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Tuesday 7 April 2009

Tribal Totems and Clan Trees

Trees were of central importance in Gaelic tradition as metaphors, symbols and models for society made manifest in nature. Many kindreds have divine ancestors or legendary founders. Some progenitors in Gaelic tradition have strong tree symbolism or associations. One Celtic tribe of Europe called themselves the Eburones, "people of the yew."

Although it seems to be a late folk-etymology, one tradition about MacNivens of Islay says that they were descended from a child found at the root of a tree, and thus named "Mac Craoibh[e]an (the son of trees)." The Giuthas ("Fir") MacDonalds of Braemar were so named because of the time that clan's founder spent in the woods as a fugitive. There is a kind of pun in the Clan MacLaren's choice of the laurel (Gaelic Labhras) as its clan's badge, referring to the name of its founder.Tribal trees were so important to kings and túatha that some túatha took their names from them. The Feara Bile and Fir na Craeibe of the early first millennium are examples of this.

The association of special tribal trees as tribal symbols, and their use in kingship inauguration, has very ancient roots. Whatever its origin, the clan badges are certainly a well known and used clan epithet in later Scottish Gaelic tradition. After the battle of Inverlochy when the MacDonalds, whose emblem was the heather, beat the Campbells, whose emblem was the gale, or bog myrtle, they boasted that "now the heather was above the [bog myrtle]. Other such metaphors and images based on the badges can be met in Gaelic literature.There are many examples of a clan or túath likened to a tree. One of the most famous warrior bands of early Gaelic literature was called the Craobh Ruadh, the Red Branch (of Ulster). A number of Gaelic tales liken armies to forests, and it is from this Gaelic literary inventory that Shakespeare borrowed the image of Birnam Wood in MacBeth. (... Read More )