Oaks

[oldeuropeanculture]

Have you ever wandered why oak trees and oak groves were considered sacred in the past? Maybe the reason is that oaks are one of the most useful trees in the world.


You can read more here:

http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.ie/2014/10/oaks.html

 

[Maleth]

Have you ever wandered why oak trees and oak groves were considered sacred in the past? Maybe the reason is that oaks are one of the most useful trees in the world.


You can read more here:


http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.ie/2014/10/oaks.html

Unfortunately I cannot connect to the link. Regards to your question, i believe that could be possible, but many trees would have been maybe more useful, especially those that bore fruit for human consumption. I have a feeling that the oak tree would be more related to its aesthetic beauty age, resilience and durability compared to others tree species, although its hard wood would have been greatly priced too. I know that pigs and squirels can feed on the oak acorns, although the leaves are poisonous other animals (even in the wilderness context)

(Just a note on the side, Most of Europe (mostly central and Britian) was Prime Forest area at some time and sadly today much of this ancient forest has been totally wiped out to make way for homosapien comfort and expansions.)

 

[oldeuropeanculture]

Maleth, thank you for your reply. I have fixed the link. Weird. If you read the document you will see that there is hardly any other tree in the northern hemisphere which has influenced people more than oak. And believe or not acorn, with hazelnut, was the first human starch food and a staple food in some parts of Evroasia and north africa until 20th century. I will write more about eating acorns in my next post, this one is about oak tree itself.

 

[Maleth]

Maleth, thank you for your reply. I have fixed the link. Weird. If you read the document you will see that there is hardly any other tree in the northern hemisphere which has influenced people more than oak. And believe or not acorn, with hazelnut, was the first human starch food and a staple food in some parts of Evroasia and north africa until 20th century. I will write more about eating acorns in my next post, this one is about oak tree itself.

That is great info oldeuropeanculture and very nicely presented. I really did not know that Oak acorns were edible at some time. In the Med we have Mediterranean oaks and would only grow in any magestical size in humid sheltered valleys (considering the pelting summer sun that dries up the land). In Greek mythology the oak (I would presume Mediterranean oak) was the tree sacred to Zeus.

When I was in a Southampton park there is an area where there are some remnants of the old forest and the oaks there are so majestic and beautiful. Im sure Ireland would have some areas too.

 

[Angela]

You don't have to get very far from the shores of the Med to find oak groves.
This is what you find in Liguria: "On the Mediterranean coast there are palm trees, lemons, oranges, bougainville, oleander, hibiscus, red gillyflowers, bluebells, agaves, myrtle, wild lavender, thyme and other local flowers which only exist in this area. In the rolling hills of the hinterland, you will find silvery green olive groves, vineyards, broom, hyacinths, orchids, pine trees, oak trees, fig trees, eucalyptus, sage, gentian and lilies. And going yet higher up into the alpine region, there is dense forestland with chestnut trees, birch trees and oak trees."
http://www.terra-italia.com/en/riviera-liguria/flora-and-fauna/

In good times, the acorns are fed to the pigs, but Liguria, alta Toscana and the Apennines are marked by very poor mountainous terrain. Even wheat doesn't grow very well in certain areas, so wheat flour sometimes had to be imported. Peasants ate bread from chestnut flour (chestnut trees are ubiquitous in mountainous areas in Italy) or mixed chestnut flour and wheat flour, and in starvation times acorn flour as well.

The "Panigacci" of this area, which are round pieces of unleavened flat bread cooked in ceramic (terracotta) forms heated in an open fire, are now made with wheat four, but during the war, people often made them from a mixture of chestnut and acorn flour.
http://mangiarebuono.it/i-panigacci-della-lunigiana/

Ed. They mean the Apennines when they speak of the Alps, not the Alps between Switzerland and Italy. If you've ever looked at a map of Italy, most of it is mountainous.

Hazelnut trees are also ubiquitous. Many Italian sweets are made with hazelnuts, almonds, or both.

I really like this kind of cake made from hazelnut flour, and I'm not a big sweets lover:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5OWvFEOoSgo/UX_4kljM2WI/AAAAAAAADmI/OEV86fY9T_I/s1600/torta+nocciole.JPG

One of the reasons I like Austrian and German desserts is because they often use hazelnuts. (Also, they use far less sugar than American recipes. Of course, the fat content is higher, but if you're going to indulge and consume those extra calories, better from fat than sugar.)

 

[Maleth]

You don't have to get very far from the shores of the Med to find oak groves.
This is what you find in Liguria: "On the Mediterranean coast there are palm trees, lemons, oranges, bougainville, oleander, hibiscus, red gillyflowers, bluebells, agaves, myrtle, wild lavender, thyme and other local flowers which only exist in this area. In the rolling hills of the hinterland, you will find silvery green olive groves, vineyards, broom, hyacinths, orchids, pine trees, oak trees, fig trees, eucalyptus, sage, gentian and lilies. And going yet higher up into the alpine region, there is dense forestland with chestnut trees, birch trees and oak trees."
http://www.terra-italia.com/en/riviera-liguria/flora-and-fauna/

In good times, the acorns are fed to the pigs, but Liguria, alta Toscana and the Apennines are marked by very poor mountainous terrain. Even wheat doesn't grow very well in certain areas, so wheat flour sometimes had to be imported. Peasants ate bread from chestnut flour (chestnut trees are ubiquitous in mountainous areas in Italy) or mixed chestnut flour and wheat flour, and in starvation times acorn flour as well.

The "Panigacci" of this area, which are round pieces of unleavened flat bread cooked in ceramic (terracotta) forms heated in an open fire, are now made with wheat four, but during the war, people often made them from a mixture of chestnut and acorn flour.
http://mangiarebuono.it/i-panigacci-della-lunigiana/

Ed. They mean the Apennines when they speak of the Alps, not the Alps between Switzerland and Italy. If you've ever looked at a map of Italy, most of it is mountainous.

Hazelnut trees are also ubiquitous. Many Italian sweets are made with hazelnuts, almonds, or both.

Yes I presume the hinterland is of higher altitude with lower temperatures and probably more moist too, all the way down the centre of the Italian booth. Reminds me of my surprise driving round Sicily crossing through Nebrodi...could not believe Im on a Mediterranean Island (Albeit the biggest) It resembled the vegetation of central Europe with dense forest and cooler climate.

To stay in line with this threads title. Would have been documented in these areas that Oak was somewhat sacred?

 

[Angela]

Yes I presume the hinterland is of higher altitude with lower temperatures and probably more moist too, all the way down the centre of the Italian booth. Reminds me of my surprise driving round Sicily crossing through Nebrodi...could not believe Im on a Mediterranean Island (Albeit the biggest) It resembled the vegetation of central Europe with dense forest and cooler climate.

To stay in line with this threads title. Would have been documented in these areas that Oak was somewhat sacred?

Groves of trees have been held to be sacred from the Near East to the Baltic and west to the Atlantic. The Grove of Dodona in Greece was very famous. I always thought it was an oak grove, but the author of this Wiki article doesn't seem to be sure if it was oak or beech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodona

One of the best known ones in Italy is the grove sacred to Diana on Lake Nemi in central Italy. At the center of the ritual area there was supposedly a large oak tree. The rituals are fascinating but very gruesome. Frazier discusses this worship of the fertility goddess there at great length in The Golden Bough. That book made a tremendous impression when it was first published, and I think large parts of it are still relevant.
http://www.theglobaldispatches.com/articles/lake-nemi-the-sacred-grove-of-diana

The Rex Nemorensis, “king of the sacred grove” was the high-priest of Diana’s temple. The legend goes that in her sacred grove there grew a large oak tree from which it was absolutely forbidden to break off a branch. Only a runaway slave could break one off, thus earning the right to fight the presiding high priest of the temple to the death. If he won, he could take his place, adopting his title of rex nemorensis.

This violent rite of succession was based on the premise that the High priest of Nemi, being the personification of fertility and the woodlands (the main features of the Diana cult) always had to be at the height of his powers. He could never be ill, nor could he die of old age. Only a man estranged or debarred from society and deprived of his rights could have possibly wanted this role, which carried with it the certainty of a violent death, but it did at least offer the possibility of asylum for a fugitive. Prior to the deadly challenge, as a sign of his intentions the fugitive/pretender had first to consign to his predecessor a branch of viscum album (mistletoe) that he had broken off from the great oak. (Mistletoe is a species that does not grow from the ground up, but grows parasitically on the host tree, reaching up towards the heavens). So, symbolically it is not like other plants – it belongs neither to the worldly nor the divine realm.

The sacred groves, as I said, didn't have to be oak groves. The grove in Athens where the philosophers walked was an olive tree grove.

I think the point is that in the ancient world people were much more dependent on plants and animals, and so they became imbued with a ritual significance.

 

[Diviacus]

The sacred groves, as I said, didn't have to be oak groves.

Yes, but sacred oak groves seem to have been more common (some examples):
Livy 3,25
The general of the Aequi commands them “to deliver to the oak whatever instructions they brought from the Roman senate; that he in the meantime should attend to other matters.” A large oak tree hung over the praetorium, the shade of which constituted a pleasant seat. Then one of the ambassadors, when departing, says, “Let both this consecrated oak and all the gods hear the treaty violated by you, and favour both our complaints now, and our arms presently, when we shall simultaneously avenge the rights of gods and men as violated by you.”

Livy 1,10
He was no less anxious to display his achievements than he had been great in performing them, so, after leading his victorious army home, he mounted to the Capitol with the spoils of his dead foe borne before him on a frame constructed for the purpose. He hung them there on an oak, which the shepherds looked upon as a sacred tree

Suetonius
Quercus antiqua, quae erat Marti sacra

Pliny, book 16
Still older than the city is the holm-oak that stands on the Vatican hill: there is an inscription in bronze upon it, written in Etruscan characters, which states that even in those days it was an object of religious veneration.

 

[Aberdeen]

Yes, but sacred oak groves seem to have been more common (some examples):
Livy 3,25
The general of the Aequi commands them “to deliver to the oak whatever instructions they brought from the Roman senate; that he in the meantime should attend to other matters.” A large oak tree hung over the praetorium, the shade of which constituted a pleasant seat. Then one of the ambassadors, when departing, says, “Let both this consecrated oak and all the gods hear the treaty violated by you, and favour both our complaints now, and our arms presently, when we shall simultaneously avenge the rights of gods and men as violated by you.”

Livy 1,10
He was no less anxious to display his achievements than he had been great in performing them, so, after leading his victorious army home, he mounted to the Capitol with the spoils of his dead foe borne before him on a frame constructed for the purpose. He hung them there on an oak, which the shepherds looked upon as a sacred tree

Suetonius
Quercus antiqua, quae erat Marti sacra

Pliny, book 16
Still older than the city is the holm-oak that stands on the Vatican hill: there is an inscription in bronze upon it, written in Etruscan characters, which states that even in those days it was an object of religious veneration.

Those are all Roman examples, but other trees become more likely as latitude changes. The Celts, who seem to have initially spread out from Austria, did venerate the oak, but British and Irish Druids also seem to have venerated the ash tree. And scholars disagree as to whether the Norse World Tree was an ash or a yew.

 

[Diviacus]

Those are all Roman examples, but other trees become more likely as latitude changes. The Celts, who seem to have initially spread out from Austria, did venerate the oak, but British and Irish Druids also seem to have venerated the ash tree. And scholars disagree as to whether the Norse World Tree was an ash or a yew.

The oak is certainly not the only sacred tree. The examples I provided were Roman, but we can find some within the Slavs, the Greeks (as alredy said),...or the Irish, even during the Christian era: Brigide of Kildare settled her monastery around an oak, so did Colomban of Iona.
The question is: which is the tree which is the moste worshipped? From what I read, it seems it's the oak.