Witches, Love Potions & Turtles: Polish Folk Beliefs About Herbs
Once upon a time, many Poles believed that herbs and other plants had magical properties and numerous medicinal benefits. Some of these still hold up today. Others, well… Discover the, often surprising, Polish convictions about plants and herbs!
The year 2016 saw the publication of the marvellous book Rośliny w Wierzeniach i Zwyczajach Ludowych (Plants in Folk Beliefs & Customs), edited by Monika Kujawska, Łukasz Łuczaj, Joanna Sosnowska and Piotr Klepacki. This thoroughly interesting publication presents an immensely rich collection of Polish folk beliefs about nearly 250 different plants – trees, shrubs, herbs and more. It’s based on the Interwar research of the eminent Polish folklorist and ethnographer Adam Fischer (1889 – 1943).
Through a network of collaborators Fischer conducted field surveys about plant beliefs in over one hundred different places spread across pre-war Poland. This way, he accumulated a wealth of information about traditional plant folklore, which he wanted to publish as part of a larger work on Slavic folk culture. However, Fischer came to the conclusion that field surveys weren’t enough and decided to include materials from various other sources in his research:
Text
He decided to expand this information [from field surveys – ed.] by adding excerpts from renaissance herbals, 19th- and 20th-century ethnographic works as well as linguistic, historical and environmental papers. Fischer even used memoirs and diaries as sources. He made use of everything that could contain information about folk beliefs about plants.
Author
From the introduction to ‘Plants in Folk Beliefs & Customs’, trans. MK
Unfortunately, World War II interrupted Fischer’s work and his manuscript about plant beliefs wasn’t published. Many years later, Fischer’s manuscript and notes were reviewed by the aforementioned team of editors and issued as Plants in Folk Beliefs & Customs. From the astounding wealth of material included in this publication, I’ve chosen eight herbs that are linked to particularly interesting folk beliefs.
Oregano (lebiodka pospolita)
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Oregano, photo: Iwona Burdzanowska / AG
We start off with a very popular herb – oregano. Today, due to its pleasant flavour, it’s used typically for seasoning food. But in the past it was believed to have many other uses.
It was considered ‘the mother of all herbs’ and, as such, it could protect you from witchcraft. Apart from keeping evil spells at bay, it could also repel poisonous reptiles. If you kept some oregano at home, your residence would be safe from these dangerous animals. But, on the other hand, other reptiles could actually benefit from oregano. One of the most curious beliefs about this herb was that it could cure a turtle of food poisoning! Speaking of food, if you had some in a pot you could keep it safe from flies thanks to oregano. Flies wouldn’t come near a pot in which oregano had been boiled in water.
Oregano was also believed to be helpful for flesh burns – you could cure them by putting fresh oregano leaves on top of them. Meanwhile, if you suffered from asthma, you could treat it by drinking an oregano brew. Also, dipping your legs in this liquid was supposed to cure various illnesses of the lower extremities.
Snakeroot (rdest wężownik)
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Snakeroot, photo: Marta Błażejowska / AG
The root of snakeroot was believed to be a cure for… snakebites. You had to powder the dried root and mix it with sweetened milk to create the remedy. The medicine had to be either imbibed or applied directly to the wound. Other wounds, not caused by snakes, could also be treated using snakeroot. The herb was also believed to be of special use for women. It was supposed to ease pain during heavy menstruation, and if you had difficulty at childbirth, you could be aided by strapping a snakeroot plant to your thigh.
Additionally, thanks to this magical plant, you could, by chance… obtain universal wisdom. Here’s how this peculiar belief is described in Plants in Folk Beliefs & Customs:
Text
There are stories about snakeroot (P. bistorta), how this flower accidentally fell into the shoe of a peasant, granting him universal knowledge of all things, and how that peasant was deprived of this knowledge when he eventually lost the flower. That’s why carrying a snakeroot flower gives you special powers.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Young nettle leaves, photo: Tytus Żmijewski / PAP
Another herbal belief about snakes is linked to nettle. This plant could come to your rescue if you were bitten by a poisonous snake:
Text
The commoners say that if you’re bitten by a snake you should run as fast as you can to where nettles grow. If you reach the nettles before the snake reaches a body of water, you shall be cured and the snake will perish, otherwise you’ll die.
Author
From ‘Plants in Folk Beliefs & Customs’, trans. MK
Nettle was also believed to have magical properties. If somebody put a spell on your milk you could force that person to come to you by pouring the milk through a strainer fitted with nettle leaves. Moreover, when you held a nettle plant in your hand it would protect you against ghosts and apparitions.
Apart from being useful against pesky enchanters and ghosts, nettle could also come in handy when you were dealing with… unwanted clouds. When dangerous-looking, dark clouds appeared over your land, you could disperse them with smoke coming from a bonfire made of nettles.
Nettle was also considered a dental remedy – the plant’s root was believed to relieve toothaches. A nettle brew, on the other hand, was used to cure colds.
Lesser periwinkle (barwinek pospolity)
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Lesser periwinkle, photo: Dick Klees / PAP
Like nettle, lesser periwinkle was believed to have the power to summon people. Apparently, it was used by witches to make people fly through the air!
Text
Lesser periwinkle is used by witches when they want to summon someone. For this purpose a witch boils a lesser periwinkle root, and when the water starts to bubble, the water gurgles the name of the person that is to be summoned, and then that person rises up and flies like a bird toward the witch, and if they encounter a tree or some other hard obstacle on their way, they can die.
Author
From ‘Plants in Folk Beliefs & Customs’, trans. MK
It ought to be mentioned though, that, in different hands, lesser periwinkle could also be used against witches. A cow treated with fumes from burning this herb would be protected against the spells of a witch.
Additionally, lesser periwinkle was considered a cure for headaches. To make the remedy you had to soak the plant’s leaves in wine for nine days. After that they could be used as a compress to relieve the pain. A fun bonus: rinsing your mouth with a lesser periwinkle brew was believed to help against scurvy.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Lemon balm, photo: Tymon Markowski / East News
Another herb believed to cure headaches was lemon balm; a brew made of this herb was supposed to make the pain go away. It was also considered a remedy for stomach aches, dizziness as well as strained muscles. A lemon balm tea with milk, on the other hand, was seen as a cure for lung diseases.
Lemon balm was also believed to have the power to attract men to women. It used to be planted near homes to make bachelors take an interest in the women residing in them. Actually, if a woman used lemon balm right, she could expect to have quite a lot of admirers:
Text
Some girls would pick lemon balm and put it at the entrance of a beehive (…) and leave it there for twenty four hours. Later, they’d take it and sew it into their dresses. They believed that carrying such an herb with them, would cause a whole bee-like swarm of boys to court them.
Author
From 1929’s second issue of the quarterly ‘Zaranie Śląskie’, trans. MK
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Lovage, photo: Oswald Kunstmann / East News
Lovage was also believed to have the power to induce attraction but it could affect both men and women. Mothers would bathe their daughters in lovage, so that when they’d grow up they’d be attractive. A boy bathed in lovage would easily find a girlfriend when he grew up. Some picked the plant at midnight during a full moon, uttering the following charm:
Text
Lovage, I pick you with five fingers and a sixth hand, make everybody want to be my friend.
Author
From the ethnographic monthly ‘Wisła’, 1889, volume 3, No. 4, trans. MK
A small explanation would be helpful here: the Polish expression ‘kupić coś za pięć palców i szóstą dłoń’ (to purchase something with five fingers and a sixth hand) means to steal something.
Lovage could also be employed against daemonic beings. Tree fibre that was used to tie lovage leaves together could prevent the vampiric strzygoń from rising from the dead. After death, certain people could become a strzygoń (an undead, blood-sucking monster) and attack the living. If you tied the thumbs of the deceased that could be a potential strzygoń with tree fibre of the aforementioned kind, they surely would not raise from their grave. An extra perk: wind daemons could be warded off by lovage as well.
The herb was also considered a remedy for a sore throat – smoking a lovage cigarette was believed to make the pain go away. Toothaches, on the other hand, could be alleviated by drinking a brew made of lovage roots. The brew was also considered a remedy for strained stomach muscles.
St. John's wort (dziurawiec)
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Krystyna Nowak picking St. John's wort in Białowieża, photo: Andrzej Sidor / Forum
Another herb that could be used against fantastic beings was St. John’s wort. This plant was believed to protect against mamuny – female daemons that kidnapped or transformed new-born babies. Here’s how mamuny are described in Mitologia Słowian (Slavic Mythology), a 1982 book on Slavic myths by the esteemed Polish historian Aleksander Gieysztor:
Text
These creatures were usually hideous, long-breasted and large-headed, they’d use wooden spades to wash linens at midnight, they harassed women that were pregnant or giving birth, they kidnapped babies.
To gain protection from mamuny one had to put St. John’s wort in the thresholds and windowsills of one’s house – that would keep the daemons at bay. Also, you could put this herb into a baby’s diaper; thanks to that the child wouldn’t be kidnapped by the hideous beings.
Additionally, St. John’s wort was considered a cure for mental illness – one could be helped by inhaling the smoke from the burning of the herb. A brew made of St. John’s wort was also believed to alleviate epilepsy. Another illness that this herb could help with was cholera.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Whereas St. John’s wort could ward off the horrifying mamuny our next herb, rue, was believed to be of use against the mythical basilisk. This dangerous reptile-like beast could turn a man into stone with just one look. However, you could fight it off with rue. The penman and folklorist Kazimierz Władysław Wóycicki writes about this in his 1842 ethnographical and historical work Zarysy Domowe T. 2 (Home Sketches, Vol. II):
Text
Rue was one of the best means to fight against the basilisk. Wherever this monster, which could kill a person merely by looking at them, would appear, a bunch of rue would be placed. The herb turned livid from the poisonous gaze, but the second bunch caused the beast to die.
One of the most bizarre medicinal beliefs about rue is linked to epilepsy. This illness could be treated with a brew made of this herb and… peacock feathers! On the other hand, a brew made of rue alone was seen as a cure for cholera. Additionally, eating rue with butter was believed to alleviate colds with chills.
It looks like we’ve come to the end of our list of herbal beliefs. If you’ll ever need to get rid of a pesky basilisk or find out who enchanted your milk, you’ll know what to do!
Written by Marek Kępa, Dec 2020
[{"nid":"5688","uuid":"6aa9e079-0240-4dcb-9929-0d1cf55e03a5","type":"article","langcode":"en","field_event_date":"","title":"Challenges for Polish Prose in the Nineties","field_introduction":"Content: Depict the world, oneself and the form | The Mimetic Challenge: seeking the truth, destroying and creating myths | Seeking the Truth about the World | Destruction of the Heroic Emigrant Myth | Destruction of the Polish Patriot Myth | Destruction of the Flawless Democracy Myth | Creation of Myths | Biographical challenge | Challenges of genre | Summary\r\n","field_summary":"Content: Depict the world, oneself and the form | The Mimetic Challenge: seeking the truth, destroying and creating myths | Seeking the Truth about the World | Destruction of the Heroic Emigrant Myth | Destruction of the Polish Patriot Myth | Destruction of the Flawless Democracy Myth | Creation of Myths | Biographical challenge | Challenges of genre | Summary","topics_data":"a:2:{i:0;a:3:{s:3:\u0022tid\u0022;s:5:\u002259609\u0022;s:4:\u0022name\u0022;s:26:\u0022#language \u0026amp; literature\u0022;s:4:\u0022path\u0022;a:2:{s:5:\u0022alias\u0022;s:27:\u0022\/topics\/language-literature\u0022;s:8:\u0022langcode\u0022;s:2:\u0022en\u0022;}}i:1;a:3:{s:3:\u0022tid\u0022;s:5:\u002259644\u0022;s:4:\u0022name\u0022;s:8:\u0022#culture\u0022;s:4:\u0022path\u0022;a:2:{s:5:\u0022alias\u0022;s:14:\u0022\/topic\/culture\u0022;s:8:\u0022langcode\u0022;s:2:\u0022en\u0022;}}}","field_cover_display":"default","image_title":"","image_alt":"","image_360_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/360_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=ZsoNNVXJ","image_260_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/260_auto_cover\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=pLlgriOu","image_560_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/560_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=0n3ZgoL3","image_860_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/860_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=ELffe8-z","image_1160_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1160_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=XazO3DM5","field_video_media":"","field_media_video_file":"","field_media_video_embed":"","field_gallery_pictures":"","field_duration":"","cover_height":"991","cover_width":"1000","cover_ratio_percent":"99.1","path":"en\/node\/5688","path_node":"\/en\/node\/5688"}]