May has a thorny side to it

As the Beltane fires of May eve give way to May Day it was the time for May birching across much of England. In the dead of night the May birchers were out and about, hanging sentiment sprigs on their neighbours' houses. The sentiment conveyed called for the use of different plants and trees and reliance upon rhyme that not always fostered long-term friendship but perhaps clarified matters for observers.  Compliments might be conveyed by using lime, to value a lady’s ‘prime’ or perhaps pear if a maiden was considered ‘fair’. However, differing thoughts would be conveyed with a sprig of thorn (scorn) or briar (liar) and to get down to harsh words, nut (slut) or gorse (whores).  Rowan, in the form of a cross, would provide protections from evil spirits as long as the small pieces used were broken off the tree by hand, not cut, and are bound together with a sheep’s wool.

In a variety of documents around the world there are records of the mysterious disappearance of individuals or groups of people. Their reappearance, often recorded by others, usually highlights that a period of time had slipped away in ‘ours’ world, a matter of hours, days, weeks or even years, while the victim showed no sign of ageing nor an awareness of the passing of time.

Mythology provides us with numerous tales of mortals being taken to the underworld, or some other realm, for various purposes, perhaps for training, or to gain knowledge and one that readers may like to consider further at their leisure is the experiences of the famous century Scottish poet, Thomas the Rhymer. In the thirteenth century he claimed to have been lured to a hawthorn bush by a cuckoo and there met a Faery Queen who took him into the Underworld. Emerging into the mortal world again, after what he thought was brief visit, Thomas realised that he been in the faery kingdom for seven years.

The hawthorn abounds in the South West region and is regarded as one of the most likely tree to be inhabited or protected by the faeries, pixies or piskies.  It is a tree that many would not cut down for fear of incurring the wrath of its mystic guardians. While hedges across the county often include the hawthorn it is when the tree is found in a copse or hilltop marker of the drovers’ road that we are reminded of pre-Christian goddess worship practiced in sacred groves of hawthorn, planted in the round. The site on which Westminster Abbey stands was once called Thorney Island after the sacred trees there.

 Hawthorn or the May tree as it is often known, decorates the landscape when it blossoms during May, and it is the only British plant named after the month in which it blooms. Its presence in the hedgerow nowadays is a timely reminder that it is the tree that featured most frequently in Anglo-Saxon boundary charters It was strongly associated with May Day festivities, with its blossom used for garlands and its branches cut, set in the ground outside houses, as May bushes and decorated with wildflowers. Using the blossoms and branches outside the house was customary but there was a fear of bringing hawthorn inside the home; and many still consider it an unlucky plant, not to be given houseroom. To bring hawthorn blossom into the house was to invite illness and death to follow it in.

Mediaeval records claim that the smell of hawthorn blossom was akin to the smell Plague and more recently the chemical trimethylamine was found to be in hawthorn blossom; and it is also formed in decaying corpses

Despite all this, children fifty years ago welcomed the appearance of hawthorn, consumed its leaves called them bread and cheese; some of us still do. Blossom and berries were welcomed each year for centuries; particularly by children who knew that their mothers would be hard at work making tasty jellies. Wine was a further benefit derived from the hawthorn that also provided the local wise woman with ingredients that could stabilise blood pressure. Its wood was used to make tool handles.

The legend of the Glastonbury Thorn is know around the world and relates how the uncle of the Virgin Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, arrived at a hill overlooking Glastonbury Tor with a few disciples and there he thrust his staff into the ground. Lo and behold, it sprouted and grew into a thorn tree and, it is claimed one of its supposed descendants still stands on the hill. This particular hawthorn blooms twice a year, in May and also around Christmas. A sprig from the Glastonbury thorn is traditionally dispatched to the Queen, to decorate her table on Christmas Day.

A hawthorn down in Cornwall is, perhaps, more relevant to local people. Throughout  May, St Madron’s well near Penzance in Cornwall offers insights into future longevity and with a series of burblings it is claimed will reveal your remaining number of years amongst the living. While this may be something you do wish to determine a visit to the well with friends or relatives may be of value since its water are said to cure lunatics. A hawthorn stands nearby, upon which rags from the poor patient's clothing can be tied. It is a well that is said to have offered remedies to the sick or needy since it cured John Trelille in 1640. The man, crippled in a farming accident 16 years previously, was taken to the well and after taking the waters he became fit enough to join the army; only to be killed in service, unfortunately.

As ever, though, the benefits recorded by those seeking help from the well outnumber problems encountered it may be worth noting that May 17th is St Madron’s day, for anyone considering a visit.

© Roy & Ursula Radford