Apples in the Mist

Apples in the Mist

There we were… sitting in the front study. I was reading The Mists of Avalon, when I asked the question... “Was there an actual land called Ys?” Ms Moonyak replied, “Yes, there was a mythical Island of Ys.” The story (translated by Christian monks) was that it was submerged by God because of its sinful people. As the city sank, a monk touched the princess with the cross and banished her beneath the sea…. The world began to shift and spin, and we were off on another research adventure!  As it happens she was reading Woman of the Celts, which was hitting on the topic of the “Submerged” Feminine.

What is Submerged Feminine you ask?  In brief, it’s the idea that as patriarchal society emerged in Europe, any power associated with the feminine was suppressed as a threat--often symbolically submerged, in myths of islands ruled by women and frightening women who possessed arcane knowledge, magic, and immortality. Think about mermaids--magical women, living in the unattainable depths of the sea, both attractive and threatening to sailors, who might drown in an attempt to reach them.

Stories about women being somehow dangerous bring to mind the myth of Pandora’s Box (the ancient Greek translates more correctly to “Jar”). Some scholars have pointed out the feminine associations of a box or container, because it is like a symbolic womb, a container of unseen things. Pandora opened her box, thus its secrets were no longer contained and they wreaked havoc on humanity. Talk about your dangerous women! Go, girl power!

Often feminine power is associated with secret and forbidden knowledge. For example, throughout Europe a number of cultural traditions, folk stories, and myths tell of islands of powerful or magical women. Placing these mythical women on islands makes them distant: surrounded by water (itself symbolically female), difficult to get to, separated from everyday existence--after all, the word “isolated” literally means “like an island.”  In The Odyssey, for example, Odysseus is captured and has to outwit not one, but two sorceresses living on islands (Circe and Calypso). In Britain, there is the mystical isle of Avalon, sometimes said to be ruled by nine priestesses including the legendary Morgan LeFey, sister of King Arthur.

Speaking of Avalon, a.k.a. the Isle of Apples, let’s talk about apples and the submerged feminine. A lovely, rounded object with seeds hidden deep within--an apple is a natural symbol of the feminine. It is often associated with magic and the feminine, and often enough, with negative ideas about women.

• In the Hebrew bible’s book of Genesis, the unnamed forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden is an apple in European tradition, because “apple” was a generic word for fruit in Middle English. In this tradition, the original woman brought evil into the human world by eating the fruit of knowledge and sharing it with the first man.  
• Greek mythology captures this same mix of magical apples and feminine troublemaking in the Garden of Hesperides, where the golden apples of immortality grew. The goddess Eris stole one and caused disruption that led to the Trojan War. You may also recall that one of Hercules’ labors was to steal these apples.
• Norse mythology mentions the goddess Idun was the keeper of the golden apples that allowed the gods to remain forever young. By being tricked and kidnapped, Idun causes the gods to grow old. In this story, though, Loki is the bad guy.
• Seven other European fairy tales that begin with lost or stolen apples can be found here:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_apple

HIdden within the fabric of the earth’s languages is an enticing flow weaving apples through time and cultures. These appear in the form of cognate names, but to understand it you first need to know a little about linguistics. Grimm’s law is a complicated linguistic concept developed by Jakob Grimm (one of the Grimm brothers of fairy tale fame). The law shows that, among Indo European languages, there is a predictable way in which consonants can stand in for each other. This means that the words for the same thing in different languages might use different sounds and still be related (“cognate”). In very simplified terms, let’s just say that while any vowels might be used, consonants like “f” and “p” can be interchangeable, as can “d” and “t”-- so, Latin pod becomes foot in English. Other letters can do the same.

Important for this discussion is that “p” can also be “f” or “b” or “v” in different related languages. So, German apfel  and English apple and Welsh afal  and old Irish ubull and Russian yabloko and Lithuanian obuolys and Czech jablko...as you can see, they are very different words, but all contain a vowel followed by the p or f or b or v + l combination. This is how Grimm’s law tells us that all of these words for “apple” came from the same parent language. It’s also how we know that several islands in Europe derive their names from apples.

[To see this linguistic rule in action, take a look at this fascinating interactive map of European languages..although Indo European languages do range beyond Europe, toward the Indian subcontinent.]

Bundling this all up is the aforementioned Isle of Apples, combining the isolated or submerged feminine with the symbol of female troublemaking, the apple. In our search for some supporting evidence of this bundle, we happened upon three examples. Avalon in Britain, in the Irish, Emain Ablach, and in Welsh, Ynys Afallach.  (Yes, there it is Ynys! The Isle of Ys!) Notice the familiar signs of “apple” cognates in these three. A-V-aL-on, A-B-L-ach, and A-Fa-Llach. They are all mythical islands of apples! Additionally, they are all the subjects of myths and tales that they are magical islands inhabited by women. Other mythologized islands of apples include the Isle of Abalum in the Baltic, and an island called Abbella Malifera by the Romans.

There may be a number of conclusions to be drawn from all this, but here we are only presenting some information we have found. It is our fondest wish that our readers will help us continue this interesting intermingling of submerged feminine and islands of apples. Please share your own knowledge in the comments!

Further reading / resources and summaries:

Avalon is often regarded as the realm of the sea god Manannán Mac Lir and associated with either the Isle of Man or the Isle of Arran. Another story locates this an island in the far West, concealed from view by a wall of spray, where the giants kept the golden apples that they had stolen from the gods. Some say it was ruled by Morgan le Fay, leader of nine fairy queens.

Some other names associated with Avalon as identified at http://www.mythologydictionary.com/avalon-mythology.html we have Apple Island, Assysla, Avallo, Avalun, Avilion, Avalloc, Fortunate Isle, Island of Blessed Souls, Isle of Glass, and Orelan.

On the east side of the Baltic in Estonia we have yet another Isle of apples, Isle of Abalum. It is called Oesel in Swedish and Saaremaa in it’s native Estonian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saaremaa “It has been inhabited since 5000 BCE as evidenced by archeological studies.” This area was influenced by the Danes, Finnish, Swedes and its native Virionian tribe was part of the overall Viking collective. This area remained predominantly Pagan until the Northern Crusades from 1147 C.E. through 1410 C.E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crusades. “Through the campaigns of the east Baltic crusades, the pagan world was transformed by military conquest. It underwent defeat, baptism, military occupation and sometimes extermination by Christian groups of Danes, Germans and Swedes.”

In our last example of an Isle of apples we have Abbella Malifera. While researching this we found a link to another name Isle of Abalus. Reseach of this led to Baltia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltia.  Then, yet another reference from the Romans to the Greeks and a renowned explorer from the 3rd century B.C., Pytheas of Massalia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas, who recorded highly values gems in the form of amber.  We tie the whole island-hopping jaunt off as, this is the Isle of Abalum where archaeologists have found natural amber. http://www.eesti.ca/estonian-archaeologist-finds-natural-amber-in-waters-off-saaremaa-island/print37028.

OBOD (Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids) additional material on the Tree Lore of Apples. http://www.druidry.org/library/trees/tree-lore-apple

Works Cited

Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982.

Markale, Jean. Women of the Celts. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, Ltd.,  

1986. [Translated edition, original in French]