Not all sacred trees are as majestic as the oak. At the edges of fields, along hedges, beside country houses grow small trees and shrubs that European folklore has charged with intense and sometimes unsettling meanings. The elder and the hawthorn are the most important of these. Both bloom white in late spring, both often grow in boundary places, both have been considered dwellings of invisible presences. They are the trees of the domestic threshold, of the passage between the cultivated world and the wild.
The hawthorn: the fairy tree
In Irish folklore the lone hawthorn, growing isolated in the middle of a field, is often called a fairy tree. Tradition holds that it must not be cut or damaged, because it belongs to the "little people", and whoever offends it brings misfortune upon themselves. Even today in Ireland people tell of roads rerouted or works suspended so as not to fell one of these trees.
The hawthorn is linked above all to the month of May. In England one of its folk names is precisely may, and its blossoming marked the beginning of the fine season. Flowering branches were used in May Day festivities, but in many areas it was considered unlucky to bring them indoors. This double value is typical of threshold trees: they can be honoured outdoors, but their power should not be brought into the domestic space without caution.
The symbols of the hawthorn
- the thorns: protection, boundary, defence of what is precious;
- the white flowers: purity, the spring festival, beginning;
- the red autumn berries: life that persists in the cold season;
- solitude in the field: the place where the invisible world touches the human one.
The hawthorn was widely used in the hedges that divided fields. In this sense it is literally the boundary tree: it separates, protects, delimits.
The elder: the Mother of the tree
The elder is a shrub or small tree that often grows near houses, walls and the edges of villages. It blooms in late spring with large umbels of fragrant white flowers, and in summer produces clusters of dark berries.
In northern European folklore the elder was inhabited by a female spirit. In Denmark this figure was called the Elder Mother, and Hans Christian Andersen devoted one of his fairy tales to her. According to tradition, before cutting a branch of elder one had to ask permission of the tree's spirit, or risk her anger. In German-speaking areas the name of the elder is popularly associated with the figure of Frau Holle, although the etymology is disputed.
In several traditions an elder planted near the house was considered a protector of the dwelling. At the same time, in some areas people avoided burning its wood on the hearth, out of respect or fear.
The symbols of the elder
- closeness to the house: protection of the hearth and family;
- flowers and berries: abundance passing from white to black, from light to shadow;
- the female spirit: the presence of an invisible mother keeping watch;
- the hollow branches: the soft pith, which makes the branches easy to hollow out, made elder a wood for small whistles, linking it to sound and breath.
It is worth remembering that several parts of raw elder are not edible: even in folklore it was a plant to be treated with respect and knowledge.
What they have in common
Elder and hawthorn share an essential trait: they inhabit the margin. They are neither trees of the deep forest nor trees grown in orchards, but plants of the boundary between the human and the wild. This is why folklore considered them doors to another world, to be respected rather than exploited.
Their teaching is valuable today as well. They remind us that every space has its limits, that not everything is at our disposal, that there is a way of inhabiting nature made of attention and permission, not of mere use.
A practice of respecting the threshold
- Find a hedge or a wild shrub near your home.
- Observe it over the course of a year: blossom, fruit, leaves, winter rest.
- Before picking even a single flower, pause for a moment and ask yourself whether it is truly necessary.
- Always leave most of the flowers and berries to the plant and to the animals that feed on them.
In short
- Elder and hawthorn are trees of the margin, linked to invisible presences in folklore.
- In Ireland the lone hawthorn is the fairy tree and must not be felled.
- The hawthorn, called may in English, marks the arrival of May with its blossom.
- The elder was inhabited by the Elder Mother, whose permission was asked before cutting it.
- Both teach a relationship with nature founded on respect for limits.
