LL-L "Delectables" 2003.11.08 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: Thomas byro <thbyro at earthlink.net>
Subject: LL-L "Delectables" 2003.11.07 (01) [E]

Ron

I also have happy memories of the family going berry and mushroom picking
back home.  We stopped mushroom picking when we moved to the states because
the mushrooms looked different and we were afraid of poisoning ourselves.
However, I seem to have passed on the addiction to berry picking to my
children.  My daughter (who recently moved from London to Coventry) reports
picking sloe berries there.  Those I am unfamiliar with.  Are they to be
found in the lowlands?

I once looked up a nutritional analysis of elderberries.  As I recall, they
are high in Potassium, vitamin C and A and  contain potent anti-bacterial
and anti-viral agents.  The elderflowers are a potent immune system
stimulant.  The elder plant thus seems to be a virtual medicine chest.

I seem to recall as a young child singing a song about dancing around the
Hollerbush.  Does this seem at all familiar?

Speaking of elder flowers, I brewed a batch of mead this Summer, flavored
with a lot of elderflowers.  Normally you would boil the flowers but I was
afraid of losing the aroma, so I simply put them in a blender uncooked and
added honey and water.  It seems to have worked out well, although the mead
is going to have to age for at least another six months.

I had a strange experience in picking the flowers.  I found an unusually
beautiful bush and picked a huge amount of flowers.  The thought then
crossed my mind that I should stop because I shouldn't pick all the
flowers.  HoweverI spotted an unusually beautiful bunch of flowers and
pushed against the bush to get at them.  As I did so, a dead pointed branch
went "sproing" and pocked me on my forehead, right over my eye.  Any lower
and I might have lost my eye.  I decided that maybe I had enough.  However,
upon climbing the embankment to get back to my car, I saw another beautiful
bunch of flowers that I had missed and climbed back down to get them.  The
same thing happened, with another dead pointed branch pocking me in exactly
the same spot on my forehead.  I then decided that I definitely had enough
and left.  It is allmost enough to make one superstitious.

In regard to breaking the wood of an elderberry bush, I would never dream
of molesting the bush in such a way.  However, I had read that the wood
contains a poison.  People have gotten sick from applying it to their mouth
(such as by using the wood to make flutes and peashooters).

Yes, the elder is a bush here but a tree in the lowlands, but the taste is
the same.

Has the art of brewing mead totally dissappeared from the lowlands?  It
seems to have been a prominent feature of our ancestor's lives.  The Elder
Edda mentions how Sif, Thor's wife, handed Loki a horn of old mead.  A
British mead making book mentions an incident where the daughter of either
Hengist or Horsa handed the British king Vortigern a horn of mead and
wished him "Wacht Heil"  The book stated that Wacht Heil later became
"Wassail."

Tom Byro

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Delectables

Thanks, Tom!

Yeah, beware the wrath of Frau Holle!

> I seem to recall as a young child singing a song about dancing around the
> Hollerbush.  Does this seem at all familiar?

I know it in German, which may be the only version, and it's sung to the
tune of "Ring around the rosies" and "performed" in a circle:

   Ringel-rangel Rosen,
   Schöne Aprikosen,
   Veilchen und Vergissmeinicht.
   Alle kleinen Kinder setzen sich,
   setzen sich in'n Holderbusch,
   machen alle husch, husch, husch.

   (Ring around the rosies,
   lovely apricosies,
   violets, forget-me-nots.
   All little children sit down,
   sit down in [= under] the elder bush,
   and they all go whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.)

Participants first dance in a circle, then crouch and finally jump up and
hop.

(I had posted this a while back.)

We little ones would overcompensate (LS > German) by saying _Apfrikosen_,
which later deteriorated to _Afrikosen_ (along the lines of 'horse': LS
_peyrd_ = German _Pferd_ = Missingsch _Ferd_).  Some kids said _Apfelkosen_
(cf. LS _appel_ = German _Apfel_ 'apple').

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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