her right

10:36

hand as well as visible moles

10:38

and a protruding tooth. Things that were

10:40

often seen as a sign that a woman was a

10:42

witch. Her miscarriage in

10:44

fifteen thirty six was even used

10:46

as proof of the witchcraft accusations. Back

10:49

then, a number of events could be classified

10:51

as a monstrous birth. And those

10:53

who are looking for any excuse necessary

10:56

to paint Ann Berlin as a power hungry,

10:58

which had a lot to work with.

11:01

Today, it's clear that there is no evidence

11:03

that a love spell was ever involved in her relationship

11:05

with King Henry VIII, but the fact that most

11:07

people assumed that there was can be seen

11:10

as proof of just how common that belief

11:12

was at the time. What is

11:14

clear though, is just how entwined

11:16

love magic has always been. With

11:18

a pursuit of wealth and power.

11:32

These days help is always around

11:34

the corner. If you want something to

11:36

help with your headache or a vitamin to

11:38

better balance your nutrition, you might go

11:41

your local pharmacy to get it. But

11:43

the Greek word at the root, Pharmakon,

11:46

can actually mean medicine and

11:48

poison judging by the drug commercials

11:50

on TV and their seemingly endless

11:52

list of complications and side effects,

11:54

maybe that's still true. The things

11:56

crafted to help us can also do

11:58

us harm. And that even applies

12:01

to love potions. Mary

12:03

was considered by many to be an old

12:05

maid. In seventeen forty six, she

12:07

was roughly twenty six years old and had

12:09

yet to get married like the rest of her peers

12:12

and exactly why was a mystery

12:14

considering that she was kind, skilled, and

12:16

the daughter of a wealthy lawyer. In

12:19

fact, her father, Francis Blandy, was

12:21

pretty well known throughout Oxfordshire, and

12:23

he was ready to see Mary, well

12:25

married. And to hand over her dowry

12:27

of ten thousand pounds. And for

12:29

those who love historic currency conversion,

12:32

that was a tiny fortune, probably worth

12:34

around two million dollars today. And

12:36

that's when captain William Henry Cranston

12:39

showed up. He was descended from Scottish

12:41

royalty and had moved south to England

12:43

to start a new life, and at some point

12:45

in seventeen forty six, he met

12:47

and fell in love with Mary Blandy. Now

12:50

considering all the things we've discussed about

12:52

social barriers and difficult families,

12:54

it might be safe to assume that Mary's father might

12:56

have resisted a newcomer to town, but

12:59

instead he welcomed him in. Literally,

13:02

Cranston was welcomed into their home

13:04

where he lived with Mary and her father.

13:07

But close quarters tend to breed discomfort.

13:09

And soon enough, it became clear that there was a problem

13:12

with the young captain. It seems that he

13:14

was already married. His

13:16

wife's name was Anne Murray, and she

13:18

along with their child still lived in

13:20

Scotland. But Cranston swore that the

13:22

marriage wasn't legitimate and promised

13:25

to resolve the Mahnke. He sent letters

13:27

to Anne, but they went unanswered, so

13:29

he ultimately made a trip north to see

13:31

her in person. Eventually,

13:33

Mary's father got fed up and called

13:35

the whole thing off. Everything about

13:37

this other marriage smelled fishy to him,

13:40

and Mary would no longer be allowed to wed

13:42

the captain. He kicked the young man out

13:44

and told him to stay away. But

13:46

love is a powerful force. And while

13:49

her father might have lost interest, Mary couldn't

13:51

let go. And that's been Cranston came to

13:53

her with a plan. He had obtained a

13:55

love potion, a powder, really,

13:57

that Mary could use on her father in

13:59

order to win back his favor. He

14:01

was after all an obstacle to their happiness,

14:04

so earning his approval was key.

14:06

So Mary did what Cranston told her

14:08

to do. Every day she prepared

14:10

the meals for her father, and added a

14:12

bit of the white powder with hope and prayer

14:15

that her troubles would go away. This

14:17

went on for months too, until one day

14:19

her father did respond to the magic

14:21

powder. By dying. The

14:24

aftermath was a blur of panic and

14:26

emotions. Mary tried to get rid

14:28

of the rest of the love charm, but a household

14:30

servant managed to save some of it.

14:32

The authorities were called and Mary was caught

14:34

trying to leave town to join Cranston after

14:37

which they planned to head to France. And

14:39

while this was long before the age of modern

14:41

forensic science, a local doctor

14:43

did try to test the powder that the servant

14:46

had saved. He suspected it was

14:48

arsenic and performed a number of tests

14:50

on both the mysterious powder and

14:52

a real arsenic sample. And in

14:54

each case, Mary's love charm performed

14:56

the same way that the poison did.

14:59

And with that, Mary went to trial.

15:01

Of course, she proclaimed her innocence she

15:04

had no idea the powder was anything dangerous,

15:06

just a love potion given to her by

15:08

Cranston. But the young man who

15:10

incidentally turned out to be penniless and

15:12

therefore deeply interested in Mary's dowry

15:15

was nowhere to be found. So

15:17

Mary was convicted of murder instead.

15:20

On April sixth of seventeen fifty

15:22

two, she was hanged for her mistake.

15:24

Cranston never got a penny of her money

15:26

though, but he did slip away to France

15:28

in the end. And he died there

15:31

just a year after Mary paid for his

15:33

crime with her life.

15:49

They are, without a doubt, one of humankind's

15:52

oldest forms of Mahnke, from

15:54

binding spells carved on clay tablets

15:56

and magical scrolls to poisonous

15:58

elixirs and miniature dolls. It

16:01

seems one thing has always been true.

16:03

Love makes us do crazy things.

16:06

But sometimes love isn't the true motivation.

16:09

Sometimes the actions of those who use love

16:11

charms was really about something deeper.

16:13

Something even more core to who we are as

16:15

a species. Love magic was

16:18

ultimately about control and

16:20

power. And here's the wild

16:22

part of it all. There are many who believe

16:24

that these charms actually worked,

16:27

just not for the reasons you might Mahnke. You

16:29

see the very act of obtaining or

16:31

creating a love charm had a way of boosting

16:34

a person's confidence and confidence

16:36

is attractive. And for the innocent

16:38

targets of those charms and spells, learning

16:41

that someone was trying to win their affection

16:43

often made the situation better. What

16:45

better way to know a person is truly committed

16:48

to you than learning that they've tried to employ

16:50

magic to keep you together? Of

16:52

course, that doesn't make it right. Should

16:54

we be out there manipulating other people

16:56

with attempted charms and magic? Definitely

16:59

not. But history makes it clear that a

17:01

lot of people have refused to play by the rules.

17:04

And the relics and evidence they've left behind

17:06

is fascinating. Oh,

17:09

and one last thing. Remember

17:11

our archaeologist from beginning sir

17:13

Mortimer Wheeler and his helpful friend

17:15

John. There's no way to know if that

17:17

cursed tablet ever actually had the power

17:19

to bring the stolen ring back to its owner.

17:22

My guess, considering how the two objects

17:24

were found so far apart, is that Sylvaines

17:27

never saw his precious jewelry again.

17:30

There aren't many people who remember those artifacts

17:32

today, which is understandable. They're

17:34

just two small fragments of the past,

17:37

grains of sand on the beach of archaeology.

17:39

But even still, they made an impact

17:41

on John, whose Latin translation, brought

17:44

their story to life, so he wrote

17:46

his own version of their story. A

17:48

precious ring inscribed with old

17:50

language and a spiteful owner

17:52

who wanted it back. And that story

17:54

I'm glad to say is known by all

17:57

because it's the main thread running through

17:59

the fictional world he built, a

18:01

world that's been enjoyed by millions

18:03

and millions of readers over the years.

18:06

John, of course, was JRR

18:08

Tolkien, author of

18:11

the Lord of the Rings. After

18:28

diving deep into the history of love potions

18:31

and charms, one thing has become

18:33

very clear to me. The way love works

18:35

is often a mystery, and folklore

18:37

is really good about rising to the challenge.

18:40

Thankfully, we've moved on from using dangerous

18:42

chemicals to unlock the hearts of those we desire.

18:45

Well, almost. It turns

18:47

out that folklore is still alive and well,

18:50

if you know where to look. Then if you stick

18:52

around through this brief sponsor break, I'll

18:54

share one more example.

18:56

Of love gone wrong.

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21:24

Wann

21:36

arrived in New Jersey in nineteen fifty three

21:38

when he was in his mid forties. It was a

21:40

chance for a new life, a fresh start, and

21:42

that meant two things, finding a

21:44

job and finding true love.

21:47

Like a lot of newly arrived immigrants, Juan

21:49

quickly found work doing manual labor,

21:51

in his case on a local farm, but

21:53

he also caught wind of a company riding a Spanish

21:56

English dictionary. And being bilingual

21:58

and well read, he offered his services.

22:00

The company quickly hired him. But

22:03

while working there, he discovered the constant

22:05

stream of advertisements that were sent to his

22:07

employer, magazines, and books

22:09

of all topics, shapes, and flavors. And

22:12

that included some that dealt with the occult

22:14

and black magic. More than a little

22:16

curious, Juan placed an order for

22:18

a few of them. And that's how he

22:20

found himself spending his nights in his

22:22

little shack on the farm, reading

22:24

through books on the dark arts. Spells

22:27

of all kinds were offered up in these books

22:29

as real and powerful, and there was one

22:31

particular kind of a spell he was keenly interested

22:33

in trying. A love spell.

22:36

All one had to do was sort through the

22:38

instructions and the ingredients necessary

22:40

to make it all happen. Most of the stuff

22:43

was easy to find, and the ritual itself

22:45

was going to be simple, just a circle

22:47

on the ground that he could use to summon

22:49

the devil, who would grant him his wish,

22:51

making his love spell become real.

22:54

The only tough piece of the puzzle to crack

22:56

was an item on the list, the cranium

22:58

of a murderer. Juan really didn't

23:00

want to get caught robbing a grave so he

23:02

twisted the meaning of the object to also

23:05

include the cranium of someone killed

23:07

by a murderer, and that murderer

23:09

would be him. On the night

23:11

of October thirteenth nineteen fifty

23:13

six, Juan waited for one of the other

23:16

farmhands, a young teenager named Roger

23:18

Carletto, to come into his shack to

23:20

bomb a cigarette like he did most every

23:22

night. But this time when Roger turned

23:24

his back, Juan struck him down and

23:26

ended his life. Then while the owners

23:29

of the farm, mister and missus Rosenblum,

23:31

were asleep, he buried the boy's body

23:33

beneath the chicken yard. And then

23:36

he waited. Week after

23:38

week, Juan maintained his patience

23:40

as he waited for the corpse to decompose

23:42

enough to allow him to harvest the cranium

23:45

that he needed for the ritual. And

23:47

finally, seven months later, it

23:49

was time. Digging down to Rogers'

23:51

remains, Juan used a knife to cut

23:53

the cranium away and then reburyed

23:55

the rest of the evidence. That

23:58

night he set up his magic circle,

24:00

all the necessary ingredients on hand,

24:02

including the fragment of skull from

24:04

a murder victim. He recited the

24:06

incantation, followed the instructions,

24:08

and did everything by a book. And

24:11

then, Nothing. No

24:13

arrival of the devil, no clear sign

24:15

that his spell had worked. Nothing.

24:19

Frustrated, Juan decided to wait a little

24:21

while. Maybe Lovespells needed time to

24:23

click into place. But after another

24:25

two months of hoping for success, he

24:27

finally decided that ritual had failed.

24:30

So he began to plan his final move

24:32

turning himself in to the police. At

24:35

first, that plan involved breaking into

24:37

the home of his employers there on the farm.

24:39

Making a scene and allowing them to

24:41

call the police. Maybe it was

24:43

a nervousness thing or maybe he wanted

24:45

to maintain a way out. I'm guessing

24:48

the latter because once he got inside and

24:50

woke the old couple up and the police were

24:52

called, he chickened out and then blamed

24:54

the murder of Roger on them.

24:57

But his guilty conscience caught up in the end,

24:59

unable to live with what he had done between

25:01

murdering one person and ruining the lives

25:04

of two others he finally crumbled under

25:06

the weight of it all and confessed. The

25:08

rose and blums were set free, and Roger

25:11

Carletto's true killer was finally

25:13

behind bars. And it's a powerful

25:15

lesson about the true danger of Mahnke.

25:18

Like so many others throughout history, Juan

25:20

Rivera Aponte never did manage

25:23

to get his love spelled to work. What

25:25

he did get though was

25:27

life in prison. This

25:43

episode of lore was written and produced by

25:45

me, Mahnke, with research by

25:47

Generos Nevakanth and music by

25:49

Chad Lawson. Laure is much

25:51

more than just a podcast. There's a book series

25:53

available in bookstores and online and

25:56

two seasons of the television show on Amazon

25:58

Prime Video. Check them both out if you want

26:00

more lore in your life. Information about

26:02

all of that and more is available over at

26:04

lore podcast dot com. For

26:07

fans of video, Laura is available on

26:09

YouTube. Each new episode is released

26:11

alongside the podcast, but in talking

26:13

head style video format. Be sure to subscribe

26:15

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26:20

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26:25

And when you do, say hi.

26:27

I like it when people say hi. And

26:30

as always, Mahnke for

26:32

listening.