Rowan

'Mountain Ash, called also by the old names of Rodden, Quicken or Witchen tree, is a tree of good omen. In Scandinavian mythology, it is Thor’s helper, because it bent to his grasp when he was crossing the river Vimur, on his way to the land of the Frost Giants. The wood of the Rowan was also used to preserve the Norse ships from Ran, who delighted in drowning mariners.

The Rowan is generally considered to have been one of the sacred trees of the Druids. Stumps of the Mountain Ash have frequently been found within or near the circle of a Druid temple, thus proving that the tree must have been an object of great veneration to the Druids, who doubtless practised their sacred rites beneath its shade. This connection of the tree with Druidic customs affords some explanation of the many superstitious ideas appertaining to the Mountain Ash which are still extant. Lightfoot tells us that the Rowan tree is discovered in the Druidic circles of North Britain more frequently than any other and that even now pieces of it are carried about by superstitious people as charms to protect them from witchcraft. 

Like the Indian Mimosa (a tree of the same genus and of a similar character) or the Palasa, which it resembles in its graceful foliage and berries, the Mountain Ash has for ages been held in high repute as a preservative against magic and sorceries. Thus we find in Jamieson’s ‘Scottish Dictionary’ that “the most approved charm against cantrips and spells was a branch of the Rowan tree planted and placed over the byre. This sacred tree cannot be removed by unholy fingers.”  The Scotch peasantry considered the Rowan a complete antidote against the effects of witchcraft and the Evil Eye and inconsequence, a twig of it was very commonly carried in the pocket; but that it might have complete efficacy, it was necessary that it should be accompanied by the following couplet, written on paper, wrapped round the wood and secured by a red silk thread:

“Rowan Ash and red thread

Keep the devils frae their speed.”

Another version of this charm renders it thus:

“Roan-tree and red thread,

Haud the witches a’ in dread.”

Pennant remarks that the Scotch farmers carefully preserve their cattle against witchcraft by placing branches of Honeysuckle and Mountain Ash in the cowhouses on the 2^nd of May; the milkmaids of Westmoreland often carry in the hands or attached to their milking-pails a branch of the Rowan-tree from a similar superstitious belief; the dairymaids of Lancashire prefer a churn-staff of Rowan-wood to that of any other tree, as it saves the butter from evil influences; and in the North of England a brand of ‘Wiggin’ (Mountain Ash) is frequently hung up in stables, it being deemed a most efficacious charm against witchcraft. Formerly, in some parts of the country, it was considered that a branch or twig held up on the presence of a witch was sufficient to render her deadliest wishes of no avail. In an ancient song, called the “Laidly Worm of Spindlestone Heughs” is an allusion to this power of the Rowan-tree over witches:

“Their spells were vain; the hags return’d

To the queen in sorrowful mood,

Crying that witches have no power

Where there is Roan-tree wood.”

In Cornwall, the Mountain Ash is called “Care”, and if there is a suspicion of a cow being bewitched or subjected to the Evil Eye, the herdsmen will suspend a branch over her stall, or twine it round her horns. Evelyn says that the Mountain Ash was reputed to be a preservative against fascination and evil spirits, “whence, perhaps, we call it ‘Witchen’; the boughs being stuck about the door or used for walking-staves.” 

In Wales, this tree was considered so sacred in his time, that there was not, he tells us, a churchyard without one of them planted in it. At the present time, in Montgomeryshire, it is customary to rest of the corpse on its way to the churchyard under a Mountain Ashe, as that tree is credited with having furnished the wood of the Cross. 

In olden times, collars of the wood of the Rowan-tree were put upon the necks of cattle, in order to protect them from spells or witchcraft. In many parts of England, it was formerly the custom in cases of the death of animals supposed to be bewitched, to take out the heart of one of the victims, stick it over with pins, and burn it to a cinder over a fire composed of the wood of a Rowan-tree which, as we have seen, has always been considered a terror and dread to witches.

“Black luggie, lammer bead,

Rowan-tree and red thread,

Put the witches to their speed.”

A witch touched with a branch of this sacred tree by a christened man was deemed doomed to be the victim carried off by the Devil, when he next came to claim his tribute. 

Like the Hazel, Thorn and Mistletoe, it was deemed, according to Aryan tradition, to be an embodiment of the lightning, from which it sprang, and was, moreover, thought to posses the magical power of discovering hidden treasure.

In the days of the Fenians, according to the Gaelic legend of ‘The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne’, there grew in Ireland a celebrated Mountain Ashe called the Quicken-tree of Dubhros which bore some wonderful berries. The legend informs us that, “There is in every berry of them the exhilaration of wine, and the satisfying of old mead, and whoever shall eat three berries of them has he completed and hundred years, he will return to the age of thirty years.” These famed berries of the Quicken-tree of Dubhros were jealously guarded by one Searbhan Lochlannach, “a giant, hideous and foul to behold”, who would allow no one to pluck them: he was, however, slain by Diarmuid O’Duibhne, and the berries placed at the disposal of his wife Grainne, who had incited her husband to obtain them for her.' 

 

 From : Plant Lore, Legends & Lyrics – Richard Folkard