Literrata: A note on native foodways in the British Isles vs. foods introduced by Romans

Thursday, February 18, 2021

A note on native foodways in the British Isles vs. foods introduced by Romans

I read an interesting post in a Facebook group, British Medieval History, on foodways where someone said, “Introduced by the Romans to Britain: Apples, asparagus, turnips, peas, garlic, cabbages, onions, leeks, cucumbers, artichokes, figs, chestnuts, cherries, celery, wine, plums, etc...”

The list struck me as wrong. I was off and running when I saw that the thread commentor, Paul Davis had credited the Romans with bringing apples to the British Isles. I told him, I suspect if you dig deeper you’ll find that apples were not introduced by the Romans.

Specific species of apples, cabbage and onions, probably were probably introduced, but apples, kales, and wild onions too were part of the northern European Neolithic landscape. And there were plenty of native brassicas as well. Don’t forget the color woad comes from a brassica.

Cabbage was domesticated in Western Europe ca. 1000 BC, probably by the Celts. Brassica is from from bresic, a Celtic word for cabbage. Whether native or feral, brassica species favored the white limestone cliffs of Dover, and the Isle of Wight. Brassica oleracea has successfully crossed with native brassica species so it’s impossible to tell them apart. And then there’s another continental shared species, arbutus, or strawberry tree, native to Ireland, but curiously not to Britain.

I am no botanist or scientist, but I did extensive research on apples, because the information struck me as wrong that apples were introduced to the British Isles via Rome, via Kazakhstan. Also, apples, specifically crabapples, played a significant central role in Irish and Welsh mythology. Then there’s Avalon, the isle of apples. The reason being that certain plant species were circumpolar, such as the corylus, rosids, vaccinium, malus, prunus, brassicaceae and allium—sort of like reindeer/caribou, foxes, etc., so no one region can claim species origin.

And yes, it seems that there are also indigenous wild plums and other stonefruits in the British Isles, since the Neolithic era, as well as blackberries and raspberries. Hazelnuts were another main food source as well as oak acorns. The Inner Hebridean Isle of Collinsay is literally the Isle of Hazelnuts, a Neolithic era site, with a vast midden of fossilized hazelnuts dating from 6000 BCE. In Irish, the word for hazel, is coll. I refer back to the Neolithic era specifically because it thoroughly establishes a native species link, and also seriously predates the Roman era!

I had the temerity (cheekiness) to quote myself from an earlier blogpost (after all, I had already done my homework):

Despite popular belief, wild apples were already in the British Isles long before the Romans arrived (they just brought bigger apples). Circa 98 AD, Roman historian Gaius Tacitus reported that the Briton Druid Ovates carried silver apple boughs with bronze, silver, or gold bells.

And in Ireland, Otherworld apples also feature prominently in Echtrae Chonnlai which was recorded in the 8th or 9th c., but it's a much older tale. And in The Song of Wandering Aengus, Yeats made famous the lines lifted from Irish folklore, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.

But the wild apple was native to the British Isles long before the Romans, or Christianity reached its shores. In fact, there is evidence that wild apples grew wild in Ireland and Britain during the Neolithic era.

The word apple is embedded in many insular place-names that predate Roman occupation. Anglesey, the Isle of Apples, Avalon. Anglesey (Ynys Môn) was sometimes called Afallach, or a place rich in apples. Geoffrey of Monmouth called the island Insule Ponorum, or the island of the apples. In Immram Brain, a síd woman gives Bran a silver branch in white bloom—a cróeb dind abaill a hEmain, or ‘a branch from the apple-tree of Emain. Emain Macha was sometimes called Emain Ablach. –The Apple in Early Irish Narrative.

When I was in the Ukraine, I was struck by how similar the word apple яблоко or yablacko in Russian is to the Irish (genitive) Ablach, clearly a shared Indo-European ancestry. more here

At first it was thought that plums were introduced to Britain during the Crusades, but “ the name ‘bullace’ in English is cognate with its Celtic counterparts: e.g., the Welsh: ‘bwlas’ (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (A dictionary of the Welsh language) 1953), Old Breton: ‘bolos’ (Troude, 1842: 437) and Irish ‘bulistair’ (O’Reilly 1821), each of which it is assumed has origins predating the crusades.” ... Of the native trees of Britain available as rootstocks, apparently the most compatible would have been Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)” ... “a common sight in many a British hedgerow, the Blackthorn is native throughout the British Isles.” Source Wild Plant Foods of Britain, and from Woodland Trust on native trees of the UK.

And there we have it, a stonefruit native to the British Isles, the blackthorn. And don’t forget Irish shillelaghs were made of draigen, or blackthorn. Quite possibly ancient hurley, or camán sticks as well. The earliest written reference to hurling is mentioned in Brehon Law statutes. Heroes Cúchulainn and Fionn Mac Cumhail played a rough game.

But wait, there’s more. In Ireland, there are also two species of native wild cherry. Prunus avium, aka the gean tree, and the Prunus padus, or the bitter bird cherry. True, that only Ireland has native stands of arbutus, caithne, or strawberry tree, while Britain doesn’t, it also stands to reason that that native wild cherries also existed in Britain. I did find another British reference, Woodland Trust, that lists wild cherries as native. There is also archaeological evidence of wild cherries dating back to Bronze Age Britain, 2000 BCE.

According to the ancient Irish Brehon Law, the Bretha Comaithchesa, the blackthorn, or draigen was listed as a Fodla Fedo, or a lower division of trees, that is, shrubs, whereas the wild cherry, or idath, was an Aithig Fedo, or commoner tree. The aball, or wild apple was an Airig Fedo, a noble, or chieftain tree with specific legal rights. (Tree list here). In other Irish law tracts, the blackthorn held equal status as the apple. A rather significant position for a supposed non-native species. In some cases, the felling of a chieftain tree for firewood carried the same fine as slaying a human—two and a half milk cows. How that extra half-cow fine was paid is anyone’s guess.

One could argue that the apple and stonefruit trees were introduced species to the British Isles because the texts of the Féineachas, or Brehon Law were not transcribed until the 7th to the 12th cs., when they were interrupted by the introduction of Norman law, but the tracts are significantly older, as Ireland’s history was transmitted via a complex oral tradition. Ireland’s secular legal texts, the Corpus Iuris Hibernici, translated from Old Irish by D. A. Binchy, (UCC) are considered to be the oldest codified legal system in Europe. Many ancient Welsh legal tracts mirror the Irish Brehon Laws. Trees were so important in Ireland, that ancestral clans were associated with them, and most placenames were named after trees.

Sufficiently hosed, poor Paul Davis squeaked Nuncle! and admitted he didn’t verify his source. He took it at face value—this, in a group where everybody rips each other new ones for the slightest infraction of history. With profound apologies to Paul, for without his comment, this blogpost wouldn’t have come into being. But I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to delve deeper into that reference. It’s too easy to snag a “fact” off the internet, and then blithely post it without challenging your sources. If I’ve learned anything, it’s to follow my gut hunch, and to alway challenge my sources. Argue with myself. You know the old saying, two Irishmen, three opinions.