HERB - Fw: Re: A matter of herbs

[Kathleen Keeler]

RAISYA at aol.com wrote:

> Christianna,
>
> The list from Charlemagne's CAPITULARE DE VILLIS wouldn't be unreasonable for
> a Scandinavian,

I don't know.  Geographically Scandinavia is much farther north.  Wasn't
Charlemagne basically southern Europe?  Around the Mediterranean they have a
"Mediterranean climate":  cool wet winters, hot dry (totally dry) summers.  A
very different flora from northern Europe where the winters are much longer and
too cold for plants to grow and there's reasonable rainfall in the summer.
The native plants of the Mediterranean and Scandinavia are quite a different
list.

So next:  Did the "vikings" borrow from southern Europe?  It seems unlikely to
me.  I'd think they'd use their own plants medicinally.  Maybe take vera aloe
home with them, but when it died, they'd be out of luck.  I don't see keeping
houseplants in Norse longhouses, and the summer is so short that southern plants
are unlikely to set seed.  Some cuttings would survive. After the North was
Christianized (about 1000?) the priests had the network, tradition and lifestyle
to bring north southern plants.

The medicinal collections of Germanic Europe are pretty poorly documented:  the
Latin tradition so replaced them so long ago.

That's interpolating:  anybody have any data?
Agnes

kkeeler1 at unl.edu

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