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.

What Not to Do: Popcorn Superstitions, Folklore, History, and Stories

I had done it before, but you know, I forgot the measurements. I usually cook without measuring much of anything, so I figured I could wing this too.

I was making popcorn in the microwave last night. Not the pre-packaged kind, but just putting popcorn kernels into a brown paper lunch bag and putting it into the microwave on the "popcorn" setting. It really works and it's low cost and better for us than the packaged kind with who-knows-what added to it for flavor and to make the salt adhere.

I could not remember the amount of popcorn, however. Was it 1/2 cup? I put that amount in the bag but it seemed too little. A full cup? Maybe just a little less. I poured the kernels into the bag, folded the top closed and put it in the microwave.

After the "popcorn" setting had finished it was clear that there was a lot of unpopped corn in the bag, so I set it for another 2 minutes. Oh. My.

It popped. And popped. And popped. The bag burst open and popcorn began flying around inside the microwave. It was pretty entertaining, really. After a minute and a half the action subsided, and I opened the door. Kernels unpopped suddenly burst and flew out of the door at me. Popcorn was everywhere.

I had quite a cleanup to do when it was all over, but I could not stop laughing. I did it to myself, after all!

So just a word to the wise. A half cup of popcorn in a paper lunchbag, no more. You can also make it tastier, if you like, but tossing the kernels with a little olive oil and salt before popping. And you can do this in a bowl too, putting a plate on top to keep those wicked kernels in.

I really like this kind of popcorn. It's simple, not terribly bad for you, and it's inexpensive.As a child we seldom had this treat, and I wonder why because it costs little and that would have been a prime consideration in our very large family. Maybe my parents didn't like it, which was the reason we didn't eat a lot of things (like spicy food or oriental food, to name a couple).

And all the excitement last night got me to wondering about popcorn. Why does it pop when other corn doesn't? Are there any stories or superstitions about the fabled kernel?

Popcorn is a special variety of corn (or maize) that has a little moisture and oil trapped inside of its hull, and the hull is thinner than that of other corn. It's been around for centuries, probably since around 5000 BC and originated in Mexico. The kernels were just tossed on the fire then, and caught as they popped. It took a while for people to find ways to contain the popping corn--but this early method sounds like about as much fun as my wild microwave technique last night!

image from Wikimedia

The treat did not become popular until the late1800's in the US, when easy methods of popping were devised. At first it was sold on the streets by vendors who pushed their "popping carts" through the streets, but by 1925 ways were found to make popped corn at home.

Wikipedia has a wealth of information about popcorn, including a pretty spectacular method of making popcorn in China: "A very different method of popcorn-making can still be seen on the streets of some Chinese cities and Korea today. The un-popped corn kernels are poured into a large cast-iron canister — sometimes called a 'popcorn hammer' — that is then sealed with a heavy lid and slowly turned over a curbside fire in rotisseriefashion. When a pressure gauge on the canister reaches a certain level, the canister is removed from the fire, a large canvas sack is put over the lid and the seal is released. With a huge boom, all of the popcorn explodes at once and is poured into the sack.^[9][10][11] This method is believed to have been developed during the Song dynasty originally for puffing rice."

A few superstitions and traditions are linked to popcorn: 

The early Aztecs believed that the popping of the corn was releasing an angry god or spirit. 

Cowboys and cowgirls will not eat popcorn or peanuts on rodeo day.

Some racehorse owners were very superstitious about popcorn, and would not allow popcorn to be eaten, especially out of boxes, in their boxes on race day.

from Wikimedia

Unpopped kernels are called "old maids." A young woman wouldn't want to get a lot of those in her bowl, since each unpopped kernel represents one more year of being single. 

a few popcorn "charms: 
A jar or vase of popcorn, decorated with a red ribbon, and placed on a windowsill or near a sink is supposed to bring wealth to your home, especially if you do an incantation over it. 

Mix popcorn, thyme seeds and brown sugar. Throw the mixture into the four corners of your room--this is supposed to attract lovers to you. (Although I think they'd be less than charmed at the mess in your room from this!)

Martin Brodeur, the Cornell University hockey coach  at one time, ate popcorn out of the Stanley Cup after his team won in 2003. 

In southern Louisiana, children did something like trick-or-treat on New Year's Day; often their "treat" was popcorn fixed in a variety of different ways. This custom continued until the 1960's--seems a shame that it died out. 

In Vance Randolph's book of Ozark superstitions, he mentions popcorn in his section about funerals. A father, he said, gave his children popcorn to eat as they sat at the side of their dead mother. That gives me shivers.

There are a few popcorn tall tales too, like this one in the book The Harvest Story:Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen by Robert T. Rhode. "Lewis Cline of Battle Creek, Michigan asserted, "The weather was extremely hot. On one side of the fence was a herd of cows, and on the other a field of popcorn. It got so hot it popped the popcorn and the cows saw it and thought it was snow and froze to death." "

A jar or vase of popcorn, decorated with a red ribbon, and placed on a windowsill or near a sink is supposed to bring wealth to your home. 

Some interesting links about popcorn:

From NPR, a history of the kernel

A Paul Bunyan tale

More folklore and history, and a good list of children's books about popcorn

A funny story of using popcorn as a bribe for a safe walk home in this collection of Louisiana folktales.

Popcorn seems to be a popular topic for storytellers in Louisiana; this story combines a river witch, politics and popcorn.

So there you have it, more fact and fiction about popcorn than you ever wanted to know. But a fun read for this gray, cold, rainy day. Think i'll try to make another batch, but this time, I'll use a little less corn!


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

Over the Rainbow

It was a rainy trip home the other night, but the reward was worth it:

And then it was gone, as quickly as it came. 

For your reading pleasure on this hot, hot day, a few places to find rainbow stories:

Wikipedia offers mythology of rainbows.

Rainbow legends from Colours of the Rainbow.

Rainbows and autumn leaves from World of Tales.

Rainbow Crow, from American Folklore and another about how the rainbow was made.

Enjoy!

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.