Yew: A HistoryThe yew is one of the most fascinating and versatile life forms on Earth, botanically rich and intriguing and culturally almost without comparison. In history, mythology, religion, folklore, medicine and in warfare, the yew bears timeless witness to a deep relationship with mankind. It is the tree that Darwin often rested beneath and under which he wanted to be buried until public opinion decreed a higher-status interment in Westminster Abbey. It was under the great Ankerwyke yew at Runnymede in Buckinghamshire that Magna Carta is believed to have been sworn by the barons in 1215. In 1803, Wordsworth celebrated the great yew in Lorton Vale, 'single, in the midst of its own darkness', a tree under which both the great Quaker George Fox and John Wesley preached. In many cultures it is the Tree of Life, and its association with churchyards in Britain and Europe has given it a particular claim on the popular imagination as a living link between our landscapes and those of the distant past. Fred Hageneder's fascinating book is the first to cover all aspects of the botany as well as the cultural history and remarkable mythology of the genus Taxus. |
Contents
୮ CONTENTS Foreword by David Bellamy | 8 |
Foreword by Robert Hardy | 9 |
Baccata berrybearing | 12 |
Copyright | |
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Anatolia ancient yew apples arils Artemis Asherah Asia bark beech birds branch branchlets Bronze Age Butterworth 1970 cave cells Celtic cent centre century BCE Chapter Chetan and Brueton churchyards conifers Cook Cretan Crete cult deities Demeter divine Dronke Dumitru early Eleusis Europe European yew evergreen example female flowers Freyja gall garden Germanic Gilgamesh girth goddess golden Graves Greece Greek grove grow Hageneder 2001 Heimdallr hence Hittite hollow human Ibid Inanna interior roots Ireland Japan king later layer leaf leaves Levi tr located longbow male mother mountain myth Neolithic old yews paclitaxel Pausanias phloem Pietzarka 2005 plant pollen priestess region religious rings ritual Roman sacred tree Scheeder seed seedlings serpent shoots Spjut ineditus stomata symbol taxanes Taxus baccata temple Thomas and Polwart tradition tree species trunk Turkey underworld usually woodland World Tree xylem yew arils yew forest yew stands yew tree yew wood Zeus