Trees in mythology
Trees are significant in many of the world's
Examples include the
The presence of trees in myth sometimes occurs in connection to the concept of the sacred tree and the sacred grove. Trees are an attribute of the archetypical locus amoenus.[5]
Wishing trees
In many parts of the world travelers have observed the custom of hanging objects upon trees in order to establish some sort of a relationship between themselves and the tree. Throughout Europe, trees are known as sites of pilgrimages, ritual ambulation, and the recital of (Christian) prayers. Wreaths, ribbons or rags are suspended to win favor for sick humans or livestock, or merely for good luck. Popular belief associates the sites with healing, bewitching, or mere wishing.[1]
In South America, Darwin recorded a tree honored by numerous offerings (rags, meat, cigars, etc.); libations were made to it, and horses were sacrificed.[1][6]
World tree
The world tree, with its branches reaching up into the sky, and roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds - a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. This great tree acts as an axis mundi, supporting or holding up the cosmos, and providing a link between the heavens, earth, and underworld. In European mythology, the best-known example is the tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology.[7]
Religion and folklore
Numerous
Sometimes the new-born child is associated with a newly planted tree with which its life is supposed to be bound up; or, on ceremonial occasions (betrothal, marriage, ascent to the throne), a personal relationship of this kind is instituted by planting trees, upon the fortunes of which the career of the individual depends. Sometimes, boughs or plants are selected and the individual draws omens of life and death. Again, a person will put themselves into relationship with a tree by depositing upon it something which has been in close contact with them, such as hair or clothing.[1]
Often a tree will be associated with
The custom of transferring disease or sickness from humans to trees is well known. Sometimes the hair, nails, clothing, etc. of a sickly person are fixed to a tree, or they are forcibly inserted in a hole in the trunk, or the tree is split and the patient passes through the aperture. Where the tree has been thus injured, its recovery and that of the patient are often associated. Different explanations may be found of such customs which naturally take rather different forms among peoples in different grades.[1]
In Arab folklore, sacred trees are haunted by
Early Buddhism held that trees had neither mind nor feeling and might lawfully be cut; but it recognized that certain spirits might reside in them, such as
In literature
- In literature, a mythology was developed by White Tree of Gondor stands as a symbol of Gondor in the Court of the Fountain in Minas Tirith.
- W. B. Yeats describes a "holy tree" in his poem "The Two Trees" (1893).
- In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, one of the main religions, that of "the old gods" or "the gods of the North", involves sacred groves of trees ("godswoods") with a white tree with red leaves at the center known as the "heart tree".
- In Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows, the Fjerdans worship a god called Djel, symbolized as a white ash tree.
In film and TV
- In the third (sixth chronologically) forest moon of Endor.
- In the fictional universe of the film Avatar, the Pandoran biosphere habitates trees, which are of fundamental importance for the Na'vi people, like the Hometrees, the Tree of Souls and the Tree of Voices as well as Woodsprites.
- In the TV series Teen Wolf, an element of the plot is the Nemeton, a sacred tree from which druids draw power through human sacrifices, and which later acts as a beacon, drawing supernatural entities to the nearby town of Beacon Hills.
See also
- Axis mundi
- Celtic sacred trees
- Ceremonial pole
- Christmas tree
- Enchanted forest
- Five Trees
- Gerichtslinde
- Karam (festival)
- List of tree deities
- Mesoamerican world tree
- Nature worship
- New Year tree
- Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology
- Sacred garden
- Sacred grove
- Sacred herbs
- Sefirot
- Sidrat al-Muntaha
- Talking tree
- Trail trees
- Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
- Tree of life
- Tree of life (biblical)
- Tree of life (Kabbalah)
- Wish tree
- World tree
- Zapis
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i public domain: Cook, Stanley Arthur (1911). "Tree-Worship". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 235. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 685.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Gollwitzer 1984:13.
- ^ "locus amoenus". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ^ "The Voyage of the Beagle", Chapter IV
- ^ Mountfort 2003:41, 279.
- ^ John Bell (1790). Bell's New Pantheon; Or, Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-gods, Heroes, and Fabulous Personages of Antiquity: Also, of the Images and Idols Adored in the Pagan World; Together with Their Temples, Priests, Altars, Oracles, Fasts, Festivals, Games ... J. Bell. pp. 366–7.
- ISBN 9780824805142.
- ^ "Trees". www.khandro.net.
Bibliography
- Becker, Lore (2002). Die Mythologie der Bäume, Papyrus 1-2.
- Brosse, Jaques (1989). Mythologie des arbres, ISBN 978-2-228-88711-3.
- Forlong, James (1883). Rivers of Life, London & Edinburgh. Vol I chapter 2 Tree Worship.
- Forsyth, James (1992). A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47771-9.
- Gollwitzer, Gerda (1984). Botschaft der Bäume, DuMont Buchverlag Köln.
- Hageneder, Fred (2005). The Meaning of Trees: Botany, History, Healing, Lore. Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-4823-X.
- Malla, Bansi Lal (2000). Trees in Indian Art, Mythology, and Folklore, ISBN 81-7305-179-8.
- Mountfort, Paul Rhys (2003). Nordic Runes: Understanding, Casting, and Interpreting the Ancient Viking Oracle. Inner Traditions / Bear & Company. ISBN 0-89281-093-9.
- Porteous, Alexander (2002). The Forest in Folklore and Mythology. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-42010-8.
Further reading
- Ziffer, Irit. "WESTERN ASIATIC TREE-GODDESSES". In: Ägypten Und Levante [Egypt and the Levant] 20 (2010): 411-30. Accessed May 8, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23789949.
External links
- Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. .