Tinne or Holly
Evergreen leaves
Holly prefers deciduous woodland and open pastures, and is the only tree that can survive under the dense shade of beech trees. It is the only european evergreen that has leaves, and needs protection by tall trees from intense cold as it is not resistant to hard winter frost. It is therefore found mainly in the west of Europe (and rarely grows larger than a shrub in the east).
Waxed & polished
With its shiny, waxy leaves (like plastic or leather) and wavy, accentuated spiny edges, holly stops animals from eating it. However, above the reach of browsing animals, its leaves become much less spiky. With its slow and patient growth, holly is very strong and resistant, and its wood tough, of high-quality with an even texture.
Winter berry
Growing best on sandy, slightly acidic or lime soils, holly trees usually reach two to three hundred years of age. At about twenty, holly begins to produce small, white, finely scented flowers that appear in May or June. Its berries are green at first and become their traditional bright red in autumn, remaining on the tree all winter.
Fevers
Holly is an important source of food to many birds, although the berries are poisonous to humans, being highly emetic and laxative. However the leaves have healing properties and tea made from them was used for curing feverish colds, coughs and loosening mucus. As a Bach Flower, holly is used to combat disconnecteness through jealousy, hatred by opening the heart. Holly (ilex aquifolium) has many related forms called scarlet oak, kerm-oak, holly oak, holm oak, also ilex, terebinth.
Mythology
T-shaped cross
For several reasons, holly has strong association with Christian symbolism. These are partly seen in the passion and crucifixion of Christ, since the tree has prickly leaves, four-lobed flowers (mirroring the points of the cross) and blood red berries. The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, was the tau (Tav), a T-shaped cross. The same shaped letter T also occurs in the gaelic tarbh (meaning bull and pronounced the same), and Tannus, a gaulish thunder god armed with a triple thunder bolt.
The Green Knight
Holly symbolism is also apparent in the story of Gawain and the Green Knight, where the Green Knight comes to Arthur’s court, challenging anyone to behead him on condition that he be allowed to return in a year’s time do the same himself to the one who beheads him. Gawain accepts the scary challenge and undergoes many tests that depend on his having a pure heart. Similar sacrificial stories are told in the Mabinogion and Lleu Llaw Gyffes (Bendigeidfran), as well as Bel, and Nemi, the oak king, who was ritually sacrificed each summer.
The green sacred tree
Like the glas-tann (green sacred tree), holly and oak are very often shown as two sides of the same thing, with oak as king of the waxing half of the year (the first half) and holly as king of the waning half of the year, and the ‘rites of passage’ between the two. This is the lore that is still alluded to in the carol:
‘of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly is the best’,
and also an older song:
‘Who so ever ageynst Holly do crye, In a lepe shall he hang full hie. Alleluia!’
(Folkard 1892)
A similar lore is behind the ‘bull with the club foot’, who is both king, yet lame. He appears with three cranes on his back (cranes represent the alphabet that is brought by them from Egypt).
The word tinne in gaelic refers to a full set of pipes.