For other uses of the word bane, see bane . The meaning of bane is an English form of nemesis, the bringer of ruin. Now an affliction, curse, evil, ill, plague, scourge or woe, in Old English bana had a more specific and immediate meaning, of "slayer", "murderer."Possibly derived from nordic languages brought to britain by the Vikings, where "bane" (in swedish for example) means "something causing your death". In the Middle Ages, a number of plants were thought to have poisonous or prophylactic qualities, which would have dire consequences (Henbane) or liminal ones, like "Wolfsbane" ("Aconite", Aconitum). Aconite is thoroughly poisonous, but no one would bait a wolf-trap with it. So its qualities as a "bane" must be protective, for the wolf is more dangerous than a mere ravening carnivore. Many medieval Europeans believed that they could become werewolves. Aconite was the toxic entheogen that could keep the dire transfor

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