Folklore: Wife of Usher's Well, birch bark hats

Subject: Folklore: Wife of Usher's Well, birch bark hats
From: GardenBennett
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 05:36 PM

Child Ballad #79, Wife of Usher's Well - why birch bark?

On the sleeve notes of Peggy Seeger's album with the song on, Alan Lomax confidently says:

"in several versions of the song, the children return wearing (birch) bark caps, which is a sure sign of magic."

Can anyone give me clues why he is so confident about this?

Versions of the lyric:

"The carlin wife’s three sons came hame,
And their hats were o' the birk.
It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
Nor yet in ony sheugh;
But at the gates o Paradise,
That birk grew fair eneugh."
(Child)

"Her three kids come to her door
Their hats were made of bark.

And the tree never grew in any ditch
Nor down by any wall
But at the gates of Paradise
Grew strong grew tall."
(Martin Carthy)

From the ballad Scott Saunders (Chilx #69) the dead lover in the grave requests:

"But plait a wand o' bonnie birk,
"And lay it on my breast"

So is it associated with a funeral offering, like salt? Was there a Celtic association of it with rebirth? I guess birch sap can provide sustenance at a difficult time of year. It is a very fast growing tree, but I can't find a link to a specific deity or ritual or religious idea that seems relevant, or European mushroom that grows with them, to link them with magic.

I found one claim birch trees were planted in graveyards to keep the cattle off graves - that seems very weird to me, and I can't find any other backing for it.

There is a Scandinavian tradition of birch bark hats, associated with wild-living, and so maybe shamans?

Birch-tar was an ancient substance, maybe with symbolic links to sticking the spirits down? Or again, wild living and ancient woods knowledge?

Gillyflowers are meant to have sprouted from the tears of Mary and represent her virtues, and the carnation's name dianthus apparently indicates 'flower of Zeus', probably relating to their heavenly scent. There is a link to cloves, and incense. So I can see why 'set about with gillyflowers' evokes heaven. But why birch at the gates of Paradise?

Could it link to the tree the Golden Bough is taken from, in the Aeneid? It seems people expect that meant mistletoe, and it's role in part-poisoning into otherworldly journeys, as the druids were thought to have used it..

There is maybe a link to Lugh, who possibly is linked to Mercury, and do psychopomp..? His attributes in the Celtic world seem more to do with craft and warriorship than magic though

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wife of Usher's Well, birch bark hats
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 08:49 PM

I am familiar with "birch bark."
I have done caligraphy on sheets up to 12x18 inches.
It peels like parchment paper, thinner and thinner.
It was used by NE indians (USA) as the outside covering of canoes.

Like paper/parchment it could be easily folded into hats/caps.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

One of the most wonderful aspects of the tree is a source for birch-sap beer.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wife of Usher's Well, birch bark hats
From: Harry Rivers
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 04:12 AM

This website might help:

Magickal Properties of Birch

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wife of Usher's Well, birch bark hats
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 10:25 PM

I have often wondered, since Europeans have this tradition of birch hats symbolizing "magic" or otherworldly connections, what they thought of the Northeastern Native Americans who wore them, and if it affected their attitude towards them...

julia

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wife of Usher's Well, birch bark hats
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Oct 22 - 01:35 PM

A syke is a small stream. Who knew?
A sheugh is a ditch, perhaps filled with water, that makes a field boundary.

So the first verse says that the birch doesn't grow in water. Well, very few trees do. Very few trees have bark that you can easily get off to make hats. Try to do it with an oak tree - won't work. I think the main point of the reference is to show that the sons have been living rough and in poverty. The magic references don't seem very convincing.

By the way, don't take bark off birch trees. It's bad for them.

Subject: Lyr Add: WIFE OF USHER'S WELL (Steeleye Span)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 14 Oct 22 - 01:47 PM

Steeleye Spans version of the song, perhaps help to point out that the wifes' sons were actually dead as a result of going overseas (to war) and returning as spirits from Paradise. The birch hats were 'not worldly.

There lived a wife in Ushers Well
A wealthy wife was she
She had three stout and stalwart sons
And sent them o'er the sea
They had not been from Ushers Well
A week but barely one
When word came to this carlin wife
That her three sons were gone

I wish the wind may never cease
Nor flashes in the flood
Till my three sons return to me
In earthly flesh and blood

It fell about the Martinmas
The nights were long and dark
Three sons came home to Ushers Well
Their hats were made of bark
That neither grew in forest green
Nor on any wooded rise
But from the north side of the tree
That grows in Paradise

Blow up the fire my merry merry maidens
Bring water from the well
For all my house shall feed this night
Since my three sons are well

Then up and crowed the blood red cock
And up and crowed the grey
The oldest to the youngest said
It's time we were away
For the cock does crow and the day doth show
And the channerin worm doth chide
And we must go from Ushers Well
To the gates of Paradise

I wish the wind may never cease
Nor flashes in the flood
Till my three sons return to me
In earthly flesh and blood