Episode 48: Guardian Goblins + Botanical Betrothals-Edelweiss
Hello and welcome back to another week of Rooted! This week we are digging into a famed favorite from the swiss alps- Edelweiss! A plant known for it’s ability to thrive despite the harshest and coldest conditions, which seems fitting given the time of year….plus we get to talk about goblins, so you know we HAD to go here.
Edelweiss, or Leontopodium nivale, is a fuzzy little white flower in the asteraceae family. It’s found growing in remote mountain areas at about 5900-11200 ft (or 1800-3400 meters for all of you not in the US). It prefers rocky, limestone-y soils and can be found growing primarily in the alps in the pyrenees mountains.
Edelweiss is an immediately identifiable flower. It’s a bright white, star shaped flower that consists of 6 small center inflorescences (tiny clusters of hundreds of tiny flowers) surrounded by petals that make a double star shape. The whole plant is covered with tiny wool-y fibers that help to protect the plant from the cold, and intense sun exposure. They typically grow in clusters that create little white spray across the mountain tops, staying fairly low to the ground at about 1-8 inches tall (roughly 3-20 cm)
What this plant doesn’t have in height, it more than makes up for in Tall Tales.
Legend has it that there was once a beautiful snow queen who lived high up in the mountains- so high in fact, that it was nearly impossible to reach her. Covered in a shroud of icy darkness, her kingdom was so cold that even her heart was frozen.
However, her beauty was so compelling that men from all over the village below would make the days long trek, and risk falling or freezing to death, just to ask for her hand in marriage- because if men had nothing else back then, they had the audacity.
The ice queen, not interested in being married, much less sharing her power, had one very specific rule- anyone who dared ask for her hand, despite knowing she did not wish to be married, was to be thrown off the mountain…seems maybe a little harsh, but a boundary is a boundary.
But here’s where it REALLY gets interesting. It wasn’t the snow queen herself doing the throwing of men off cliffs. That's where her loyal goblins come in….after so many years up there alone, the queen decided that she needed reliable friends, so- she got together an a-team of goblins who did her bidding and bent to her every whim- she really is living the dream up there.
Anyway, it was the goblins who would throw these gentleman callers off the cliff..and it was a perfect system that worked flawlessly for years…until it wasnt.
One day, a young hunter from the village made the voyage up the mountain and into the castle to ask for the queen’s hand. However, upon seeing her, his jaw dropped- he was at a loss for words..
The more he tried to speak, the further back in his throat his words crawled. As he continued to fight the embarrassed flush in his cheeks, he fell to his knees. “Here we go again” thought the snow queen…but as the seconds stretched on, it occurred to her- no man had ever been here this long. Most were so eager to ask that they didn’t even wait to see what she was like, but this man was just there, waiting, not expecting anything, not getting in the way….and she didn’t MIND him being there, which she thought was REALLY strange.
Meanwhile, her ambush goblins are getting kind of restless- what is this freak DOING? He is just sitting there…staring at her.. And she isn’t giving orders to throw him out. What were they supposed to do? After HOURS of this, the queen had grown quite smitten with the man, but her goblins couldn’t have hated him more.. So, in the dark of night they decided to take matters into their own hands.
When they were sure the queen had gone to bed, they tied the man up. Hoisted him over their shoulders, and launched him off the side of the cliff…the only problem- the queen WASN’T asleep. She saw everything. In her shock and horror, her heart started to thaw…and realizing she wouldn’t be able to save the handsome stranger, a single tear fell from her eye, down the long, jagged slope of the mountain, and on to the rock where his body lie cold and buried in the snow, growing into a single silver star in the empty mountain landscape.
In another story of love and danger, it was often said that if a someone was serious about wanting to marry or pursue a romantic partner, they would make the long and dangerous trek up the mountain to pick their beloved an edelweiss bloom to prove their undying love, and that to gift someone that was as serious as proposing to them…for all intents and purposes, an edelweiss bloom might as well have been an engagement ring…and while I couldn’t find any proof of this, I like to imagine victorian era ladies oggling over these hairy stems the same way they would the royal diamonds a la bridgerton.
Aside from being a testament to the lengths someone would go for love, Edelweiss was also turned to for medicine and make up.
In medicine, folks native to the alps and pyrenees would use the roots of the edelweiss plant to treat tuberculosis, cough, cold and flu, and upset stomachs. But it was also used as a sort of sunblock, and in anti-aging cosmetics, which it’s still used in today.
While I couldn’t find a ton on the cough suppressant aspects, aside from its antibacterial properties that work against e coli, staph, etc. I did find a LOT of research into the skincare side of edelweiss.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, edelweiss has developed its own natural form of sunblock to protect itself from the harsh UV rays it’s exposed to way up on the top of the mountain. It’s done this by developing its tiny white hairs, and the leontopodic acid they produce. Lentopodic acid is the active ingredient in edelweiss that works to not only fight free radicals and block the processes in the body that lead to cell death, but they also help to support the processes in the body (and proteins) that help to repair cells an encourage new cell growth- helping to repair and protect the skin barrier, while also viably reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Aside from cosmetics and courtship, edelweiss was also a powerful symbol of strength and resistance.
This likely stems from the belief that edelweiss contained magical properties of protection because of it’s snow queen origins. Whether it was as a catch-all antidote to a poison, or burned as incense to ward off evil spirits and pests that might destroy crops.
Obviously edelweiss is much tougher than it looks, which is part of what made it such a powerful symbol of resistance and nationalism in world war 1 and beyond.
In WW1, Edelweiss was used as a symbol to honor german alpine soldiers for their bravery and commitment to their country in the face of horror, and to thank them for their strength.
In WW2, this sediment was adopted by the edelweiss pirates- a group of german youth rebelling against hitler’s control, and fighting against the nazi’s. They made a name for themselves by helping soldiers who abandoned the nazi movement, and beating the shit out of those who didn’. While they were a little more reckless than other resistance movements- prioritizing freedom over organization and strategy- they still played an important role in aiding the ally efforts, and putting a stop to nazi propaganda.
After the war, Edelweiss remains a symbol of strength and beauty for folx who live in the alps- an important reminder of their culture, and ability to persevere in the face of darkness.
Of course, most of you have likely heard of edelweiss because of the song in “The Sound of Music”. While they did get a lot wrong about the look of the flower, they were right about what am important place the flower holds in the hearts of those who were brave enough to resist hitler, even as he made their homes a living hell.
Shortly after the sound of music came out, tourists FLOCKED to the areas edelweiss was growing- hoping to pick their own little piece of the alps to take with them….. With that in mind, it’s kind of no surprise that at one point we nearly picked edelweiss to oblivion, after all, if there is one thing most tourists are NOT, it’s usually considerate of delicate ecosystems… proving that there CAN be a downside to the power of Julie Andrew
The good news here is that we HAVE managed to actually reverse this effect, and edelweiss is no longer considered to be threatened, thanks in large parts to the government being willing to take a stand in protecting the flower, the public being respectful and listening to the voices of scientists and enthusiasts, and everyone doing their part to project the plant, and hold tourists and townies alike accountable for their actions in harming the plant.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out the privilege here- after all, this is a symbol of strength for primarily white cultures, and it was primarily white voices calling for the protection of this plant. I am hopeful that with the rise of social media and awareness/ recent rise in popularity around herbalism and ethnobotany, we will see this same kind of response when indigenous peoples call for the protection of THEIR sacred plants, like what is currently being called for with white sage (or pinole as it is known to the Cahuilla and Kumeyaay peoples of the American West ) and Minnesota Wild Rice (Manoomin to the ojibwe people of the american midwest) among others.
In the wake of edelweiss once again proving its strength and resiliency, it’s really no surprise that it has been so widely adopted as a symbol of the alps. While it was once viewed as a kitschy tourist trap, it’s grown back into a proud display of heritage and nationalism- plastered on coffee shops, airlines, small businesses, beer, and pretty much anything else you can think of!
Today, this furry weirdo can be found in mountains, gardens, and skincare all over the world. Next time you see it, I hope you’ll take a moment to stop and really take in all of the strength it holds in such a delicate seeming bloom.
That’s all I’ve got for this week, but I’ll be back next week to chat all about a NEW collection of tales and truths for us to dig into- see you then!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leontopodium_nivale
https://skonson.com/the-edelweiss/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874103003106
https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/mystical-and-mythical-edelweiss
https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/learning/trails/design-technology/edelweiss-leontopodium-alpinum/
