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Author
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Comment
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firewolf2
Registered User
(6/20/05 3:03 pm)
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Need Sycamore/Faerie connection
I'm researching a project and need to find lore/myth/tales linking Faeries and sycamore trees. Can anyone help? The only mythological connections I've found are with Hathor (Egypt) and a Native American myth about the origin of fire. Thanks!
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GailS
Unregistered User
(6/20/05 4:21 pm)
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Robin Meredydd
Found one story about Robin Meredydd “under the power of the fairies” as he slept for generations under a sycamore tree. Akin to Rip Van Winkle.
www.red4.co.uk/Folklore/f...eturn.htm.
GailS
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GailS
Unregistered User
(6/20/05 4:24 pm)
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Again
For Robin's Return
http://www.red4.co.uk/Folklore/fairytales/robinsreturn.htm
GailS
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firewolf2
Registered User
(6/20/05 5:35 pm)
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Re: Again
Thanks - I had found that one too, but it's the only one I could find and I think it just so happened to be a sycamore tree; it didn't seem from the tale I read that there was any specific connection between the kind of tree and the Faerie folk.
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GailS
Unregistered User
(6/21/05 5:58 am)
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Sycamore
According to:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/WoodyPlantEcology/sycamore/lore.htm.
“In Montgomeryshire (Sayce, 1938; cited in Evans, 1957) recorded the belief that 'sycamore trees keep the fairies away and stop them spoiling the milk'.”
And
“In Cornwall sycamore played an important part of the customs associated with 1 May and Furry, or Flora, Day (8 May). Davey (1909)”
Also
“In Ireland, between Portlaoise and Mountrath there is a large sycamore
of which the trunk up to a height of 2m is studded with densely
packed coins. The tree is situated on the site of a famous monastery
and school founded by St Fintan in 548. "In the 1940s it was
common to hang rags of cloth on the tree, which was then known as
the `rag tree'. The hanging of rags was done to seek favours and
cures from St Fintan. Old people still occasionally hang rags on
the tree, but nowadays it is more common to leave coins." Hence
the tree is known as the `money tree' (Anon., 1988) .”
While the use could be coincidental…maybe not. The sycamore was apparently confused with the biblical fig tree.
“The tree was confused with the biblical Ficus sycomorus for some time, hence its name (Johns, 1849, & Howard, 1944). In 1690 John Ray noted that sycamore was planted in churchyards (Wilkinson 1981). In early nineteenth century English and Welsh cemeteries sycamore was one of the four most commonly planted species and the variety 'Luteoverens' is more abundant in cemeteries than in surrounding park and gardens (Gilbert, 1989).”
From:
http://www.sover.net/~hkfamily/Pages/PlantList2.html
Fig, False: Ficus benjamin
“God shall judge between many peoples, and... they shall beat their swords into plowshares... they shall all sit under their own vines & under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid...” -Micah 4:3-4
Fig : Ficus spp.
The fig offers signs of shame, "they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves" Gen. 3:7 and signs of hope, "neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid" Micah 4:3-4
GailS
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GailS
Unregistered User
(6/21/05 6:11 am)
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Rag Trees
More on “rag trees.” Can’t find a fairy connection, but the article doesn’t specify to whom the petitioners make their wishes.
www.dochara.com/tips/ragtree.php
GailS
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