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> From: Ron Hornsby [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > > However, I am still hoping for some evidence. The > most interesting links suggested so far have been by: > How about these: >From one of the poems in the group attributed to the "mad" king, Suibhne (only someone mad would think of a full-grown yew as "little") : "'Yew, little yew, you are conspicuous in graveyards' --Kenneth Jackson, Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry (Cambridge UP, 1935) p12 Just as each tribe had had its bile, such trees came to be associated with specific saints, especially the founder of the monastery that took over the sacral site. Words attributed to Colum cille but actually dating to a few generations later: `This is the Yew of the Saints Would that I were set in its place there! On my left it was pleasant adornment When I entered into the Black Church'." Good source: A.T.Lucas, 'The Sacred Trees Of Ireland', Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Soc. 68 (1963) pp16-54. The Annals of the Four Masters cites that in 1149 the Yew of Ciaran at Clonmacnois was large enough to shelter an entire flock of sheep--but failed to protect them during a thunderstorm and, according to the annals, 113 were killed. So, while that entry may not predate Giraldus' observations, the yew didn't grow that large in a couple of decades. The yew at the monastery at Newry (whose Irish name begins with Iubhar, a word for yew) was said to have been planted by Patrick which made it inherently valuable; it was burned in an attack in 1162. The name Cell Iubhar--church of the yew--was associated with six sites. The Laws of Hwyl Dda (tenth century) indicate that the Welsh similarly considered attacks on sacral yews to be a crime (A.W. Wade-Evans, Welsh Medieval Law (Oxford, 1909) pp108, 248). Destruction of 'A yew of a saint is a pound in value' while destruction of a yew in a forest was a mere 15 pence. One final bit: the churchyard yew at Llanerfyl is said to have sprouted from a walking stake St. Erfyl left behind--not to be taken literally, of course, but the story suggest that the folkloric link between saints and yews. I'm not sure of the date of the story, bit it may be worth following up on. Did I already mention the founding of the monastery of Magh Eo--Plain of the Yew--in Ireland in the seventh century? Does any of that measure up? Francine Nicholson %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%