Toadstools and Vikings and Caterpillers…oh my!
March 16th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Recently I bought a cute Decolello print of smiley mushrooms to make a reading-corner cushion for my girls.
It got me thinking that even though I’ve never seen a real spotted toadstool, I come across them everywhere, busily propagating throughout popular culture. So, in true procrastination style, I felt the urge to look them up to find out what the story is. I mean, if your cute and fascinating, you deserve a post. Right? Right.
So it turns out… The ‘fly’ part in the name, Fly Amanita, is a medieval term that may refer to the delirium that happens after eating one, as if those red caps weren’t a clue. Apparently, folks in medieval times thought that flies could enter your head and send you nuts? In fact munching through one cap can kill you. That didn’t stop the Vikings though, who happily chomped into them to bring on bloodthirsty Berserker rages. Nasty!
It has also been well recorded that when intoxicated by Fly Amanita the perceived size of objects is distorted, which makes the caterpillar’s advice to Alice in this excerpt from Alice in Wonderland interesting. And Lewis Carroll, himself, very interesting.
This time Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, ”One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.”
And if that’s not enough, even jolly old Santa gets a guernsey. Siberian legends tell of reindeer that would dance and prance after eating the mushrooms and that Santa wearing his trademark red and white suit would enter yurts through the smoke hole in the roof and fly out again. Who would’ve thought!
So, there’s more to these little mushies than meets the eye and that’s before mentioning the fairy connection… These complex little characters make for some great stories and that’s a very good reason to keep on propagating. I’ve always loved a good story, reading cushion here I come!
Images | Fly Amanita, Jon Rowley | Cabinet of Curiosities ~ Amanita Muscaria, Kris Klarin | Felt Baby Booties, Funky Shapes | Felted mushrooms, Kathryn Ivy | Alice and the Caterpiller, Blanche McManus |
All images used with kind permission.
wow…beautiful! i’m looking forward to the fairy chronicles!