8 Chapter Eight: Mythical Flora and Fauna
Flora as Symbols
“The land holds memories within it. This is a challenging idea to us now but it was pervasive in ancient thought. It is essentially an articulation of the soul of place” (Magan 152).
Original (Noble) trees of Ireland: Oak, Ash, Hazel, Birch, Scot’s Pine, Rowan, and Willow.
Ogham: B = Beit = Birch | F = Fearn = Elder | S = Sail = Sallow | Duir = Oak | C = Coll = Hazel | Onn = Ash
Niall Mac Coitir. Ireland’sTrees – Myths, Legends & Folklore. The Collins Press, 2003. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.txstate.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1008311&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Weave rushes for St. Brigid’s Day/Imbolc (i.e. St. Brigid’s cross)
St. Gobnait’s Well & tree
Bellanabriscaun -> Beal Atha na mBrioscan “the settlement of the ford of the wild tansy.” “A place like Bellanabriscaun would have received more covert night visits by women in distress, as tansy has long been used to induce miscarriages when taken in high doses” (Magan 140).
“Tansy” by Jennifer Trouton, Mater Natura: The Abortionist’s Garden
Foxglove: “Digitalis was proposed as the Latinised name for the plant in the 16th century by a German botanist, Leonard Fuchs (1501–66). Fuchs is German for ‘fox’. Apparently, he chose digitalis, a Latin way of saying ‘pertaining to the finger’, because the common German name for the plant is Fingerhut, which means, literally, ‘a finger hat’ or thimble’.” I much prefer the explanation offered by Davies and Hollman—the fairies gave the flowers to foxes to wear on their feet so they could move in magic silence towards hens or away from men.” -TSUNG O CHENG Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, The George Washington University Medical Center, 2150 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037, USA
Fauna as Symbols
Mythical Birds:
- “Cliodhna was drowned while hiding in the form of a wren to escape her progenitor, the principal sea god Mannanan, who wanted to do one of three things depending on which version you hear: take back her power, limit her freedom or crush the love she had for a young human, Ciabhan of the Curling Locks” (Magan 82).
- “Wrenboys still go out in Ireland on St. Stephens Day (English Boxing Day). The central theme of the wrenboy visit is the wren, an effigy of which is carried about in a holly branch or in a box or cage. Previously it was hunted and killed prior to St. Stephen’s Day and a matter of honour for groups to have a real bird. Source: https://www.sligoheritage.com/archwrenboys.htm
- The Garryduff Wren: https://archaeologyireland.ie/2018/03/02/the-garryduff-gold-bird/
- “When a native speaker uses the word badhbh for a hooded crow, there is in the word the memory of its earlier homonym, which refers to a female fairy who appears in phantom bird form to certain families” (Magan 110).
- The word badb is a generic term, signifying supernatural women, sometimes in the form of crows, who hover over the battlefield, foretelling the slaughter a