ethaisa

It's been my practice to draw an ogam at Samhain; this year I drew elm, or more particularly, the wych elm, the most common variety (or was) in Britain and northern Europe, and aparently the only variety to grow in Ireland. My strongest memories of elm are of sadness; as a child, growing up, Dutch Elm disease was in horrid resurgence.

Mentally cataloguing what I knew of the elm gleaned scarce results. I knew that it was used as a charm against milk-stealing fairies in Scotland, and that at least one archeological site had produced pipes of bored elm that still worked. A little poking about and I had a few more tidbits to ponder:

-not only is it durable, and flexible it doesn't rot in water (shared quality with alder)
-it's a hedgerow tree (hello, liminality!) though it was once known as a shade tree
-it's associated with fertility (another quality shared with alder)
-it was a favoured wood for making coffins, long bows, and occassionally divining rods


As for the 'wych' bit.... ME wiche, OC wice, IE weik-2. Most likely the name was truly gotten because of the pliant branches, but the folklore/charm bits are intriguing.