Dear Ron,

  A number of people have mentioned Graves' _White Goddess_ as a source
they half-remembered containing much interesting lore on the yew tree,
so I thought it might be useful if I posted what he says about it. The
quotation is from the revised edition of 1961 (1977 reprint) published by
Faber. It occurs in Chapter 10, Graves' account of the Beth-Luis-Nion tree
alphabet. Yew is the last tree on the list and corresponds to the vowel
idho (i). (I mention this to explain the reference in the first line.)
Graves' account is quite lengthy and discursive, so I have reproduced just
the section which has most to do with its notoriety as a tree of death.

                  Cheers,
                   Martin Howley

Martin Howley, Humanities Librarian,                  Tel: (709) 737-8514
QE II Library, Memorial Univ of Newfoundland          FAX: (709) 737-2153
St John's, NFLD, Canada A1B 3Y1          E-mail:[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       I for IDHO

  The fifth tree is the yew, the death-tree in all European countries,
sacred to Hecate in Greece and Italy. In Rome, when black bulls were
sacrificed to Hecate, so that the ghosts could lap up their gushing blood,
they were wreathed with yew. The yew is mentioned by Pausanias as the tree
beside which Epaminondas found the bronze urn on Mount Ithome, containing
on a tin scroll the secret mysteries of the Great Goddess. On the other
side of the urn, appropriately, grew a myrtle which (as will appear in
Chapter 13) was the Greek equivalent of the elder, the death-consonant R.
That the scroll was made of tin is interesting; for the ancient Greeks
imported their tin from Spain and Britain. In Ireland the yew was 'the
coffin of the vine': wine barrels were made of yew staves. In the
Irish romance of _Naoise and Deirdre-, yew stakes were driven through the
corpses of these lovers to keep them apart; but the stakes sprouted and
became trees whose tops eventually embraced over Armagh Cathedral. In
Brittany it is said that church-yard yews will spread a root to the mouth
of each corpse. Yew makes the best bows -- as the Romans learned from the
Greeks -- and the deadliness of the tree was thereby enhanced; it is
likely that the Latin 'taxus', yew, is connected with 'toxon', Greek for
bow, and with 'toxicon', Greek for poison with which the arrows are
smeared. The ancient Irish are said to have used a compound of yew-berry,
hellebore and devil's bit for poisoning their weapons. John Evelyn in his
_Silva_ (1662) points out that the yew does not deserve its reputation for
poisonousness -- 'whatever Pliny reports concerning its shade, or the
story of the air about Thasius, the fate of Cativulcus mentioned by
Caesar, and the ill report which the fruit has vulgarly obtained in
France, Spain and Arcadia.' Cattle and horses nibble the leaves without
ill-effect, he says; but later he suggests that the 'true taxus' is indeed
'mortiferous'. Its use in the English witch-cult is recalled in _Macbeth_
where Hecate's cauldron contained:
                        ...slips of yew
                  Sliver'd in the Moon's eclipse.
Shakespeare elsewhere calls it the 'double fatal yew' and makes Hamlet's
uncle poison the King by pouring its juice ('hebenon') into his ear. It
shares with the oak the reputation of taking longer than any other tree to
come to maturity, but is longer lived even than the oak. When seasoned and
polished its wood has an extraordinary power of resisting corruption.

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On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, Ron Hornsby wrote:

> Martin
>
> Wow! That certainly puts three new slants on things.
> First the reference to a superstition about driving
> out devils. Haven't come across that before.  Wonder where
> it came from?  Secondly the "medical" sponge-like
> functional reason which sounds even more weird
> and Hammer House of Horrorish than the monkish
> belief!  And thirdly the reference to a tradition I'd never
> heard of concerning the dangers of sleeping under
> a yew tree.
>
> I look forward to reading Grigson.
>
> Incidentally, knowing that yews were poisonous didn't
> stop us  country boys from climbing them and cutting out
> suitable branches for bows.
>
> RonH
> BUS
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Martin Howley <[log in to unmask]>
> To: medieval, religion <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, September 27, 1999 08:25
> Subject: Re: Yew trees
>
>
> > Dear Ron,
> >   Perhaps Geoffrey Grigson's account, which quotes Turner's _Botonologia:
> > The British Physician_, 1664, of the reason yews were planted in
> > churchyards, will be of interest to you. Turner says that the yew was set
> > in churchyards not, 'as some superstitious monks have imagined,' because
> > it could drive away devils, but because it 'attracts and imbibes
> > putrefaction and gross oleaginous vapours exhaled out of graves by the
> > setting sun, and sometimes drawn into those meteors called *ignes fatui*'!
> > The reference is in Grigson's _An Englishman's Flora_,  London, 1960
> > (1958). Grigson also says that the tradition that sitting or sleeping
> > under the shade of a yew tree was potentially fatal dates back to
> > Dioscorides.
> >
> >                               Cheers,
> >                                 Martin Howley
> >
> > Martin Howley, Humanities Librarian,                  Tel: (709) 737-8514
> > QE II Library, Memorial Univ of Newfoundland          FAX: (709) 737-2153
> > St John's, NFLD, Canada A1B 3Y1          E-mail:[log in to unmask]
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > 'Ne credat lector, quod sibi sufficiat lectio sine unctione, speculatio
> > sine devotione, investigatio sine admiratione, ....industria sine pietate,
> > scientia sine caritate, intelligentia sine humilitate.'  -- St Bonaventure
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > On Sun, 26 Sep 1999, Ron Hornsby wrote:
> >
> > > People
> > >
> > > Can  anyone direct me, please, to a source that throws light
> > > on the religious connotations of the yew trees found in so many
> > > English churchyards?  The Concise Columbia Encyclopaedia
> > > makes a cryptic claim that yew trees have been associated
> > > with death and funeral rites since antiquity. If so, how?  There
> > > is nothing in either Larousse on Mythology, or Fraser's
> > > Golden Bough on the subject.
> > >
> > > Ron Hornsby
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>




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