Has anyone else ever come across these?

Does anyone know of any mythology, lore or folktales pertaining to female 'birch spirits'?

Not specially. A cousin of mine has been spotting a lot of blue orbs in the past few years, although she has come to realise that some of these orbs were only fireflies. Enough of them were not, to convince her to pursue the observations.

You might as well call them "dryads". Strictly speaking, Dryads are Oak spirits. There are spirits of all different kinds of wood. Oak spirits would be specially concerned with energy and life-force. Birch spirits would be concerned with Beginnings and with clearing off and getting rid of baleful influences.

I've actually seen full on ladies that usually lead me to groupings of birch trees.



Nooooooooooooooo





I know the meaning of Berkana being a bit of a runester however these ladies never appear at times appropriate for those meanings. It's more of a 'hey I'm here!' kind of thing. I have also started to link birch to Freyja/Frigga for some reason.

The only folklore about birch trees I'm aware of is that in parts of Belgium and Holland the spirit of a birch is sometimes seen as a white lady.

I believe other Germanic folklore has it as a tree of wisdom and link it with Freya. Will see if I can dig out some references...

Try Sacred Texts for info.

It's interesting that the besom has a head made from birch, and that in Scotland a besom can also mean a woman who is a bit too headstrong. As in, "ye cheeky wee besom!"

Most people don't get as far as seeing the blue orbs. If you see full-on ladies, you are privileged indeed.

Try to spend some time in the birch grove they lead you too. They may be wanting something in particular. They may just want to get in contact with a friendly soul. Either way, you are it.



Berkana? I've nowt to do wi runes. I'm Ogham, me. I mean Beatha! What they mean by beginnings may not have any relation to what you see as beginnings.

Anyway, what's your problem with Dryads?

Now my Danish friend did reference that folklore when I told her about it and promised to dig stuff out for me but didn't get round to it because of some pretty harsh RL issues. I would be grateful for any references - I'm kind of limited resource wise at the moment? The lady I saw was really pale and slender - quite tall too.

This birch/Freya thing is getting to be quite a theme too. I'm now in a place that strikes me as being particularly 'Vanic'. I have never seen so many pregnant people in one place I keep gravitating to birches too and mentally there is that link with Freya and the birch - or at least Perchta.



I did a bit back but ixnay on the info

I am very well acquainted with the Scottish phrase 'ye cheeky wee besom' as it's been used on me a fair few times (I used to spend every summer up in Scotland with my father when he was a long distance lorry driver).



Well I'm a fair few miles from that grove now but I did stop by when I was last in the area.



you don't want to lose that Ogham street cred



Dryad is an arts and crafts company. I think of Dryad and my first association is with the company.

It stands to reason that the birch would have been revered as it provided so much - sap, canoe bark, pots and vessels, healing, etc.
Sure their is reference to it in the Finnish Kalavela too, which again would make perfect sense.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to references.

I know I haven't made this information up but buggered if I can lay my hands on where I got this info from!

Will keep digging through my info...

Ogham Street .... the new Pagan Soap Opera...

That's probably a better association then mine. I hear dryad and I think of the question "are dryads lady druids?" I've seen mentioned online. I have no idea if that was real question by someone.

All can I dig up about birch is in the Welsh and Scottish traditions. Birch is referenced as having been used as lover's tokens or trysting bowers made in a thicket of birches in the Welsh tradition. In the Sottish tradition there is some association with Imbolc and Brighid. Neither is particularly relevant for germanic folklore (that I know of).

I like Birchwoods... they always seem oddly spooky, somehow. Not very hepful, I know, but just thought I'd mention it...

Best place to find Fly Agaric too if you are so inclined.

Your question reminded me of this poem by Sorley Maclean. This is his transation from the original Gaelic:

'Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig.'
The window is nailed and boarded
through which I saw the West
and my love is at the Burn of Hallaig,
a birch tree, and she has always been

between Inver and Milk Hollow,
here and there about Baile-chuirn:
she is a birch , a hazel,
a straight slender young rowan.

In Screapadal of my people,
where Norman and Big Hector were,
their daughters and their sons are a wood
going up beside the stream.

Proud tonight the pine cocks
crowing on the top of Cnoc an Ra,
straight their backs in the moonlight -
they are not the wood I love.

I will wait for the birch wood
until it comes up by the Cairn,
until the whole ridge from Beinn na Lice
will be under its shade.

If it does not, I will go down to Hallaig,
to the sabbath of the dead,
where the people are frequenting,
every single generation gone.

They are still in Hallaig,
Macleans and Macleods,
All who were there in the time of Mac Gille Chaluim:
the dead have been seen alive -

the men lying on the green
at the end of every house that was,
the girls a wood of birches,
straight their backs, bent their heads.

the road is under mild moss
and the girls in silent bands
go to Clachan as in the beginning.

And return from Clachan,
from Suisnish and the land of the living;
Each one young and light stepping,
without the heartbreak of the tale.

From the Burn of Fearns to the raised beach
that is clear in the mystery of the hills,
there is only the congregation of the girls
keeping up the endless walk,

coming back to Hallaig in the evening,
in the dumb living twilight,
filling the steep slopes,
their laughter in my ears a mist,

and their beauty a film on my heart
before the dimness comes on the kyles,
and when the sun goes down behind Dun Cana
a vehement bullet will come from the gun of Love;

and will strike the deer that goes dizzily,
sniffing at the grass-grown ruined homes;
his eye will freeze in the wood;
his blood will not be traced while I live.

You can see and hear the late and great Martyn Bennets setting for this poem here:
http://www.martynbennett.com/media_hallaig_video_01.html

One of my favourite pieces of music ever.

Here she is

That's a fantastic tree PK, reminiscent of the 'Nerthus tree' in Denmark.

Thank you for your replies everyone. Actually my research on bog bodies has led back to the birch question. I have found a crazy correlation between the types of death, the amount of grave goods present (if any) and the type of wood the body was buried/pinned down with.

According to Danish folklore, a way of exorcising a troublesome spirit was to drive an oak stake through the heart of the body. Some bodies that do not bear any signs of being sacrifices were indeed found pinned down by oak stakes.

Only females were buried with willow sticks and in all cases, those bodies show extreme cruelty in the way they were dealt with. They are buried with their clothes intact.

I found instances of two men who share some interesting characteristics in their bog burials. Both men were wearing leather caps and one shoe and were buried with hazel sticks.

Bodies believed to have been sacrifices were mostly buried or pinned down (sometimes in quite elaborate cages) of birch and most of them were buried with a plaited noose around their necks. In one case, not only is there a noose but a tablet woven blindfold too.

According to PV Glob, the man that dated and investigated both the Tollund Man and the Grauballe man, he has found evidence to suggest that the sacrifices were to a Goddess. Not The Goddess ™ however a Goddess.

Germanic folklore or the bits I have heard from German Heathens here so far seems to link Freya with birches although I would love to chase this up but don't have any resources/links.

Britt Marie Nastrom's work further suggests that Freya was a much greater Goddess than we currently think and that there is evidence to suggest that she was indeed a great Northern European Goddess as opposed to the paltry Goddess of love and beauty that we seem to have consigned her to.

Thoughts? Information?

Such folklore seems particularly well preserved in Slavic and Russian mythology about the Rusalka. The Rusalka are believed to inhabit the birch and weeping willow.

Here, this quoted from http://www.pospieszna.com/polish_myths.htm



There is also this tradition of the Khants in Siberia:
http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol7/khants.htm

and this one in Germany with the Maibaum:
http://www.bund.de/nn_446250/DE/BuB/A-Z/B-...ifeiern-am.html

The Khanty-Mansi are a fascinating people, they preserve all sorts of ancient traditions.

Ooooh......that tree..........

How beautiful.