The Sacred tree at Uppsala
The Glory Tree, also known as the Rood or the Cross,
actually predates Christianity as a symbol. The cross is a version of that tree. Most people think of the cross, and its allied
forms such as the ankh and the swastika, as a symbol exclusive to Christianity.
The cross or tree that held the crucified body
of Christ was considered holy by Christians because of its association with him. He had nails driven into his hands and feet
and was then lifted up to die. Pagans made use of sacred nails in their temples.
Just before his death, Christ told the two men
who died alongside him that they would be with him in Paradise. This account is similar to that of Odin, who
hung nine days on a tree in a great ordeal.
In addition to the Bible, early writers often composed
their versions of Christ's death. One early example was called The Dream of the Rood, written in runes. It was a
poem about the crucifixion.
The earliest surviving copy of this poem was "carved in runes
on the 8th century cross in Dumfriesshire" (Cavendish, 491). In this poem, the cross is called "the glory tree". Historically,
the “hand of glory” and “glory twigs” were part of old magic rites.
A tree furnished the
wood for the Cross. The Dream of the Rood describes how the tree was cut down, how it was made into a scaffold, and
how it was lifted up. The poem shows the direct link of the living tree to the scaffold, the Tree of Life becoming the Tree
of Death.
Modern Translation of the Dream of the Rood
Explanation of The Dream of the Rood
The Ruthwell Cross
Both a tree
and the Cross of Christ were once called roods. In early Christian churches in England, the rood had many expressions in the
interior of the church, including the rood loft.
There is a
turf loft in Riders to The Sea:
"CATHLEEN. Give me the ladder, and I'll put them up
in the turf-loft, the way she won't know of them at all, and maybe when the tide turns she'll be going down to see would he
be floating from the east.
[They put the ladder against the gable of the chimney; Cathleen goes
up a few steps and hides the bundle in the turf-loft. Maurya comes from the inner room.]
MAURYA (looking up at Cathleen and speaking querulously).
Isn't it turf enough you have for this day and evening?"
A careful reader of the play must wonder if the playwright wanted them to think of more than just a
literal turf loft.
Early Christian churches in England often had a place called
a rood loft with a rood screen. St. Edith's in Coates-By-Stow, Lincolnshire, has "the most complete medieval rood screen and
loft in Lincolnshire" (Timpson, 160).
The rood or cross was the focal point resting upon a usually highly decorated
carving called the rood screen. They were displayed on high in front of the congregation.
"Latterly in England and Wales the Rood tended to rise above a narrow
loft (called the "rood loft"), which could occasionally be substantial enough to be used as a singing gallery (and might even
contain an altar); but whose main purpose was to hold candles to light the rood itself" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rood_screen).
Rood Loft at St. Margaret's Herefordshire
Rood
Removal of the rood: "It was the group of rood figures that attracted the reformers' anger and their axes."
Rood Screen: The custom of screening off the altar is very ancient, and emphasizing, as it did, the air of mystery surrounding
the place of sacrifice, was possibly a survival of Judaism;"
Rood Screen in East Anglia
Corn Dolly Cross on the Rood Screen
Green Man Rood and Corn Dolly, St. Mary Great Witchingham
What is a rood screen?
More about rood screens and lofts.
St. Edith's Interior, rood screen
Rood Day, Celebration of the Cross
A cross, "carved Pictish swastika from Perthshire" (Cavendish,
491) formed of intertwined human bodies shows a belief that the cross and the victims were inseparable as a concept.
The dead and the instrument of death are one and the same.
Cross of Human Bodies, Plate XXVI, e
Another example of a cross of human forms, shows two naked
females. The vertical section of the cross is face down. The horizontal arm is a female face up, shielding her eyes.
Cross at Witches' Mill
The cross was and still is considered a symbol of
protection from evil.
Yggdrasil was
the name of the tree in the saga of Odin. Sacred trees and groves figured in the beliefs of the pagans. The Mythic
Image, explains Yggdrasil as the World Ash and describes the worm as a dragon, ""the Old Germanic world ash, Yggdrasil-
where the dragon Nithogg gnaws at the root..." (Campbell 419).
The
Mythic Image on pages 192-193 gives examples of symbolic inverted trees from religion and mysticism.
This is interesting
from a mathematical and linguistic perspective.
This inversion was an
important feature. The tree is said, in different instances, to grow downward, have roots above and branches downward.
This calls to mind the
Tarot cards which can be read inverted and have a different meaning than those read right side up.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
in the Garden of Eden was the first tree in the Bible. There were many laws given in the Old Testament relating to crops
and tithes and sacrifices such as the sacrifice of the first fruits of the trees to the priests. In Judaism there are four
"new years". One of these is the New Year for Trees.
New Year For Trees
The Green Man motif, found in so many cultures, shows
a man enmeshed in foliage and vegetation. This theme is primal or archetypical to civilization's worship of all natural
cycles of the birth, reproduction, and death cycle. The forbidden fruit hanging upon the tree in Eden, Christ crucified hanging
upon the tree in Golgotha, and Odin hanging on the tree of Yggdrasil all belong to the Green Man genre.
Albrecht Durer's Crucifixion on page 191
of The Mythic Image shows a Christ figure upon the cross amidst a group, entangled in curling vegetation.
This central figure could nearly be the Green Man hidden in the foliage. The Christmas tree is linked to this theme as well.
The
link below shows some excellent photographs of various portrayals of the Green Man. He is hidden in the foliage
of trees and often is seen disgorging foliage, making him part and parcel with his environment. The Green Man does not have
a context without the forest.
(This helpful
hint is located by scrolling to the very end of the page "FYI: the "square" on the mini-console will stop the music; the "triangle"
will re-start it; the two lines will pause it; the "slider" controls volume.")
The idea that men and trees were closely connected goes all
the way back to Ancient Egypt.
The body of Osiris was encased in a tree trunk. This is
similar to the Green Man motif in that a tree is seen as inseparably containing the body of a god.
Of trees, Egyptian:
"TAT (Dad, Daddu, Tet, and Zad)...Osiris's backbone, the
tree trunk in which his body supposedly had been enclosed..."
Jobes, Gertrude. Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore
and Symbols. New York: the Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1537
The backbone of Osiris
Woodmen of the World Grave Markers
The Egyptians associated the god Set with pigs:
"In ancient Egypt pigs were associated with Set, the rival to the sun
god Horus. When Set fell into disfavor with the Egyptians, swineherds were forbidden to enter temples. According to Herodotus,
swineherds were a kind of separate sect or caste, which only married among themselves. Egyptians regarded pigs as unworthy
sacrifices to their gods other than the Moon and Dionysus, to whom pigs were offered on the day of the full Moon. Herodotus
states that, though he knew the reason why Egyptians abominated swine at their other feasts but they sacrificed them at this
one; however, it was to him "not a seemly one for me to tell" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_references_to_pigs).
Cultural Reference to Pigs
The Green Man, Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest, and Haunted Woods
are all themes intertwined with trees as important symbols.
The last photo at the link below might offer
an insight into the stories of men's faces and bodies hidden in trees and foliage. (Hidden deeds in hidden forests)
In ancient
days the forest was a dangerous place, especially at night. They contained many secrets. The leaders of various mythic cults
wanted to engender fear and awe of the place for their own reasons.
These words
(also sung by Joan Baez on her album "Baptism") sum up the warning to stay on the path and not venture into the woods,
the same advice given to Little Red Riding Hood.
"The wood
is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries:
You must not go to
the wood at night!"
The
Magic Wood, by Henry Treece
Sherwood Forest, Yggdrasil, and images of spooky and magical
forests are all part of tree legends of North Europeans. Trees were at times thought to contain spirits and gods. They were
often held sacred. Groves of trees were the setting for the mystic rites of Druids and other cults, where strange and grisly
proceedings were carried out.
During the Nazi regime of World War II, "trees" were constructed
of telephone-like poles set in the ground with concrete and having wooden pegs at the top for hanging victims in a kind
of crucifixion.
A video excerpt from the film Paragraph 175 tells
us:
"Heinz Dörmer, now a very frail 89-year-old, spent nearly
10 years in prisons and concentration camps. In a quivering, barely audible voice, he remembers the haunting, agonized cries
from "the singing forest", a row of tall poles on which condemned men were hung. "Everyone who was sentenced to death would
be lifted up on to the hook. The howling and screaming were inhuman. Beyond human comprehension."
The woods and trees still had mythical power over the
minds of people in the 20th century. Another film, The Brotherhood of the Wolves, also shows people using the woods
as an outdoor cathedral for their rites.
Paragraph 175
Brotherhood of the Wolves
Little Red Riding
Hood was warned to stay on the path and not to go into the woods .
In
the Charles Perrault version of Red Riding Hood, the girl encounters an Old Father wolf. When the wolf arrives
at grandmother's house and wants her to unlock the door, she says, ""Pull out the peg and the latch will fall." This
is reminiscent of the Gordian knot.
In
some legends, saints or legendary figures are linked to the Wild Hunt which is linked to Herne the Hunter
and Green Man legends. It is entertwined with witches and Walpurgis Night
The
following festivals, saints and legends are as interconnected as a luxurious tangled vine or the many branches that sprout
from the main trunk of a tree. They reach back to the beginnings of legendary and recorded history:
Beltane was the Gaelic festival which was the opposite
of Samhain (Cetsamhain), midpoint between winter and summer solstice, when new fires (need-fires) were lit. The Irish Book
of Invasions claims to tell the beginning of the Irish race from the time of the Biblical Great Flood. One hero's
name, Fintan, from that legend, meant "white fire".
The name Beltane is directly related to the pagan god Baal in
the Bible.
Beltane occurred about the end of April and the beginning of May, when the earth awakened. Spring growth from
the newly budding trees was gathered to decorate homes. This festival is closely connected to Mayday rites and fertility festivals.
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