the moon and the yew tree

This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary

The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.

The grasses unload their griefs on my feet as if I were God

Prickling my ankles and murmuring of their humility

Fumy, spiritous mists inhabit this place.

Separated from my house by a row of headstones.

I simply cannot see where there is to get to.

The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right, 

White as a knuckle and terribly upset. 

It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet 

With the O-gape of complete despair. I live here. 

Twice on Sunday, the bells startle the sky -- 

Eight great tongues affirming the Resurrection 

At the end, they soberly bong out their names. 

The yew tree points up, it has a Gothic shape. 

The eyes lift after it and find the moon. 

The moon is my mother. She is not sweet like Mary. 

Her blue garments unloose small bats and owls. 

How I would like to believe in tenderness - 

The face of the effigy, gentled by candles, 

Bending, on me in particular, its mild eyes. 

I have fallen a long way. Clouds are flowering 

Blue and mystical over the face of the stars 

Inside the church, the saints will all be blue, 

Floating on their delicate feet over the cold pews, 

Their hands and faces stiff with holiness. 

The moon sees nothing of this. She is bald and wild. 

And the message of the yew tree is blackness - blackness and silence.

london's elfin oak

The Elfin Oak is the stump of a 900-year-old oak tree in Kensington Gardens in London, carved and painted to look as though elves, gnomes and small animals are living in its bark. If you look closely you might just spot them!

.:.

The hollow, donated by Lady Fortescue, originally came from Richmond Park, and was moved to Kensington Gardens in 1928 as part of George Lansbury's scheme of public improvements in London. Over the next two years the illustrator Ivor Innes carved the figures of the "Little People" into it. These included Wookey the witch, with her three jars of health, wealth and happiness, Huckleberry the gnome, carrying a bag of berries up the Gnomes' Stairway to the banquet within Bark Hall, and Grumples and Groodles the Elves being awakened by Brownie, Dinkie, Rumplelocks and Hereandthere stealing eggs from the crows' nest.

Innes also illustrated a 1930 children's book written by his wife Elsie and based on the Elfin Oak. In it, Elsie wrote:

"for centuries now it has been the home of fairies, gnomes, elves, imps, and pixies. In the nooks and crannies they lurk, or peer out of holes and crevices, their natural windows and doorways. It is their hiding-place by day, their revelry place by night, and when the great moon tops the bare branchless tree the Elfin Clans come out to play and frolic in the moonlight"

image credit: The Library Time Machine

illumination in the evening

Standing Lamp with Running Dogs, 5th–6th century. Byzantine. Made of copper


Byzantine Hanging Lamp with a Hand Holding a Cross, c. 500

One of the classical protective images adapted by Christians was the foot, a symbol of good health and healing. These lamps were lit by an oil-soaked wick, inserted through the hole beside the foot’s big toe.

Round flat hanging lamps, or polycandela, were lit by oil-filled glass vessels hung from the round holes in their designs. Paul the Silentiary in 563 described the effect of huge hanging lamps that lit the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople:

“Thus is everything clothed in beauty…no words are sufficient to describe the illumination in the evening: you might say that some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church with light"

images and text from met museum

toadlore

"I went to the toad that lies under the wall,

I charmed him out, and he came at my call"
Masque, of Queens, Ben Jonson

The toad is often the focus of mystery - the cousin of the more friendly and amiably viewed frog - the toad is often viewed as a more ominous or malicious presence. They are treated with suspicion, due to their double existence in water and on land. Historically used as a term of abuse to refer to 'a contemptible or detestable person' - they are perceived as unpleasant or even odious in aspect, most likely due to their nocturnal habits.

I am a fan of the toad. There is much folklore and mythology which has grown up around it, and I find them rather endearing with their warty skin and slowness. During the medieval period toads were associated with the Devil. Their body parts and secretions were seen as having magical properties, and were commonly used as cures or for their medicinal value. So let's find out a little more about them - here's a portrait of the common toad...

"The common toad usually moves by walking rather slowly or in short shuffling jumps involving all four legs. It spends the day concealed in a lair that it has hollowed out under foliage or beneath a root or a stone where its colouring makes it inconspicuous. It emerges at dusk and may travel some distance in the dark while hunting. It is most active in wet weather. By morning it has returned to its base and may occupy the same place for several months. It is voracious and eats woodlice, slugs, beetles, caterpillars, flies, earthworms and even small mice. Small, fast moving prey may be caught by a flick of the tongue while larger items are grabbed with the jaws. Having no teeth, it swallows food whole in a series of gulps. It does not recognise its prey as such but will try to consume any small, dark coloured, moving object it encounters at night. When attacked, the common toad adopts a characteristic stance, inflating its body and standing with its hindquarters raised and its head lowered. Its chief means of defence lies in the foul tasting secretion that is produced by its paratoid glands and other glands on its skin"

Toad secretion has been used - dried and then smoked in order to produce visions. Whilst poisonous, if inhaled/ingested in small amounts it has hallucinogenic effects. The liquid toxin is removed from the glands by 'milking' the Bufo alvarius toad, descriptions of the effect can be read here, and there is an interesting theory that toad was used in this context in mesoamerica.

The toad is of course mentioned in Shakespeare's infamous witches chant from Macbeth:

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.   

Toad, that under cold stone    

Days and nights hast thirty one   

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,   

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.   

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I

.:.

the following is taken from Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, by Charles Godfrey Leland

The toad plays a prominent part in gypsy (as in other) witchcraft, which it may well do, since in most Romany dialects there is the same word for a toad or frog, and the devil. Paspati declares that the toad suggested Satan, but I incline to think that there is some as yet undiscovered Aryan word, such as beng, for the devil, and that the German Bengel, a rascal, is a descendant from it. However, gypsies and toads are "near allied and that not wide" from one another, and sometimes their children have them for pets, which recalls the statements made in the celebrated witch trials in Sweden, where it was said by those who professed to have been at the Blockula, or Sabbat, that the little witch children were set to play at being shepherds, their flocks being of toads.

Man Extracting Magical Jewels From a Toad (1490 woodcut)

"Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

"As You Like It" Act 2, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare (1623)

I have been informed by gypsies that toads do really form unaccountable predilections for persons and places. The following is accurately related as it was told me in Romany fourteen years ago, in Epping Forest, by a girl. "You know, sir, that people who live out of doors all the time, as we do, see and know a great deal about such creatures. One day we went to a farmhouse, and found the wife almost dying because she thought she was bewitched by a woman who came every day in the form of a great toad to her door and looked in. And, sure enough, while she was talking the toad came, and the woman was taken in such a way with fright that I thought she'd have died. But I had a laugh to myself; for I knew that toads have such ways, and can not only be tamed, but will almost tame themselves. So we gypsies talked together in Romany, and then said we could remove the spell if she would get us a pair of shears and a cup of salt. Then we caught the toad, and tied the shears so as to make a cross—you see!—and with it threw the toad into the fire, and poured the salt on it. So the witchcraft was ended, and the lady gave us a good meal and ten shillings."


skeleton of a toad

There is a terrible tale told by R. H. Stoddard, in a poem, that one day a gentleman accidentally trod on a toad and killed it. Hearing a scream at that instant in the woods at a little distance, followed by an outcry, he went to see what was the matter, and found a gypsy camp where they were lamenting the sudden death of a child. On looking at the corpse he was horrified to observe that it presented every appearance of having been trampled to death, its wounds being the same as those he had inflicted on the toad. This story being told by me to the gypsy girl, she in no wise doubted its truth, being in fact greatly horrified at it; but was amazed at the child chovihani, or witch, being in two places at once.

c.1300 A.D Scarce British Found Medieval Period Pewter Pilgrim Badge

In the Spanish Association of Witches in the year 1610 (vide Lorent, "Histoire de l'Inquisition") the toad played a great part. One who had taken his degrees in this Order testified that, on admission, a mark like a toad was stamped on his eyelid, and that a real toad was given to him which had the power to make its master invisible, to transport him to distant places, and change him to the form of many kinds of animals.

.:.


The toad is also famous for the mythical stone which was believed to have resided in its head - known as a toadstone and believed to be an antidote for poison. These were often worn as amulets, and fashion into rings or similar to protect the wearer. A toadstone was required to be removed from an old toad while the creature was still alive, and as instructed by the 17th century naturalist Edward Topsell, could be done by setting the toad on a piece of red cloth.



Toadstones were actually the button-like fossilized teeth of Lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous period.

This is rare medieval silver amulet, dating to the 14th - 17th century. The amulet is set with a brown and white coloured stone, examined and identified as a toadstone. The toadstone was a powerful and precious gem from the Medieval and Tudor period. It was thought to protect from poison, snake venom and enchantments by witches.


example of a toadstone from Pitt Rivers Museum

This ring is set with a “toad stone”, employed as magical protection from kidney diseases, stomach complaints and intestinal issues

REVIEW: 'Seven Miles of Steel Thistles' by Katherine Langrish

4/5   ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆


I've been a fan of Katherine Langrish's blog (of the same name) for a while now ever since I stumbled across it via a folkloric themed search on google, quite by accident - and found a veritable torrent of book suggestions and quotes - it was a minefield!

I saw that this book was being published and requested that we stock a copy at work. Langrish is infinitely readable and this book is accessible to both the casual reader and more familiar fairytale enthusiasts or students alike. She regularly posts on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, and as she explains in the introduction, the content of this book is based on initial postings which she has reworked and expanded.

It starts with a general introduction and simplified history of fairy/folk tales and a useful definition of legend/folk/fairy/myth - which sets out how the different forms relate to one another and how they deal with often overlapping or similar content and subject matter - yet each are distinct in their own right.

Langrish explores the concepts of marriage/relations with the fae folk and the different story forms that these pairings take - men stealing fairy brides - and fairies who seduce or capture mortals, often with disastrous results. The importance of objects withing fairytales is discussed - these can situate a tale in place and time, yet also stress the universal element of the tales. Objects in question are often domestic or personal - therefore relatable to all.

The role of women and girls is explored. Langrish explains how the 'original' (as far as any tale has an original format) tales were far more gritty and incorporated violence or sexuality in a way that was later censored by the Grimms as the stories became popular for children and were revisioned. She also stresses the point that whilst we are hugely familiar with some of the more 'Disney-fied' tales where passivity and docility are viewed as preferred attributes. In fact, the majority of fairytales do not follow this pattern, and more often than not it is the females who are the active and ingenious characters, battling against the odds and succeeding at all costs.

I would highly recommend this to all fans of folk/fairytales and the fantasy genre. My only complaint is that it isn't longer! I hope Langrish will publish another collection in the future. Really fascinating and enjoyable reading.

 this dried frog carried in a silk bag was used to prevent fits. Alternatively, another amulet against fits involved wearing a live toad in a bag. Live frogs and toads were also bound on to wounds to help them heal and were placed on the throats of children with whooping cough.

People have carried around amulets and protective objects for millenia. I was lucky enough to visit the Wellcome Collection exhibition on 'Miracles and Charms' back in 2012 and saw the many amulets from Edward Lovett's collection.

The dictionary defines amulets in the following way - "a small object worn to ward off evil, harm, or illness or to bring good fortune; protecting charm". Though many of us might not think this superstition lingers - we might find that we have objects in our living space or wear particular pieces of jewellery which have special significance. The following are some of my favourite 'amuletic' objects...



Stone with natural perforation, found fixed on a nail to the cottage-door of Kimber to keep away witches - often referred to as a hagstone

Large animal lumbar vertebra carved with at one end with a human face.

carrying around this piece of bone was believed to be a cure for rheumatism (aches and pains in the joints), transferring the pain from the person to the bone.


carrying a mole’s forefoot in a pocket as an amulet to prevent cramp is a medical tradition specific to the East Anglian region of England. The feet were either hacked off a mole or bought from a shop. As an amulet against toothache, moles’ feet have a much longer and wider tradition, being recommended by the Roman writer Pliny in the first century CE.

images and text from:
Science Museum
Pitt Rivers | Amulets Blog
Wellcome Collection

willow do walk

welcome to bedlam

This Sunday just gone I visited the latest Wellcome Collection exhibition with my friend - Bedlam. The exhibition explores the history of asylums in the UK, how the view of mental illness changed over the course of history, and the various cures and treatments employed to assist patients.

Asylum, installation by Eva Kotakova

Whilst the exhibition did roam around the concept of mental illness and asylums fairly broadly, it had a large section at the end celebrating art by people who have mental health difficulties - including a collaboration where a dream asylum was created, complete with a model, which included areas for patients to escape and also central market spaces where they were able to mingle together. The emphasis was on the choice of the individual, and I felt this was of key importance, that the individual themselves is central to their own recovery and able to make their own decisions regarding their healthcare where ever possible.

What also came to light was the strong link between perceived mental illness and creativity. Art from many patients was displayed and there were some fantastic drawings and paintings, alongside books and documents from early mental health pioneers (who employed astrology amongst other techniques) as well as photographs of asylum inhabitants, some of which were uncomfortably exploitative. What I felt from viewing the art created by these individuals was how fascinating and unique their view of the world is, many were also accomplished artists in their own right, some prolific.

"I danced frightening things. They were frightened of me and therefore thought that I wanted to kill them. I did not want to kill anyone. I loved everyone, but no one loved me, and therefore I became nervous"

from The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
.:.

It made me contemplate the difference between someone who is perceived as mentally ill and produces fantastic and skilled pieces, and an artist who does the same. What is the essential difference? Both see the world in a different way, with their own unique vision - yet rarely do we label famous artists as 'mentally ill'... much of this is due to the time in which they lived or were working - and the differing viewpoints of the time. I came away thinking of the importance of creativity for everyone, particularly as a cathartic activity, and of how important it is that we rethink mental illness and its perceived limitations.

I have included some of the work from the exhibition below, alongside other artists who I would have liked to see included in the exhibition.

'wolves sitting in a tree' by Sergei Pankejeff who was a patient of Freud

 The above garment was customised by Agnes Richter, who was a German seamstress held as a patient in an insane asylum during the 1890s. During her time there, she densely embroidered her straitjacket with words, undecipherable phrases and drawings which documented her thoughts and feelings throughout her time there.

drawings based on sketches by individuals who have schizoprenia

by Gert & Uwe Tobias

autobiographical lace by Adelaide Hall, completed whilst in an asylum

Syssigy 1957, by Leonora Carrington 

who suffered from a psychotic breakdown and was admitted to an asylum herself in Santander - later detailed in her novel 'Down Below'

Green mold-blown glass bottle, one side with the face of a bearded man, the other with a young boy's face, rolled rim, iridescence and encrustation. 50 - 100 AD

woodcuts by thomas shahan

the eerie art of andrew wyeth

I first discovered Andrew Wyeth's strange and haunting paintings of abandoned or neglected landscapes, often barren or depicting sparse woodland back when I had an account on tumblr. I was instantly drawn in by the strange pervading melancholy and beautiful depictions of interiors and the wild. Often his portraits explore the relationship between the landscape and its inhabitants. Some of the most atmospheric are those devoid of human presence - such as the wonderful paintings of curtains blowing in the breeze, below.