Folklore – The Sanctuary of Vindos

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

On Thursday I was helping to clear windblown trees from the pathway around Horrocks Flash on the Wigan Flashes on a volunteer work party as part of my placement with the Carbon Landscapes Partnership.

Horrocks Flash (a flash is a lake that formed in a hollow after subsidence – in this case caused by coal mining) is surrounded by wet woodland and is an area that I had never visited before.

As we walked the pathway and cleared the fallen trees we noticed scarlet elfcups on the dead branches and twigs and the leaf litter on the woodland floor almost everywhere we looked. When I went to use the natural facilities I could barely take a step without treading on them.

I’d seen scarlet elfcups in local woodlands and on the Wigan Flashes, but never in such density or high numbers. The Project Officer and Assistant Project Officer agreed there were more than in past years. So I decided to do some research to see if I could find an explanation for this remarkable occurrence.

I found out that scarlet elfcups (Sarcoscypha austriaca) are ‘fairly widespread but uncommon in Britain and Ireland’. Sarcoscypha comes from the Greek skyphos ‘drinking bowl’ and austriaca means ‘from Austria’. Their common names ‘scarlet elf cap, scarlet cup, red cup, moss cups, and fairies’ baths’ originate from the widespread European belief that elves and fairies drink from and bathe in them.

They are sacrophytic fungi (from the Latin sapro ‘detritus’ and phage ‘a thing that devours’) which means they gain their nutrition by processing dead matter. The scarlet cup or bowl shaped caps are their fruiting bodies and their ‘barely discernible’ stems attach to leaf litter and dead and decaying wood (particularly willow, alder, hazel, maple, and elm). They usually appear in winter and in early spring and favour ‘areas with high rainfall’ – damp woodland floor, ditches and stream banks.

Here I found clues to the climatic and ecological conditions scarlet elf cups grow best in. Looking further I discovered that for ‘optimal growth’ sacrophytic fungi require the ‘presence of water’, the ‘presence of oxygen’, ‘neutral-acidic pH’ (under 7), and ‘low-medium temperature’ (between 1°C and 35°C).

I conjecture the mildness of this winter, with only a few cold snaps, and the heavy rainfall, are the main causes of such large numbers of scarlet elfcups in this wet woodland, where water and oxygen, and the types of wood they favour are clearly present (the pH of the soil would require testing).

Their appearance in high numbers vividly marks a mild and wet winter brought about by climate change. On a symbolic level their vibrant red bowls speak of both the enchantment and danger of Elfland/Faerieland and its inhabitants, who are renowned for their abilities to curse and bless. Climate change brings curses to some species and blessings to others.

If this is the year of the scarlet elf cup what does this signify for us, for our wet woodlands, for our relationship with the thisworldly and otherworldy persons with whom we share them?