According to Stryjkowski this tree was the most sacred of all.
Dzieje starozytne narodu litewskiego, Tom 1, Teodor Narbutt, 1835
I and many others still make elderberry juice for colds, etc. We also make wine, champagne, syrup, and lemonade from it. This is dreadful for Western corporations because elderberry is also free, so it cannot be sold or banned 😦 Once, as part of my profession, I described the properties of various natural remedies from elderberry, and it was a difficult task because even though our grandmothers know it works, and the products were from a renowned English organic company, we had to perform quite a balancing act to avoid the European Union suspecting us of doing harm (it would be different if we were praising opioids…).
Elderberry is magical to the extent that even in Harry Potter, the most important wand was made of elder tree.
Birch
Birch is one of those trees that Slavs particularly valued and distinguished with a separate name. The Proto-Slavic *berza, in accordance with the phonetic development of individual languages, gave the word “brzoza” in Polish, “bříza” in Czech, “breza” in Slovak, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Slovenian, “берёза” in Russian, “береза” in Ukrainian, and “бяроза” in Belarusian.
In pagan times and even after the introduction of Christianity, the birch was considered a tree that protected against evil spirits. That is why broomsticks were made from birch twigs (they were used to sweep not only the rubbish out of the house but also any malicious spirits), birch trees were planted near graves, birch logs were used to make crosses placed on graves, birch wood was used to make cradles for infants to keep evil away from the little child, and birch branches were used to decorate houses for weddings. Birch bark was used to make tar, a thick, sticky, dark brown liquid that was used as a remedy against parasites and as a treatment for fungal infections, eczema, and lichen.
Source: [SEJP Bor, 43; M. Żukow-Karczewski, Brzoza – drzewo pospolite?]
Pansies
The tricolor pen and pansies are also associated with Slavic stories about a brother and sister (sometimes even two brothers!) who, unaware of their kinship, fell in love with each other boundlessly. These legends appear in Central and Eastern Europe in several variations.
Halina Chodurska, Plants with Bicolor Flowers in the Customs and Nomenclature of Eastern Slavs, Linguistic Studies 13, 39-50, 2014
Name for pansies, as it preserved the Aryan syntax using the plural form, is “bratki,” meaning brother and sister (sister with brother in 1472, according to the fairy tales of involuntary incest).
The motif of forbidden sibling love also accompanieswheatgrass in the eastern Slavic lands. Modern popular science works attempt to explain the original names of this plant by referring to the well-known ethnographic accounts from the 19th century in the Little Russian (Ukrainian) tradition. It is also a story of sinful sibling love. The brother (named Ivan) is characterized as a calm and balanced person. The sister not only has a different character but also presents an extremely different attitude towards life. Unaware of their kinship, the young people decide to marry. Unfortunately, the cruel truth soon comes to light. The brother blames the sister for all the misfortune, considering her a dangerous temptress and coquette. The sister accepts the blow with dignity and asks her brother to kill her. Ultimately, they both perish, and the two-colored flower that appears on the ground after their death becomes a symbol of their lives. The color navy blue (or violet) is sometimes interpreted as the embodiment of the unpredictability of the man’s fate, while yellow represents feminine despair.
Aleksander Brückner, 1927
Beavers
In the attire of our ancestors, beaver fur was highly valued and widely used by the nobility for collars and hats. During the Piast dynasty, there was the office of a beaver keeper, responsible for the breeding and care of beavers within the territory of his prince. The overseer of beaver habitats, where beavers lived in communal lodges called “gon,” was called a beaver keeper. From such settlements of beaver keepers, existing names of villages and towns similar to them have emerged.
Zygmunt Gloger, Encyklopedja Staropolska, 1900-1903, vol.
Storks
The stork, Latin name Ciconia, is also called “boćek,” “busło,” “wojtek,” and in the past, “Ksiądz Wojciech” (Father Wojciech) in the folk language. As a bird that destroys reptiles, amphibians, and insects, it gained the protection of Slavic peoples and became semi-domesticated in Poland. Długosz recounts frequent incidents of storks being kept in the homes of Krakow’s common folk during winter. Only at the end of the 19th century did storks begin to be persecuted by progressive hunters
Zygmunt Gloger, Encyklopedja Staropolska, 1900-1903, vol. 1
Forest
Any pine forest or forest composed of other coniferous and resinous trees is called a “black forest” or “bór.” A dense, deep forest without human settlements is referred to as a “silent forest” or “wilderness.”
Source: Same as above
Wormwood
From childhood we all remember the refreshing, bitter scent of various varieties of wormwood, which could be used, for example, as an incense in houses.
“On St. John’s Day, one should adorn oneself with wormwood and jump around the fire all night,” wrote Mikołaj Rej in the 16th century about the Night of Kupala.
Oak
Oaks were sacred especially for Lithuanians. It is worth knowig that in Poland there are oaks that are 1200 years old, and one of them is named a Pagan.
It is noteworthy that the Kashubians have a custom of hanging clothes on branches, especially oak branches, to ward off illness. (…) At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was a common custom here to plant trees to commemorate births, weddings, and even someone’s death.
Religion of the Pomeranians in the Early Middle Ages, K. Kajowski, A. Kuczkowski, 2010
Dziewanna
This plant can bring back lost things. If a ball gets lost in the grass, one can bend the dziewanna (lady’s bedstraw) and press it with a stone, threatening: “Dziewanno Panno! I won’t let you go until the ball is found.” The name of this plant and its use prove the use of dziewanna in peculiar rituals and festivities.
Source: Wiara Słowian z obrzędów, klechd, pieśni ludu, guseł, kronik i mowy słowiańskiej wskrzeszona, Romuald Świeżbiński, 1880
Wild Boar
Thietmar of Merseburg wrote in his chronicle written between 1012-1018:
“From ancient times, which were falsified with various erroneous stories, there is evidence that whenever severe hardships of a long civil war threatened them, a mighty wild boar with foam on its white tusks emerges from the aforementioned lake, rolling with pleasure in a puddle amidst terrible tremors, in front of everyone’s eyes.”
(the similar boar is metioned in Princes Mononoke…)
Reptile
GAD, similar to the verb GADAĆ (to talk), is a Proto-Slavic word that exists in almost all Slavic languages to this day. Originally, the term GADA was used to describe any living creature that evoked fear, disgust, and repulsion in people. The word GAD initially meant “that which arouses disgust” (from *žadati sę / žědati, meaning “to feel disgusted”), later narrowing down its meaning to “an animal that arouses disgust.” GADEM was used to refer to all crawling, wriggling, and swarming creatures that people both feared and found repulsive, such as snakes, certain insects, worms, etc.
Source: Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Ojczysty – dodaj do ulubionych
Pigeons
Do you understand that when I was 12 years old in Warsaw, there were old huts, wild orchards, and hundreds of old men keeping trained white or “common” pigeons, but now, 20 years later, it practically vanished.
Source: Dorota Świtała-Trybek, “Gołębiorze” na Górnym Śląsku: rozważania o subkulturze hodowców gołębi, 2002
Juniper
Leonard J. Pełka writes about using is as an incense for houses, cattle, and yards. Blessed juniper was used on Three Kings’ Day in his book. Interestingly, Tibetan lamas still do the same.
Mistletoe
In eastern Serbia, mistletoe is harvested without touching it, and then it can be sewn into a belt – for protection. I think it refers to a woolen belt, not a leather one.
Mare
From ancient times, the term 'female horse' was called Kobyła. MARE is one of those words among animal names that has given the most names to places: Kobylniki, Kobylany, Kobyłka, Kobyla Łąka, Kobyle Pole, etc. These names are the first linguistic evidence of horse breeding in Polish lands: horses were bred outdoors, in fenced meadows (fields). With the development and improvement of breeding, the term Klacz appears - first in the 16th century.
Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Ojczysty - add to favorites
Maple
In the description of the “Wodzenie Krzewu” ritual from Belarus, it is written:
A special role in the ritual is played by a maple wreath-amulet with multicolored ribbons that the Bush wears throughout the procession around the village, and which is taken off him in the last cottage by the most respected participant of the ritual. She takes it off and hangs it in the holy ("red") corner for the whole year.
https://naviny.belsat.eu/pl/news/wodzenie-krzewu-jak-na-luniniecczyznie-chodzi-sie-z-gaikiem/
Clover
Clover, or what horses eat. That was the original meaning of the name koniczyna. CLOVER, the treat of horses.
Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Ojczysty – add to favorites
Yarrow
The white-flowered shrub with dark green, feathery leaves owes its name to its medicinal properties – both real and attributed. YARROW accelerates wound healing, meaning it “stops bleeding” – hence its name (krwawnik < krwawy). It also has anti-hemorrhagic, anti-inflammatory, and bacteriostatic effects.
Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Ojczysty – add to favorites
Chickens
Chickens, snakes, vipers have been used and are used to counteract spells. (…) Bandtka (in its history) reports that in Kraków, chickens were called “gadami, gadzinami” (reptiles); and in Ukraine, a sorceress often uses a black rooster to counteract spells. Among Rusyns, death is a consequence of a spell that chickens destroy: thus, a sick person lying on a pillow filled with chicken feathers cannot die and suffers in vain. That is why they do not make anything from chicken feathers, pillows, or down.
Wiara Słowian z obrzędów, klechd, pieśni ludu, guseł, kronik i mowy słowiańskiej wskrzeszona, Romuald Świeżbiński, 1880
Speaking of magical “chickens, snakes, and vipers,” it must be added that a basilisk is half chicken and half some kind of reptile, which is born from a rooster’s egg once every 100 years. There was a basilisk living under Warsaw. Oh, and have you read that some dinosaurs had feathers, and a featherless chicken looks like a dinosaur?
Lipa
“LIPA” – the name of the linden tree – is a Proto-Slavic word, just like most tree names. It appears in a very similar form not only in other Slavic languages but also in other languages derived from the common Proto-Indo-European root.
Ojczysty – dodaj do ulubionych, Narodowe Centrum Kultury
Bear
Since ancient times, there has been a kind of linguistic taboo. In order not to provoke the wolf from the forest – and in this case, not the wolf but the bear – and also to avoid informing the large animal about the hunt, the loud pronunciation of its name was avoided. A diminutive form was used: the Proto-Slavic *medvědь gave the form *měška (hence the name Mieszko) and eventually MIŚ, MISIO, MISIEK – recorded since the 16th century.
Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Ojczysty – dodaj do ulubionych
Nettle
With the rise of slow and local cuisine, dishes with nettle are experiencing a renaissance. You can make soup, as Łukasz Łuczaj suggests in his book, and I make pesto using a recipe from some random blog. As our ancestors did.
