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Silver Branch
Symbol in Irish mythology and literature

The Silver Branch or Silver Bough is a notable symbol in Irish mythology and literature. It appears prominently in works such as the poem The Voyage of Bran and the narrative Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise. The branch symbolizes passage into the mystical Celtic Otherworld, also known as Tír na nÓg, a realm of eternal youth and enchantment. This emblem highlights themes of otherworldly journeys and the intersection between the mortal realm and the supernatural in Celtic lore.

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Literary examples

Voyage of Bran

In Imram Brain ("Voyage of Bran"), the silver apple branch with white apple blossoms was brought to Bran mac Febail by a mysterious woman, who disclosed that the branch of white silver (Irish: findargat) was from Emain (or Emne), presumably the land where she hailed from. After singing verses describing her land as the place of delight (with poetic names such as the "Plain of White Silver"); thereafter she slipped away, and the branch sprang back to her, with Bran having no power to keep it in his grasp.1 Bran then mounted on a voyage and reached the Land of Women (Tír inna m-Ban),2 which is Emain, at least according to some commentators.34 Some other commentators venture the silver branch Bran saw originated in Emain Ablach,5 even though that extended form does not appear in the text of the Imram Brain.6

The land of the branch turned out to be some sort of "Otherworld", for even though Bran and his crew believed they tarried at the Land of Women for a year, it turned out to be many years, even centuries, so that when they approached Ireland, they learned that they had become ancient history, and a member who tried to set foot on land turned into ashes.78

Eleanor Hull wrote a paper drawing parallel between this silver branch and the golden bough of Roman legend which was required for entry into the Underworld (Pluto).9 In like manner, the branch (silver or otherwise) is an object given to a human invited by a denizen of the Otherworld to visit his/her realm, offering "a clue binding the desired one to enter".10 One of the paralleling examples was the branch seen by Bran.11

Though not a genuine Celticist, to quote W. H. Evans-Wentz, "the silver branch of the sacred apple-tree bearing blossoms.. borne by the Fairy Woman is a passport to Tír n-aill (the Celtic Otherworld)".12

Cormac's adventure

A magical silver branch with three golden apples belonged to the sea deity Manannán mac Lir and was given to the high king Cormac mac Airt in the narrative Echtra Cormaic or "Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise". The sea god initially visited Cormac's ramparts (at Tara) as an unidentified warrior from a land "wherein there is nought save truth, and there is neither age nor decay nor gloom", etc., later identified as the Land of Promise (Tír Tairngire). The branch created magical soporific music that assuaged those afflicted with injury or illness to sleep, including "women in child-bed".1314

In a variant text under the title "How Cormac mac Airt Got his Branch",15 the same object is not described as a silver branch, but rather a "glittering fairy branch with nine apples of red gold".161718

Here, the branch possessed the additional ability make people forget their woes.19 Cormac bargained his wife and children away to obtain the branch, and when the wife and daughter learn of this to their utter disheartening, Cormac jiggles the branch to cause their sorrows to depart.20 This ability is reminiscent of the grief-soothing lapdog Petit Crû and its jingling bell in Tristan and Isolde, as pointed out by Gertrude Schoepperle.21

Dialogue of the Two Sages

Also, in Immacallam in dá Thuarad, or The Dialogue of the Two Sages, the mystic symbol used by gods, fairies, magicians, and by all initiates who know the mystery of life and death, is thus described as a Druid symbol:–'Neidhe' (a young bard who aspired to succeed his father as chief poet of Ulster), "made his journey with a silver branch over him.222324 The Anradhs, or poets of the second order, carried a silver branch, but the Ollamhs, or chief poets, carried a branch of gold; all other poets bore a branch of bronze."2526

  • The Silver Bough is a work on Celtic folklore by Florence Marian McNeill, a Scottish folklorist.
  • The Silver Branch is the title of the second book in Rosemary Sutcliff's children's book series The Roman Britain Trilogy.27
  • The Silver Bough is also the title of a 1948 novel by Scottish novelist Neil M. Gunn. He references frequently the Silver Bough song sung by the protagonist's landlady and the protagonist has a musical silver bough with gold apples crafted for the landlady's granddaughter
  • The Silver Branch documentary (Katrina Costello) is a celebration of the people and place of the mythical landscape of the Burren. The protagonist (Patrick McCormack) references the Silver Branch myth, in his search for unity, in being part of nature and letting nature work on us to find our place in the world.

Explanatory notes

Bibliography

References

  1. Meyer, Kuno, ed. (1895), Voyage of Bran, vol. 1, London: D. Nutt,¶2-31 (3–30 are quatrain strophes). pp. 1–17 /wiki/Kuno_Meyer ↩

  2. Meyer (1895) ed., "Voyage of Bran" ¶62. pp. 30–31 - Meyer, Kuno, ed. (1895), Voyage of Bran, vol. 1, London: D. Nutt https://archive.org/details/voyageofbransono01meye/page/16/mode/2up ↩

  3. Cook, Arthur Bernard (1906), "The European Sky-God V. The Celts (continued)", Folk-lore, 28, London: 144–145 /wiki/Arthur_Bernard_Cook ↩

  4. Kuno Meyer who edited the text merely footnoted the gloss in the manuscript ".i. nomen regionis", which imparts no further information beyond this being a place name,[4] and noting that the variant Emne in the text is the nominative form.[5] ↩

  5. "Emain Ablach", Mackillop (1998) ed., Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095749390?rskey=SiyUVA&result=2 ↩

  6. Emain Ablach is one of the names of Manannán's dominion in Altram Tige Dá Medar: "Manannan’s house at Emain Ablach"Emain Ablach".[7] ↩

  7. Meyer (1895) ed., "Voyage of Bran" ¶62–65, pp. 30–33 - Meyer, Kuno, ed. (1895), Voyage of Bran, vol. 1, London: D. Nutt https://archive.org/details/voyageofbransono01meye/page/16/mode/2up ↩

  8. Nutt, Alfred "Summary of Bran's Presentment of the Happy Otherworld", "The Happy Otherworld in the Mythico-Romantic Literature of the Irish." Voyage of Bran 1 1421–43 /wiki/Alfred_Nutt ↩

  9. Hull (1901), p. 431. - Hull, Eleanor (December 1901), "The Silver Bough in Irish Legend", Folk-Lore, 12 (4): 431–445, doi:10.1080/0015587X.1901.9719649, JSTOR 1253964 https://books.google.com/books?id=2yTjdVKxQP0C&pg=PA436 ↩

  10. Hull (1901), p. 435. - Hull, Eleanor (December 1901), "The Silver Bough in Irish Legend", Folk-Lore, 12 (4): 431–445, doi:10.1080/0015587X.1901.9719649, JSTOR 1253964 https://books.google.com/books?id=2yTjdVKxQP0C&pg=PA436 ↩

  11. Hull (1901), p. 436. - Hull, Eleanor (December 1901), "The Silver Bough in Irish Legend", Folk-Lore, 12 (4): 431–445, doi:10.1080/0015587X.1901.9719649, JSTOR 1253964 https://books.google.com/books?id=2yTjdVKxQP0C&pg=PA436 ↩

  12. Gregory, Augusta, Lady (1911). "The Silver Branch and the Golden Bough". The Fairy-faith in Celtic countries. London, New York: H. Frowde. pp. 336–337.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) /wiki/Lady_Gregory ↩

  13. This tale exists in several manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; i. e. Book of Ballymote, and Yellow Book of Lecan, as edited and translated by Stokes, in Irische Texts, III. i. 183–229; cf. Voy. of Bran, i. 190 ff.; cf. Le Cycle Myth. Irl., pp. 326–33. ↩

  14. Stokes, Whitley, ed. (1891), "Echtra Cormaic i Tir Tairngiri ocus Ceart Claidib Cormaic" [The Tale of the Ordeals, Cormac’s Adventure in the Land of Promise, and the Decision as to Cormac’s Sword], Irische Texte, vol. 3, S. Hirzel, pp. 185–202 (text); 203–221 (translation); 222–229 (notes) /wiki/Whitley_Stokes_(Celtic_scholar) ↩

  15. Irish: Fághail Chraoibhe Cormai, cross-referenced to (equated with) Echtra Cormaic.[15] ↩

  16. O'Grady, Standish Hayes, ed. (1857), "Faghail Craoibhe Chormaic mhic Airt" [How Cormac mac Airt Got his Branch], Toruigheacht Dhiarmuda Agus Ghrainne, Or The Pursuit After Diarmuid O'Duibhne and Grainne, the Daughter of Cormac Mac Airt, King of Ireland in the Third Century, Transactions of the Ossianic Society 3, pp. 212–229 /wiki/Standish_Hayes_O%27Grady ↩

  17. The manuscript source is unclear for this variant edited and translated by O'Grady's and published by the Ossianic Society. /wiki/Ossianic_Society ↩

  18. Jacob's version is a condensation of the O'Grady translation.[17] Lady Gregory describes Manannán's gift as a "shining branch having nine apples of red gold."[18] ↩

  19. The branch also has the property that "no sorrow or depression could rest upon the person who heard it" in the Book of Fermoy version of "The Finding of Cormac's Branch".[19] /wiki/Book_of_Fermoy ↩

  20. O'Grady, Standish Hayes, ed. (1857), "Faghail Craoibhe Chormaic mhic Airt" [How Cormac mac Airt Got his Branch], Toruigheacht Dhiarmuda Agus Ghrainne, Or The Pursuit After Diarmuid O'Duibhne and Grainne, the Daughter of Cormac Mac Airt, King of Ireland in the Third Century, Transactions of the Ossianic Society 3, pp. 212–229 /wiki/Standish_Hayes_O%27Grady ↩

  21. Schoepperel, Gertrude (1913). Tristan and Isolt : A Study of the Sources of the Romance. Frankfurt am Main: J. Baer. pp. 324–325. /wiki/Gertrude_Schoepperle ↩

  22. Among the early ecclesiastical manuscripts of the so-called Prophecies. ↩

  23. O'Curry (1873) "XXXIV The Musical Branch mentioned in the tale of the 'Dialogue of the Two Sages'". p. 316. - O'Curry, Eugene (1873). "Lecture XXXIV The Musical Branch". On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. Vol. 3. Williams and Norgate. pp. 316–317. https://books.google.com/books?id=2B5aAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA316 ↩

  24. Hull (1901), p. 440. - Hull, Eleanor (December 1901), "The Silver Bough in Irish Legend", Folk-Lore, 12 (4): 431–445, doi:10.1080/0015587X.1901.9719649, JSTOR 1253964 https://books.google.com/books?id=2yTjdVKxQP0C&pg=PA436 ↩

  25. Cf. Hull (1901), pp. 439–40. - Hull, Eleanor (December 1901), "The Silver Bough in Irish Legend", Folk-Lore, 12 (4): 431–445, doi:10.1080/0015587X.1901.9719649, JSTOR 1253964 https://books.google.com/books?id=2yTjdVKxQP0C&pg=PA436 ↩

  26. The Colloquy of the Two Sages. ed. and trans. by Whitley Stokes. Paris: Librairie Emile Bouillon, 1905. – http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/colloquy.html#4 http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/colloquy.html#4 ↩

  27. The Silver Branch (The Roman Britain Trilogy) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312644310 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312644310 ↩