The Artifact Redux: The Hand of Glory

In this classic episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses the Hand of Glory from European occultism… (originally published 08/30/2023)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. I'd
like to take a break from all the recent Monster
Fact episodes to discuss an artifact, though a monstrous one,

(00:31):
to be sure, the Hand of Glory. It is, in short,
a grizzly candle holder made from the mummified, pickled, or
otherwise preserved hand of an executed criminal, such as one
left hanging at a crossroads. In Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase
and Fable, Ivor Evans also describes it as a dead

(00:52):
man's hand quote soaked in oil and used as a
magic torch. When candled depictions vary, sometimes the hand's very
fingers taper into flaming wicks. This version was more or
less brought to the screen in nineteen seventy threes The
wicker Man, while other times a candle is simply inserted

(01:14):
into the knuckles of the hand's closed fist. The eighteenth
century French grimoure Petit Albert provides a detailed recipe of
the hands construction, including how to cure it and how
to make the candle. But let us turn to the
alleged power of the Hand of Glory. Once lit, According

(01:35):
to various nineteenth century stories, it would render those who
gazed upon it, or all those within a given house,
completely motionless. In some accounts, it was also said to
open locks. For the Hand of Glory was the dark
magical item of choice for thieves, as Richard Blakeburrow discussed

(01:56):
in the nineteen twenty four book The Hand of Glory
and further Grandfather's Tales and Legends of Highwaymen and others
collected by the late R. Blakeburrow. The story often concerned
a thief disguised as an old woman who attempts to
light the Hand of Glory in an inn so as
to rob everyone there, with his fellow thieves, who are,

(02:18):
of course waiting outside. In one version of the story,
the thief recites the following spell. According to blake Burrow,
let those who rest more deeply sleep, Let those awake
their vigils, keep, oh Hand of Glory, shed thy light,
direct us to our spoil tonight, Flash out thy light,

(02:42):
oh skeleton hand, and guide the feed of our trusty
band in Brewers Evan cites historian Robert Graves arguing that
quote hand of glory is a translation of the french
Man de gloire, a corruption of mandragore, the plant mandragora
or mandrake, whose roots had a similar magic value to thieves.

(03:07):
The mandrakes, often split roots, have long inspired fantastic interpretations,
as they sometimes resemble human beings. The fact that they
contained hallucinogenic alkaloids only contributed to their magical reputation. In
some traditions, to uproot one was to risk death and damnation,
so it was necessary to have a dog do the

(03:29):
work for you and suffer death on its master's behalf.
The mandrake was indeed said to screen when uprooted, and
in varying dosages and concoctions produced either good or ill effects,
the key to our consideration of the hand of glory.
It was also said to stupefy or produce sleep. And finally,

(03:51):
as Charles Godfrey points out in the eighteen ninety two
book Etruscan Roman remains in popular tradition, Dutch accounts held
that mandrake grew from quote the droppings of a thief's
brain on the gallows unquote. He who possessed the root,
he says, which resembled a demon quote, can enter all houses,

(04:13):
open all doors, and rob freeley without being detected. The
Whitby Museum in North Yorkshire has in its collection a
withered human hand alleged to be a hand of glory,
gifted to the museum in nineteen thirty five after its
discovery in a cottage wall. However, the hand apparently features

(04:34):
no burn marks from a candle or candles, according to
Wendy Pratt's twenty eighteen Atlas Obscure article on the hand.
Whitby Museum curator Robert Pickles has suggested that the hand
in question, the one on display there, might have actually
been a bad luck charm. As we've discussed on stuff
to blow your mind in the past see twenty twenty

(04:54):
two's episode the Archaeology of counter Witchcraft with Brian Hoggard.
European and early the American colonial history is full of
protective magic, in which talismans of various make are hidden
in walls and beneath floorboards. It is not unreasonable at all, then,
to consider the possibility that such a strange and foul

(05:14):
hand could have served a similar if perhaps more diabolical purpose.
Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact or The
Monster Factor Who Knows What each week. As always, you
can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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