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Jarz�b ameryka�ski

Jarz�bina (Rowan)

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http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/england/englishness-loop-of-rowan-tree.html

A Loop of Rowan Tree: amulets against witchcraft


Sandra Modh,
Harris Manchester College
On February 28, 1893, three loops of rowan tree were donated to the Pitt Rivers
Museum by Rev. Canon John Christopher Atkinson, from Danby Parsonage, Grosmont,
York. (Accession Nos. 1893.18.1-3) These are now on display in Case 31.A - Magic,
Witchcraft and Trial by Ordeal, located in the Court of the Museum. The records
describe the rowan loops as amulets against witchcraft, but they also appear to
have been prophylactic against ghosts, fairies, spirits, and the Evil Eye. All
three loops are of different size, one of them measuring 70 mm at its maximum
length (1893.18.1). Their provenance is stated alternatively as "England, North
Yorkshire, Grosmont [Esk Valley]" and "England, North Yorkshire, Grosmont,
Castleton."

Rowan trees
The European rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) has long been associated with magic and
protection against enchantment and evil beings in Europe. [10]

This tradition allegedly goes back at least to Greek mythology. We are told that
Hebe, the goddess of youth, in a moment of carelessness lost her magical chalice to
the demons. Having thus been deprived of their source of rejuvenating ambrosia, the
gods decided to send an eagle to recuperate the cup. In the fight that stood
between eagle and demons, some of the eagle's feathers fell to the earth together
with a few drops of blood. There they became rowan trees. The feathers took the
shape of leaves; the drops of blood that of the rowan's red berries. [7]
In Norse mythology, the first woman (Embla) is said to have been made from rowan
tree. The rowan also figures in the Asir story of Thor's journey to the Underworld,
in which Thor, after having fallen into a rapid river, is rescued by a rowan tree
that bends over and helps him back onto the shore. [7]

Some of the rowan tree's magic and protective qualities may stem from the fact that
there is a small five-pointed star, or pentagram, opposite the stalk of each berry;
pentagrams have long been considered symbols of protection. The berries' red colour
is also claimed to be the best protective colour against enchantment. Linguists say
that the name 'rowan' might derive from the Old Norse raun or rogn, which could
have its roots in the proto-Germanic *raudnian, 'getting red'. However, druids
would use both the berries and the bark of the rowan tree for dyeing the garments
that they wore at lunar ceremonies black. [7] [10]

The density of rowan wood is supposed to make it a suitable material for walking
sticks, magician's staves, and druid's staffs. In addition, the branches can be
used for metal divination, in dowsing rods, and to make rune staves. Leaves and
branches that are tied about a cow's head secure a good milk supply, and cattle and
other animals are protected from harm by the hanging of springs of rowan tree above
the doors to their sheds. Pieces of rowan tree kept inside houses may guard against
lightning, whereas pieces placed on top of graves will prevent the dead from
haunting. Rowan tree is also carried on board vessels by sailors and fishermen as
good-luck charms, especially when hoping to avoid storms. Another common use of
rowan tree is as protection against witches and witchcraft. The numerous
associations tied to rowan tree is reflected in the many popular names that have
been given to it, for instance Witch Wood, Witchbane, Witchen tree, Rune tree,
Whispering tree, Whitten tree, Rawn tree, and Mountain Ash (even though it is not
an ash). [4] [8] [9] [10]

On the British Isles, the rowan tree features in several recurring themes of
protection. One of them is the protection of a household by a rowan tree growing
nearby. Even in the twentieth century, people on Ireland and in the Scottish
Highlands were being warned against removing or damaging a rowan tree growing in
their garden. A local informant in Advie, on the River Spey, furthermore claimed
that adders tend to avoid rowan trees. [5] [7]

In the Highlands, branches of rowan tree were burnt before people's houses, so as
to keep witches away. On May-day, huge fires were lit in a Druidical festival known
as the Beltane festival (Beltane, 'fires of Bel'), since this was a day when
witches were known to be particularly active. In the northeast of Scotland, these
fires were lit on May 2nd, Old Style, and were there known as bone-fires. [2] [4]

According to John Ramsay, laird of Ochertyre, near Stirling, and the patron of
Burns, the people of Strathspey would make a hoop of rowan tree on May-day and
force sheep and lambs to pass through it, both in the morning and in the evening,
so as to protect them against witchcraft. Cattle were also vulnerable to spells if
left unprotected, which could result in, amongst other things, their milk being
enchanted or stolen. In Strathdon, pieces of rowan tree were put in every cattle-
byre on May 2nd ('Reed Day'), but not until after sunset, and only done so in
secret by a so-called goodman. The pieces of rowan tree that were hung above stable
doors, on the other hand, were intended to prevent witches from entering the
stables and taking the horses out for a midnight ride. Conversely, on Ireland, a
branch of rowan tree was put over the door on May Eve to protect people, animals,
and crop from fairies, not from witches. [4] [6] [7] [8]

On the Isle of Man, equal-armed crosses made from rowan twigs were hung over the
lintel on May Eve as protection against witchcraft. Such crosses had to be made
without the use of a knife, and could sometimes also be fastened on cattle or worn
by people for personal protection. From Scotland to Cornwall, similar crosses were
bound with red thread and carried around in people's pockets, or they could be sewn
into the lining of coats. [7]

Amulets
An amulet is an object that is believed to have some type of intrinsic power. Most
such objects are found in nature, and may simply have been selected for their
striking looks. The amulet is used with the intention to protect people, animals,
and property against various evils, such as disease, magic, and death. Unlike
charms, individual amulets can function as prophylactics against a range of
different evils, depending on the owner's needs. The amulet works either by
rejecting a certain evil, or by giving the owner the strength to resist evil
influences. In no case, however, does the amulet cause the owner any harm. While
some amulets require direct contact with the owner in order to be truly efficient,
others function through their mere presence. For this reason, amulets are rarely,
if ever, destroyed or hidden away, as is often the fate of charms. [3]

In Britain, potatoes and rowan tree amulets were once among the most common
prophylactics used; the former protecting against rheumatism (!), the latter
against witchcraft. The Pitt Rivers Museum has got two kinds of amulets made from
rowan tree: crosses and loops. They were all donated by Canon Atkinson in 1893. [3]

The rowan tree crosses are claimed to have been made by an old man in Corgarff,
Strathdon, Aberdeen, and, supposedly, the sacred shape of the cross enhances the
protective power of the rowan tree itself. This type of amulet was put into every
opening of a house, so as to keep witches out. On August 1st ('Lammas day'), such
crosses allegedly had to be placed over all doors at noon, in secret, by someone
who did not stop and speak to anyone he met on his way. [3] [6]

According to the card catalogue for loop No. 1893.18.1, two of the three rowan tree
loops had been placed as protection against witches on the railing of a certain Dr.
Alexander's house, in Castleton, Yorks. The third of these loops, on the other
hand, had been fixed on a gate-spike before the church porch, "by a horseman who
turned his horse thrice before setting each loop." The power of the rowan tree
appears here to have been enhanced through the performance of a magic rite; a
practice that is more commonplace when it comes to charms, since the efficacy of a
charm depends on the rites and incantations that accompany its manufacture. [3]

It might also be worth mentioning that knots are generally ascribed magic virtues
in many parts of the world. Often they are considered spiritual fetters of sorts.
Although the powers of the knot may be of a maleficent kind, they can also act for
the good of people, and relieve them from evil. In Russia, many amulets derive
their protective powers from knots. Crucially, though, the special virtue of a knot
only lasts for as long as the knot remains untied. [4]

Tales from a moorland parish


Rev. Canon John Christopher Atkinson was born and reared a South-country man. Still
in his young age, he was one day shown a letter, purportedly intended for his eyes.
It was an offer of an ecclesiastical post in a parish in North Yorkshire, with a
salary of L95 per year. Even though a friend discouraged him from accepting the
offer - saying that if the moors had been known at the time of Napoleon, the island
of St. Helena would never have had to serve as a prison - the young Canon Atkinson
made up his mind and went. [1]

Shortly thereafter, he arrived in a solitary and hostile landscape, unlike anything


he had ever know, in which the church turned out to be located at quite some
distance from most parishioners (mostly Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists). At
that time it was not unusual for the farmers to be illiterate, and although this
might have changed slightly during the forty-five years that Canon Atkinson came to
stay in the parish, not everything changed to the better. In his Forty Years in a
Moorland Parish (1891), he states that:

Certainly, I have myself, in several instances, given friendly assistance, in the


way of Latin or arithmetic and accounts, to lads of promise who wished to "better
themselves", and so have helped to swell the ranks of "professional men." (p. 6)

Canon Atkinson appears to have been a man of many talents, and like many of the
antiquarians of his time, he acquired a taste for digging barrows. Yet, he
explicitly expressed a disapproval of the unscientific, and often non-methodical,
work of many of the antiquarians. Equally, he found the history of earthworks and
old settlements much appealing, and, quite in opposition to the mainstream thinking
of his time, he did not hesitate to search for testimony for their old age (and
indeed pre-British roots) in the geological record. [1]

Canon Atkinson also had a keen interest in the folk-speech that had survived in a
very distinct form in the remote and secluded landscapes around his parish,
particularly within the Dales district. Since the whole region had once been
populated by Danes - and probably still hosted a large population of Scandinavian
descendants - there were a number of expressions and place names that could be
shown to be derived from Danish. Moreover, some of the terms and idioms used in
Cleveland appeared to be similar, or identical, to those of Lancashire, West
Yorkshire, the Scottish Lowlands, and parts of Cumberland, to mention a few. This
led Canon Atkinson to speculate that the Cleveland folk-speech might be a survival
of the tongue once spoken in the "great Northumbrian kingdom." [1]

The intensity of Canon Atkinson's interests eventually resulted in the publication


of a number of books. These include The Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect and A
History of Cleveland (author), as well as The Whitby Chartulary, The Rievaulx
Chartulary, and The Furness Coucher Book (editor). But maybe it is only in Forty
Years in a Moorland Parish (1891) that he really reveals a completely different
area of interest, that suggests he was indeed fortunate to have accepted his post
in the Yorkshire parish:

Fifty years ago the whole atmosphere of the folklore firmament in this district was
so surcharged with the being and the works of the witch, that one seemed able to
trace her presence and her activity in almost every nook and corner of the
neighbourhood. (p.73)

I don't think I am acquainted with any part of England in which these observances
have not obtained, and in the days of my youth I met with them in a still
flourishing condition. Of late years they may have not unusually fallen into a
condition of decadence, but I have met with some or other among them in different
parts of Lincolnshire and in the north in such vigorous existence, within the last
ten to fifteen years, that my interest in them has never been permitted to die
away. And all the less because at an earlier period still I had been able to
connect modern English notions and usages with certain analogues undoubtedly as
archaic as they were non-English./ For years ago I had gone through a course of
Folklore reading, very copious and equally curious, mainly (though not exclusively)
Danish and Swedish, in which I had met with quite unanticipated illustrations of a
great variety of our Yorkshire superstitions and practices founded upon themi?1
(p.128)

As it turned out, folk-speech was not the only thing that had survived in the
isolated landscapes of North Yorkshire; superstition and folklore were as alive and
active as ever. [1]

It seems that the witch was the most prominent character in the moorland folklore.
Many of the stories of witches were localized; often to the extent that the
villagers could name and identify a number of notorious witches, and even point out
the houses in which these witches were perceived to live! [1]

Canon Atkinson learned from the parishioners that there were a number of antidotes
against witches, the simplest and least expensive one being the "witch-wood".
Witch-wood was the local name for rowan tree, and upon first arriving in the
region, Canon Atkinson noted a considerable consumption of this article. [1]

In order for witch-wood to be truly effective, it had to be collected in the right


manner, in the right place, and in the right season. Needless to say, it also had
to be used in the right way. An old woman, named Hannah, once recounted to one of
Canon Atkinson's local informants that to protect a farm from witches, several
pieces of witch-wood were needed: one for the upper sill of the house-door, one for
the upper sill of the stable, the cow-byre and so on, one for personal use, one for
the head of the bed, one for the house-place, etc. [1]

The pieces of witch-wood could only be cut on St. Helen's day, preferably with a
household knife, so as to achieve the best effect. Moreover, the person cutting the
wood must never have seen, heard about, or even suspected the existence of the tree
in question. For the old woman, Hannah, this meant that she was forced to seek out
her witch-wood far from her house. Once it had been cut from the tree, the witch-
wood had to be carried home by a different path than by the one on which the cutter
had come. Whether or not these conditions were always and painstakingly observed by
all villagers, though, Canon Atkinson could never positively confirm. [1]

In the documents file pertaining to rowan tree loop No. 1893.18.1, there is a
photocopy of a letter from Canon Atkinson to [E.B.] Tylor, dated March 5, 1892. The
letter reads:

[I] am disappointed that I get no confirmation from any of my correspondents. It is


the same with the witch-wood. There is an unlucky spirit of reticence upon those
who, I am convinced, could give information; a spirit which more than one of my
correspondents notes quite independently of my own experience.

One year later, Canon Atkinson donated three loops of witch-wood (or rowan tree)
from the Yorkshire moorlands to the Pitt Rivers Museum, where visitors can see them
on display in the Court today.

References
[1] Atkinson, J.C. 1891. Forty Years in a Moorland Parish: reminiscences and
researches in Danby in Cleveland. London: Macmillan. (Second edition)

[2] Burne, C.S. 1917. Classified Catalogue of Brand Material (continued). Folklore
28(1): 52-86.

[3] Ettlinger, E. 1943. Documents of British Superstition in Oxford. Folklore


54(1): 227-249.

[4] Frazer, J.G. 1900 [1890]. The Golden Bough. London: Macmillan. (Second edition)

[5] Gregor, W. 1889a. Some Folk-Lore on Trees, Animals, and River-Fishing, from the
North-East of Scotland. The Folk-Lore Journal 7(1): 42-44.

[6] Gregor, W. 1889b. The Witch. The Folk-Lore Journal 7(4): 277-286.

[7] Kendall, P. Mythology and Folklore of the Rowan. Trees for Life - Restoring the
Caledonian Forest. http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/rowan.html
(Accessed on February 1, 2008)
[8] Kinahan, G.H. 1881. Notes on Irish Folk-Lore. The Folk-Lore Record 4: 96-125.

[9] Kinahan, G.H. 1888. Irish Plant-Lore Notes. The Folk-Lore Journal 6(4): 256-
267.

[10] Wikipedia

Key words: Rowan trees, amulets, Canon Atkinson

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