Plant Lore of Great Britain - Meadowsweet - The Bittersweet Queen of the Meadow

by Clare Lesley Hughes

For this Lughnasadh edition of Pagans of the North, I wanted to focus on a plant that, to  me, epitomises the heady summer air, rich with fragrance, bright, and abundant. Living in a  rural part of North Yorkshire, I’m surrounded by agricultural fields, their drainage ditches  criss-crossing the land, and at this time of year, those ditches are filled with meadowsweet.  The scent of this plant in bloom perfectly captures the dog days of summer, and therefore,  for this edition, we will explore the folklore of meadowsweet. 

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is a perennial, herbaceous plant in the rose family. It  thrives in damp meadows and grasslands, which explains its abundance in drainage  ditches. A striking plant, it produces clouds of tightly clustered, creamy-white flowers with a  sweet, almond-like scent. Its dark green and silvery grey leaves release a sharper, more  medicinal fragrance. This combination of strong scents leads us to one of its well-recorded  uses: that of a strewing herb. Strewing herbs, typically aromatic plants, were scattered  across the floors of bedchambers and banquet halls, and when trodden on, released their  scent, serving both an aromatic and medicinal purpose. Strewed herbs were a popular  feature from the 16th century onward, and meadowsweet was said to have been a  particularly favourite plant of Queen Elizabeth I for this purpose. 

So distinct are the scents of the flowers and leaves that the plant gained the colloquial  name Courtship and Marriage. The sweet, intoxicating flowers are said to symbolise the  bliss of courtship, while the sharper scent of the leaves represents the more sober reality  of marriage. Other evocative local names for the plant include Bittersweet (Yorkshire),  Farewell Summer (Dorset), and Goat’s Beard (Devon). Two other traditional names,  Meadsweet and Bridewort, refer to its use in brewing and weddings, respectively. But my  favourite remains: Queen of the Meadow. 

Long before the Elizabethan age, meadowsweet was considered sacred. It is mentioned  as one of the three most important Druidic herbs, alongside vervain and water mint.  Archaeological evidence suggests it played a role in burial rituals; it was found in a Welsh  Bronze Age cairn among the remains of humans and animals. In Welsh mythology, the  goddess Blodeuwedd, a complex figure of creation, betrayal, and transformation, was  made from flowers, including meadowsweet. Created solely to be a wife and companion,  Blodeuwedd’s name means “flower-faced.” For her eventual betrayal of her husband, she  was transformed into an owl. 

Meadowsweet also holds a prominent place in the history of medicine. In 1838, salicylic  acid was first extracted from its buds, later leading to the development of aspirin as we  know it. Traditionally, meadowsweet has been used to treat diarrhoea, indigestion, coughs,  and colds. It was also a component of Four Thieves Vinegar, a vinegar and herb  concoction used during the Black Death plague to ward off the disease. The effectiveness  of this concoction is thought to be due to its antimicrobial and flea repellent properties.  

Magically, it appears in love potions and spells. During Lughnasadh celebrations, it was  woven into garlands and said to unite the wearer with the Great Goddess. Its associations  with peace and inner strength would no doubt have been welcome as the wheel turned  toward autumn and life began its inward spiral toward winter. Yet meadowsweet has a  shadow side, too. In some traditions, it is considered unlucky, perhaps due to its pale 

flowers, which, like many white blossoms, can symbolise sorrow or emptiness. In Welsh  folklore, it is said that anyone who sleeps in a room with meadowsweet, or a field full of it,  will inevitably die. Meadowsweet also has oracular powers, and if something has been  stolen, it can be used to determine whether the thief was male or female (a sprig in water  will float to denote a female and sink to denote a male).  

As I close this article, I’m struck by the dual nature of meadowsweet, its light and dark  aspects and its sweet and sharp flowers and foliage echoing the figure of Blodeuwedd and  the festival of Lughnasadh itself. Blodeuwedd was created to be the perfect wife, light and  beautiful, and literally made from flowers. When she was punished for her rebellion, she  was transformed into a creature of the night, ‘doomed’ to live in darkness. Similarly, with  Lughnasadh, we are simultaneously at the height of summer’s warmth and abundance and  also facing the cold and dark of autumn and winter that are soon to be upon us. Therefore,  the message from meadowsweet could be seen as one of acceptance. Life can exist  sometimes as a dichotomy, and we must accept both sweetness and bitterness, the light  and the dark.  

Wishing you all a blessed Lughnasadh. 

Bibliography 

Grieve, M. and Leyel, C.F., 1994. A Modern Herbal, The medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and  economic properties, cultivation and folklore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees  with all their modern scientific uses. Tiger Books International, Mackays of Chatham, PLC,  Chatham, Kent. 

Hatfield, G., 2009. Hatfield's Herbal: The Curious Stories of Britain's Wild Plants. Penguin  UK. 

Mount, T., 2015. Dragon's Blood & Willow Bark: The Mysteries of Medieval Medicine.  Amberley Publishing Limited. 

Vickery, R., 2019. Vickery's Folk Flora: An A-Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish  Plants. Hachette UK.