Читать книгу A Book of Britain: The Lore, Landscape and Heritage of a Treasured Countryside - Johnny Scott - Страница 48

Oaks were particularly revered by the Druids, because then oak trees were the main woodland host for mistletoe. Imagine the impression on an Iron Age Celt, trudging homeward from a day’s coppicing during the winter solstice, believing all plant life had ceased and suddenly glancing upwards to see a clump of green leaves and white berries glowing in a shaft of sunlight, high in the bare branches of an oak tree. This was the ‘Golden Bough’ of folklore and legend; an assurance that all the Druidical incantations, ritual bonfires and sacrifices were doing their stuff; that spring would come again, bringing warmth, fecundity and new life.

To the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutonic tribes, the oak was foremost amongst venerated trees, and in each case associated with the supreme god in their pantheon – sacred to Zeus, Jupiter, Dagda, Perun and Thor respectively. Ancient kings presented themselves as the personifications of these gods, taking on the responsibility not only for success in battle but also the fertility of the land, which relied on rainfall. They wore crowns of oak leaves as a symbol of the god they represented as kings on Earth. Successful Roman commanders were presented with crowns of oak leaves during victory parades, and oak leaves have continued as decorative icons of military prowess to the present day. Spiritual appreciation of oaks did not cease with the advent of Christianity; although many oak groves were supplanted by early Christian churches, St Columba was said to have had a fondness and respect for oaks and was reluctant to fell them – though his chapel on Iona was constructed using timber from the nearby Mull oak woods. St Brendan was inspired to use oak boards instead of traditional hides to cover his coracle, which legend says floated him across to the Americas some thousand years before Columbus.