Heather
Yes, I'd be obliged if you could locate your source
on the fatal attraction of yew shade. I am particularly
interested in the Norse connection (living as I do in
the erstwhile Danelaw). This may be the missing link
between Greek mythology and English churchyards.
It could be that the planting of yews was by Danish
priests and dates from the Danish occupation of Saxon
churches after the Danes had killed off the Saxon priests,
settled down in England, and were assimilated.
Now that I am reminded of the White Goddess I recall
that it was something that I meant to read but never got
around to. I suppose that I was put off by the hostile
academic reaction to it. When I read what you say about
his drawing on his *poetic memory* I see now why
main-stream academic historians were so averse to
treating it as serious non-fiction. I will read it now
from a religious perspective.
Ron Hornsby
Burton upon Stather
----- Original Message -----
From: Heather Law <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 06:50
Subject: White Goddess, yew trees
> Hi from my little hole... Hope you don't mind some bandwidth from the
> "pleb" sector, but I thought these tidbits might be of some sort of use
> to someone.
>
> (Couldn't sort out who wrote...)
> > Yes, it was apparently his White Goddess stuff which tarnished his
reputation
> > in scholarly quarters (except, wasn't it published later??), though the
> > theme is laid out in a much more detailed (albeit somewhat less focused)
fashion
> > in The Greek Myths.
>
> Seems I remember from when I waded through TWG (voluntarily, no less!?)
> that Graves in his own intro to it said his work for that book
> (especially the ogham "tree calendar" thing that he "solved" from an old
> poem) was done using something like "poetic 'memory'" (he had some Big
> Word for it) - meaning he "went back and 'remembered'" information from
> before his time, using his imagination. He clearly says somewhere in
> there that he *isn't* using the scholarly technique he used in his other
> work. Also in that intro, he literally apologizes for writing the
> book! (This may be a later printing after the academic response to it)
>
> Yews...
>
> > 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.
>
> This came from a source on Norse type magic - "pop" stuff, but I think
> the author researched it pretty carefully. I can try to dig the book up
> and track down the author's sources if anyone's interested:
>
> Vitkr (sp?) [rune magicians] and/or "berserkers" are said to have slept
> under yew trees on warm days to get "visions". If the source of this is
> reliable, it may point to previous or parallel European traditions on
> yew trees - no doubt added to from the Greek stuff the Vikings/traders
> would have picked up in their travels, as the three "norns" (Fates) are
> thought to have been (there is only one in the earlier Teutonic
> material, apparently).
>
> Heather Law
> (one of the nonacademic types who is thankful that you folks run this
> list "open" to us dedicated amateurs)
>
> "The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the author"
> -anonymous
>
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