The King of Trees
The Great Oak is known as the King of Trees because of its extraordinary height and huge width. Oaks can live up to and beyond 200 years, and they don’t even produce acorns until they have lived for around seven to eight decades. According to Glennie Kindred, the Oak represents “the very essence of England,” and exhibits manly qualities such as might, strength and endurance. Druids and other people groups revered the Oak tree and later on the Church even grew fond of it for its abundant shade during meetings. Often times, an Oak would be used as the point of demarcation that defined the limits of a person’s property because of its long life. The Oak was also used to make buildings and ships because of the density and sturdiness of the wood.
The Celts took a special interest in the Oak tree because of its imposing nature. They considered it to be a storehouse of wisdom. The word Druid can also been translated as druir, the Celtic word for Oak, which literally means door. The oak was seen as a portal, or a door. The Celts could achieve higher spirituality through the Oak. Kindred adds that the Oak was seen as a pathway or a guide to the truth and the portal to the strength and spirituality within oneself. At times the term for Oak is also translated as Dair, which refers to “a rutting deer and kingship,” (Kindred) implying the kingly status of the Oak.
One odd quality of the Oak tree is its peculiar position of seeming to attract lightning the most. Because of this, the Oak was frequently associated with gods that were in charge of lightning. The Celts would carve wands from the Oak trees to use as guards against being struck by lightning because of the myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice. They would also wear the leaves of the Oak tree for protection from harm or catastrophe.
Oaks are generally associated with spells that deal with safety, strength, steadiness and success. It is proposed that the energy of the Oak can be harnessed and used to provide stability and strength simply by imagining an Oak. Kindred suggests that when one is in need of strength, carrying a smooth touchwood talisman around would be helpful to gain strength.
Kindred also makes a few more suggestions of uses for the Oak tree, to harness its power for yourself:
-Substitute coffee grounds with roasted acorn kernels
-Like the Druids, infuse Oak flower blossoms into water, which can be used for detoxification
-Water that has been collected on the Oak tree will have been absorbing the powers of the Oak for strength and steadfastness; bathing in these waters was ceremonial for the Druids.
Sitting beneath an Oak tree is peaceful and rejuvenating, and to some it is spiritual and magical.
1. Venefica, Avia. “Celtic Meaning of the Oak Tree.” Whats-Your-Sign.com: The Doorway to Signs and Symbolic Meanings. Copyright 2005-2011. Site Build it. Web. 14 Nov 2011. <http://www.whats-your-sign.com/celtic-meaning-oak-tree.html>
This skimpy webpage is a great source of simple and direct facts about the Oak tree, specifically from the perspective of the Celtic people. The information is straight-forward, but it also lacks detail. The author of the page includes a more exhaustive list of words that characterize the Oak tree, which the other two sources do not have.
The author’s inclusion of the fact that Oaks live to be over two-hundred years old was fascinating. Surely the Celts could not have known this, yet still they worshiped this tree for its size and strength. The credibility of this source is lacking. There is not any citation or reference to other literature and the webpage looks very commercial.
2. Smith, Jennifer. “Sacred Woods and the Lore of Trees.” Tara Hill Designs. Created 6 Jan 1996. Revised 28 April 2006. Web. 14 Nov 2011. <http://www.tarahill.com/treelore/trees.html>
This webpage offers a general physical description of three of the main types of oak: the Red Oak, the White Oak and the Brown, or England, Oak. This page also delves into the use of Oak trees in spells and in mythology and folklore, though not in detail. The credibility of this source is moderate. There is no citation of assisting literature, but there are no spelling errors.
This site is not extremely useful, but it does reaffirm the other two sites in offering congruous information on the Oak tree. It is also helpful because it describes the physical characteristics and touches on the fact that there is more than one kind of Oak tree. The slices of information about lore and spells are good starters to understanding the beliefs of different groups of ancient peoples, especially the Celts.
3. Kindred, Glennie. “The Oak Tree/King of the Greenwood.” White Dragon. Published at Beltane 1998. Web. 14 Nov 2011. <http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/oak.htm>
This webpage offers a light discussion on the Oak tree, specifically in regards to historical England. The author expands superficially on the topic of the relationship of the Druid language and folklore to the Oak tree. The credibility of this source is questionable, due to some spelling errors and incorrect grammar; however, the above listed sites affirm the information posted on this page.
The overview of the Oak’s characteristics is initially awe-striking. The conclusions reached by the Druids are easily understood in light of the god-like qualities that describe the Oak tree. The author breaks up the word “Druid” and deciphers its meaning, which enables the reader to see the reasoning behind the perspective of the Oak tree being seen as a pathway to higher spiritual knowledge.
Sacred
There are many different religions that consider trees to be sacred. Some believe that spirits live within the trees, and that to harm the tree is to harm the spirit within it. In Grecian and Roman times, it was believed that certain groves of trees were sacred and were guarded by gods. In some Middle Eastern traditions, it is believed that Wellis, souls of saints, inhabit trees. In some regions, as in the Grecian and Roman times, peoples go to great lengths to placate the spirit that inhabits a tree before it is cut down.
In a study that was taken in the Middle East among Muslims and Druze, the following supernatural characteristics of trees were touched on:
a. Trees are inhabited by souls, or Wellis, according to Muslim tradition. These souls come from nearby burial sites.
b. Sometimes people will notice strange lights and hear voices coming from the trees. It is generally accepted that the Wellis are celebrating and socializing during these occurrences.
c. Sacred trees are not capable of being burned, something rooted in the account of Moses and the burning bush.
d. Sacred trees will protect the innocent, even, in some cases, by encasing them within themselves.
e. Sacred trees bleed.
f. Sacred trees will sometimes exhibit extraordinary physical qualities, such as having golden leaves or producing many different kinds of fruit.
g. A sacred tree may take on the position of being a soothsayer or an oracle, speaking in a human’s voice.
h. The soul within a sacred tree may rise up against anyone who harms the tree in which he dwells; though sometimes the community affects retribution.
i. Sacred trees can bless people and bring favor upon them.
j. Machinery that works too close to a sacred tree will sometimes mysteriously be interfered with.
k. Sacred Trees have power to cure physical ailments.
l. Circumambulation allows the transfer of the powers or blessings of the sacred tree to pass onto those that are circled around it.
The Muslim adherents that responded to the surveys done for Dafni’s research attributed the sacred status of a tree to the spirit that indwelt it, while the Druze attribute the tree’s power to their religious leaders. Overall, the idea of the sacred tree in the Middle East originated in pagan, polytheistic religions and was adapted into the monotheistic, mainstream religions later on.
In many other belief systems, trees represent different things and play different roles in the world. The universal development of the World Tree binds together the three realms of life: the underworld, the earth and heaven. In areas where Arabic is spoken, the stars are seen as the fruit of the limbs of the World Tree. In Grecian mythology, nymphs were thought to live in trees, similar to that of Muslim belief. In similar Albanian folklore, Aerico, an adverse spirit lives in a cherry tree. Trees are also believed to be able to speak in different cultures’ folklore.
4. Dafni, Amots. "The Supernatural Characters And Powers Of Sacred Trees In The Holy Land." Journal Of Ethnobiology And Ethnomedicine 3.(2007): 10. MEDLINE. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.
This text explicitly states that it deals with the occurrence of trees in the beliefs of the Muslim and Druze peoples, which are located specifically in Israel. This article is credible: “it is based on a field study as well as a survey of the literature and includes 118
interviews with Muslims and Druze” (pp. 1).
The specificity of the article is very helpful in narrowing down world religions and focusing on only a few groups of people. The article’s credibility is also excellent because it is based on peoples’ responses in addition to the literary analysis of the researchers, which ensures that the researchers’ personal opinions are not too overbearing.
5. “Trees of Israel.” Hebrew Podcasts. Copyright 2009 hebrewpodcasts.com. Web. 14 Nov 2011. <http://hebrewpodcasts.com/treesofisrael.html>
This webpage covers the different types of trees present in the Holy Land, or Israel. For each entry, the tree’s location, symbolism and the flowering period are discussed in little detail. There are pictures beside each entry, showing the physical characteristics of the trees, and the name of each tree is included in Hebrew as well as the pronunciation. At the top of the page the parts of the tree as listed and translated into Hebrew.
This webpage is helpful in order to gain insight into the kinds of trees that were present in the Holy Land of Dafni’s article. Knowing what kinds of trees and their different characteristics enabled me to gain a deeper understanding of why they were attributed certain qualities or powers. I am some-what dissatisfied with the superficiality of the descriptions given by this webpage, but I believe that they are sufficient for my understanding.
6. Birkalan, Hande A., Jane Garry, and Hasan El-Shamy. "Trees, Various Motifs." Archetypes & Motifs in Folklore & Literature: A Handbook(2005): 464-471. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.
This internet resource is a tight summary of the many different roles that trees have played in religion and folklore. The writers include concise information on the “World Tree,” the tree of life, trees birthing people, the worship of trees, “magic trees” and the literary concept of transforming into a tree. The authors do not elaborate on, but merely mention different people groups’ views on trees in respect to the aforementioned subjects.
The use of trees in poetry can also be related to the appearance of trees in folklore. Different cultures use trees to symbolize different aspects of the world and some religions include the mention of trees. In most of the poems I have referred to, the tree has a distinct relationship with the narrator or another human being; however, in this text the trees mentioned do not seem to have the same kind of relationship. They seem to be more like mystical objects than emotional beings.
