How the history of medicine, pharmacy, and herbalism became separate is complex—a modern phenomenon. Ours is a world requiring precise and well-defined categories for everything. For that reason, Old English medicine as we read it in its own words may not seem to be ‘medicine’ at all as we understand the term. But then, what should the all-encompassing healing practice of that time be called? Medicinal plants and natural substances have been an integral part of healing practices since recorded time, and much of the medical practice in antiquity and the early Middle Ages was what would today be called herbalism. Prayer, incantation, and other spiritual practices were an integral part of it. So was surgery. From time to time, so was theory. Historical circumstances such as wars, famines, migrations, abundance, affected both needs and practice. For these and many other reasons, the texts belonging to human medicine, understood broadly, are challenging, demanding understanding using both mind and soul.