James Kapaló, Éva Pócs and William Ryan: Introduction GENRE, CLASSIFICATION, TERMINOLOGY Arne Bugge Amundsen: A genre in the making. The first study of charms in Norway Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart : The making of a charm collector. Alexander Carmichael in Uist, 1864 to 1882 Tat'iana Agapkina and Andrei Toporkov: Charm indexes: problems and perspectives Edina Bozóky: Medieval narrative charms Vilmos Voigt: Báj- : The historical development of “charm” terminology in Hungarian HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES Lea Olsan: The marginality of charms in medieval England Éva Pócs: Church benedictions and popular charms in Hungary Dániel Bárth : Benediction and exorcism in early modern Hungary Daiva Vaitkeviciene: Baltic and East Slavic charms CONTENT AND FUNCTION OF CHARMS Emanuela Timotin: The najit between prayers and charms: A study of the Romanian manuscript tradition Francisco Vaz da Silva : Charming the moon: moon charms for sick children in Portuguese ethnography Maarit Viljakainen : “Dear Merciful Mother”. The Virgin Mary in Finnish and Karelian birth incantations Index