On an un-named patch of land half a mile from my home that I know as the Meadows, meadowsweet grows along the banks of the ditches and in damp areas.
Its fluffy white flowers, with their almond essence-like scent, are unmistakable. Look a bit closer and you will see they are tiny (5 – 10mm in diameter) and grouped together in cymes with the stamens providing the fuzzy look. Its leaves, too, are striking. They are deep-veined, serrated, and arranged alternately in up to five pairs, ending in a three lobed leaflet. In some places, the flowers have gone over and seeds are forming – tight-clustered achenes.
The common name, ‘meadowsweet’, (1) derives from the Anglo-Saxon, meodu-swete ‘mead-sweetener’ referring to its use to sweeten mead. Other names include bridewort, meadwort, meadow-wort and queen of the meadow.
There’s certainly a feminine energy about this plant. In Irish mythology, Aine, a goddess associated with the summer, love and fertility, gave meadowsweet its sweet scent. In the Welsh myths, the flower maiden, Blodeuwedd, is conjured by Gwydion from the flowers of oak, meadowsweet and broom as a bride for Lleu. Thus, we can see why it might be known as bridewort.
Its scent and presence have a calming quality. In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, it is known as Crios Cu Chulainn ‘Cu Chulainn’s belt’. In the Irish myths, Cu Chulainn, ‘Chulainn’s Hound’, was a fearsome warrior renowned for his riastrad, ‘battle fury’. When he entered his ‘warp spasm’, he shook like a tree, his limbs changed places in his body, one of his eyes sucked in and the other fell out, and his lungs and liver ‘flapped in his mouth’. Thus, he wrecked devastation on his enemies with his living spear, the Gae Bolga.
According to oral Gaelic folklore (I haven’t managed to find a textual reference), the only thing that could calm Cu Chulainn after a battle was being bathed in a cauldron that was filled with meadowsweet by the maidens of Ulster. Afterwards, they tied a belt of meadowsweet around his waist, or he carried a sprig in his hand, its calming capacities preventing further furies.
Although his stories are only now known in Irish and Scottish mythology, Cu Chulainn, whose early name was Setanta, might have had associations with my home county, Lancashire, where the Iron Age tribe were called the Setantii. The name has been translated as ‘the Reaping People’ (2) from the Celtic set mutated to met ‘cut, harvest’ and Andrew Breeze has argued they were not so much the harvesters of crops but the reapers of heads. This is evidenced by the large numbers of ‘bog heads’ deposited in Setantii territory.
Back in the days of war and head-hunting, it’s possible to imagine many a warrior in his, or her, battle fury being calmed by meadowsweet. Men and women who were angered walking the damp meadows and being calmed by its scent, picking a piece, weaving it into a belt, carrying it home to strew in a calming bath or on the floor of a hut, or brewing it to make a relaxing cup of tea.
There is evidence, too, that it was placed in the tombs of the dead during the Bronze Age, such as at Forteviot in Scotland and Fan Foel in Wales. Perhaps to calm the spirits, help them on their way, as it provided second sight. Inhaling the scent was said to help you to be able to see the fairies.
Meadowsweet has traditionally been used to soothe the stomach, relieve headaches and joint pain, and to calm fevers. Its calming qualities have a basis in its chemical constitution. Meadowsweet contains salicylates, such as salicin, salicylaldehyde, and methyl salicylate. These are converted into salicylic acid, a natural painkiller, in the body. In 1897, Felix Hoffman created a gentler, acetylated medication from meadowsweet and this is now known as Aspirin. The name is derived from its earlier botanical genus, Spiraea. It also contains antioxidants such as quercetin, rutin, and spiraeoside which calm inflammation and tannins that protect the digestive tract.
Thus, when I’m feeling angry, or when I’m feeling anxious, I take a walk along the mown pathways through the Meadows and breathe in the scent of meadowsweet. I think of the ancestors who have done so before me, of Setanta and the Setantii, their forebears, those who came after. I think of the flower brides, the fairies, the Fairy King and Queen, their leadership of the dead. I think of sweetness, I think of life, I think of death. If only I could know the calm of Setanta and wear his belt around my waist.
(1) Its scientific name, Filipendula ulmaria, comes firstly from the Latin filipendula. Filum means ‘thread’ and pendulus ‘hanging’. These terms described the tubers that hang from the root. Secondly from the Latin ulmaria, ‘elm-like’ as its leaves resemble elm leaves. It was earlier known as Spirea ulmaria on the basis of its spiralling leaves and this was changed when woody shrubs were separated from soft-stemmed plants (which it is).
SOURCES
Breeze, A. ‘Three Celtic Toponyms: Setantii, Blencathra, and Pen-Y-Ghent, Northern History XLII: 1, (University of Leeds, 2006)
Buzzard, ‘The Legend of Cu Chullain’s Belt’, Buzzardbushcraft, http://www.buzzardbushcraft.co.uk/2012/04/cu-chulainns-belt.html
Ciaran Carson (transl.), The Tain, (Penguin, 2008)
Carden-Porrett, J. ‘Meadowsweet’, National Institute of Medical Herbalists, https://nimh.org.uk/herbal-resources/herb-of-the-month-8/
Howell, J. ‘Beautiful Botanicals: Meadowsweet was used to calm a Gaelic hero’s berserk battle rage’, John O’Groat Journal, https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/beautiful-botanicals-meadowsweet-was-used-to-calm-a-gaelic-291935/
‘Meadowsweet’, The Woodland Trust’, https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/plants/wild-flowers/meadowsweet/
‘Meadowsweet’, The Hazel Tree’, https://thehazeltree.co.uk/2019/08/16/meadowsweet/
‘Meadowsweet-Herb’, Health Line, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/meadowsweet-herb