Maddy wrote
> > My friend Chris Buckley is working on correlations with trees. I would
> > like
> > to think there was something - FfynnonnElian is surrounded by ash trees,
> > for instance - but trees do tend to grow by wells anyway.
to which Francine responded
> It's difficult to be sure when a tree was considered "sacred" or
> not. If there's a living folk tradition or a documented earlier one, that
> helps, of course.
I really ought to know if someone has published on 'Ashwell' place-names as a
group. Perhaps in 'Nomina'? Anybody help me out? To which it is a short step to
observe how difficult it is even to attempt a distinction in OE place-names and
boundary markers which specify trees as between those which are 'merely'
landmark toponyms, those which would direct attention to one tree as opposed to
another (so as to delimit boundaries, for example), those (often with personal
names as prefixes) which refer to gallows rather than trees per se, and those
which could be argued to refer to trees regarded as 'sacred'.
Graham Jones
Leicester
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|