A Witch's Garden: Rowan

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Rowan

The rowan tree was considered beloved by the faeries. If someone disturbed a rowan tree, the faeries may seek retribution via illness.

Rowan trees are also known as Mountain Ash, Quicken Tree, Quick Beam, Wiggen, and Witcher (Miller - Rowan).

As a Ward

Farmers and peasants throughout northern Europe believed the wood, fruit, and leaves of the rowan were one of the most effective wards against witchcraft. If rowan was unavailable, branches from an ash tree would suffice. Rowan twigs tied to a horse or cow's halter would prevent the horse from being ridden by hags of the night, and would protect cows from having their udders drained by witches' imps. Crossed rowan branches were placed in cowsheds and stables for the same purpose. Occasionally, milking pails and stools were made of rowan wood.

One English charm went as follows:

Black-luggie, hammer-head,
Rowan-tree, and red thread
Put the warlocks to their speed (Wedeck 43).

"A rowan cross was sometimes placed above a child's cradle in order to protect it from bewitchment or from being stolen by fairies" (King 88, 89). These crosses were "renewed each May Day--in some places called Rowan Tree Day--and it was believed that they were particularly potent if the twigs from which they were made came from a tree which the harvester had never seen until he cropped its branches (King 88).

In parts of England and Wales it was once customary to plant rowan in chruchyards "in order to prevent the unquiet dead from leaving their graves and disturbing the peace of the living. In the 17th century, John Evelyn noted that 'there is not a churchyard without one of them planted in it' and that on 'a certain day' the common people wore rowan crosses'" (King 89).

The bright red berries of the rowan tree were also considered effective against both disease and maleficia. The berries were sometimes strung like beads and hung as a necklace around the neck of supposed victims of sorcery (King 89).

An old ballad called "Laidley Wood" says,

The spells were vain, the hag returned
To the queen in sorrowful mood,
Crying that witches have no power,
Where there is row'n-tree wood (Thiselton-Dyer 67).

Similarly, a Yorkshire proverb goes "If your whipsticks made of row'n / You may ride your nag through any town," and another states, "Woe to the lad without a rowan-tree gall" (Thiselton-Dyer 67).

Lost?

A Witch's Garden is copyright 1997-1998 to Shantell Powell.
The preceding botanic illustration is from The Virtual Garden Search Engine, part of the Time Life Electronic Encyclopedia.