Issue
so I've always grated against the use of the world "healer" in fantasy literature - most often implemented in settings where there is a lack of a formal, structured and (sometimes) regulated system (where you start getting the distinction of medical professional: surgeon, physician, apothecary etc.).
Mostly it feels like the connotations of it range from quaint and hokey to conveying "noble savage" vibes. None of which I like.
Context
The reason this is coming up is because I'm tinkering away, slowly, at a Grima/Eomer fic request and doctoring is involved. I can't get myself over the hurdle and use "healer" because of both the somatic response of "ick" and that I fundamentally think Rohan has a bit more of a complex medical care "system" (for lack of a better word) than just "vague healer".
Most people would still likely receive the bulk of their health care at home - what would be colloquially known as "popular medicine" and, historically at least, was predominantly practiced by women. We know that Tacitus, for example, relates that in non-Roman areas (including pre-Roman Britain and the Germanies), those wounded in battle would be medicined at home by their mothers or wives.
However, outside of that I think Rohan would have both a doctoring sort of job as distinct from an apothecary (who likely would serve more than one function). Perhaps there is some overlap, but the two professions would be understood as separate from one another.
(Re: Apothecaries - This is later, but a good example, is 15th and 16th c Venice where apothecaries were where you bought medicines but also served as a place to get a hair cut and buy ink, paper, materials for paints, perfumes, among other things. It was like a weird barber shop-corner store situation. Then there were actual barber shops where you could get your hair cut, be treated for surgical issues like tooth pulling or bone setting, and buy various random things. (The amount of places a man could get his hair cut in Venice *chef's kiss*))
Current Status
The "problem" I have is that the most natural word to use to indicate a bit more of a trained professional, doctoring wise, in Rohan would be Leech (læce in old English).
Which is where we get the term "leechcraft" from. It's one of the reasons I made a post a while back joking about Grima actually being the court doctor. Edoras's local Leech here to give you Gentian and make you chew on snake root while checking your stars and asking about your latest dreams.
(Like Grima's potions and poisons, in the book, being applied would be way less sus if he was Theoden's actual doctor than Random Chief Advisor. Also the "your leechcraft would have had me crawling on all fours like a beast" hits even better if Grima was, actually, the local Leech. Also Grima's whole thing with stars - that was a key part of pre-modern doctoring, of course... anyway.)
Leech just has a lot of connotations for modern readers whereas in 8th c Kingdom of Mercia or, you know, Rohan it wouldn't have those same associations. I also don't want to jar readers too much with the word. I worry it would take people out of the story more than I would like.
Medic, physician etc. though sound too Latin and Greek informed (i.e., Gondor would have physicians, Rohan is a substantially different culture).
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I'm open to thoughts on this!
Have people seen other words used that work in the same vein as Leech or Wort-Cunning or anything of that nature? Would Leech take people out of a story if they saw it?
