Tuesday 25 October 2011

ABC Wednesday: O for Oak and Otherworld

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In the woods between my parents’ old house and the lake nearby, I came across a strangely shaped oak tree. Very low and wide, no proper tree trunk… Almost as if someone had tried to pull it down from below

… In Celtic mythology, a sacred tree, generally considered to be an oak, stood at the center of the world; its limbs stretching up to the heavens, its roots reaching down to the Otherworld, or the realm of Fairy. The Celtic name for oak, duir, is the origin of the word door. So the oak was a doorway to the Otherworld …

Oooh, that tickles my fantasy!

ABC Wednesday: O

14 comments:

  1. It tickles mine too. I see them as hedge trees here. A very intelligent tree. It knows how to grow to fit in.

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  2. Very strange, but what a beauty! It must be a magic tree.
    Thanks for your visit!

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  3. I love your story about the oak tree, and I think you had better stay away from this one because it looks like it may be at the center of the world!! How very cool to have that painting of a street that is so close to you, I hope you find the place. Sorry I can not make out more letters than you could!

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  4. that tickles my fancy too. and so does this magnificent tree, it is colored in layers, what a find.

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  5. And mine, too. My imagination leads me to make a connection between the little tree and the Otherworld. I can see the little people dancing below this little oak. It even looks perfect for tiny fairies.

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  6. very OCTOBER autmnal!

    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  7. I've always though there's a fine line between big bushes and small trees, and you may have very well found it! My ABC Wednesday is O is for Oracle.

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  8. How strange. I think it's the fairies swinging on the branches at night time that's made it that shape.

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  9. Mine too. Any relationship to Druids?

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  10. Oakland: There might be, yes. Druid may be linguistically linked to door/tree but also to words like truth and wisdom. I'm not sure if all linguists agree. The web pages I landed on were mostly the New Age kind and I'm not sure how reliable. One of the lists I found was this:

    Indo-European: *deru
    Greek: drus (oak)
    Latin: dryad (tree-nymph)
    Old Irish: druí (druid), duir (oak)
    Old Norse: trú (faithful, true, one who pledges troth)
    Modern English: door, tree, truth, troth, true
    Indo-European: *wid
    Old Norse: vitki (one of wisdom), Alvis (all-wise, a dwarf)
    Middle Welsh: derwydd (druid)
    Modern English: wit, wise, wisdom, wizard

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  11. That's really a beautiful and special oak tree !
    Gattina
    ABC Team

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  12. I do love mighty oaks but this one is wonderful too. Doorway to the Otherworld? That sounds intriguing!

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  13. what a wonderful post - I love learning about mythology

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