Slavic mythology In old pagan
Slavic mythology, the linden (
lipa, as called in all
Slavic languages) was considered a sacred tree. In Poland, the village of
Święta Lipka, which literally means "Sacred Lime Tree", has
a shrine and is a
pilgrimage destination. To this day, the tree is a
national emblem of the
Czech Republic,
Slovakia,
Slovenia, and of the
Sorbs in
Lusatia.
Lipa gave name to the traditional Slavic name for the month of June (
Croatian,
lipanj) or July (
Polish,
lipiec, Ukrainian "lypen'/липень"). It is also the root for the German city of
Leipzig, taken from the
Sorbian name
lipsk. The former
Croatian currency,
kuna, consisted of 100 lipa (Tilia). "Lipa" was also a proposed name for Slovenian currency in 1990, however the name "
tolar" ultimately prevailed. In the Slavic
Orthodox Christian world, limewood was the preferred wood for panel
icon painting. The icons by the hand of
Andrei Rublev, including the
Holy Trinity (Hospitality of Abraham), and
The Savior, now in the
State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, are painted on linden wood. Its wood was chosen for its ability to be sanded very smooth and for its resistance to warping once
seasoned. The southern Slovenian village of "
Lipica" signifies little Lime tree and has given its name to the
Lipizzan horse breed.
Baltic mythology In
Baltic mythology, there is an important goddess of fate by the name of
Laima /laɪma/, whose sacred tree is the lime. Laima's dwelling was a
lime-tree, where she made her decisions as a
cuckoo. For this reason Lithuanian women prayed and gave sacrifices under lime-trees asking for luck and fertility. They treated lime-trees with respect and talked with them as if they were human beings.
Germanic mythology ,
Jutland, Denmark The linden was also a highly symbolic and hallowed tree to the
Germanic peoples in their native
pre-Christian Germanic mythology. Originally, local communities assembled not only to celebrate and dance under a linden tree, but to hold their judicial
thing meetings there in order to restore justice and peace. It was believed that the tree would help unearth the truth. Thus the tree became associated with
jurisprudence even after
Christianization, such as in the case of the
Gerichtslinde, and verdicts in rural Germany were frequently returned
sub tilia (Unter der linden) until the
Age of Enlightenment. In the
Nibelungenlied, a medieval German work ultimately based on oral tradition recounting events amongst the Germanic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries,
Siegfried gains his invulnerability by bathing in the blood of a dragon. While he did so, a single linden leaf sticks to him, leaving a spot on his body untouched by the blood and he thus has a single point of vulnerability. The most notable street in Berlin, Germany, is called
Unter den Linden, named after the trees lining the
avenue. It leads from the center of Berlin to
Potsdam, the country residence of the Prussian kings. In German folklore, the linden tree is the "tree of lovers". The well-known
Middle High German poem
Under der linden by
Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1200) describes a tryst between a maid and a knight under a linden tree. Commentary on the folk song "
Liebesprobe" states, "The linden tree plays a key role in these songs; at eventide, the lovers caress in its shade, it is their favourite tree, and perhaps for the reason that the linden leaf has the shape of a human heart."
Hohenlinden (translated as "High linden") is a community in the upper Bavarian district of
Ebersberg in which the
Battle of Hohenlinden took place;
Thomas Campbell wrote the poem "Hohenlinden" about said battle.
Greek mythology Homer,
Horace,
Virgil, and
Pliny mention the linden tree and its virtues. As
Ovid tells the old story of
Baucis and Philemon, she was changed into a linden and he into an
oak when the time came for them both to die.
Herodotus says: "The
Scythian diviners take also the leaf of the linden tree, which, dividing into three parts, they twine round their fingers; they then unbind it and exercise the art to which they pretend.
Philyra, mother of the centaur
Chiron, turned into a linden tree after bearing Chiron.
In northern China For a long time, in northern
China, because there is no
Bodhi tree, the sacred tree of
Buddhism, and the leaf shape of the "椴樹/Tilia" tree is similar to that of Bodhi tree, it was planted in temples to replace the sacred Bodhi tree. They are also often called Bodhi trees, just like the two
Tilia trees next to the 英華殿/Yinghua Dian—the place where the empress dowager, empress and concubines
worship Buddha—in the
Forbidden City in Beijing, planted by Empress Dowager Li, the biological mother of
Wanli Emperor about five hundred years ago.
Qianlong Emperor of the
Qing dynasty even wrote two poems for them: "菩提树诗/The Poem of the Bodhi Tree (in the Yinghua Dian)" and "菩提树歌/The Song of the Bodhi Tree (in the Yinghua Dian)", and carved them on stone tablets and placed them in the stele pavilion in front of the Yinghua Dian.
Literary references J. R. R. Tolkien composed the poem "
Light as Leaf on Lindentree" which was originally published in 1925 in volume 6 of
The Gryphon magazine. After many emendations it was later included in
The Lord of the Rings as a song sung by
Aragorn about the tale of
Beren and Lúthien. A play called
The Linden Tree (1947) was written by Bradford-born English novelist, playwright and broadcaster
J. B. Priestley.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge features linden trees as an important symbol in his poem "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" (written 1797; first published 1800). Several of the short poems () of Polish poet
Jan Kochanowski feature the linden. His "Na Lipę" ("To The Tilia Tree"), published in 1584, was inspired by a much-favoured tree on his country estate at
Czarnolas. Kochanowski contemplated, rested and wrote in its shade, and offered refreshment to guests under its shelter, and these moments were all represented in his poetry. A poem from
Wilhelm Müller's
Winterreise cycle of poems is called "Der Lindenbaum" ("The Linden Tree"). In 1827,
Franz Schubert wrote the famous
song cycle "
Winterreise" (D 911) based on these poems. In
Thomas Mann's novel
The Magic Mountain, a recording of this song cycle is an important plot device and philosophical touchstone.
Hans Christian Andersen's short story "The Elf of the Rose" mentions a linden tree and its leaves frequently. In
The Grimm Brothers' fairy tale
The Frog Prince, the princess drops her golden ball into the pond while sitting under a linden tree.
Goethe's
The Sorrows of Young Werther features a linden tree throughout the novel, and the protagonist, Werther, is buried under the tree after his suicide. In ''
Swann's Way'', the first book of
Proust's
In Search of Lost Time, the narrator dips a
petite madeleine into a cup of lime-blossom tea. The aroma and taste of cake and tea triggers his first conscious involuntary memory. "
The Three Linden Trees" is a 1912 fairy tale by
Hermann Hesse strongly influenced by the Greek legend of
Damon and Pythias. The story, set in the medieval period, tries to explain three huge linden trees whose branches intertwine to cover the entire cemetery of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Berlin (see
The Complete Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse).
John Updike's novel
The Centaur, like
James Joyce in
Ulysses, uses myth in an attempt to turn a modern and common scene into something more profound, a meditation on life and man's relationship to nature and eternity. In it Updike parallels the lives of modern characters with the
Greek myth in which
Chiron's mother
Philyra transforms into a linden tree to escape the shame of giving birth to a seemingly mutant half-horse, half-man as a result of her being raped by
Cronus. The lime tree is referred to in the 1953 story "
The Man Who Planted Trees" by
Jean Giono. The unnamed narrator of the story re-visits a once abandoned and desolate village around which the man referenced by the books title (Elzéard Bouffier) has planted a forest over a period of 40 years. He returns to find by the fountain: "I saw that there was indeed a fountain, that it was abundant, and, which touched me most, that someone had planted a lime tree next to it, which might already have been four years old, already thick; an undeniable symbol of resurrection.
Eminescu's Linden Tree () is a 500-year-old silver lime situated in
Iași, Romania.
Mihai Eminescu reportedly wrote some of his best works underneath this lime, rendering the tree one of Romania's most important natural monuments and an Iași landmark.
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the song
"Linden Lea" in the 1900s.
In the coat of arms The coat of arms of
Mariehamn features lime tree leaves, referring to the local tree plant.
In popular culture O-Zone's 2003 song "
Dragostea din tei" (Love from the Linden) is titled after the tree.
Trevor Hall's 2009 song "The Lime Tree" was named for the tree and is based on
Ovid's narration of
Baucis and Philemon and the poem "
Under der linden" by
Walther von der Vogelweide.
In surnames In Sweden, where the lime tree is named "Lind", the 100 most common surnames in 2015 included at 17 Lindberg (Lime-hill), at 21 Lindström (Lime-stream), at 22 Lindqvist (Lime-twig), at 23 Lindgren (Lime-branch), and at 99 Lindholm (Lime-island). ==References==