The Elder tree (Sambucus nigra) is one of the sacred trees of Wicca and Witchcraft and represents the thirteenth month on the Celtic Tree Calendar. The thirteenth month was composed of just three days, the last two days of October being the end of the old Celtic year, leading into the 1st of November and the start of the New Year. Today it is celebrated as the pagan festival of ‘Samhain’, more commonly known as ‘Halloween’.
The word Elder is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word ‘aeld’ meaning fire, an association given to the Elder because of its use. The soft pith of an Elder branch pushes out easily and the tubes formed were used as pipes for blowing up fires, later Elder bellows were made for same effect. From this followed the folk names Pipe-Tree, Bore-tree or Bour-tree, the latter still being used Scotland is traceable to the Anglo-Saxon form Burtre. Other early names include Eldrun or Ellhorn, and then later in the fourteenth century it became known as Hyldor or Hyllantree. In Germany, it was known as Hollunder.
The botanical name for the Elder - ‘Sambucus’ occurs in the writings of Pliny and other ancient writers. Adopted from the Greek word ‘Sambuca’, a musical instrument much favored and used by the Romans, it is thought that Elder wood was used in its construction due its hardness. The difficulty in accepting this is that the Sambuca was a stringed instrument, while anything made from Elder would most likely have been a wind instrument, something in the nature of Panpipes, a Flute or even a Sackbut, the renaissance equivalent to the modern trombone.
Pliny also records the belief held by country folk that the shrillest pipes and the most sonorous horns were made from Elder trees grown in areas away from human habitation and away from the sound of a cocks-crow. Popguns and whistles had long been made from the Elder, which Pliny notes were manufactures many centuries old. Culpepper another old master declared: “It is needless to write any description of the Elder, since every boy that plays with a pop-gun will not mistake it for any another tree. In modern time’s, Italian peasants construct a simple musical pipe from the Elder called a ‘Sampogna’.
In the summer with its flat-topped masses of fragrant white blossoms, followed later in autumn by drooping bunches of purple-black berries; the Elder is a familiar and much loved sight in the English countryside. It grows in abundance with a minimum of soil and can be found in wastelands, woods, hedgerows and gardens. Most commonly the Elder grows as a shrub, bush or small tree, and rarely exceeds nine meters (30ft) in height. Wild in nature the Elder re-grows damaged branches with ease and can root rapidly from any of its parts. Cuttings or twigs broken of the tree and stuck in the ground will soon produce masses of fruit.
A peculiarity of the Elder is its method of growth. At the base of a sapling, stems appear each growing upright, then after awhile as if under weight they bend over creating a curve on top of which a new bud appears. From this bud a new stem grows upright for a while until it too bends over and so its growth continues. The Elder’s trunk therefore is not formed by one upwardly growing mass like the trunks of other trees, but is a patchwork mess of curving drooping stems. This is why the Elder is neither elegant nor reaches any great height. Its stems are sometimes reach nearly two feet in diameter, a size indicating several more score of years, today however we are lucky to be able to find one growing half that size.
The bark of the old wood is rough, corky and a light brownish-grey in color, its branches are smoother and its twigs a pleasing bright green but pot-marked with small brownish spots caused by the tree’s lenticels, the pores through which the tree breathes. The wood of the main stem is hard and heavy and that of old trees white with a fine close grain. It is easy to cut and polishes well, and was often used for making butchers skewers or small toys for children. Other uses include shoemakers' pegs and fishing rods, needles for weaving nets and the making of combs.
Mathematical instruments and several different musical instruments were made of Elder. The pith from its branches was sliced and used as floats for fishing, and that of the younger stems being exceedingly light, was cut into balls and used for electrical experiments. In medicine, it was used to hold small objects for microscopic sectioning.
The leaves of the Elder consist of five leaflets attached to a central stalk sitting opposite each other on its twigs or branches. To ensure its leafing capacity throughout the year, beneath its main leaf-buds the Elder produces a second smaller bud in reserve, but this will only open if the main leaves are lost due to inclement weather, and can remain dormant for a couple of years until needed. Once the leaves have formed the tree’s flower buds then grow and by June the tree is awash with thousands of tiny white flowers.
The flowers all look alike and consist of five creamy white petals on the back of which are five green sepals forming a star. In between each petal there are five yellow stamens surrounding a cream colored ovary containing a three lobed stigma. To allow easy cross-fertilization by flies and other insects attracted by the flowers fragrance, the stamens and stigmas mature at the same time. Clusters of the flowers grow all at the same level facing the sky and when viewed from underneath they resemble many tiny star-spoked umbrellas. The flowers however have a narcotic perfume that is suggestive of death, and the odor of its foliage is so strong and unpleasant that Shakespeare in his “Cymbeline” used it symbolically of woe when speaking of "the stinking Elder grief."
Myths and Folklore
There is much folklore and superstition talked about the Elder, much of it passed down through the mythology of the ancients. One medieval belief as Shakespeare tells in ‘Love's Labour Lost’, is that of the traitor Apostle ‘Judas’ hanged himself on an Elder tree. Reference to this myth is found as far back in English literature as Langland's – ‘Vision of Piers Plowman’ written during the middle of the fourteenth century:
“Judas he japed with Jewen silver
And sithen an eller hanged hymselve”'
Why the Elder should have been selected as his gallows is somewhat puzzling considering the small size of the tree, but Sir John Mandeville in his travels written about the same time tells us that he was shown:
'faste by' the Pool of Siloam, the identical 'Tree of Eldre that Judas henge himself upon, for despeyr that he hadde, when he solde and betrayed oure Lord'.
Gerard another writer of note calls the Elder, the ‘Judas-tree’ - 'the tree whereon Judas did hange himselfe'.
In most countries, the Elder is intimately connected with magic and witchcraft, and many old folk-tales tell stories of a witch who live in the tree. One such story is about Hylde-Moer, the Elder-tree Mother who lived in the tree to watch over it. Should the tree be cut down and furniture made of its wood, many believed that Hylde-Moer would follow her property and haunt the owners. As the story goes an ignorant woodcutter once cut down an Elder tree to make a cradle for his newborn son, but each time the child was placed in it Hylde-Moer would appear and pull it by the legs, thus allowing the child no peace until it was lifted out. Permission to cut an Elder must always be asked for first, and not until Hylde-Moer has given consent by remaining silence may the tree be cut down.
Another old tradition was that the Cross of Calvary was made of it, and an old couplet runs:
'Bour tree - Bour tree: crooked rong
Never straight and never strong;
Ever bush and never tree
Since our Lord was nailed on thee.'
Astrologically, Elder people have a tie to the White goddess. They are very similar to Rowan people. They are very musically inclined and gifted. Most Elder people will be water people as well, having water as their element or even associated with their astrological birth sign. They are excellent healers but need to be careful not to use their gifts to sway other people's wills and choices. They can also be excellent seers and seem to be not of their time, but before there time in different circumstances.
