Trees: Folklore and Fables

38 this morning, cloudy. Some minor flooding, I hear, from last night's heavy rains. 

This is an update of a post from 2009. I checked the links and many of them were no longer working, so they've been updated, and a few new links and photos added. Enjoy.

On the ridge, Springtime

Around the world people tell many stories with trees at their center, and in some places trees are considered holy, inhabited by spirits, or bringers of luck and fortune. 

The website Spirit of the Trees hosts a broad collection of tree stories, Started as a resource for the DC Memorial Tree Groves , the site grew to encompass scientific, folkloric, and educational resources in essays, stories and resource links. Storytellers contributed tales, and an extensive list of stories on the web is hosted on the site.

At Beartown Rocks, West Virginia

The Tree People is a unique experiment in preservation in Los Angeles, CA. And have you ever wondered if trees sleep at night, go here to read all about that.

The oak, of course, is often the topic of tree stories. With reason. The stately, long-lived oak exudes strength, provides deep shade and steady, long-lasting heat when cut, and hardens to a stone-like toughness for use as a building material. Its golden grain graces many pieces of furniture and flooring, and its acorns provided food for the ancient Celts and food and shelter for all kinds of other animal life. Photos of the oldest known oak trees can be found here.

Then there is the "fairy bush" in County Clare, Ireland, that delayed the building of a road for something like 10 years. The road was eventually routed around the bush. 

A friend suggested a haunting story called The Armchair of the Tustenuggee from the book Palmetto Stories by Celina Eliza Means. What a tale this is, with a curiously twisted, but satisfying ending.

At Sacred Woods and the Lore of Trees you can find folklore associated with trees of all kinds. What I like about this site (librarian that I am) is her listed bibliography of sources. While she does not tell you where each tree's information came from, she at least supplied the places she consulted for the information provided on her website.

Wikipedia offers an overview of sacred trees around the world. This tree with its network of roots is on the grounds of the Avebury Standing Stones in England, and surely considered sacred although it's not on the Wikipedia list.

And this one, located at Carn Euny in Cornwall, was at the site of a holy well, and hung with clouties--strips of ribbon or string, tied to the tree by someone with a special wish or prayer. Yes, we tied on a piece of string too.

At egreenway, Michael Garofalo has compiled an incredible bibliography (the librarian strikes again!) along with poetry, quotes, folklore and monthly collections of all the above, all about trees. His site is a little difficult to use, requiring much scrolling, but thee information provided is worth the sore finger.

Here's a poem for March from his site:

"The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven

-All's right with the world!"

- Robert Browning

Amen, Mr. Browning. We've all heard this poem but in early spring, and we all need to hear it again.

Around the world:

*from Robert Browning comes the tale of the Sugar Palm Tree, from Indonesian Folklore. "A husband and a wife lived happily in a village. They had two children a son and a daughter. The son’s name was Tare Iluh and the daughter’s name was Beru Sibou. Their happy life ended when their father died." To read the rest, you need to visit the site. I promise it is worth your time.

*And from another exotic location comes stories of Papa Bois: "He is the old man of the forest and is known by many names, including "Maître Bois" (master of the woods) and "Daddy Bouchon" (hairy man)." Probably the source of the Cajun stories of Wiley and the Hairy Man? (You can find a reader's theatre adaptation of this suspenseful story of a boy's encounters with the Hairy Man here.)

I will leave you with this thought:

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.

- William Blake, 1799, The Letters

A man ahead of his time.

Go outside and enjoy your trees, even if it is still a bit chilly, My old maples are showing signs of the coming of spring as they try to bud in this cold weather. Hope springs eternal, even in trees.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.