EXPLORING THE LIME AND BEECH TREE.
As we draw to the end of our exploration of trees we shall focus on two trees which seem to elude our Celtic tree lore studies.
The lime and the beech are both stately and beautiful trees and although quite different in nature their stately almost cathedral-like shapes, bright green edible leaves and smooth bark seem to link them in a majesty of their own.
The small-leaved lime was probably once a dominating tree across southern Britain and is now rarely seen or used. The beech seemed to be a geographically local tree but has become widely planted for timber.
In the prophecies of Merlin written down in the book the History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136, which many believe reflected older Celtic traditions, it states :
'Root and branch shall change places'
This image of an inverted tree is key in Celtic traditions and although this reversal of functions is indicative of a soul state which connects us to deeper concepts such as the dark rising from the light and the sun at midnight it is also pertinent for the way the modern world relates to nature.
The local knowledge of trees and woods is not always known amongst the general public and in an age where knowledge has become more accessible, general knowledge has never been so distorted as non-experts give opinions as facts. The beech and the lime tree's native province and distribution is but one tiny reminder of this disconnection to the land. Often we hear that our ancestors relied more on superstitions or trusted too heavily on the knowledge of spiritual concepts and yet as we have explored throughout the course it is they who have a core of common sense because they know their environment so intimately.
The sorrow reflecting a disconnection from the land is explored in early sagas such as in the early Irish tales when the Morrigawn prophecies:
'I shall not see a world that will be dear to me.
Summer without flowers,
Kine will be without milk,
Women without modesty,
Men without valour,
Captures without a king,
Woods without mast,
Sea without produce. '
This is uttered by a goddess associated with war and yet it is she who is angered by the terrible crimes upon the land putting an enchantment upon trees, stones and even the sods of the earth to wage war against injustice.
In typical Celtic twilight fashion she is also explicitly a goddess of peace stating:
'Green growth after spring, Autumn increase of horses,
A company for the land, land to its furthest shore;
May it be mighty forested, perpetually sovereign.
Peace high as heaven, life eternally.'
These apparent contradictions are prevalent throughout nature and this conflict of interests is constantly being explored in the Mythologies throughout the whole world.
The question therefore is whether it for us to explore these tales and find the common thread, the in-between states that unite them? Lugh Lamfada and the Morrigawn are deities of war in Celtic mythology but is this war the forces of the land itself righting the imbalance of injustice. When war is sought without end or is no longer in harmony with the land itself then its insidious nature pervades all concerned and we lose touch with reality.
'The purpose of exploring tree lore is to seek a connection to our indigenous roots and to be in harmony with the land where we were we were born and with all the lands across the world.'
Small- leaved Lime - Tree of Mystery
I remember my first encounter with the small- leaved lime tree ( Tilia Cordata) in the ancient woods known as Bradfield Woods in Suffolk, one of the most continually managed woods in Britain and also one of the most biodiverse.
The lime coppice characteristically spreads out whilst still young and then somehow straightens itself up as it matures, the rings on its wood grow unevenly and some years do not form at all! Although it has soft wood that is not durable it has an astonishing ability to survive in shade even growing under the dense canopy of oak. Often the lime tree is prone to rot and therefore is short lived and yet has a tenacious habit of suckering. As a coppice it seems to live indefinitely with examples of huge stools over a thousand years old.
A magic seems to feel the air where this species grows, a light graceful aura permeates the wood. Its dense canopy is lightened by its blueish heart-shaped leaves which distinguish it from the more common species of Tilia x europaea.
Fossilised remains of the species Ernoporus tiliae, the bast bark beetle and studies of palynology confirm this tree dominated the South of England in early times only giving way to Alder in wetter regions and yet it is one of the least recorded trees in history and is now absent from Scotland, Ireland and much of Southern England. This indicates the continued management and planting of this tree is essential as it rarely seeds and once destroyed it sadly does not regenerate.
Lime wood is most famously used for wood carving and in piano- making and is also known in the furniture industry. Its wood is soft and not hard wearing so is only rarely used in buildings. The wood is present in Neolithic structures such as the sweet track which demonstrates our ancestors utilised any wood available rather than harvesting wood only because of its merits.
One of the most known areas of Lime would have been around Lyndhurst which means 'Lime Wood' and when we discover woods or references with the name 'bass' in it this is referring to the use of the lime tree's phloem layer to create rope. This material would have been used to hold medieval scaffold poles together but unlikely to have competed well against the 1500 year old cannabis industry which produced high quality material.
What then of the folklore of the mysterious lime tree? Baltic folklore connects the tree to the goddess of fate and there are several stories in Greek mythology of goddesses taken the form of the lime tree.
Throughout Europe the tree quite understandably is associated with the joys of spring and especially in Germany with love, justice and unearthing the truth. In Europe it certainly seems to be an exalted and celebrated as tree of sacred stature.
But what of its associations in British folklore? Surely its heart- shaped leaves, soft wood and useful bark speak of a goddess of love and joy? When in July bees swam to its nectar-filled flowers surely our ancestors would have associated it with delightful other-worldly places?
And yet in Celtic lore, historical records and folk stories we draw a blank, the folk song Linden lea at leasts mentions this delightful tree.
Maybe the lime tree is a secret love unfolding in the heart of a ruined wildwood landscape waiting to captivate and awaken a sweet gentle quality once more?
As I leave Bradfield woods and note the exquisite flora, the graceful lime trees and the rare oxslips growing beneath their canopy I reflect on its associations with primulas which seem to favour this tree.
Shakespeare said primulas 'die unmarried' this is due to the flowers early arrival, flowering at a time unnoticed by the pollinators. The lime also stands unnoticed, felled early in wildwood times when we as a race wanted to tame the landscape.
Maybe now the few ancient stands of the lime tree speak of a bereft mother pinning for the more peaceful times when people lived in harmony with nature?
The leaves as they begin to burst taste exquisite literally melting in the mouth. The flowers that follow are calming and good for insomnia, nervous tension, coughs and catarrh. A wonderfully soothing and calming tree. If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!
Beech - Tree of Knowledge
Near to where I live is Queen Elizabeth Country Park which consists of 1.400 acres which was planted with mainly beech trees in the 1930s to the 1960s by the Forestry Commission. In the 1960s it officially became a public open space bought by Hampshire County Council and formally opened by the Queen in 1976. The park is part of an area designated as a site of 'outstanding natural beauty' and is part of the South downs National Park.
However, historically Beech is a more geographically specific tree rather than a key dominating species of the British Isles, a specialist and localised tree who's natural province seems to be the the South East of England.
We find very little evidence of its use in Neolithic times but enough pollen from the Mesolithic period to confirm it is a true native tree especially as you consider it does not produce large amounts of pollen.
The tree is often planted on chalky soils and yet there is very little evidence of this tree naturally growing on chalk and although beech mast thrives in hot summers the tree is sensitive to drought as well as wind.
In Queen Elizabeth Country park as well as other sites across England the tree grows tall casting a shade which kills the under-storey needed for a healthy biodiversity. Its own saplings wait for a clearance in its canopy in order to regenerate for they cannot grow under its own parent tree's shade.
The tree is unstable competing with its own kind with a small root system which means the tree topples over. It is a tree renowned for dropping branches even in the height of summer and therefore is high maintenance, unpredictable and unsuitable for a varied biodiverse habitat.
The reason it is planted is because it produces good quality timber. However, our ancestors in their quest to work in harmony with nature and benefit the whole ecosystem which in turn supported their existence managed beech wood as pollards or coppice cutting the straight boles back to good wood so they could re-sprout and grow alongside other tree species.
The beech tree historically therefore despite its close grained beautiful timber often was used for fuel, to make charcoal for Iron furnaces and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the glass industry in the West Sussex Weald. The ashes of beech and bracken made ideal potash.
Beech therefore started as a local specialised tree, historically was quoted as being non- existent in Britain by Julius Caesar, was not mentioned in Anglo Saxon charters yet highly prized as a timber tree according to tenth century law; and from the Middle ages is recorded as the second most commonest timber tree up to the nineteenth century, second only to oak.
In modern times due to beech being used more for timber, the ancient pollards and coppice stools of beech have became very rare. We have some famous examples in Epping Forest as well as ancient stands in Burnham beeches in Buckinghamshire. Famous pollards include the Felbrigg beeches in Norfolk and stands in Windsor forest on the borders of Surrey and Berkshire and in the Forest of Wyre in Worcestershire. If you do get a chance they are well worth a visit!
The beech is not mentioned in Celtic lore but is part of the Celtic Ogham system ( an old bardic Irish alphabet) as a later addition representing what are called the forfeda which are the double vowels of the language which don't seem to be a key part of the tree lore represented in the rest of the Ogham system.
The close-grained timber of beech made it ideal to make wooden books and its name seems to be rooted in the word for book both in Anglo- Saxon and Germanic origins.
In April the tree produces male catkins which are as green tassels on long stalks followed by bristly oval balls with slender threads of flowers in May. Its leaves burst forth and like lime have a refreshing taste with an added lemony zest. The leaves are cooling and binding and can be used in an ointment or as a poultice. A tar can be extracted from beech for skin complaints which also acts as an antiseptic.
The water in hollow beech trees is said to be healing and old beech trees on shallow soils have serpent roots near the surface as mentioned by Tennyson when commenting on the beech trees of Avebury.
The lime and the beech are both stately and beautiful trees and although quite different in nature their stately almost cathedral-like shapes, bright green edible leaves and smooth bark seem to link them in a majesty of their own.
The small-leaved lime was probably once a dominating tree across southern Britain and is now rarely seen or used. The beech seemed to be a geographically local tree but has become widely planted for timber.
In the prophecies of Merlin written down in the book the History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136, which many believe reflected older Celtic traditions, it states :
'Root and branch shall change places'
This image of an inverted tree is key in Celtic traditions and although this reversal of functions is indicative of a soul state which connects us to deeper concepts such as the dark rising from the light and the sun at midnight it is also pertinent for the way the modern world relates to nature.
The local knowledge of trees and woods is not always known amongst the general public and in an age where knowledge has become more accessible, general knowledge has never been so distorted as non-experts give opinions as facts. The beech and the lime tree's native province and distribution is but one tiny reminder of this disconnection to the land. Often we hear that our ancestors relied more on superstitions or trusted too heavily on the knowledge of spiritual concepts and yet as we have explored throughout the course it is they who have a core of common sense because they know their environment so intimately.
The sorrow reflecting a disconnection from the land is explored in early sagas such as in the early Irish tales when the Morrigawn prophecies:
'I shall not see a world that will be dear to me.
Summer without flowers,
Kine will be without milk,
Women without modesty,
Men without valour,
Captures without a king,
Woods without mast,
Sea without produce. '
This is uttered by a goddess associated with war and yet it is she who is angered by the terrible crimes upon the land putting an enchantment upon trees, stones and even the sods of the earth to wage war against injustice.
In typical Celtic twilight fashion she is also explicitly a goddess of peace stating:
'Green growth after spring, Autumn increase of horses,
A company for the land, land to its furthest shore;
May it be mighty forested, perpetually sovereign.
Peace high as heaven, life eternally.'
These apparent contradictions are prevalent throughout nature and this conflict of interests is constantly being explored in the Mythologies throughout the whole world.
The question therefore is whether it for us to explore these tales and find the common thread, the in-between states that unite them? Lugh Lamfada and the Morrigawn are deities of war in Celtic mythology but is this war the forces of the land itself righting the imbalance of injustice. When war is sought without end or is no longer in harmony with the land itself then its insidious nature pervades all concerned and we lose touch with reality.
'The purpose of exploring tree lore is to seek a connection to our indigenous roots and to be in harmony with the land where we were we were born and with all the lands across the world.'
Small- leaved Lime - Tree of Mystery
I remember my first encounter with the small- leaved lime tree ( Tilia Cordata) in the ancient woods known as Bradfield Woods in Suffolk, one of the most continually managed woods in Britain and also one of the most biodiverse.
The lime coppice characteristically spreads out whilst still young and then somehow straightens itself up as it matures, the rings on its wood grow unevenly and some years do not form at all! Although it has soft wood that is not durable it has an astonishing ability to survive in shade even growing under the dense canopy of oak. Often the lime tree is prone to rot and therefore is short lived and yet has a tenacious habit of suckering. As a coppice it seems to live indefinitely with examples of huge stools over a thousand years old.
A magic seems to feel the air where this species grows, a light graceful aura permeates the wood. Its dense canopy is lightened by its blueish heart-shaped leaves which distinguish it from the more common species of Tilia x europaea.
Fossilised remains of the species Ernoporus tiliae, the bast bark beetle and studies of palynology confirm this tree dominated the South of England in early times only giving way to Alder in wetter regions and yet it is one of the least recorded trees in history and is now absent from Scotland, Ireland and much of Southern England. This indicates the continued management and planting of this tree is essential as it rarely seeds and once destroyed it sadly does not regenerate.
Lime wood is most famously used for wood carving and in piano- making and is also known in the furniture industry. Its wood is soft and not hard wearing so is only rarely used in buildings. The wood is present in Neolithic structures such as the sweet track which demonstrates our ancestors utilised any wood available rather than harvesting wood only because of its merits.
One of the most known areas of Lime would have been around Lyndhurst which means 'Lime Wood' and when we discover woods or references with the name 'bass' in it this is referring to the use of the lime tree's phloem layer to create rope. This material would have been used to hold medieval scaffold poles together but unlikely to have competed well against the 1500 year old cannabis industry which produced high quality material.
What then of the folklore of the mysterious lime tree? Baltic folklore connects the tree to the goddess of fate and there are several stories in Greek mythology of goddesses taken the form of the lime tree.
Throughout Europe the tree quite understandably is associated with the joys of spring and especially in Germany with love, justice and unearthing the truth. In Europe it certainly seems to be an exalted and celebrated as tree of sacred stature.
But what of its associations in British folklore? Surely its heart- shaped leaves, soft wood and useful bark speak of a goddess of love and joy? When in July bees swam to its nectar-filled flowers surely our ancestors would have associated it with delightful other-worldly places?
And yet in Celtic lore, historical records and folk stories we draw a blank, the folk song Linden lea at leasts mentions this delightful tree.
Maybe the lime tree is a secret love unfolding in the heart of a ruined wildwood landscape waiting to captivate and awaken a sweet gentle quality once more?
As I leave Bradfield woods and note the exquisite flora, the graceful lime trees and the rare oxslips growing beneath their canopy I reflect on its associations with primulas which seem to favour this tree.
Shakespeare said primulas 'die unmarried' this is due to the flowers early arrival, flowering at a time unnoticed by the pollinators. The lime also stands unnoticed, felled early in wildwood times when we as a race wanted to tame the landscape.
Maybe now the few ancient stands of the lime tree speak of a bereft mother pinning for the more peaceful times when people lived in harmony with nature?
The leaves as they begin to burst taste exquisite literally melting in the mouth. The flowers that follow are calming and good for insomnia, nervous tension, coughs and catarrh. A wonderfully soothing and calming tree. If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!
Beech - Tree of Knowledge
Near to where I live is Queen Elizabeth Country Park which consists of 1.400 acres which was planted with mainly beech trees in the 1930s to the 1960s by the Forestry Commission. In the 1960s it officially became a public open space bought by Hampshire County Council and formally opened by the Queen in 1976. The park is part of an area designated as a site of 'outstanding natural beauty' and is part of the South downs National Park.
However, historically Beech is a more geographically specific tree rather than a key dominating species of the British Isles, a specialist and localised tree who's natural province seems to be the the South East of England.
We find very little evidence of its use in Neolithic times but enough pollen from the Mesolithic period to confirm it is a true native tree especially as you consider it does not produce large amounts of pollen.
The tree is often planted on chalky soils and yet there is very little evidence of this tree naturally growing on chalk and although beech mast thrives in hot summers the tree is sensitive to drought as well as wind.
In Queen Elizabeth Country park as well as other sites across England the tree grows tall casting a shade which kills the under-storey needed for a healthy biodiversity. Its own saplings wait for a clearance in its canopy in order to regenerate for they cannot grow under its own parent tree's shade.
The tree is unstable competing with its own kind with a small root system which means the tree topples over. It is a tree renowned for dropping branches even in the height of summer and therefore is high maintenance, unpredictable and unsuitable for a varied biodiverse habitat.
The reason it is planted is because it produces good quality timber. However, our ancestors in their quest to work in harmony with nature and benefit the whole ecosystem which in turn supported their existence managed beech wood as pollards or coppice cutting the straight boles back to good wood so they could re-sprout and grow alongside other tree species.
The beech tree historically therefore despite its close grained beautiful timber often was used for fuel, to make charcoal for Iron furnaces and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the glass industry in the West Sussex Weald. The ashes of beech and bracken made ideal potash.
Beech therefore started as a local specialised tree, historically was quoted as being non- existent in Britain by Julius Caesar, was not mentioned in Anglo Saxon charters yet highly prized as a timber tree according to tenth century law; and from the Middle ages is recorded as the second most commonest timber tree up to the nineteenth century, second only to oak.
In modern times due to beech being used more for timber, the ancient pollards and coppice stools of beech have became very rare. We have some famous examples in Epping Forest as well as ancient stands in Burnham beeches in Buckinghamshire. Famous pollards include the Felbrigg beeches in Norfolk and stands in Windsor forest on the borders of Surrey and Berkshire and in the Forest of Wyre in Worcestershire. If you do get a chance they are well worth a visit!
The beech is not mentioned in Celtic lore but is part of the Celtic Ogham system ( an old bardic Irish alphabet) as a later addition representing what are called the forfeda which are the double vowels of the language which don't seem to be a key part of the tree lore represented in the rest of the Ogham system.
The close-grained timber of beech made it ideal to make wooden books and its name seems to be rooted in the word for book both in Anglo- Saxon and Germanic origins.
In April the tree produces male catkins which are as green tassels on long stalks followed by bristly oval balls with slender threads of flowers in May. Its leaves burst forth and like lime have a refreshing taste with an added lemony zest. The leaves are cooling and binding and can be used in an ointment or as a poultice. A tar can be extracted from beech for skin complaints which also acts as an antiseptic.
The water in hollow beech trees is said to be healing and old beech trees on shallow soils have serpent roots near the surface as mentioned by Tennyson when commenting on the beech trees of Avebury.
