#yard tree

Part 1 of 3 about trees in the Scandinavian and esp. Swedish folk tradition! In Swedish.

ETA:

Hei hei!

I don’t know about Iceland at all, but in Norway it has been custom to have an offering tree, either in the yard or on the burial mounds, often where the ancestral father or the person who cleared the land and built the first farm was buried.

It was customary to take signs from the tree to divine the health and prosperity of the farm and its inhabitants, and as long as it was not harmed in any way, the farm and its people were protected against things like disease and misfortune.

People made offerings by the foot of the tree on many occasions, for instance, for luck with the brewing or to give thanks when a cow had calved or in remembrance of a deceased loved one. Also weekly - or more often - offerings are mentioned, iirc. The most common offering was milk or beer. It was also given food offerings on the bigger holidays, especially jul. During the outdoor spring cleaning, old leaves and other debris were raked to the foot of the tree, where also the used malt after brewing was poured. All this had the natural effect that the offering tree grew bigger and healthier than any other trees.

The most commonly found offering tree in general is a linden, maple, ash, elm or - in the mountains where I’m from and further north - birch or rowan. Occasionally you can also find oak, and even pine has been known as offering tree. The most common words for such a tree - directly translated - are yard-tree, offering-tree, wight-tree, thurs-birch and wight-birch. I’m sure there are a lot more.