giant with his own club, and taking a quantity of the forbidden berries to his wife and to certain others who had asked for some. Such is the story of the berries, in which the brief allusion to the crimson nuts forming part of the food of the Tuatha Dé Danann, seems to refer to the same mysterious fruit that used to fall from the nine hazels into the secret well and to be devoured by the Salmon of Knowledge, to be mentioned in a later lecture.
At this point we are not so much interested in the crimson nuts as in the scarlet berries of the fairy rowan: both kinds of fruit formed part of the sustenance of the gods, according to Goidelic notions; and the description which has been quoted of the berries makes them a sort of Celtic counterpart to the soma-plant of Hindu mythology. I said 'Celtic,' but it would perhaps be more accurate to say 'Celtic and Teutonic;' for not only the Celts, but some also of the Teutons, have been in the habit of attaching great importance to the rowan or roan tree, and regarding it as a preservative against the malignant influence of witches and all things uncanny. The English name[1] appears to be of Scandinavian origin, the Old Norse being reynir, Danish rönne, Swedish rönn; and the old Norsemen treated the tree as holy and sacred to Thor, to whom it was fabled to have been of great service when he clutched its branches once on a time in
- ↑ The rowan is also called mountain-ash, though it is no kind of ash; and as to its other name, there is a lack of evidence that the quicken or quick-beam of old English meant the rowan. The Welsh for rowan is in books cerddin, singular cerddinen; but the pronunciation familiar to me is cerdin, cerdinen, and even cerdingen; and the berries are called in Welsh criafol. The Irish name of the tree is caerthann, which corresponds in its consonants to cerdin, not to cerddin; but the etymology of these words offers more than one difficulty.
