The Wending Wayfarer

The Elder Mother: Faery, Witch, & Goddess of the Gloaming

The Elder Mother is an arboreal guardian figure in British, Germanic, and Scandinavian folklore, known by various names, such as the Danish Hyldemoer (“Elder Mother”) and the Lincolnshire names Old Lady or Old Girl. She is known as the protector of the Elder Trees, as well as one who guards the door to the Otherworld—realm of the Faerie and the Dead. As such, she is associated with some of the darker mysteries and magics, especially in relation to the cycles of life, death and rebirth.

Due to the high station of the Elder Mother, elder wood was also rarely ever burned, and such taboos can still be glimpsed in modern paganism, such as the line of the ‘Wiccan Rede’ which states, “Elder is the Lady’s tree, burn it not or cursed ye be.” Nor was it used to make furniture, and especially not child’s cradle, as it was believed to inflict sinister consequences. One such story of the Elder Mother’s retribution, following a disregard for her taboos, recounts the mother of a sick child, saying : “It were all along of my maister’s thick ‘ead. It were in this ‘ow’t’ rocker comed off t’cradle, and he hadn’t no more gumption than to mak’ a new ‘un out on illerwood without axing the Old Lady’s leave, and in course she didn’t like that, and she came and pinched the wean that outrageous he were a’most black in t’ face; but I bashed un off, and putten an eshen on, and the wean is gallus as owt agin.” (Translating, approximately, as: “It was all my husband’s fault. One of the rockers came off the baby’s cradle, and he was reckless enough to make a new one out of elder wood without asking the Old Lady’s permission. Of course, she didn’t like that, and so she pinched the baby until his face was bruised. But I replaced it with an Ash wood rocker, and the baby is good a new again.”)

Bearing an intimate connection to the Otherworld, Elder is widely considered a Faerie Tree. In Denmark, it was said that if a person stood beneath an Elder tree, wearing a crown of Elder on May Eve, they would be able to commune with the Other Realm and see the Faerie and the spirits of the Dead. According to a similar, Scottish tradition, it was said that if you stood beneath an Elder on the eve of Samhain, you would be able to see the Elven Monarchs and their hosts of Elves. However, while the Elder is intimately linked to the Faerie Faith, it is also closely connected to the lore of witches.

A tale from Northamptonshire tells of a man who cut a switch from the branch of an Elder, only to see that the tree was oozing blood. Later that day, upon meeting the local witch, he notices that her arm is newly dressed with a bloody bandage.

Another tale, from Somerset, describes the Elder Mother as a malevolent witch who is seen by a farmer, in the form of an Elder Tree, milking his cows. The farmer shoots a silver bullet at the witch, but misses, and is forced back into his home. However, the old grandmother of the household is able to save them all by taking a burning ember from the hearth with a shovel, and throwing it at the Elder Tree, which burns to ashes.

Yet another story casts the Elder Mother, not only as an Arboreal Witch, but as the morally ambiguous heroine of the tale. She is credited in the tale with rescuing Britain from being conquered by a foreign king and his cavalry. This also serves as an origin myth for how the Rollright Stones, rest along the Oxfordshire / Warwickshire border, came to be. As the king and his knights made their way to Long Compton, they came across the witch, who told the king:

“Seven long strides thou shalt take, And if Long Compton thou shalt see, King of England thou shalt be.”

The king went onwards though, saying:

“Stick, stock, stone, As King of England I shall be known.”

However, when the King’s made his seventh stride, a hill rose up before him, preventing him from seeing Long Compton. The witch spoke to the king and his men once again, saying:

“As Long Compton thou canst not see, King of England thou shalt not be, Rise up stick and stand still stone, For King of England thou shalt be none;, Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be, And I myself an Eldern tree.”

And so, the king and his knights were turned to stone and the witch turned herself into an Elder Tree.

With all of these connections to witchcraft and danger, however, the elder tree has also long been known as a protector against evil forces, with multiple European traditions holding that Elder can be powerfully employed to ward against witchcraft and malicious spirits. These beliefs were particularly upheld during the Medieval Period. The country folk of old Britain, for instance, sometimes took to stringing leaves of Elder and tying them to their doors and windows, due to the belief that no malefic witch could enter a house protected in this way. This belief also extended to placing fallen bows of the wood in the doorways of one’s home and barn to turn away bad influences, which even included things like flies. Similarly, garlands of dried Elder leaves were sometimes worn for protection by people and their animals, or were scattered over a person or object to invoke a blessing before being scattered north, south, east and west to dismiss ill fortune. Twigs of Elder gathered at  Midsummer’s Eve were, likewise, carried as safeguards against harmful or mischievous wights.

The protection this tree offered was not only limited to the denizens of the living world, though.  Elder leaves were sometimes ritually strewn along grave beds to help protect the souls of the deceased, and in some areas, there was even a custom of planting an Elder which had been trimmed into the form of a cross on newly dug graves. It was said that this would help to assure the harmonious transition of dead person’s spirit, and what’s more, there existed a traditional belief that, if one of these Elder crosses blossomed, it was a sign that the soul of the interred was at peace.

All of these stories and beliefs come together to form a unique and powerful cultural tapestry of the figure known as Elder Mother. Between her multifaceted nature as a Tutelary Goddess, a Faery Queen, and a Witching Spirit, I feel confident that the she will remain a significant figure of the Craft for generations to come.