Autumn's Largesse

Kay Broome

Walnuts with Bowl (Photo: Sahand Babali)

We are again at Harvestide, when nut trees begin to drop their fruit. A generous tree with a dark history, walnut’s wood built the grand mansions of the aristocracy, the ships that invaded a new world and fashioned the gun stocks for the many wars against indigenous peoples. As the walnut husk stains the hands with its brown sap, so human greed has stained our past and present.

Walnut Tree, Prince Edward County (Photo: Kay Broome)

Walnut trees illustrate the striking contrasts between wealth and frugality. The Circassian, also called English walnut (Juglans regia), has long been famous for its beautifully grained wood. Since the “discovery” of the Americas, black walnut (J. nigra) has vied with its European cousin for its utility and status. Butternut, also called white walnut (J. cinerea), was however, the working man’s tree. Its wood was softer, durable and easier to shape than that of its cousins. Thus, butternut was used in the making of furniture, wall paneling, beehives and other useful items.  The yellow dye, obtained from the nut and other parts of the tree, was instrumental in the making of “butternut jeans”, common among working men in the 19th century.

    Walnut Tree, West Toronto (Kay Broome)

An Obscure But Important Goddess

The Latin name Juglans means Jove’s (or Jupiter's) nut, so it is no surprise that in Rome, the tree honoured the king of the Gods, who ruled weather, sovereignty and legal matters. But walnut was also sacred to Carmenta, who is relatively unknown to us today. But she was an equally and profoundly important deity – goddess of childbirth and patroness of mothers, children and midwives. In addition, Carmenta was an oracular goddess. Some scholars believe she may originally have been a sibyl or seeress who was later deified. As goddess of new life, Carmenta’s purview included invention and innovation. It was even held that she had created the Latin alphabet.

      Nycostrata Carmenta Inventing the Alphabet, Antoine Dufour, 1504  (Photo: Open Source)

Certainly, walnut is a fitting tree for such a goddess. Its luxurious wood, mighty canopy and unctuous, brain-shaped fruit make it a most appropriate tree for a goddess of fertility, the family and the pursuit of knowledge. The tree’s association with intellect is tied to the ancient belief that walnuts were efficacious for mental health.  The nutmeats of the English walnut in particular, closely resemble a human brain. Thus, by dint of the homeopathic doctrine of signatures, or “like healing like”, walnut was deemed capable of curing diseases of the mind. Interestingly, there is some veracity in this. Omega 3 fatty acids, present in walnuts, along with antioxidants and other compounds, have been found to aid in cognitive and memory function.

Walnuts on the Half Shell (Photo: engin ekyurt)  

The Lady of the Nut Tree

An earlier Greek myth from Laconia in the Peloponnesus, mentions the princess Carya. The god Dionysus fell in love with her and tried to gain access to her.  In order to protect her honour, Carya’s two older sisters blocked him. Enraged, Dionysus turned the sisters into rocks and, for no apparent reason other than that he was a Greek god, transformed Carya into a walnut tree.

As is often the case with pagan mythology, Carya’s tale may have been conflated with the later worship of Artemis. The Olympian goddess of the moon and the hunt was honoured under myriad names throughout Greece. In Laconia, she was worshipped as Artemis Caryatis. Walnut trees were sacred to this aspect of Artemis, as the name Caryatis suggests. Karyai, the town in which her temple was located and her rites carried out, was known for its many walnut trees. Karyai in fact means walnut, and comes from karyon, the Greek word for nut. The female followers of Artemis celebrated her rites by performing an ecstatic dance called the Caryatis.

Women Dancing Around Altar of Artemis in Brauron, Greece, ca 500 BC (Photo: Zde)

Not surprisingly, as protector of women and children, Artemis has some qualities in common with those of the Roman Carmenta. Along with Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, she was a patroness of new mothers. Having close association with goddesses Selene and Hecate, Artemis is a lunar and therefore oracular goddess. As patroness of the hunt, she was also protector of animals. Interestingly, although the Roman Carmenta is not associated directly with hunting or animals, it was forbidden to bring leather and other animal skin or dead matter into her temples. So perhaps Carmenta’s protective role also extended to animals.

Artemis, Protector of Animals, Parian Pottery Plate, Mykonos, 675-600 BC (Photo: Zde)

An Elegant Strength

The Caryatid columns found on so many buildings, both classical and modern, pay heed to the Caryatids, attendant walnut nymphs of Artemis. These graceful female ornaments, perhaps originating at the Acropolis in Athens, can now be found on architecture all over the world. These columns may also depict other nymphs or goddesses. Male counterparts, commonly called telamons or atlases (after the titan who was believed to hold up the earth), are also frequently found.

Caryatids at St. Pancras Underground Station Entry, London, England (Photo: Colin Smith)

In the Mediterranean, a walnut was often planted at the birth of a daughter, to be cut down later to make her marriage bed. There is an old saying that a son leaves you when he becomes an adult, but a daughter is forever. This was because daughters traditionally looked after their parents in old age. The marriage bed is the place where children, our most precious resource, are usually made. Here again, the walnut ties back to childbirth and the goddesses who rule this crucial aspect of life.

Many of us think of the First Nations people of Canada and the US as primarily hunter/gatherers. But it was customary in many areas for indigenous peoples to tend their garden plots of time-honoured plants such as the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash. In addition, many tribes, especially in the fertile soil areas of North America, extensively planted fruit and nut trees. Knowing these plants would be consistent providers of sustenance,  indigenous peoples created food forests by sowing acorns, chestnuts, black walnuts, butternuts and a vast array of fruit trees. While we imagine our woodlands as being “self-made”, many groves, particularly in the Carolinian zone, were in fact planted by ancient humans, and they have been there for hundreds of years.

Black Walnut, West Toronto (Photo: Kay Broome)

Luxury and Utility

Trees of the Juglans family are generally large and handsome, with rather sparse open crowns. The leaves are composite, each leaflet oblong and pointed at the tip. There are from 5-9 leaflets in English, and 15-23 in black walnut leaves. The foliage resembles that of ash, but where the latter’s canopy is latticed, that of walnut is whorled. The trunk is greyish and moderately ridged in the English walnut, but darker and more heavily furrowed in black. The somewhat smaller butternut tree is very similar to its black cousin, but the trunk is generally light grey in colour and there are from 11-17 leaflets in a compound leaf. These are a lighter shade of green than other walnuts.

Walnut Fruit:  Left, English (AnRo0002); Centre, Black; (R.A. Nonenmacher) Right, Butternut (Modal Jig)

The best way to differentiate the three species is by the fruit.  English walnut has a bright green, usually unblemished, round husk. The fruit inside is contained in a hard, lightly ridged beige shell. The rich, oily nutmeats divide in half to make the two distinctive brain-like pieces.  The spherical black walnut husk is also green but dotted with black spots here and there. The black nut is heavily ridged, with the meat being more difficult to reach and of less generous proportions then in regia. The butternut husk is oblong and green or yellowish, but the shell within, also ridged, is lighter brown and sometimes a beautiful butterscotch colour. The nutmeats are oily and milder, less bitter than that of English walnuts.

Black (Left) and White Walnut Seeds (Photos: Left, Geo Lightspeed7, Right, Agrosylva)

The chemical juglone is found in black and English walnut and prohibits the close proximity of many other plants. In contrast, butternut contains much less of this compound and welcomes other trees in its space. Unfortunately, the butternut canker disease is making this lovely tree an endangered species in North America. Many nut growers have crossed J. cinerea with the Japanese heartnut (J. ailantifolia) to make the “buartnut” hybrid, which is more resistant to the disease.

No matter where walnuts dwell, they are always a status symbol. In China, these trees have been cultivated for about 2000 years and that country presently produces half of the world’s walnuts! The husked nuts are frequently sculpted and sold in pairs as toys, as well as for acupressure and hand massage. Fashioned from the Ma walnut (J. hopeiensis) which is native to Beijing and surrounding area of China, they are often sculpted and polished. These wenwan walnuts have a pleasantly symmetrical pale gold shell, which, with constant handling over time, turns a highly prized reddish hue.

Wenwan Walnut Pair (Wikipedia)

Walnuts are a popular food especially in Turkey, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. They elevate the flavour of desserts, hearty salads, cookies and main dishes. Walnuts are good for hair and skin vitality and improve regularity, cardiovascular functions and of course, brain health. While the walnut genus is given the Latin name of Juglans, the botanical name Carya is dedicated to their close relatives, the hickories.

The Well-Rooted Tree

Caryatids provide foundation.  Having wealth – not money per se, but enough to live on – provides a meaningful investment: for you, for your estate and for society as a whole. A well-designed and well-maintained town will eventually grow into a large bustling city, so long as it has enough natural wealth: industry, nearby farmland, and the intellectual willpower to help grow the community. Children who are provided for, well-educated and well-nourished are more likely to be engaged in their society and to give back to it in full measure.

      Caryatids, Garden of the Villa Farnese, Caprarola, Italy (Photo: Daderot)

Because Walnut has been so long associated with wealth and status, this is the Talking Forest's tree of prosperity and luxury. The rune’s kennings are treasure and harvest. But as the butternut or white walnut was historically useful to the poor, the rune also denotes frugality and financial restraint. Walnut teaches us not to hoard our wealth, but to plant it for later harvesting. Walnut people are generous, frequently successful and enjoy comfort, sometimes to the point of extravagance.

Walnut Cross-Sections: Left Butternut (Photo: Nekrasov.ig) Right, Black and English Walnuts (Photo: Eiku)