Clootie Well

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Madron's rag tree

Clootie Wells (also Cloutie or Cloughtie wells - ( German  "Lappen- oder Lumpenquellen" )) are pagan cult places, which are primarily in the Celtic areas of the British Isles but also z. B. in Cyprus (fig tree in front of the Agia Solomoni catacombs) can be found. Some wells or springs are accompanied by a so-called "rag" or "wish tree", which is hung with strips of cloth or rags, and recently also with mascots.

distribution

  • In Cornwall ( Sancreed ), Scotland (Munlochy) and Wales , a strip of cloth or rag is referred to as a clootie or cloot and is associated with a source classified as "sacred" .
  • In Ireland the rag tree is at the center of the cult, but there are also the spring sanctuaries without the rag tree such as St. Brigid's Well ; with them the strips of cloth and other things are deposited nearby on walls etc.
  • This cult is also reported for Börfink in the Black Forest high forest (Birkenfeld district) in the 19th century. At the "Guten Born" (Guter Bore) there, a square well about 1 meter deep, up to 50 items of clothing were spotted on a beech tree in 1892. They were put there by pilgrims from the surrounding area who hoped for recovery with their children suffering from skin diseases.

Cult practices

In the cult at Clootie Wells, strips of cloth are usually immersed in the water of the spring and hung on a branch while a prayer is addressed to a god, goddess or nature spirit. The whole thing is viewed as a ritual act that is mostly supposed to bring about healing and continues to this day in a Christianized form ( Lourdes ). A well-known tree is the "Rag tree" near Clonfert Cathedral . In addition, there are far more holy wells that exist (today) without reference to trees.

There are many local differences in practice. At some fountains it is a tradition to wash the affected part of the body with a wet cloth and then hang it in the tree. Just as the lobes dissolve over time, the ailments should go away. "Rags" are definitely used on some fountains, and colored strips of fine cloth on others.

The sacred trees are usually hawthorn species ( Crataegus ), but also ash ( Fraxinius ) and beech family ( Fagaceae ) are common. The most popular times for pilgrimages to Clootie Wells and other holy wells are the ancient Gaelic festivals on Imbolg Day (February 1st), Beltane (May 1st), Lughnasadh (August 1st) or Samhain (November 1st).

  • Clootie Wells

  • Clootie tree in Kent

  • Munlochy

  • Wish tree in Spiers Scotland

  • The Black Isle

  • Drei-Bethen-Quelle in Leutstetten , Starnberg district

Separated from springs or trees, other cult forms exist from Central Asia to Western Europe, in which hanging scraps of cloth play a cultic role with different meanings.

Clootie Wells are considered to be the inspiration for the custom of the coin tree , in which coins are struck into the bark of a tree.

literature

  • P. Logan: The Holy Wells of Ireland. Buckinghamshire 1980 ISBN 0-86140-046-1 .
  • M. Sharp: Holy Places of Celtic Britain. London, 1997 Blandford. ISBN 1-85079-315-8
  • Homer Sykes: Mysterious Britain - Fact and Folklore George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. 1993 ISBN 0-297-83196-8 p. 151

Web links

Commons : Clootie trees  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rag tree at Lough Neagh http://www.angelfire.com/mt/mariescorner/t7ragree.html
  2. ↑ Karl Pfeiffer: The "Good Born" at Börfink. - In: Journal of the Association for Rhenish and Westphalian Folklore, 7th year (1910) pp. 111–114.
  3. ↑ Ceri Houlbrook: Small change: economics and coin-trees in Britain and Ireland. In: Post-Medieval Archeology, Volume 49, Issue 1 (2015), pp. 114–130