Elder tree
The elder tree was treated with caution in northern European lore: in Denmark an Elder-mother was said to live in it, and people in Copenhagen and Pembrokeshire asked the tree's permission before cutting.
What it may mean
Elder lore keeps returning to one idea: ask first. In Copenhagen people would not cut an elder without saying, "Elder, elder, may I cut thy branches?" and went ahead only if no rebuke came. In Pembrokeshire you had to ask the tree's permission, according to one record, and a forager in West Yorkshire was told the same as recently as 2025. Behind the words stood the Danish idea of an Elder-mother living inside, ready to avenge any injury to her tree. Whatever one makes of spirits, the habit builds a pause into the act of taking from something that has served you. The pause is still worth borrowing before you draw on the time, goodwill or help of others.
Depending on how you saw it
No cradle of elder
Danes thought it unsafe to make furniture of elder, and said an elf would tug at the legs of a baby laid in an elder cradle until it was taken out. Which material, habit or place do you keep away from your most precious things?
A cross of elder on a grave
In the Tyrol, an elder bush trimmed into a cross was set on a new grave, and if it blossomed, the soul was believed to be in Paradise. What do you watch for as a sign that someone is at peace?
Judas' ears on the bark
The rubbery brown fungus on elder bark was called Judas' ear, from the old tale that Judas hanged himself on an elder, though the herbalist Gerard, quoted by Brand, put the tale on a different tree. Which name have you heard that carries a whole legend inside it?
Why it happens in nature
Elder, Sambucus nigra, is a small, fast-growing tree of hedges and woodland edges. Its creamy flowers appear from late May and become small purple-black berries by late summer, eaten by birds and small mammals such as dormice. Bruised leaves smell unpleasant, and young stems are filled with soft white pith, which children once pushed out to make popguns.
What folk beliefs say
Denmark
In Copenhagen, people would not cut down an elder without first saying, "Elder, elder, may I cut thy branches?" If no rebuke was heard, they spat three times and went ahead. Danes also believed an Elder-mother living in the tree avenged any injury done to it.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 783. View the page
Wales (Pembrokeshire)
In Pembrokeshire, a contributor told the plant-lore archive in 2004, you had to ask the elder's permission before cutting it.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Elder (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
Austria (Tyrol)
In the Tyrol, an elder bush trimmed into the form of a cross was set on a new grave; if it blossomed, the soul of the dead was believed to be in Paradise.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 783. View the page
Sweden
In Sweden, the Daniels and Stevans encyclopedia says, expectant mothers kissed the elder tree for good fortune in the coming birth.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 782. View the page
England (17th-century herbals)
Gerard's Herbal, quoted by Brand, said the Arbor Judae was thought to be the tree Judas hanged himself on, "and not upon the elder-tree, as it is vulgarly said"; the fungus on elder was called Judas' ears from the same tale.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (1849), vol. 3, p. 283. View the page
Britain
In Britain it was believed that burning elder wood would make you see the Devil, while planting elder by your house would keep the Devil away, according to the Woodland Trust.
Source: Woodland Trust, Elder (Sambucus nigra), A-Z of British trees (n.d.), www.woodlandtrust.org.uk. View the page
To reflect on
Which help from someone have you simply assumed, without ever asking for it?