DASG Blog

Feàrna

Following on from the birch tree, I decided to bring you a bit of the heritage of other trees in the following blogs.

There is no tree in Gaelic culture which doesn’t have some form of folklore attached to it. In the old poetry of the 17th century, a person’s character was described by the blessed or cursed trees, or the desirable or undesirable trees. For example, in Alasdair à Gleanna-Garadh, Sileas na Ceapaich praises him:

You were the yew in the forest,
you were the strong, steadfast oak,
you were the holly and blackthorn,
you were the apple-tree, rough-barked, covered with blooms;
you had no kinship with the aspen,
nor bonds with the alder;
you had nothing of the lime-tree in you,
you were the darling of the beautiful women.
 
In A Song to Dr Johnson, about Dr Samuel Johnson, by James MacIntyre, the unlucky trees were referred to when cursing the man:

'You’d not be the blackthorn or the holly, or the tough enduring yew,
 there’s not a bit in you of the oak or the red willow of the plains;
most of you is aspen with hawthorn nails and alder hands – your whole head is made of elm, especially your tongue and gums.'
 
I am writing about the alder today.
 
Do you remember the proverb from my last blog?
 
‘Everything new is white, even to the sap of the alder.’
 
Do you know that the wood of the alder is white when it is cut, but goes red very quickly after it is exposed to the elements? The bark is used as a dye.

Alders grow in wet boggy places, and I read on the Trees for Life website that the Irish told of bandits hiding in alder forests.

Trees For Life do a sterling job in replanting native forests all over the Highlands. I thoroughly recommend taking a look at the information they have on every tree and animal; and especially their equivalents on the folklore page.

Alder wood does not burn well at all. In Folklore and Folksongs of South Uist, there was found the following proverb:

“…Diùghaidh connaidh, feàrna fliuch.”
“… The worst of wood, wet alder.”

And hence this was also said, in Gaelic Proverbs:
 
“Terrible is a cabar made of alder that won’t make the rafter for a house,”
 
and interestingly, “A lord made of alder will twist a tenant made of oak.”
 
Tha alder is an evil, twisted and cunning thing in itself, it seems. This is also said to be describing how the alder gets a hold of the oak in the months where things are out of season.
 
This proverb is intriguing, about the MacArthur clan in Strachur, Cowal:
 
“MacArthur of Strachur from the root of the alder.”
 
What was the MacArthur’s reputation? Listen to the recording to here some of these rhymes:
 


 
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