Folklore of the Day

[Amy Wilson]

Greetings, friends!


FOLKLORE OF THE DAY:

The Legend of the Bile Tree

The bile tree (plural: "bili") is the sacred tree of the ancient Celts, who 
believed that elemental spirits or gods inhabited the bili. The Celts also
associated the trees with the divine right of kings and the divinity of their
rulers.

The bile was the Celtic "king's tree," from which the king's scepter was made.
 The Celts believed in the separability of souls; their king's soul lived in
the tree.  This belief is echoed in folktales in which a monster must be
slain, but in order to kill him, the hero must quest to find the hiding place
of the monster's soul.  The monster himself is safe from harm as long as his
soul remains hidden and unharmed.  

The Celtic kings were considered immortal and physically invulnerable, because
their bodies and souls were separate.  They could be killed only if the soul
tree was chopped down.  Cutting a bile tree, or taking its leaves or branches,
was sacrilegious, since the soul of the king was bound up in the tree.  To
kill the tree was also to kill the king.

In Ireland today, an ancient or oddly shaped tree is considered sacred and
called a "bile."  Such trees are considered good luck to pray under, and are
still given offerings.

Cheers,
Catelin the Patient
"joyful noise"