Healers in fiction

[virgil]

I just realized something. Outside of anime, what fictional sources are there that have healers?

[Catharz]

The Gospels.

[Endovior]

More seriously, there is some healing done in, say, LotR... but that's more Heal skill healing then magical *poof* you're healed.

[JonSetanta]

Asclepius, tho a bit too repeated. Greek classicalists.. ughhh. No offense, shirak...

Also, as a long stretch, Faust's Mephistopheles. Prevented him from dying, or rather, had complete control over Faust's well-being.

[Koumei]

The scabbard for Excalibur slowly healed King Arthur. It was while he was being healed that Morganna Le Fay stole it. Bitch.

Similar to the Gospels, there was that Jesus guy. I hear he did some healing, whether he existed or not.

Whoever wields the god-slaying blue gem in David Eddings' book (you know, any of them) has the power to heal and resurrect, though that's generally due to having the power to do whatever they want (Book 1: I'm a level 1 guy hanging out with level 5 guys! Book 3: lol, just kidding, I'm a 60 HD Outsider!) But magic was used to restore a dead animal to life in one of them, and it was mentioned that they can do that, just, if they're dead for a reason, then they'll simply die again. Example: being brought back doesn't fix the stab wound in your chest.

[Jacob_Orlove]

Fionn mac Cumhaill does:

In The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, one of the most famous stories of the cycle, the High King Cormac mac Airt promises the now aging Fionn his daughter Gráinne as his bride, but Gráinne falls instead for one of the Fianna, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and the pair runs away together with Fionn in pursuit. The lovers are aided by Diarmuid's foster-father, the god Aengus. Eventually Fionn makes his peace with the couple. Years later, however, Fionn invites Diarmuid on a boar hunt, and Diarmuid is badly gored by their quarry. Water drunk from Fionn's hands has the power of healing, but when Fionn gathers water he deliberately lets it run through his fingers before he gets back to Diarmuid. His grandson Oscar threatens him if does not bring water for Diarmuid, but when Fionn finally returns it is too late; Diarmuid has died.

[shirak]

1189230172[/unixtime]]I just realized something. Outside of anime, what fictional sources are there that have healers?

Almost all of non-classical SciFi. Asimoc and Co really weren't big on medical technology for some reason.

A lot of fantasy. Including, but not limited to, the Wheel of Endlessness series and the Assassin/Liveships/Fool series by Robin Hobb.

A lot of modern fantasy. In Dresden Files wizards get slow regeneration. Harry Potter has the school nurse.

Basically every divine tradition ever. From Christians and their miracles to Budhists and their body-control powers, healing is either assumed or strived for.

[TRQ]

Thousands of years of mysticism in various religions! (I'm only really versed in the mysticism of judaic religions, so that's what I'm referring to.) Healers are more ubiquitous in this context than almost anything else, and believe me, there's tons of magic to be found therein!

[TRQ]

D'oh, hit reply while still in the middle of editing...

There are really two distinct kinds of healing though - physical wounds, and diseases both mental and physical. (I'll ignore raising the dead entirely, that is also everywhere but almost always a power reserved for the messiah and his army.) They are not the same... everyone understood the cause of physical wounds, and the body generally healed them itself... provided one didn't get diseased in the meantime. Most prayers related to healing are for staving off disease. There are, to be truthful, plenty of examples of Rabbis running around healing severed limbs as well, but they mostly stayed in more obscure areas of mysticism, and didn't make it mainstream.

Disease, on the other hand, is far more mysterious, and is generally caused by demons. Under the category of "healers" one must include exorcists, since physical and mental disease is caused by demons, and exorcising them is how you heal the disease.
Also that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of exorcism. It should come as no surprise that ancient Jews put up prayers at all the entrances of their household to keep the demons from entering. People paid rabbis to inscribe seals on shards of pottery that they placed at the borders of their territory (part of old territory marking rituals) that kept the demons at bay. Whether you think of this as healing is up to you.

Mystical ecstatics often felt they could temporarily don the mantle of the messiah, and were granted the corresponding healing powers. Check out Abraham Abulafia.

Haside Ashkenaz could create golems... needless to say, they could also heal the wounded. Imitation of God's abilities is the highest praise, so if God could do it, you could try it too.

Christianity has most of the same things, but I know Jewish mysticism far better. If you want examples of anything I can provide.

This may not be "in fiction" as you asked, but it is an important source for much fiction.

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Fictional example: The Claw of the Concilliator. Again, its a magic item though.

[Catharz]

I was just notified that there is a character in Laurel K Hamilton novels known as "the man with the golden tongue". Apparently he can lick wounds in a creepy sexual way to make them magically heal.

[shirak]

1189262592[/unixtime]]I was just notified that there is a character in Laurel K Hamilton novels known as "the man with the golden tongue". Apparently he can lick wounds in a creepy sexual way to make them magically heal.

Gives a whole new and disturbing meaning to the term "golden rain"

[PhoneLobster]

And the current meaning of golden rain isn't creepy?

But anyway, licking wounds to heal them is not to my knowledge exclusive to the many carrot tongue.

I've seen refferences in Itallian movies and a German? I think, role playing game that suggest "witch's spit" is an old folklore magical healing power.

Not to mention seeing things in other fiction and such to suggest that licking of minor wounds is an actual folk remedy in many cultures.

[Cielingcat]

I really should learn more about Jewish mysticism.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Lots of YA fantasy -- Mercedes Lackey and Tamora Pierce both have abundant healers, for instance.

[ckafrica]

Of course with most modern fantasy it is hard to say what came first, healers in fantasy which inspires RPGs or writers who were inspired by RPGs. R Jordan makes it pretty clear that the Wheel of Time is the chronicles of his RP sessions. And I imagine Feist and Eddings are much the same. Both read like a DnD campaign.

[JonSetanta]

1189261578[/unixtime]] Imitation of God's abilities is the highest praise, so if God could do it, you could try it too.

Ah.. damn. That's where Christians went wrong, for the most part.
I'm glad the so-called New Age movement brought, to some degree, a portion of Christians to accepting that more than just their savior can heal people.
The usual staunch Bible-thumpers are still sadly mistaken in this regard, supporting a sick chain of fear of 'the supernatural' stretching back to the days of the Inquisition and beyond...

[SunTzuWarmaster]

Most science fiction has 'magical healing' of some sort. Pip and Flinx had "pastiskin"

The Book of Nine Swords had the Sword of Healing (you hit people with it and it heals them instantly).

[tzor]

Don't forget that the psychic/magic divide is mostly a D&D artifact ... a lot of writers used to blur the lines often. Magic and science also tends to get blurred at times as well ... consider Frankenstien.

[JonSetanta]

1189344096[/unixtime]]Don't forget that the psychic/magic divide is mostly a D&D artifact ... a lot of writers used to blur the lines often. Magic and science also tends to get blurred at times as well ... consider Frankenstien.

Differences in psionics vs. magic are in Shadowrun to a certain degree.
Not in end-result, but in the method of causing the effects.
Still very similar though.
True, D&D is the worst offender of trying to find differences between the two where there are few to none.

[Voss]

1189306922[/unixtime]]Of course with most modern fantasy it is hard to say what came first, healers in fantasy which inspires RPGs or writers who were inspired by RPGs. R Jordan makes it pretty clear that the Wheel of Time is the chronicles of his RP sessions. And I imagine Feist and Eddings are much the same. Both read like a DnD campaign.

Well, Feist's stuff *is* from a not-quite-D&D campaign. He basically decided to write the back history for the RP campaign he was in, and managed to get it published.

Eddings, on the other hand... Eddings claims all his shit is directly from medieval fantasy, and that he doesn't ever read Fantasy novels himself. On the other hand, reading his shit with entire nation of thieves, a nation of berserkers, a nation of racist horsemen and so on... He's got some sort of crack in his head. Read the 'Rivan Codex' some time. Its basically an in-depth work on how NOT to do world-building.

[Koumei]

I like Eddings' trilogy. Singular. They're all the same story. It's the characters I like, though.