Exploring new interpretations
of past and place
in archaeology, folklore
and mythology
Articles on archaeology, folklore and mythology
Download the whole of this site as a ZIP file (2.4Mb) for off-line reading
Full index to At the Edge issues 1 to 10.
Contents of back issues of At the Edge
Why At the Edge merged with 3rd Stone.
How to obtain back issues of At the Edge
Heart of Albion Press
publishers of books and booklets
on folklore, mythology, local history and much more.
NEW from Heart of Albion
May 2005:
Sacred Places: Prehistory and popular imagination
by Bob Trubshaw
This book looks back at the days of At the Edge and other 'Earth Mysteries' 'zines and provides detailed discussions of many of the topics outlined here.
If you like the content of
At the Edge then you will
also want to visit:
Foamy Custard
folklore, mythology, cultural studies and related disciplines
and
At the Edge / Bob Trubshaw / bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk
http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/
December 1996
Contents
Green Men and tree veneration special issue
- Jeremy Harte
How old is that old yew?
'Dark yew that graspest at the stone And dippest towards the dreamless head . . .' wrote Tennyson in a funereal mood. The human race is born and dies, but yew trees live forever. You do not have to be a Tennyson to respond to their deep, disturbing, uncalculated age. William Watson certainly was not poet laureate material, but the silent presences of Merrow Down’s yew wood inspired him all the same:-
Old emperor Yew, fantastic sire,
Girt with thy guard of dotard kings
What ages hast thou seen retire
Into the dusk of alien things?A profound question. Let us spoil the poetry by answering it. There was once a man who was called up to join the army. They asked him all the usual questions, down to the last one on the form: what was his religion? 'Methuselahite', he replied. Come again? `It means’, said the reluctant soldier, 'that I’m going to stay alive as long as I bloody well can'. Now the yew tree is the original Methuselahite, and everything about it is framed to live forever.
Jeremy Harte provides historical and archaeological evience that recent estimates of the age large yew trees are probably out by a factor of two. Therefore, despite the claims made, the yew trees do not predate the churches which stand alongside.
Full text of How old is that old yew?
- Philip Quinn
Sacred trees in the Bristol landscape
Trees have a power denied to other plant life. There is a global ubiquity in their being guardians, possessors of latent powers, resting places for human souls and silent central players in the affairs of mankind. A culture without its sacred groves and ‘world trees’ is scarcely a culture at all. Trees have excited the passing interest of folklorists but, with few exceptions, there appears to have been little attempt to go further and construct a model of the distribution and nature of sacred trees in the English landscape. The very mortality of trees and the ease with which they can be erased from the landscape and the memory is no doubt a key factor in their peripheral role. However, through the topographical and place-name archive the memory of our sacred trees lives on, peppering the modern landscape with a tantalising glimpse of what must have been a common phenomenon.
By taking the former county of Avon as an example I hope to demonstrate the surprising amount of surviving tree lore and the degree to which trees have sometimes become repositories for human souls. I hope too that the material I present will inspire others to delve beneath familiar landscapes and resurrect the world of the sacred tree.
- Paul Wain
Tree veneration in the Peak District
Features connected with nature court powerful beliefs and weird tales. Worldwide trees were and are venerated and linked to myths and legends. People still ‘touch wood’ to avoid misfortune. Many tales relating to tree lore have been told in the Peak District of Derbyshire; this article draws attention to a few examples.
- Ruth Wylie
The Green Man - variations on the theme
‘The Green Man’, a name coined by Lady Raglan in 1939, is a mediaeval image usually found in churches. Carved in stone or wood, depicted on stained glass, illuminated manuscripts and where else, he can be recognised as a face, often grotesque, with foliage sprouting from his mouth, nose, eyes or ears. Alternatively, he may be a face composed entirely of leaves. Exterior or interior, he features on capitals, corbels, choir stalls, bench ends, fonts, screens, roof bosses - indeed, any surface open to ornamentation.
- Bob Trubshaw
The facts and fancies of the foliate face
A rambling review of:
Kathleen Basford
The Green Man
Boydell and Brewer 1978; reissued 1996Peter Hill
In Search of the Green Man in Northamptonshire
Orman Publishing 1996 - Clare Prout
Save Our Sacred Sites
Back in October '95 a Wiltshire local paper printed a story about the National Trust (NT) employing security guards to ensure that visitors to West Kennet long barrow behaved 'properly'. This was necessary, we were told, because of increasing damage to the barrow. West Kennet long barrow is a favourite monument of mine and I was alarmed at the thought that security guards, too often uniformed thugs, would be able to turf me out of the barrow if they did not like the look of me, and that the ultimate in 'management' of such sites seems to be to put a fence around them and prevent people from wondering at the beauty and awesome engineering skills involved.
So I took a trip to the barrow to see the damage for myself. I left feeling that the best course of management would be to put an electric fence and a pack of Dobermans around it.
- Graeme Chappell
Report on Durham Rock Art Conference
Durham University 9th June 1996.
Speakers included Richard Bradley, Robert Layton, Stan Beckensall and Paul Frodsham.
- ABSTRACTS
- Rodney Castleden - THE CERNE GIANT
- Andrew Collins - FROM THE ASHES OF ANGELS
- Peter Hill - IN SEARCH OF THE GREEN MAN IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
- Kati-Ma Koppana OF TREE AND ROCK short glimpses of Finnish deities
- Lawrence Main - IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF KING ARTHUR
- John Michell - THE TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO SACRED ENGLAND
- Stephen Pollington - THE ENGLISH WARRIOR from earliest times to 1066
- Danny Sullivan and Jo-Anne Wilder ANCIENT AND SACRED SITES OF THE COTSWOLDS
- L.M. Wright - JESUS THE PAGAN SUN GOD
How to obtain back issues of At the Edge
http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/
Copyright 1998, 2001. No unauthorised copying
or reproduction except if all following conditions apply:
a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement).
b: No changes are made.
c: No charge is made.
Created February 1998; updated August 2001