What do the Trees Know? Part 1

A long time ago it is said that a squirrel could travel across our Island from Lands end to John o Groats without once having to touch the ground. Now this must have been a very long time ago when our ancestors were still nomadic hunter gatherers but the thought still strikes a cord with many today.

When people began to settle in one place and farm animals and live an agricultural life, then the great forests of what would become the United Kingdom began to be chopped down. People needed the wood for housing, fences,tools and to make room for the fields and pastures to graze their animals and grow their crops. With the discovery of metal work and the rise of smithing as a craft then a greater need came for intense temperatures that could extract the precious metal from the rocks. This kind of heat could on be achieved by burning hardwood charcoal. With the event what is now known as the Iron Age, even greater temperatures were needed to work with this harder metal and of course even more wood was needed for burning. And as we advanced more as a people, we stopped simply venerating the forest and began to see it as a resource.

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The Forests were still vast though and in this Pagan world trees were still venerated and respected. Different species of trees, much like different people were believed to have their own qualities and characteristics and in truth personalities;

Oh Ellum do grieve and Oak he do hate,
But Willow, Willow, Willow,
Willow do walk if you travel late.

As a side note It is rather an interesting fact that in some ways the willow tree does 'walk' in a manner of speaking, in that it replicates itself from any small piece of twig which is separated from the main tree. These pieces float down stream, are carried by man or beast and are blown by the wind and then grow where they come to rest. If along one riverbank you tested the DNA of the willow trees, then you would see the same result every time. Much as if one tree had truly 'walked' downstream.

Particular trees were though associated and imbued with certain properties and magical powers. It must also be noted that the concepts of magical, physical and reality were not as clear cut in the past as they are for most people today. The early British and Celtic tribes revered the periods of change and 'in-between' times. From the twilight glooming, the land only revealed at low tide and the space between the bark and the main body of a tree. To harm a tree was not to be taken lightly back then and the reverence many people still inherently hold for them has its roots in our distant past. Many folk tales and stories offer warnings against those who would harm a tree, whilst others tell us which trees can help in any given situation. Over my next few posts I will share some old British folklore and tales with you here on Steemit and to begin with it will of course be what the Trees know.