Among the Bluebells: Literary Hitchhiking
/“Bluebells are reminders of the very origins of ‘spring,’ the great gush of life.”
Taking a woodland walk among the bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is a wonder to behold and one which we look forward to with excited anticipation every Spring.
Spring reaches its climax at bluebell time, when the southern beechwoods which hang on the Chilterns Hills are flooded by an intoxicating sweet misty haze of shimmering azure blue. “No other kind of wood is flooded – it’s the only word – with blue in quite the same way” writes Richard Mabey (Beechcombings: the narrative of trees, 2007). He adds that “…walking in the green-blue glow is like wandering through an aquarium”.
Forest bathing at its very best!
“I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it.”
The Flower of St George – and the Chilterns!
This great spring spectacle is almost unique to the British Isles as about half the world's population of bluebells grow here. It is no surprise that the Bluebell is one of our nation’s best-loved wildflowers (Plantlife).
Long, slender bluebell leaves break through the soil from January onwards, teasing our expectation and excitement, but it is not until April around St George’s Day that the buds open to reveal the much awaited, arching pendulous blooms. Then, for a few weeks from mid-April to early May, the flower of St George transforms our woodlands into ephemeral seas of shimmering blue.
In days gone by special 'Bluebell Trains' took day-trippers on excursions to see the breathtaking carpets of bluebell in woodlands of the Chiltern Hills. Although bluebells are found throughout Britain, in our humble opinion, the bluebell must surely be the signature flower of the Chilterns!
They come when the cuckoo comes
The fleeting nature of the bluebells is captured by the Welsh poet R Williams Parry in his poem Clychau’r Gog [“cuckoo bells” - Bluebells] (translation: Joseph P Clancy)
“They come when the cuckoo comes
When she goes, they go too
The wild nostalgic scent,
The old enchanting hue.
Arriving, then bidding goodbye,
Ah, but their days are few”
The cuckoo theme is a feature of the many delightful vernacular (common) names for the English bluebell –cuckoo flower, cuckoo’s boots – a reference to the flowers appearing at the same time as the first cuckoos are heard. Other names include, wood hyacinth, wood bell, granfer griggles, witches’ thimbles, lady’s nightcap, fairy flower, culverkeys, Ring-o’-Bells, auld man’s bells, and cra’tae (crow’s toes), crake feet, crow bells, crow leek, dog leek, single gussies.
Falls of Sky
The bluebell, like so many of our treasured wildflowers, has been celebrated in literature over the centuries with rich carpets of bluebells being washed in metaphors of water, flood, sea, mist, and sky.
“And like a skylit water stood
The bluebells in the azured wood”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson noted that bluebell season is a time “when earth and sky become one” and he likened bluebells to “the sky, the blue sky, breaking up through the earth”.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his journal for 1871, mused of bluebells “in falls of sky - colour washing the brows and slacks of the ground with vein-blue”.
The nature writer, Edward Step in the early 1900s portrayed bluebells as “a cloud or mist of blue resting on the earth”.
In her book The Fairy Caravan, Beatrix Potter [1929] pictured a wood in which "The ground beneath the trees was covered with bluebells - as blue as the sea - blue as a bit of sky come down". …“How blue the bluebells were! a sea of soft pale blue; tree behind tree; and beneath the trees, wave upon wave, a blue sea of bluebells.”
In George Orwell’s 1984, it is the wood where “the ground was misty with bluebells” that Winston and Julia would meet to hide-out from the Thought Police.
Graham Joyce, in “Some Kind of Fairy Tale” (2012), finds himself “turned upside down” by Bluebells:
The bluebells made such a pool that the earth had become like water, and all the trees and bushes seemed to have grown out of the water. And the sky above seemed to have fallen down on to the earth floor; and I didn’t know if the sky was the earth or the earth was water. I had been turned upside down.
Enter the Woods with Care
Beguiling our senses, the bluebell haze is one of ethereal enchantment setting our minds adrift, ebbing and flowing through the wood, seductive and intoxicating. But we need to heed the fairy-lore and ‘enter the wood with care’. Folklore has it that the ring of the ‘bells’ calls fairies to gather, but any human who hears that ring will die. Wandering into the bluebells can also lead to enchantment and becoming trapped in a fairy underworld. Some of the dark mythology surrounding the flower is hinted at in this poem from The Lost Words: A Spell Book by authors Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (2017).
Bluebell
Blue flowers at the blue hour –
Late-day light in a bluebell wood.
Under branch, below leaf, billows blue so deep, sea-deep,
Each step is taken in an ocean.
Blue flows at the blue hour: colour is current, undertow.
Enter the wood with care, my love,
Lest you are pulled down by the hue,
Lost in the depths, drowned in blue.
A silent eloquence
Keats, in his poem "Fancy" (1818) called the bluebell the ‘sapphire Queen of the mid-May’, but perhaps the two most cited ‘bluebell’ poems are those by Emily and Anne Bronte:
the bluebell - anne bronte
the bluebell - emily bronte
Bluebell Walks
A walk among the bluebells really does soothe one’s spirit’s care. At this time of year we aim to support the Bluebells Day Centre with a special guided walk through the sumptuous bluebell woods in the Chiltern hills around Henley. The Bluebells Day Centre is a Henley based charity dedicated to supporting Dementia patients and their families.
If you have enjoyed reading this article, you may wish to consider a small donation to Bluebells Day Centre - it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Learn more about bluebells
Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) - Woodland Trust
All photographs in this article were taken by, and remain the copyright of, the author.
