The People's Songbag Lily Of The Valley

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 5

The People's Songbag Lily Of The Valley

'Specially written for "The

Press” by

DERRICK ROONEY)

fiONVALLARIA MAJALIS, the lily of the valley, that favourite of Victorian times, grew, according to an old Sussex legend, from the blood shed by St Leonard when he fought and conquered a dragon in the forest still known as St Leonard's Forest But its name goes back much further—as far as Solomon, in fact. “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley,” he sang, and although Solomon's lily of the valley is now considered to have been an anenome or a hyacinth, the same has stuck to the flower our grandparents considered an emblem of humility. The name Convallaria is believed to have been given to it by Linnaeus, who took it from the Latin word for a valley. Its older Latin name, Lillium convallium, is a direct translation from the Hebrew of Canticle 2, verse 1. “Majalis” simply means “flowering in May” (OctoberNovember here, of course), and “May lily” is one of its country names in England. Others, include “ladders to heaven,” “Our Lady’s tears,”

“liriconfancie” (a corruption of the Latin name), and “mugget,” presumably a corruption of the French name, “muguet.”

Its significance in folk-song is limited, but in folk-lore it is important both as part of the St Leonard legend and as one of the main flowers in the traditional May festivals in Cornwall. Curiously enough, in spite of its reputation as an emblem of humility it is often associated with celebrations and holidays, both in Britain and Europe. It has also been associated with a complaint which, in the public mind, was a byproduct of festivities: gout "The floures of. May lillies put into a glasse, and set in a hill of ants, close stopped for the space of a moneth. and then taken out, therein

you shall finde a liquor ■ that appeaseth the ■ paine and griefe of the goute, being outwardly applied,” wrote the famous herbalist, John Gerard. He, and the other herbalists of his time, set great stock by lily of the valley. Nicholas Culpeper wrote that, “It is under the dominion of Mercury, and therefore strengthens the brain. The distilled water dropped into eyes helps inflammation there. The spirit of the flowers distilled in wine restores speech, helps the palsy, and is good in the apoplexy, and comforts the heart and vital spirits." Gerard added that the flowers, distilled in wine, helped to restore speech to sufferers from the “dumb palsie,” and strengthened “the memory that is weakened and diminished.” Matthiolas, the famous Italian herbalist, considered the water distilled from the blossoms so precious that he called it “aqua aurea” (water of gold) and kept it in golden vessels. But it is not recommended that readers follow the receipes of the herbalists; the plant is poisonous.