Ælder Branch, Leaf and Blossom Harvest
The Ninth Month and the Month After Summer Solstice
Many will think this first paragraph must be wrong. Tinne should be
metaphorical for the elder-tree. In the tree-ogham series, tinne stands for
"t", being represented by three strokes to the other side of the trunk-line.
Tinne is the eighth letter in the tree-ogham series.
A word to the wise, elderberries are quite edible, more so if cooked, but
a woman looking to become pregnant should not eat any elderberries or
elderflower fritters! The same could be said in the reverse of
course. Women, pregnant and looking to become pregnant, should not eat
elderberries or elderflowers, rosemary, sage, and many other abortifacent-herbs.
Elderberries contain trace amounts of hydrogen-cyanide, just as trace amounts of
arsenic are found in various kinds of apple seeds. Eating a few apple
seeds is healthy if only one or two seeds are eaten with an apple very
rarely. In the same way, eating many handfulls of elderberries is
healthy in their season, but do not eat any elderleaves or wood.
The defense of the tree becomes stronger as you proceed from the berries -
eldertrees want you to eat the berries and spread them, but discourage you
progressively from there. Again, a word to the wise.
Tinne in Scottish
Gaelic means, a column, link or chain. Tinne in Middle Irish means,
a flitch. A flitch is one of several planks secured together to
form a single beam. Tinne in Old Irish means, a chalybs. Chalybs is
a archaic word from alchemy, and it turns out a chalybs is
an iron bar with vigorous characteristics of transformation.
The Middle Irish definition of tinne is the most telling, and explains the
other definitions of tinne and a related word, tindi. The Middle Irish definition of tinne
is flitch. Again, a
flitch is one of several planks secured together to form a single beam. This
exactly describes the way elder-branches can be used to form a new hedge. Even the mysterious word chalybs
makes sense in this light, since there are old folk-sayings relating that a
living stake will outlast an iron post in the ground.
The elder tree is highly regenerative and a bare, green, softwood-twig which is pushed into
moist soil at midsummer, or placed in a vase with water, will grow roots in the same way as a
bare willow-branch. But, unlike willow leaves and twigs, elder leaves and
twigs are poisonous, and animals avoid eating them.
In prior days, many, many bare elder-lengths were used to grow starting hedges. These
thin stakes were probably planted in the ground after Midsummer, since Midsummer
is the general time for the collection of medicinal elder leaves
and elder blossoms. This way, the gathering of new elder hedge-greenwood
could compliment the leaf and blossom harvest.
Describing a tree by the word flitch clearly implies it's use as a
growing plank that becomes secured together to form a single hedge spanning a
large distance. Further, a flitch is a bare plank. Between the
choices of holly or elderberry, it is only the bare-planted elder branches which would seem to qualify as flitches. The
elder
branches can be gathered, divided into naked sticks, and still be quite
viable. If they are kept from drying out, these bear switches can be
carried into the field and planted successfully by the thousands. The bare
elder-switches are
pushed into moist soil in rows, to make a fast growing, animal
repelling hedge.
Though a hedge can be grown with holly, and other shrubs and trees, such as
willow, whitethorn,
blackthorn and even crab-apples, none of these perennials could be used as a
flitch. Holly simply takes too long to grow into a viable hedge to start
with. Indeed, small bushes of holly or whitethorn, planted when they
are already rooted and leafed out as they must be, are in danger of being eaten
by rabbits and deer until they establish themselves as large bushes.
Little willows would also be browsed-off by deer and
rabbits. But,
naked elder-switches can be set out first in long rows, without worring about browsing
herbivores. The newly rooted elder bushes will leaf-out during the next
year, growing up, weaving together and providing a little cover. Under this
small canopy many bushes of hollies, whitethorns and
blackthorns might be planted, at the leisure of the gardener, amongst lines of
young and vigorous elder-bushes.
On a side note, the planting of elder-flitches about the time of the
elder-leaf
and blossom harvest might show why a month on the 100 C.E.
Coligny Calendar is called "many fences" which comes a bit after the
Summer Solstice.
In addition, in The Ogham Tract, there are three passages relating the
tree-ogham for the letter t. The first of these passages, by an
anonymous writer, says, "Tinne, t, of the Ogham, holly or elderberry
in the forest." The second of these passages, by Morann Mac Main,
says, "Trian, t, another thing the meaning of that
to-day." The third passage, by Mac ind Oic, says, "Smir
guaili, fires of coal, that is holly. Hence for it's cognate Ogham
letter, i.e., tinne [many connected planks] , t, for tindi [ring]
is a name for
holly."
Of course, it would be helpful to know what smir
guaili meant in Irish, or some other form of Gaelic. That is a
puzzle in itself. Note that the first passage gives the reader two
possibilities for the tree, and note that one
is elderberry. The second passage calls t by trian, which
means one third or third part in Irish. Trian was
also the son of Tlachtga, an Irish earth-Goddess. The third passage calls t
by tinne and tindi. Again, tinne means, a
column, link or chain; a
flitch; a
chalybs. Tindi means, a
ring,
link, bar in Early Irish. I can definitely see why elderberry would
have the name "ring" - because very old eldertrees often form into an
interwoven ring of growth. "Ring" is, in fact, a name for
elderberry. The regenerating branches take root as the younger center-tree
dies. In Celtic legends there are descriptions of eldertree rings so wide
that many hundreds of warriors could meet inside one "tree", and they
really are one living tree of immense age.
The most striking
thing is that elderberry is given as one of two choices for tinne.
These sorts of things incline me to think The Ogham Tract was written as a kind
of riddle. Looked
at in depth, the
above shows that, considering between elderberry or holly, tinne and tindi
actually relate to the eldertree.
Commonly know as the elder tree, the name elder derives from æld, which means
fire
in Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse. Why this tree should be named the fire-tree
is also a bit of a mystery, especially since its leaves, stems and wood are
poisonous, and cannot be burnt safely in a fireplace or campfire. It is said
that only elder-wood charcoal, previously made outdoors, is safe to warm yourself around. I do know that the dry pith of the
elder burns like a fireworks-punk, and might be a good tinder. The pith of the
tree can be found in any one of the dry, hollow branches that abound under its
low-spreading limbs.
There is an old saying that goes something like this, "Burn not the
eldertree, do so and cursed you'll be."
There are many associations between the ælder tree and Midsummer's
Night. Reportedly, there was an ancient practice in Europe, wherein people
would go to ælder trees on Midsummer's Eve, gather the flowers and berries and weave
wreaths for their heads and for their hair. Then they would hold hands and
dance around a large, old ælder tree. It seems likely to me that the
gentle abortifacent (anti-pregnancy) properties of ælderflower fritters and ælderberries
were the reason that young men and women would decorate themselves in ælderflower
wreaths and and dance around the ældertree in worship and thanks
With this in mind, the antagonism of the Catholic Church towards the beautiful ældertree
becomes clear - the ælder is a tree which controls reproduction! The ældertree
should be loved and adored by women who are not ready to become pregnant, or
women who have enough children. It seems likely that eating a handfull or
two of ælderberries or ælderflowers every month would prevent pregnancy,
though sage and rosemary probably work similarly. But, the ældertree is
so much prettier in midsummer bloom.
Recently cut ælderflowers have the delicate scent of cinnamon. The
flavor of an elderflower fritter on your tongue after you eat one is something
like the flavor of an orange soda. They taste comfortingly exotic and
refreshing. If you would like to fry ælderflower fritters, make slightly
thick pancake batter, preferably from scratch, heat one inch of oil, dip the
flowers fully in the batter, place them in the hot oil until golden brown, snip
off the protruding green stems, flip the fritters over until done on that side,
place on a plate to drain and serve, and, enjoy! Remember, no pregnant or
pregnancy-seeking women are allowed to eat this treat!
Legend
has it that, on Midsummer's Night, you will see the King and Queen of faeries
and their lithe, fleeting procession if you stand underneath an ælder and
breath the fragrance of the blooming tree. At Midsummer's Night, breathing
in the perfume of the ælder flowers 'opens the portals to the faerie
realms'. But falling asleep under the selfsame tree is said to risk
dreaming forever, as the perfume of the blooms might transport you to the
Underworld. At weddings, the scent of the ælder blossoms was also used
traditionally to bring good luck to the bride and groom.
Hollow limbs of the ælder tree have been used to make whistles and Panpipes
for time immemorial, and that is where ælder gets the name for its
genus, Sambucus, which derives from the name of a pastoral Italian musical
instrument. In more recent years hollow limbs of ælder have been used to
make popguns.
It has also been remarked, now and again, that the limbs of ælder look like bones.
Dead branches can often be found under the tree. If branch is peeled the white wood
resembles bone, filled
with a pithy, orange-colored marrow.
Aside from being used to make whistles, the hollowed sticks of ælder were
used to blow life into the beginnings of a fire. This is probably why it
was called kindler by the Anglo-Saxons. Again, the Anglo-Saxons
also called this tree æld, which means fire. In Danish,
ending a word with er makes it plural, so perhaps ælder would
mean fires.
There is one other possibility that might answer the little riddle as to why ælderberry
trees would be named fires-tree.
Twin bonfires were lit on hilltops in Europe, occurring during Belteine, Whitesunday
or Summer Solstice, depending on the region. Different regions had the summer bonfires at their own traditional
times. Two fires were lit on the top of a hill, some fair distance from each other,
maybe 6 meters or 20 feet apart. This being done, all of the
herd-animals in the area were driven between the bonfires, to ward
disease from the cattle. Perhaps the poisonous and insect repellant ælder-wood was added first
to these bonfires, and perhaps the poisonous smoke acted as a fumigation for the
cattle, sheep, goats and horses, against infections and parasite infestation.
Holding one's breath, it would be unproblematic to walk between two such
bonfires. Once the ælder-wood had turned to glowing charcoal, it would
have been safe to
approach the bonfires again, and the villagers could come to encircle the fire
with revelry. It was witnessed that Sun disks were burned and tossed into
the air, and sometimes burning wheels were rolled down the hill. And
healing effects have always been ascribed to the Sun. I have
no actual knowledge that fumigation with smoke from the summer growths of ælder,
the blossom, branches and leaves, would mitigate and control disease;
only just a hunch, an inkling.
A living ælder tree or hedge generally repels insects. Rabbits and deer avoid the
plant, since they know it is poisonous and inedible, and apparently they dislike
the smell. A hedge of ælder might be grown around a garden to
advantage, since deer would be less inclined to invade such a garden.
The leaves of the ælder, if crushed and worn in a hat, or perhaps, if rubbed
vigorously on a hat and the outside of clothing, will supposedly repel biting
insects
insects. A decoction of the branches and older leaves can be occasionally sprayed onto plants
and trees to cure insect or blight attack. Farmers used to repel mice from granaries
with the poisonous ælder branches or leaves as well.
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