In Scottish folklore the hawthorn is the boundary to the other world. Thomas the Rhymer, the thirteenth century Scottish mystic and poet met the Faery Queen by a hawthorn from which a cuckoo was calling. She led him into the Faery Underworld for a brief sojourn. Upon reemerging into the world of mortals he found he had been absent for seven years. .
The hawthorn was one of, if not the, most likely tree to be inhabited or protected by the Wee Folk.
In Ireland most of the isolated trees, or ‘lone bushes’, in the landscape and said to be inhabited by faeries, were hawthorn trees. Such trees could not be cut damaged in any way without incurring the often fatal wrath of their supernatural guardians. .
Ian - Thank you so much for your expiation of the folklore around the Hawthorne tree! I find such tales fascinating - I have an old book called, "Field guide to the little people," which has some of such stories, but your Hawthorne tale I've never heard. Have you ever yourself seen any of the Wee Folk?
@catcarter19 Thanks CAT . To answer your question, if the Wee Folk let you see them then you are sworn to a lifetime of secrecy. Now how could I know that ?
@365projectorgjoworboys Thanks Jo, my wife tells the story of when she was a child she took some hawthorn blossom home to her mother and was chased out of the house when her mother saw what she had in her hand !!
May 26th, 2021
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