The last photo on this blog was of a small yew tree giving off clouds of pollen in an early spring ritual of it's own. The photo above is of a 2000 year old Yew in Much Marcle, Herefordshire. It has been there since the birth of Christ. Yews are said to be directly connected to the underworld, and to sleep under one means to never properly awake.I would like this post to be developed by You (Yew, or in the case of our Welsh pagans, Ewe). so please feel free to submit everything that you do not know about these creatures, and I promise to weave it into this post, in imitation of the way it's roots will wrap around your heart as you sleep.
All comments will be digested then deleted. They will then immediately appear in the body of this text.
Okay...I'll play.
ReplyDeleteI'm told that Green Lady Fairies live in the Yew. They are easily offended if their trees are not treated with respect, so farmers plant primroses around them and ask the fairies for permission before cutting a limb.
I googled Yews, because I just couldn't think of anything I didn't already know about them, which was nothing. I found that the majority of Yews grow in church yards......why are they the chosen trees of churches?
ReplyDeleteThe Mountain Ash was planted to keep away witches, but attracted snakes. The Yew will keep evil spirits from a graveyard, but will kill animals and children, should they be unwise enough to partake of the fruit.
ReplyDeleteThere is one in the Anglican churchyard in Albany. They grow very very slowly ... 2000 years ... that is amazing and she does like like a portal - and a binding as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the above - keep it coming if you can be bothered, and I will do something with them shortly. Multiple entries accepted.
ReplyDeleteThe Latin name for the yew tree is Taxus baccata. It will grow in shade and does not mind smoky air but does not like poorly drained soil; is slow growing and the male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. Both the leaves and seeds are poisonous.
ReplyDeleteThanks Molly - logged.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I know someone who regularly ate the red fruit - not the seeds - when she was a child, and although she is mad, she was still alive last time I checked.
ReplyDeleteYew is the last on a list of oldest things in a passage from the fourteenth century Book of Lismore: "Three lifetimes of the yew for the world from its beginning to its end."
ReplyDeleteThe Fortingall yew in Glen Lyon has been estimated to be anywhere from two thousand to nine thousand years old. Legend has it that Pontius Pilate was either born under this tree or played as a child in its branches. Though the Romans didn’t invade Britain until 43 AD, several expeditions had visited from 55 BC onwards. Pontius Pilate's father was on a diplomatic mission to a Pictish King when his wife, who’d been travelling with him, gave birth at Fortingall.
To answer Razmataz’s question:
ReplyDeleteMost of the yews you’ll find in churchyards pre-date the churches. This is because many churches and churchyards were built in the circles of yews that were the sacred groves of the Druids.
Thanks C.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the yews in churchyards (and you never did get back to this project did you Tom) I understand that Yews were also planted in churchyards as a ready source of bow wood.
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