Oak Trees and Nails

Over the past few weeks I have been working hard on lesson plans for an environmental philosophy course I am teaching. It’s always difficult to get the balance between PowerPoint and group discussion and it’s always important to remember that not everyone feels comfortable speaking out and contributing verbally. In these sessions we are covering topics such as animism, ecofeminism and enchantment and of course I always like to focus on trees. I’ve also been running walk and talk events as part of York Environment Festival and during these, we have been exploring and swapping stories about the folklore and enchantment of trees including the birch, beech, oak and ash. I always find that the best way to get people to consider plants as vibrant entities is by sharing some of the more “colourful” folklore tales. For example (and please don’t take this as sanctioned health advice), in the medieval period, some people would attempt to heal gum problems by piercing the area with a nail until it bled and then driving the nail into an oak tree. The thinking behind this was that any disease in the gum would then be transferred into the oak, and being a tree of such healing power, would have no problem in dispersing it. Interestingly, there is also a similar story involving the ash tree and warts, but this time involving a pin as opposed to a nail. You really can’t beat tales like this for capturing one’s imagination.