Reading the Writing on the Wall: My Husband is a God, but My Friends are All a Bunch of Sheep

Reading the Fairy Tale The Sun Prince

In the tantalizing tale of the Sun Prince (full text below), the abundant Christian images (flock of sheep attending church, who belong to a Christ-like Sun Prince) could easily lead one to believe this is a religious parable. But a closer analysis of the text reveals an unruly narrative with threads that do not tie up so neatly. As the eldest daughter attempts to explain to her baffled mother, we, too, must read the writing on the wall to fully grasp the significance of this tale.

A rather somber Sun Prince has abducted a mortal bride and taken her off to his abode far, far away. (This is reminiscent of other stories of wife-snatching gods such as Persephone and the God of the Underworld.) The eldest brother endeavors to find his sister and alleviate his mother’s grief. When he finally finds her, he discovers that the bride and her husband consort with a flock of sheep, river-swimmers who are semi-divine beings. But the most remarkable part of the story is stated in two rather unexceptional phrases: Although the oldest son has taken the prettiest horse his parents possess, when he arrives at the dwelling of the Sun Prince the brother is told to “…bring his horse to the stable. Horses were not tolerated near the door.” If we infer that a temple is the only appropriate abode for a Sun Prince and that horses were not tolerated near the temple in this tale, we come a step closer to understanding the story.

The horse was of vital importance to Indo-European peoples and features prominently in their mythologies. Horses were considered to be the most noble, sacred, trusted and intelligent of all animals. Almost every god in Indo-European mythology had his own named horse endowed with supernatural powers. Because of their special status, horses were kept directly next to temples and were used in sacred rites, including sacrifice and soothsaying. The sound of neighing alone was believed to bring fortune and health. An association between horses and the sun god has also been documented for numerous ancient tribes. It was the sun god who appeared in the morning sky with his horses and pulled the solar disk across the heavens in his wagon or chariot. Archaeologists have found such images throughout Europe (Trundholm sun disk, Celtic coins, Helios images, to name just a few examples). The fact that horses were not tolerated near the dwelling of the Sun Prince in this story, points to a cultural context outside the norm. This fairy tale comes from a remote region in Switzerland that was dependent on the sheep and not the horse for its survival. Bordering on Italy near the town of Merano, the area is still renowned for its fine wool and hand-woven fabrics.

Many ancient cultures personified the sun as a god and the earth as a goddess. The marriage between sun and earth was responsible for the fruitfulness of the earth and reenacted in religious festivals and cult practices. In many cultures bowing to the rising and setting sun was a daily ritual. This is echoed in the actions of the pious sheep of this fairy tale who show their reverence by bowing to the Sun God, his wife and finally the newly initiated youngest brother. The special cake the sheep eat is likely a reference to the round cakes made especially to honor the Sun God in religious ceremonies. In his book Indo-European Poetry and Myth, M. L. West surmises that such cakes might originally have been symbols of the sun itself.

The most delightful figures in this fairy tale are the sheep. They straddle parallel universes: the familiar world and an otherworldly realm beyond the wild river. Crossing a river is often a metaphor for dying in folktales (See Crossing to Remagen, link at right). At the very least the river crossing in this tale signals a transition into another spiritual dimension. The sheep seem to represent guardian angels or beings whose function is to assist mortals reach higher spiritual enlightenment, possibly a sort of heaven or the afterworld. In a delightful reversal of roles, it is the sheep who act as shepherds, coaxing and prodding the three brothers. They undergo a physical transformation as they cross the threshold of the chapel, which might actually be a metaphor for an unseen spiritual metamorphosis (or might even suggest a physical resurrection after death). However one reads the story, these sheep are indeed indispensable companions and guides.

At the end of the tale the grieving mother is granted a visit with her departed daughter. But when the girl vanishes for always, we presume her new role is too important for earth visits and she can no longer be bothered with the concerns of mortals. It would be interesting to find out what happens to her youngest brother, the one whose initiation facilitated by the sheep brought about the reunion in the first place. Has he become a priest on earth, ministering to mortals, or does he now inhabit the realm across the river? Only the Sun Prince knows for sure.

To read a fairy tale about the peaceable kingdom of animals:

http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2009/11/peaceable-kingdom-of-fairy-tales.htm

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Fairy Tale of the Sun Prince

The Wonderful and Strange Fairy Tale of the Sun Prince

(A fairy tale from the Merino region of Switzerland)

A long time ago there lived a father and mother with their four children, a grown girl and three small boys. The father wanted to marry off his daughter to someone he liked. But because his daughter refused, he wanted to kill her.

One day the maiden told her mother she should look and see what was written on the wall of her bedroom. When the mother entered her daughter’s chamber, she found an inscription on the wall “Your daughter is my bride and I am the Sun Prince.” When the mother returned to the parlor, her daughter had vanished. The Sun Prince had taken her.

From that day on, the mother was deeply troubled and cried most of the time. The three brothers noticed this as they grew older. They begged their mother to say why she was so sad. After they had learned the fate of their sister, they could not find a moment’s rest. The oldest son took the prettiest horse in their stable and went out looking for the Sun Prince. After a very long trip he arrived at a large dwelling, where he tied the horse next to the door. A woman emerged and she said he should bring his horse into the stable. Horses were not tolerated near the door.

After the youth took his horse to the adjacent stable, the woman asked what kind of trip he was undertaking. “I must go to look for my sister, who married the Sun Prince!”

“Then you are my brother,” the woman replied and hugged him. Both went to the Sun Prince, and the brother asked permission for his sister to visit their home so that she could visit their mother one last time. “I will allow it,” the Sun Prince replied, “If you tend my sheep an entire day. But as sign that you have watched them, in the evening you must bring me what the sheep have eaten during the day.”

The youth thought “That won’t be difficult!” And early the next morning he went out into the fields with the sheep of the Sun Prince. Soon the herd came to a very deep valley. The sheep crossed the river flowing through the valley floor without difficulty. But the youth did not know how to cross the river. When the sheep saw from the other bank, that the shepherd stayed back, they sent two older sheep to fetch him. They motioned to the shepherd that he was to hold tightly to their tails. But the shepherd was afraid and did not dare do what the sheep commanded. By evening, he was still on the same side of the valley and when the sheep returned, he plucked some grass and put it in his sack, because he thought that was what the sheep must have eaten on the other side of the river. When they arrived at the house of the Sun Prince, the sheep first bowed to the Sun Prince, then to the wife and lastly to the shepherd, who then showed the Prince the grass in his bag. “My sheep don’t eat that!” the Prince cried loudly and the youth sadly returned home.

The second brother decided to see what would happen to him if he tended the herd of the Sun Prince. But he, too, did not have the courage to hold tightly to the tail of the sheep and stayed back.

In the evening he plucked several leaves, placed them in his sack and brought them to the Sun Prince. When the Sun Prince saw this, he said “You did not tend the sheep and must return home without your sister!”

Because this brother also returned home without his sister, it was left to the youngest brother to try to bring back his sister. After a trip lasting many days and years, he arrived at the dwelling of the Sun Prince, where he endeavored to tie his horse to the post. When the Sun Prince heard what he wanted, he made the same proposal as he had to his brothers. At the first light of morning the youth went out with the sheep. But when he came to the stream in the valley, he let the old sheep guide him through the water to the far side.

On the far side of the water, the youth saw the sheep entering a chapel and as they crossed the doorway, they were all transformed into humans. Once inside the chapel they all celebrated mass. After the service, they entered a nearby inn and ate a celebratory feast. The youth could see what wonderful and delicious food the sheep ate. He tried a bit of the best cake and placed it in his sack. When he returned home with his herd that evening, two old sheep once again pulled him safely through the river. When they arrived home, the herd first bowed to the youth and then to the Sun Prince and then to his wife. After the youth showed the Sun Prince the cake, he and his sister were immediately brought home the following morning and stayed until evening. When the sun went down, she vanished for always.

To read more about the Sun Prince:
http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2009/09/reading-writing-on-wall-my-husband-is.html

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The German Fairy Tale of the Mysterious Bee Queen

Grimm’s Fairy Tale No. 62 The German Fairy Tale of the Mysterious Bee Queen

Two king’s sons went out looking for adventure and fell into a wild, dissipated life and did not return home. The youngest, who was also known as the dummkopf, went out looking for his brothers. But when he finally found them, they laughed and mocked him. He was a simpleton, they jeered. How could he succeed in life when they had failed so miserably and they were so much smarter? And so it was, the three brothers decided to go out together and soon they came upon an anthill. The two oldest wanted to stir up the sand and see how the little ants scurried fearfully around, carrying off their eggs. But the dummkopf said “Leave the animals in peace. I won’t tolerate your harming them.” The brothers continued on their way and came to a lake, where many ducks were swimming. The two brothers wanted to catch a few and roast them, but the dummkopf would not allow it. He said” Leave the animals in peace. I won’t tolerate your harming them.”

Finally they came to a bee nest. There was so much honey that it trickled down the trunk of the tree. The two older brothers wanted to light a fire under the tree and suffocate the bees, so that they could rob them of their honey. The dummkopf once more said “Leave the animals in peace. I won’t tolerate your harming them.” Finally the three brothers arrived at a castle. Here the stalls were full of stone horses. But not a single human being was found. They went through each room of the castle, until they arrived at the very last door. The door had three locks but in the middle there was a keyhole. Spying through the hole they saw a gray little man sitting at a table. They called to him, once, twice, but he did not hear. Finally they called a third time. He stood up, opened the locks and came out. But he never said a word. Instead, he led them to a richly set table. When they had eaten and drunk their fill, the old man brought each brother to a separate sleeping chamber. The next morning the gray little man came to the oldest, woke him and took him to a stone tablet. Three tasks were written on the tablet, and fulfillment of the tasks would redeem the castle. The first task was this: in the woods under the moss lay the pearls of the king’s daughter, one thousand in number. They all had to be gathered and if a single pearl was missing when the sun set, the person who was searching for them would be turned to stone. The oldest went out and looked the entire day. But when day was over, and he had only found one hundred, it happened just as the tablet had foretold. He was turned to stone. The next day the second brother took up the adventure. It did not go much better for him. He had found more than two-hundred pearls when he was turned to stone. Finally, it was the dummkopf’s turn. He searched through the moss but it was difficult finding pearls and took too long. He sat down on a stone and began to cry. And as he was sitting there, the ant king came, whose life the dummkopf had once saved. He arrived with five-thousand ants and it didn’t take long for the small animals to gather the pearls into a little pile. The second task was to fetch the key to the princess’s bed chamber at the bottom of the sea. As the dummkopf approached the water, the ducks came swimming, whose life he had once saved. They dove under and fetched the key from the depths. The third task was the most difficult. Among the king’s sleeping daughters the dummkopf had to determine the youngest and dearest. But they all looked the same and nothing distinguished them except for the fact that before they went to sleep, they each had eaten a different sweet: the oldest a sugar cube, the second, some syrup and the third a spoon of honey. The bee queen, whose lives the dummkopf had preserved against fire, arrived with her bees. The queen alighted on the mouth of each princess, but at last she lingered near the mouth of the princess who had eaten honey. In this way, the king’s son recognized the rightful princess. The magic was now over, everyone was freed from their sleep and the brothers who had been turned into stone, took on their human shape again. The dummkopf married the youngest and dearest daughter of the king and became king after her father’s death. But his two brothers married the other two sisters.

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Fairy Tale of the Supranormal Bride

Excerpt from "Hylas and the Nymphs", J.W. Waterhouse

The Supranormal Bride: Taboo, Impropriety and the Power of Language

In the Fairy Sister’s Wedding (see link at right) we encounter a common figure in fairy tales, the supranormal bride, a being who is really a goddess or demi-goddess but consorts with humans and longs to be mortal. The goddess in this fairy tale appears in duplicate form as twin in the propitious month of July, at the moment the corn has almost reached maturity and will soon be ready for harvest. Thus, her powers, which are aligned with plants and vegetation in the narrowest sense and with fertility, bounty and fecundity in a broader sense, are magnified. According to many folk traditions, twins had special powers that often included control over rain and weather. The goddess's powers would be especially potent if she were also a twin.

The twin fairies promise their prospective mates every boon an earth goddess can bestow. But from the very beginning we get an inkling that the masculine virtues of beauty, pride and courage will fall short when confronted with the feminine qualities of a supernatural bride. Even though they are paragons of virtue (“No one was their equal in all the kingdom.”) and as twins their strengths are also doubled, we know the marriage between the brothers and their fairy wives will culminate in disaster. The problem is not that the grooms are looking for love in all the wrong places (behind a bush in this fairy tale), but rather that they are incapable of fulfilling the strict conditions of their marriage. The fairy wives stipulate two taboos. The first is a food prohibition, tied to ritual cleansing in preparation for marriage. The second is a speech prohibition, tied to naming things and the power of language. The younger brother fails the test immediately. Chewing on a corn kernel barely seems to constitute an infraction. But this thoughtless impropriety has dire consequences, underscoring the frailty of human understanding while hinting at a higher world order that human beings fail to grasp. Punishment is swift and harsh, the sinner is relegated to a life of isolation cut off from his parents and clan. The last we hear of him, he is entering a monastery.

And so we come to what I believe is the heart of this fairy tale: the taboo. In his exhaustive study of magic and religion, Sir James Frazer defines charms or spells as a form of positive magic. A person believes he can regulate the course of nature or an outcome by acting in a certain way such as reciting a particular charm. Taboos, in contrast, are a form of negative magic. By abstaining from certain behaviors, a person hopes to align himself with the forces of nature, thereby promoting the fertility of the earth, the multiplication of plants and animals and promotion of his own kind. According to Frazer, by abstaining from doing certain things, people avoid infecting the earth with their own undesirable state or condition. The taboo prohibiting certain speech in the fairy tale seems like an easy precept to fulfill. But humans are frail beings and to some extent prone to failure. As the fairy tale illustrates, it is the shortcomings of humans, not of the gods, that brings calamity into the world.

The speech prohibition in this story is also interesting in and of itself. The word Fee means both fairy and crazy (fay and fey). The taboo prohibits the husband from naming the essence of his supernatural bride’s character, fairy, while also restricting the pejorative form of the same word, crazy. These diverging usages reflect alternate attitudes toward the deity. On the one hand, the earth goddess was beneficent, having the power to confer fruitfulness. But a contemptuous attitude toward these deities was also possible. The goddesses who had the power to control hail, rain and the weather were frequently likened to witches who rode broomsticks through threatening black hail clouds. These were thought to be essentially malign forces. It was in the best interest of all to harm these creatures whenever possible. Connecting the deity to these destructive forces was equivalent to calling the deity crazy: an act of profanity and desecration and a very serious offence. Naming was also viewed as a way to perform magic because there was a powerful relationship between the object or person and its name. A thoughtless remark could not only bring about the wrath of the gods but also inflict real harm.

The Fairy Sisters’ Wedding ends on a tragic note. The family loses its matriarch, who has brought countless blessings. In this tale the barriers to a union between a mortal and divine being are impossible to bridge. The Swiss folktale Gnome Wife Tirli-Wirli (see link to right) is more optimistic. The husband’s remorse suffices to bring about reconciliation. The couple is subsequently able to enjoy a long and fruitful life together.

There are many examples in which the gender roles of this story are reversed. Instead of a supernatural bride, we encounter an otherworldly groom who prohibits his wife from using certain speech. Frazer contends that it is often the person most intimately connected to the individual by blood or marriage that must adhere to the strictest taboos. The Swan Knight is one example of this form.

Fairy Tales on this Blog featuring a Supernatural Spouse:

Gnome Wife Tirli-Wirli
Life in the Castle
Life in Another Castle
Gerhard the Good, Swan Knight
Hans-My-Hedgehog
The Artist as Hedgehog
Fairy Sisters’ Wedding

Sun Prince

Further Reading:
Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough

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French Tale of the Fairy Sisters' July Wedding

A Fairy Tale from the French Alps:
Fairy Sisters Want to Marry

Once there lived two brothers who were twins, Each was as beautiful and handsome as the day itself. They were proud and courageous. No one was their equal in all the kingdom. One evening as they were returning home from the annual market, they had to traverse an immense forest. It was the summer month of July and almost nine o’clock in the evening. The moon was full. Suddenly the two brothers could hear bright, ringing laughter coming from within the bushes. They pulled on the reins of their horses and stopped. “Listen, brother, do you hear that sound!” the older one asked.

“Yes, it sounds like the laughter of a young maid, a bright, cheerful sound.”

In that very moment two young beauties emerged from behind the bush. They were dressed in gold and silk and were as lovely as angels. “Good evening, young gallants!” their voices rang out like bells.

“Good evening, young maidens!” was the reply.

“We are not maidens. We are fairies and twin sisters. You are twin brothers. If you marry us, we will make you as rich as the sea and will give you many children, who are as beautiful, strong and brave as you yourselves are.”

The older brother said “Let’s marry. I will take the older twin.”

“Yes, let’s marry. I will take the younger one,” the younger brother said.

“Good,” both fairy sisters replied. “We will marry tomorrow morning, bright and early. Now go home but at daybreak you must already be standing at the church door facing the forest. Make sure that you neither eat nor drink in the meantime. If you do, a great misfortune will befall us.”

“Fairy sisters, your words shall be followed!” And the twin brothers rushed home. They did not talk; they went to bed without eating or drinking. At two in the morning they got up and silently left the house. “Quickly, quickly! We have just enough time to reach the church at the edge of the forest.”

On the way, the twins passed a corn field. The corn was almost ripe. Without thinking, the younger brother picked an ear, took a kernel and pressed it between his teeth to see if it was completely dry.

Before day broke the two stood before the church at the edge of the forest. The doors were open, the altar was decorated and the candles were lit. Both fairies were waiting. They were dressed as beautiful brides , each wearing a white dress and veil, a wreath of flowers on her head and a fragent posy tied into her belt.

“My friend,” the younger of the two fairies said sadly, “You forgot that you weren’t supposed to eat or drink. Now you have caused a great misfortune to befall us. By marrying you, I would have become a woman like all others. But now I must remain a fay forever.”

With that the younger of the two fairy twins left the church and her groom never saw her again. The priest read the mass for the older twins. Then the younger brother spoke to the couple “Fare thee well! I am going far away and shall enter a monastery as a monk. Tell my father and my mother they will never see me again.” And with these words he departed, while his older brother took his bride home to his parents.

In the evening before they went to bed, she said to her husband “Listen! If you love me then pay heed. Never call me fey or crazy. If you do a great misfortune will befall us.”

“Dear wife, don’t worry, I will never call you fey or crazy.”

For seven years they lived happily as man and wife. They were as rich as the vast ocean, lived in a castle and had seven children.

One day the husband went to the annual market and the wife stayed behind to act on his behalf. It was mid-July. The weather was beautiful, the grain was almost ripe. The lady of the castle looked out and gazed at the heavens. “You man servants and maid servants, up and out!” she cried. “Quickly cut the grain! A storm and hail will soon be here!”

“But lady, what are you thinking? It is the most wonderful weather in the world and the grain isn’t even ripe.”

“Do what I say, quickly! Hurry, hurry!”

The farm hands followed her orders. They were still working when the master of the house returned from market. “Wife, what are the workers doing?” he asked.

“They are doing what I ordered them to do!” the wife replied.

“But look, wife, the cut grain isn’t even ripe. You must be crazy!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the wife got up and left. In the same evening, hail and storm ravaged the entire land. Despite it all, the fay returned to the castle every morning. She entered the room of her seven children, and while crying combed their hair with a golden comb. “You must never tell your father, that I come every morning at dawn to your room and comb your hair with a beautiful golden comb. A great misfortune will happen if you do.” The children replied “Mother, we will never tell!”

But the father was amazed at the beautifully combed hair of his children. Every morning he asked “Who combed your hair so beautifully, my little ones?” And his children always said “It was the servant girl.”

But the father remained skeptical. One evening when he went to bed he hid himself in the room of his seven children. When dawn broke their mother came and while crying, combed their hair with a golden comb. The man lost control “My poor wife,” he called. “O come home, I beg you, come!”

But she vanished as fast as lightening. From then on neither the husband or his children ever saw her again.



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The Secret Lives of Gnomes Revealed Here: Tree Gnomes

Grimm's Saga No. 148: The Gnomes in the Tree

In summer months it often happened that a flock of gnomes would migrate from the upper mountain meadows down into the valley, where they banded together sociably. They either helped the farm laborers or watched them as they mowed and gathered the hay. They loved to sit on the long, thick branches of a shady oak tree and look down at the work. Once some mean-spirited people, who knew of their habit, came during the night and sawed the branches through so that they were only weakly attached to the tree trunk. When the unsuspecting creatures climbed up the next morning, the branches came crashing down in pieces. The gnomes likewise fell to the ground and were jeered by the onlookers. Thus enraged, they screamed:

“As high as the sky
Deception does fly!
Here today, tomorrow gone!”

They were as good as their word and were never seen again in all the land.

Read another gnome fairy tale:

http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2009/08/summer-fairy-tale-to-catch-gnome.html

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Summer Fairy Tale: To Catch A Gnome

The Many Ways to Catch a Garden Thief:
Fairy Tale of the Smithy Riechert

On the east side of the Dardesheim mountain there is a place called Gnome-Berg where the fields are especially rich and fertile. These acres were once owned by a smithy by the name of Riechert, who planted a crop of peas there. He noticed that when the peas hung on their vine and were the most ripe and succulent, they were soon all picked. To catch the pea-thief, Riechert built a little hut in his field and watched over his crop night and day. During the night, he did not detect any change, but in the morning he saw that despite his watch, the entire field had been robbed of peas. His wasted efforts annoyed him to no end and so he decided to plow under the entire crop. When dawn broke, Smithy Riechert began his work. But he had barely plowed under half his field when he heard wretched crying. Looking down to find the source, he saw a gnome lying under the pea stalks on the ground. His skull had been bashed by the threshing blade and he was now visible because his haze or fog cap had been knocked from his head. The gnome got up quickly and fled back into the mountain.

Postscript

In fairy tale lore, gnomes are invisible because they wear a Tarnkappe or Nebelkappe (cap conferring invisibility). Nebel means fog or mist in German and connotes confusion or cloudy and muddled thinking. Gnomes love gardens and the acres they visit are always lush and bountiful. Even though they pinch the produce, it is very beneficial to have garden gnomes as regular visitors and very unlucky to drive them away. A wise farmer woos the gnomes and does what he can to keep them happy.

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Fairy Tale Magic and Mystery Found in Toadstools

Grimm’s Saga No. 223: The Toadstool

Notweiler Castle lies in the Alsatian region of Wasgau. Long ago a duke’s beautiful daughter lived in the castle. But she was a very proud maiden. None of her many suitors were good enough for her and many vainly lost their lives trying for her hand in marriage.

As punishment, a spell was cast over the maid and from then on she had to live in a forlorn cave dwelling. She was doomed to live this way until the spell could be broken, at which time she would be saved. Once a week on Friday she was allowed to appear in visible form. The first time she appeared it was in the form of a snake, the second time in the form of a toad and the third time in her natural form as beautiful maiden. 

Every Friday she bathed in a spring near the cliff, which today is still called Toadstool. While washing, she always cast glances in every direction to see if anyone was approaching to save her. Whoever undertook such a daring deed found a shell lying on the toadstool. It bore three symbols: a scale from a snake, a piece of toad skin and a yellow lock of her hair. Carrying these three things, the youth had to climb the sheer barren rock up to the castle on a Friday afternoon, wait until the maiden appeared bathing and then kiss her on the lips three weeks in a row and in each of her forms without fleeing. Whoever could withstand this trial, would receive peace and all her treasures. 

Many a lad had already found the shell with the three symbols and had dared to climb the rocks toward the old castle. And many a lad had died by being overcome by fear and loathing. Once a brave fellow had already touched the lips of the snake with his own and was willing to wait for the other figures to appear, but he was gripped by such horror that he ran downhill. She pursued rustling and raving in toad form until they both reached the toadstool. 

Through the ages she has always stayed the same and has never aged. She is most frightening in serpent form. But following the old adage “She is as big as a haystack, but in toadly form as large as an oven and then she spits fire.”

To read more about the magical properties of other plants and herbs:

http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2008/07/magical-properties-of-plants-and-herbs.html



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Something Terrible in the Trees

Something Terrible in the Trees

I will not be afraid of death and bane
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene III

As we know from both the Grimm’s Saga of King Greentree (see below) and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, advancing trees can only mean doom. However, in the Shakespeare play, Macbeth’s death-by-trees is foretold by three witches, who have conjured up a ghostly apparition of a crowned child bearing tree in hand. It speaks:

Be lion-mettled, proud and take no care
Who chafes, who frets or where conspirers are.
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.


Though meant as a warning, this tree-bearing ghost instills a sense of false security in Macbeth. For as every student of Shakespeare knows, Malcolm’s soldiers will soon be reaching Dunsinane camouflaged by the green boughs of the Birnam forest and Macbeth will soon meet his death. Shakespeare based his play on Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577), which in turn was based on earlier works, including that of Andrew Wyntoun (1350 – 1420) the Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. Though put forth as a true record of events, these accounts provide a strange amalgam of history and legend. The tree references seem to be more legend than truth, but they might actually describe a real military conflict. It is easy to imagine that camouflage by trees was conceived on the ancient battlefield as a useful tactic for hiding the actual number of men in an approaching army thus heightening the defending army’s uncertainty and terror.


Our earliest written chronicles therefore often combine accurate descriptions of historical events with outright fictions. Mostly the authors do not seem to be bothered by any need to draw a clear line between history and legend. Holinshed considers the precise nature of the three witches in his Chronicles, but never questions their existence. He says : “But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say), the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, inbued with knowledge of prophesie by their necromantical science, because euerie thing came to passe as they had spoken.” In fact, in a world where men firmly believe in goddesses of destiny and prophecy, one might actually expect to find people who claim to be such creatures. So Holinshed’s account might be accurate to the extent that three women, alleged to be witches, prophesized Macbeth’s fate.


Grimm’s Sagas likewise seamlessly combine historical fact and popular lore. To the modern reader, an approaching army of trees portending doom might seem like a mere dramatic device. But the saga also suggests another interpretation, namely that it echoes underlying beliefs toward trees held by pre-Christian tribes in Europe. The pagan attitude might have been that there really was something terrible in the trees, a supernatural power that could control one’s destiny. The king's daughter in King Greentree, understands the significance of the marching trees immediately and does not need a prophecy to decipher her fate: "When dawn broke on that day, the daughter looked out of her window and saw the enemy’s army approaching: an enormous procession of green trees. She was terrified because she knew that all was lost." She did not lose heart merely because she saw the approaching army; her castle had been besieged for years. There was something in the trees themselves that warned her all was lost. This suggests a cultural context that was most probably shared by the original audience of the saga but the precise meaning is now long-forgotten.

Grimm’s Saga of King Greentree offers an important clue as to what that meaning might be. The king was able to defend his castle from onslaught until May Day. On that day his daughter spied the green forest approaching on the distant plain. Like Macbeth, she knew that all was lost when she recognized the enemy behind the green trees. But unlike Macbeth, she did not need witches or necromantical science to understand her situation. She immediately grasped the significance of the approaching trees. May Day was a pagan celebration, widely practiced throughout Europe. In some places the May Day custom was celebrated by a throng of villagers processing out into the woods, cutting down a tree and green branches and bringing it all back to the village amidst song and revelry. The tree was then erected on the village green in the form of a May pole. Other accounts reference May Day as the time when evil forces allegedly were at their height. Preparations in the days before culminated in “burning out the witches”, a rite which purportedly expelled all wandering ghosts and devils from the vicinity. The saga King Greentree accurately recalls May Day activities such as cutting and carrying boughs, trees and greenery and marching about, but here the pageantry turns out to be a military exercise. The trees likewise announce defeat on the inauspicious day of May when evil powers were thought to be most potent.

According to Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough, the intention of these May Day customs was clear: to bring back to the village the blessing and power of the tree spirit. Tree worship was prevalent in pre-Christian Europe. In some places “remarkable oaks and other great shady trees” were revered “and oracular responses could be received from them.” Trees were believed to be inhabited by a soul, god or spirit. But the tree itself was not the deity, rather, it was the dwelling place of the deity. In other words, trees were representatives of divinity. Based on his analysis of the different Germanic words for “temple”, Jakob Grimm concluded that sacred groves themselves were the original sanctuaries or churches of early tribes. The power of trees included all things associated with reproductive power, including the ability to make rain fall, sun shine, crops grow, flocks and herds multiply and the capacity to ease child bearing. Osiris is one of the earliest mentioned gods renowned for his skill in farming and animal husbandry. Egyptian myth tells that Osiris was imprisoned in a chest, which was then enveloped by a growing tree. The wood of this tree was subsequently cut down and worshiped in the temple of Isis. And in Jakob Grimm’s saga of St. Boniface (see link to right), we find the saint cutting down the sacred oak of Jupiter, inextricably linking the saint’s own demise with that of the tree. He was soon murdered by ungrateful pagans.

Boniface’s hatchet job was not the only assault on pagan trees, groves and temples. Tacitus reports in his Annals that “Caesar, to spread devastation widely, divided his eager legions into four columns, and ravaged a space of fifty miles with fire and sword. Neither sex nor age moved his compassion. Everything, sacred or profane, the temple too of Tamfana, as they called it, the special resort of all those tribes, was levelled to the ground.” And in 772 AD Charlemagne destroyed the sacred Saxon settlement of Irminsul, which according to Grimm’s linguistic analysis of the word was probably designed around a sacred tree or pole. Because of their special status in pagan religion, trees became the object of physical attack. Across the ages they also became associated with warfare and battle. In his book Indo-European Poetry and Myth, M.L. West identified the term “tree of battle” as a poetic phrase or kenning for “warrior”in early Welsh and Norse poetry. Grimm alludes to this further by citing the ancient adage “A sacred oak grows out of the mouth of a slain king.” Folk tradition has it that an acvattha-branch can destroy one’s enemies and a sacred tree cannot be cut down without causing one’s own downfall. This fragmentary evidence suggests that trees were imbued with a meaning that we can’t fully reconstruct today and that the ravagers of sacred trees were successful, for in destroying them the memory of their past significance was also lost. We are left with inklings, remnants of stories and our imaginations to fill in the gaps.

(Postscript:

One last attempt at deciphering terror in the trees as illustrated in the saga of King Greentree and Macbeth: According to Germanic mythology, giants had such enormous strength they could pull trees out by their roots and hurl them or use them as clubs in battle. Walking trees on the battlefield could mean that giants, other supernatural forces or the indwelling dieties of the trees had allied themselves with the approaching army. An army bolstered by such forces could not be defeated and thus signified all was lost.)

Fairy Tales on this website in which trees are prominent (click on title to access):

The Singing Fir Tree

Koenig Gruenewald

Saint Boniface

Gnomes in the Tree

Fairy Tale in which a sacred grove is used as temple:

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary


Bibliography for further reading:

The Golden Bough, Sir James Frazer
Deutsche Mythologie, Jakob Grimm
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, Raphael Holinshed
Meetings with Remarkable Trees, Thomas Pakenham
Indo-European Poetry and Myth, M.L. West 

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