[Herbalist] Tussie -Mussies- Poesys, word posies

Christine Seelye-King kingstaste at mindspring.com
Fri May 17 13:05:10 PDT 2002


There's a lady here (in Meridies) that's putting together an Herbal Guild
newsletter.  I've sent her a bunch of stuff, but I think she'd love to use
this article.  Her address is:
Jessimond
Tricia Emery - jessimond at yahoo.com-
Come to think of it, I should tell her to join this list if she's not here
already...
Christianna

> -----Original Message-----
> From: herbalist-admin at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:herbalist-admin at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of BJ of NZ
> Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:28 PM
> To: herbalist at ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Herbalist] Tussie -Mussies- Poesys, word posies
>
>
> I was delighted to see tis
> and have included in this reply a article I was n the
> process of writing
>
> I would love feed back
> even spelling and grammer corrections welcome
> BEa
> > Greetings!
> >
> > Okay, May Day is coming up!  Yep, May Day!  One of
> > the things that was
> > done in the Middle Ages on the first day of May was
> > to give Poseys.
>
> Anachronistic Attitudes
> By Bea
> Delicate pleasures
> (sweet peas)
> It has been my habit for many years to take small
> bouquet’s to friends and relatives, when visiting,
> -(as a small thankyou gesture),
> the bouquets consist of a central flower surrounded
> by rings of colour or fragrant leaves. I had not
> brought this habit into the SCA because Of its
> supposedly Victorian background, however for the royal
> visit I decided anachronism aside this was a pretty,
> nice gesture, that along with flush loos and electric
> stoves should be Embraced
> And guess what after a small amount of research it
> turns out, they are period
>
> Tussie mussies or as the magisterial Oxford dictionary
> put it “tuzzy mussy” defined as “a spray of flowers a
> nosegay, a garland of flowers ‘ it first appeared in
> print in 1440; a “tyte tust or tusemose of flowyrs or
> othyr herbys’ the root tus suggests a relationship to
> tussock while mussie a rhyme on tussie refers to the
> damp moss pressed around the stem to keep them fresh
> Tussie mussie by GA Laufer.1993.
>
> In the Victorian era the bouquets took on the name of
> word poesy as the language of flowers developed but
> even this has its roots in the herbals of the 14-
> 15-century
>
> The western tradition of floral symbolism, traditional
> cultural mythological, religious and medical combined
> with the Turkish selam or language of objects all
> contributed to the idea of sending encoded messages
> via floral tributes and in 1823 saw the first
> formalisation of this with the publication of flora
> domestica by Elizabeth Kent
>
>
> But the meanings originate from three sources
> The natural appearance or character,
> Cultural meanings
> And meanings arbitrarily assigned by early authors and
> editors of flower vocabularies and then faithfully
> followed by others
>
> The first two fit into the SCA so I propose to start a
> trend of flower presentations with in Ildhafn.
> The joy of tussie mussie is that once the arrangement
> has dried it form a small scented potpourri bundle to
> be tossed in the bottom of a basket or clothes chest
>
> Or they can be designed specifically to be placed in
> an armour bag
>
> An armour bag bouquet;  first I’d start with rosemary
> for remembrance- (please remember to wash your
> gamberson) then worm wood for protection (for
> travellers and from Moth larvae) maybe some yarrow to
> heal wounds, laurel to avoid wounds ( accomplishment),
> Oak for strength, lavender for luck, geranium for
> blood warming, meeting or comfort, and Borage for
> courage
>
> And why not assemble your favourite scents or flowers
> then translate
> A rose red; victory luck
> Lavender; luck happiness
> Sweet peas; delicate pleasures
> Lemon balm; Fun
> Geranium leaves; unexpected meeting preference
> I guess I should add clover for a bouquet of lucky fun
> or in my case Funny Luck
>
> ===From bjofnz at yahoo.co.nz
>
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