Copyright 2012 by DM Denton
I,
for one,
am inclined
to believe
that fairies
hang up their thimbles
when a sunny day
seems as right for dreams
as a moonlit night
makes for idle hands.
I
would not
go so far
as to say,
because a
fairytale I love,
that there’s anything
but a name—and the
lore of bygone times—
in the name, foxglove.
From Wikipedia:
Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials commonly called foxgloves.
Many suggestions for the derivation of the name “foxglove” have been proffered:
… it seems quite probable that the shape of the flowers suggested the idea of a glove, and that associated with the name of the botanist Fuchs, who first gave it a botanical name, may have been easily corrupted into foxglove. It happens, moreover, the name foxglove is a very ancient one and exists in a list of plants as old as the time of Edward III. The “folks” of our ancestors were the fairies and nothing is more likely than that the pretty coloured bells of the plant would be designated “folksgloves,” afterwards, “foxglove.” In Wales it is declared to be a favourite lurking-place of the fairies, who are said to occasion a snapping sound when children, holding one end of the digitalis bell, suddenly strike the other on the hand to hear the clap of fairy thunder, with which the indignant fairy makes her escape from her injured retreat. In south of Scotland it is called “bloody fingers” more northward, “deadman’s bells” whilst in Wales it is known as “fairy-folks-fingers” or “lambs-tongue-leaves”.
©Artwork and writing, unless otherwise indicated, are the property of Diane M Denton. Please request permission to reproduce or post elsewhere with a link back to bardessdmdenton. Thank you.
bardessdmdenton - author- artist 