What is the patron saint of travellers?

St Christopher, on the strength of the legend that he carried a child across a river who proved unbearably heavy, being Christ bearing the world. His medals remain the standard Christian travel charm. The 1969 calendar reform reduced his feast to optional local observance, which is often misreported as the church having removed him.

What is a pilgrim badge?

A cheap pin cast in lead-tin alloy at a medieval shrine and sold to visitors: the scallop of Santiago, the Canterbury ampulla of Becket's water, the crowned M of Walsingham. Worn on the hat or cloak, it proved the pilgrimage had been made and was kept afterwards as a protective object. Thousands have been recovered from the Thames foreshore, catalogued by Brian Spencer.

Why do people hang charms from rear-view mirrors?

Because the vehicle is now the dangerous crossing, and a charm goes where the danger is. The nazar bead is probably the most common object used this way worldwide, followed by religious medals and rosaries. Check that whatever you hang does not obstruct your view, which in some jurisdictions is an offence.

What were sailors' charms?

The densest set in this category. Wind knots sold by weather-workers, dried cauls carried against drowning and advertised in British newspapers into the twentieth century, coins deposited under a ship's mast at construction, and protective tattoos, which had the advantage of being impossible to lose.

An offering left at a shrine in discharge of a vow after a safe return, rather than a request before departure. The Latin is ex voto suscepto, from the vow undertaken. Painted panels, silver limbs, Greek tama plaques and model ships cover the walls of coastal chapels around the Mediterranean, and they are the record of journeys that ended well.

Was there a god specifically for coming home?

Rome had one. Fortuna Redux, Fortune the Home-Bringer, was a distinct cult from Fortuna in general, and the Senate voted her an altar on the Campus Martius in 19 BCE for Augustus's safe return from the East. Her concern was not the quality of the journey but the fact of the return, which is exactly the request most travel charms in this library are making.

Talismans · Purposes

Travel and homecoming

Also called: Wayfarer's charms

The one purpose where the request is not a good journey but a return.

At a glance

Kept in: A pocket, a vehicle, a boat, around the neck
The consistent ask: Homecoming, not safety in transit
Roman form: Fortuna Redux, Fortune the Home-Bringer, altar 19 BCE
Christian form: St Christopher medals and pilgrim badges
Islamic form: The travel du'a, often cased and worn
Sailors' forms: Wind knots, caul, tattoos, coins under the mast

The shape of the request

Read enough travel charms and one thing stands out. They rarely ask for a pleasant journey, good weather or fast progress. They ask to come back.

Rome made that explicit enough to build it an altar. Fortuna Redux is Fortune the Home-Bringer, a distinct cult from Fortuna in general, and the Senate voted her an altar on the Campus Martius in 19 BCE to mark Augustus's safe return from the East. She has no interest in whether the journey goes well. Her entire portfolio is the return leg, and she was still receiving dedications from soldiers and officials centuries later.

That emphasis makes sense once you consider what travel actually was. Before the twentieth century a journey of any distance carried a real chance of not returning: from illness, robbery, shipwreck, war, or simply being unable to afford the way home. The traveller left, and the household did not know for months whether they were alive.

So travel charms are usually made in pairs of a kind. The traveller carries something, and the household keeps something: a token, a lock of hair, a half of an object broken in two. Several traditions have the broken-token form explicitly, where each half is meaningless without the other.

The Christian repertoire

Pilgrim badges are the most abundant medieval survivals of any charm class. Cheap pins cast in lead-tin alloy at moulds beside the shrines and sold in enormous numbers, showing the saint or the relic: the scallop shell of Santiago de Compostela, the ampulla of Canterbury holding water said to be tinctured with Becket's blood, the crowned M of Walsingham. They were worn on the hat or cloak, proved you had been, and were kept afterwards as protective objects. Thousands have been recovered from the Thames foreshore alone, and Brian Spencer's catalogues of the London material are the standard reference for the whole class.

St Christopher is the standard modern form. The legend has him carrying a child across a river who becomes unbearably heavy, being Christ carrying the weight of the world, and he became the patron of travellers on that strength. Medals are worn at the neck or fixed inside vehicles. He remained popular after the 1969 revision of the calendar under Paul VI, which reduced his feast to optional local observance, a change frequently misreported as the church having removed or decanonised him.

Ex-votos run the other direction. The Latin is ex voto suscepto, from the vow undertaken, and the object is discharge of a promise rather than a request. A traveller who came back safely left a painted panel, a silver limb, a tama plaque in Greek practice, or a model ship, and the walls of coastal chapels around the Mediterranean are covered in them. They are the record of journeys that ended well, and they are the most moving version of this purpose.

Sailors

The trade with the worst odds produced the densest practice.

Wind knots. Cord sold by a weather-worker with three knots in it: undo the first for a breeze, the second for a strong wind, the third at your peril. Recorded from Finland to Shetland and one of the most widespread maritime charms.

The caul. A piece of amniotic membrane over a newborn's face, dried and sold, believed to prevent drowning. Advertisements for cauls appear in British newspapers into the twentieth century, and prices rose during wars.

Coins under the mast. Deposited at a ship's construction, a practice that runs from Roman wrecks to modern keel-laying ceremonies, where it is still performed on naval vessels.

Tattoos. Not amulets in the strict sense, but they work like them: a pig and a rooster on the feet against drowning, a swallow for distance sailed, the sailor's cross on the hand. They cannot be lost, which is the entire point at sea.

What people carry now

This purpose survived modernity better than almost any other in the library, because the anxiety survived. Cars, planes and unfamiliar cities all still produce the reflex.

The common modern forms: a medal or bead hung from a rear-view mirror, a charm in a wallet or a bag, a Vegvisir tattoo, a small object from home taken deliberately, a photograph. Airlines and hire cars are full of these and nobody comments on them.

The request has changed slightly, though. Where the historical charm asked for return from a journey that might genuinely end elsewhere, the modern one is mostly about the anxiety of transit itself: takeoff, motorways, unfamiliar roads. Which is a real change in what is being feared, and it is the reason the modern versions live in vehicles rather than in pockets.

How travel charms are used

The forms are consistent and most of them are still current.

Carry it on your person rather than in luggage. The historical logic is that luggage can be separated from you.
Leave something at home, or with someone. The paired-token form is the oldest version of this charm.
Fix a charm inside the vehicle rather than outside it, which is where every modern tradition puts it.
For pilgrimage, the badge is bought at the destination and carried home, not the other way round.
If you return safely, several traditions expect thanks: an ex-voto, a candle, a donation at the shrine.
A charm from a shrine is usually returned or replaced after a year, particularly in Japanese practice.

The ex-voto habit is worth reviving on its own terms. A tradition that requires you to record having come back safely is one that makes you notice that you did.

Charms for travel

The objects carried on the road.

Questions for reflection

Travel charms ask for return rather than for a good journey. Which would you ask for?
The paired token only works if both halves exist. Who holds your other half?
The ex-voto is thanks rather than a request. When did you last mark having got back safely?

Frequently asked questions

: St Christopher, on the strength of the legend that he carried a child across a river who proved unbearably heavy, being Christ bearing the world. His medals remain the standard Christian travel charm. The 1969 calendar reform reduced his feast to optional local observance, which is often misreported as the church having removed him.
: A cheap pin cast in lead-tin alloy at a medieval shrine and sold to visitors: the scallop of Santiago, the Canterbury ampulla of Becket's water, the crowned M of Walsingham. Worn on the hat or cloak, it proved the pilgrimage had been made and was kept afterwards as a protective object. Thousands have been recovered from the Thames foreshore, catalogued by Brian Spencer.
: Because the vehicle is now the dangerous crossing, and a charm goes where the danger is. The nazar bead is probably the most common object used this way worldwide, followed by religious medals and rosaries. Check that whatever you hang does not obstruct your view, which in some jurisdictions is an offence.
: The densest set in this category. Wind knots sold by weather-workers, dried cauls carried against drowning and advertised in British newspapers into the twentieth century, coins deposited under a ship's mast at construction, and protective tattoos, which had the advantage of being impossible to lose.
: An offering left at a shrine in discharge of a vow after a safe return, rather than a request before departure. The Latin is ex voto suscepto, from the vow undertaken. Painted panels, silver limbs, Greek tama plaques and model ships cover the walls of coastal chapels around the Mediterranean, and they are the record of journeys that ended well.
: Rome had one. Fortuna Redux, Fortune the Home-Bringer, was a distinct cult from Fortuna in general, and the Senate voted her an altar on the Campus Martius in 19 BCE for Augustus's safe return from the East. Her concern was not the quality of the journey but the fact of the return, which is exactly the request most travel charms in this library are making.

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