Exploring Ireland | Celtic Fairy Tales | The Whitethorn Tree (Christmas Special)

[Music] hello everyone and welcome back to mossy bottom almost every day for the last five years me and my dog moss have walked through this forest together it's a sitka spruce plantation like so many here in ireland you can hear him splashing in the water now but it's an old one which has been left to mature making it possible to explore and inside you can see traces everywhere of the land as it used to be great piles of stone and old tumble down walls which would have been field boundaries the carcasses of hazel trees which have been out competed for light and some very old trees which in spite of this plantation growing up around them have survived and exist in hidden glades enclosed by an army of conifer trees there is one such tree an old hawthorn or white thorn as it used to be called in folklore in one such glade in this forest which i want to find today and show to you why well because it's beautiful and magical and that's reason enough but also because i was told a story about this hawthorne tree by an old farming neighbor of mine which i want to share with you and there's another reason i've just found out that this forest is now scheduled to be clear-felled cut down it's been a long time coming for these spruce trees but the price of lumber has spiked recently and people with pensions want to cash in i don't know what that'll mean for the hawthorne tree that i'm going to show you i would think it unlikely though with the use of modern machinery and modern attitudes that um it'll be spared so this might just be my last chance to tell you this story let me forewarn you before we begin that like much of the folklore told in this part of the world this is quite a dark story not intended for children though the ending may just surprise you as much as it did me this video is sponsored by the wonderful team at skillshare who i'm very proud to have partnered with throughout 2021 skillshare is an online community for learning skills through educational video 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um who was apparently born in the year 1808 which really caught my imagination of course at that time the spruce trees here didn't exist but the hawthorne tree in the glade that we're heading to apparently did and it probably looked much the same as it does today although hawthorne trees are not very big they are incredibly long lived up to 700 years i doubt the one i'm going to show you today is quite that old but it definitely has an otherworldly quality about it as you will see the story as it was told to me by that neighbor goes like this during the great potato famine here in the west of ireland countless thousands of people died needlessly not just because of starvation but the spread of fever and sickness which insufficient food and weakened immune systems resulted in and the great great great grandfather of my neighbor apparently lost a son to that famine in the year 1848 whom he then had to bury himself but he had no money for a service or a gravestone and in reverence to his lost son he chose the location of the very hawthorne tree in this forest standing as it does on the crest of a small hill overlooking the land to lay him to rest so he dug a hole at the foot of the tree and despite his great grief he then buried his son asked his forgiveness and promised to meet him again one day but as he was turning to leave and returned to his daughter who still clung to life he was overcome by a wave of anger and issued a curse upon the land for plaguing his crop upon those in power for forsaking the poor in the name of prophet and upon the fairies for being as was commonly believed treacherous and selfish interested only in self-betterment and greed what he didn't realize as he walked away teary-eyed was that to issue such a curse having lost and buried a child at the foot of a white thorne tree a gateway between this world and the world of the two adidas the fairies was to summon one of their kind against his or her will to our space and time and according to my neighbor at least that is exactly what happened a fairy then appeared looking human-like though with oddly fashioned clothes and pointed features but the fairy did not expect to be there he was summoned quite against his will and as such he too was angry and there was only one figure upon which to direct that anger how dare you summon me he began you have no right or just cause i have done nothing to you or your kin release me from this curse that i might return to my home and escape the sickness that ails you and your wretched people at this the farmer stopped [Music] fairy was all he said [Music] i am a two a day descended from the gods and you will release me from this curse curse said the farmer for it had not been his intention to truly curse anyone but in that moment realizing what he had done but still overcome with grief he was glad of it you fairy deserve every curse of fate cast upon you you speak of sickness as if it was a choice my family wither and die for nothing more than trying to live and you and your people do nothing but mock and taunt with your high born heirs and graces i curse you again fairy and i will curse you until the day that i too join my son in the ground [Music] for three weeks the ferry pursued the farmer demanding that he release the curse and when that demand was met with silence unleashing insults and threats of a terrible vengeance but the farmer cared not for such threats having buried his only son and facing now the death of his daughter too every day he watched her decline feverish and starving in a bed of straw upon the earthen floor of their cottage powerless to aid her there was no vengeance in life worse than the fate which he already faced but the fairy could not return through the hawthorne tree to his own world unless the curse which held him there was renounced by the individual who issued it so what could he do he would not stay in our world so he hatched a plan he would threaten the life of the farmer's daughter and force him to do as he commanded one night he entered the farmer's cottage through an unlocked door there he saw the girl lying by a cold hearth for after two years of starvation there was no peat or wood left to burn nor strength to cut it the farmer sat hunched against the wall with a small knife in one hand cutting through potato after potato hoping that one at least would not be rotten through with blight he had little strength left to move in an instant the fairy seized the knife and held it to the throat of the farmer's sleeping daughter relinquish the curse or i will slit her throat the farmer looked up at the fairy and then down at his daughter she barely had the strength to breathe he looked then at the blighted inedible potatoes at his feet there was no food to feed her there was no medicine to give her there was no hope that she nor he would live through that winter do it well then in one clean cut he said it will be a mercy to the poor wretch that i have failed so [Music] the fairy stodded ghast for the first time since their meeting he was lost for words it had never been the fairy's intention to use that knife for though he was cruel and selfish he was certainly no killer he left the cottage unarmed and with no more words spoken but the next morning after the farmer had left he returned and knelt on the ground beside the dying girl to the fairy's great surprise she opened her eyes and smiled at him you were one of them she said not with disdain and hate but in spite of her frailty with wonder and joy i have long desired to meet one of your kind and to do so now before i go to meet my mother and brother is a blessing indeed i thank you at first the fairy could not reply when finally he did it was with words that surprised even him but speak them he did [Music] you will not die for i am a to a day descended from the gods and i have the power to heal you you will not die [Music] the girl looked confused at first truly she asked yes he said but there was no truth in his words at all fairies are not gods and certainly have no power over life and death still the young girl didn't know that for they are creatures of another world so otherworldly powers would seem plausible surely there is some great price for sparing me how can i repay you she asked and in that moment the fairy saw a way to return to his home all he had to do was command that this girl beseech her father to free him from the curse and he could at last leave that place of death and disease and go back to his sunlit hills and golden veils in the world of two adidas beyond the hawthorne tree and yet this is what the fairy then said there is no price you do not deserve to die i see that now so live by my healing you have taught me much as has your father with that he left the cottage and disappeared into the hills wrecked with guilt for misleading the girl and anger no longer directed at the farmer in his curse but instead at his own arrogance and pridefulness [Music] a day passed the next morning the farmer stood once again in front of the hawthorne tree his face bleak there was no one there but still he spoke you told my daughter she would live you told her that you had healed her you gave her hope and now but before he could finish the fairy appeared i would have saved your child if i could but i lied to her and for that i accept your curse i will ask no more of you farmer leave me to my fate as i now leave you to yours the farmer said nothing his expression was fixed upon the grave of his son and the ivy vines which had begun to recolonize the disturbed earth nature always found a way to heal even after death i relinquish the curse upon you fairy he at last said and then turned and began to walk away the fairy watched him the delight which you might expect not apparent on his face my daughter still lives hope is a powerful healer fairy she believes in you as i never will and for that gift i have set you free she will yet die for there is nothing to eat or medicine to cure but it will be with a lighter heart when she does farewell the fairy after weeks trapped in our world was free at last to return to his home all he had to do was reach out and touch the weathered bark of that hawthorne tree and he would pass through to his own realm a world without disease or suffering a world of eternal life he had for the many long centuries that he'd lived never thought that the world above of humans was anything but chaotic and desolate and terrible and yet he stood there unable in that moment to reach out and leave why for many long hours he pondered that question willing himself to take one simple step and return to a place of certainty and order but he couldn't [Music] and so the story goes at least according to the telling of my neighbor that the fairy remained here for many hours his expression fixed in deep contemplation when finally he did rouse it was not to step back through the portal despite his curse having been lifted but instead to collect the fruit of this very hawthorne tree it was covered in a bloom of thousands of small bright red berries called he then gathered dead wood from the fallen branches around it and started a small fire on which he cooked the berries in burdock leaves until soft he added mushrooms which he'd foraged nearby and the roots of those same burdock plants which unlike potatoes are not susceptible to any form of blight with food enough for three and handfuls of additional firewood to burn he then returned to the home of his once adversary the farmer wherein he lit a fire and filled their bellies with his simple but life-giving meal for fairies may not be gods but they are masters of all things natural knowing what can and cannot be eaten and he did it turned out possessed the power of healing after all not with any magic but with a simple knowledge of nature and a will to do good the farmer lived to see a day when potatoes once again grew without blight he had no more children but his daughter did for she married a certain fairy with a certain will to keep her alive no matter what she took his name as her own and they had three children one of whom so my neighbor says uh was his grandfather hence his claim to be descended from the fairies and who knows maybe it's true there is something about this tree and this glade in which it quietly grows i can see why the people living here would have revered such a place maybe the portal is still open and all i have to do is touch its weathered bark it's very tempting folks but what about moss he is after all the very definition of chaos i'm pretty sure those fairies would send him straight back on a serious note i visit this glade regularly it's been a great source of peace for me over the last five years and i hope that as this forest around it is cleared which i now know will happen that this glade and the trees in it somehow manage to survive but just in case that doesn't happen i'm going to collect some berries of my own from this tree freeze the seeds over the winter and then plant them next spring perhaps i can create my own gateway to another world [Music] okay folks it's time for me and moss to head back home there are everywhere i think i'm gonna pick some on my way back if you enjoy these folklore stories then please share them with your friends and family spread the word because i certainly love telling them and exploring this incredible country which has become my home for now though wherever you are in the world from me from moss and from these trees take care and bye for now [Music] you

Channel: Mossy Bottom

Views: 16,582

Keywords: celtic fairy tale, fairy tale, fairy story, celtic tale, irish fairy tale, irish fairtale, fairy tales, exploring ireland, ireland, celtic folklore, irish folklore, folklore ireland, stories ireland, irish history, potato famine, potato famine stories, nature ireland, irish forest, irish country

Id: GH80QF1mQCs

Length: 23min 47sec (1427 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 15 2021