MOUNTAIN ASH 45 
drunks, Keer, Quickbeam, Quicken, Rantree, Ranty Berries, Rawn, 
Roantree, Roddin Tree, Wicken or Wicen Tree, Wickey, Wiggin, 
Witchwood, Witchen or Witchin, Witty-tree, Wychen, Rowan, Rown- 
tree, Roynetree, Sap-tree, Wild Service, Quickband, Twickbine, 
Whicken, Whistle Wood, White Ash, Whitty-tree. 
The Rowan was called Witchwood from a virtue it was supposed 
to possess against witchcraft. It is named Mountain Ash from a 
resemblance between its leaves and those of the Ash. It was called 
Cock-drunks because it was supposed to intoxicate fowls. The name 
Fowler’s Service was given because the berries were used to bait 
blackbirds. 
This tree is said in Iceland to spring up when the innocent are put to 
death. It was thought to be a powerful check on the works of darkness. 
“The spells were vain, the hag returned 
To the green in sorrowful mood, 
Crying that witches have no power 
Where there is a rown tree wood.” 
People even carry a twig of Rowan in the pocket in Yorkshire as 
a sort of talisman. A tale runs as follows:— 
‘A woman was lately in my shop, and pulling out her purse 
brought out also a piece of stick a few inches long. I asked her why 
she carried that in her pocket. ‘Oh!’ she replied, ‘I must not lose that 
or I shall be done for.’ ‘Why so?’ I enquired. ‘Well,’ she answered, 
‘T carry that to keep off the witches; while I have that about me they 
cannot hurt me.’ On my adding that there were no witches nowadays, 
she instantly replied: ‘Oh, yes, there are thirteen at this very time in 
the town, but so long as I have my rowan tree safe in my pocket they 
cannot hurt me.’” 
If a dairymaid could not quickly make butter she stirred the churn 
with a rowan twig, and beat the cow with another to break the witch’s 
spell. Herd boys also drive cattle with a mountain ash twig. 
Rowans often grow near houses. In Norway and Sweden branches 
were put over the stable to drive away witches. 
“Many rains, many rowans; 
Many rowans, many yawns.” 
An ash leaf was invoked for good luck in Cornwall. The Iceland 
people think it the enemy of the juniper. 
This plant was held to be the embodiment of lightning, from which 
it was supposed to have sprung. The scarlet berries have added 
to its mystic charm, red being sacred to Thor. 
