Folklore and Symbolism of Green

Author(s): John Hutchings

Source: Folklore, Vol. 108 (1997), pp. 55-63
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
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Folklore108 (1997):55-64
RESEARCH PAPER

Folklore and Symbolism of Green

JohnHutchings

Abstract
Colour is not a quality of an object,but a perception.As such, it can symbolise anything
we want it to symbolise. This paper reportsthe results of a survey of the use of colour in
folklore and traditionsupported by the FolkloreSociety and the Colour Group (GB).
Drawing attentionto the diversity of colour symbolism worldwide, it posits two basic
principles,the Principleof Adaptationof Ideas and the Principleof Singularity,to account
for apparentlycontradictoryusages.
Introduction
This paper forms part of a survey of colour in folklore
and tradition, supported by the Folklore Society and
the Colour Group (GB), which commenced in 1984.
Contributions from Britain and Ireland have been subjected to a preliminary analysis (Hutchings 1991), and
results from the international survey have already been
published (Hutchings et al. 1996). The present account
focuses on symbolism and folklore associated with a
single colour, green, and further limits the field of enquiry to the UK and Ireland. I am pleased to acknowledge the help also received from the Directors and staff
of the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, Sheffield University (CECTAL), the School of
Scottish Studies, Edinburgh University (SSS), the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin
(UCD), the Welsh Folk Museum, the Ulster Folk and
Transport Museum (Cultra), and the Geffrye Museum.
The information given by contributors to the colour in
folklore survey has been enriched by additional information from these archives.
The use of colour in symbolism and folklore is varied and contradictory. Ireland presents an extreme example. There, green is unlucky so it must not be worn.
On the other hand, green is a statement of Irish nationhood so it must be worn (particularly by sporting
heroes on the international rugby and soccer fields).
This can sometimes be confusing, as one Irishman
pointed out: "As you probably know, green is our national colour. I have often heard that it was worn as a
sign of hope. Perhaps it hasn't brought us much luck"
(John Kearney, pers. comm.). The positive-negative nature of symbolic green is not confined to Britain and
Ireland. For Hindus and Buddhists, it can mean both
life and death (Cooper 1978, 40); for Chinese, both life
and disgrace (Eberhard 1989, 134); for Muslims in
North Africa, both growth and corruption (Crawley
1931, 43). How can a colour come to represent both
life and death, both growth and decay?

The answer lies in the nature of colour. Colour is, as

G.J. van Allesch has pointed out, "a complex of qualities of which certain ones become more or less pronounced according to a perceiver's experience and
attitude" (van Allesch 1925, 42). In other words, colour is a perception not a property; it exists as a function of our vision and cerebral function (Hutchings
1994). Hence, a colour can symbolise anything we want
it to symbolise.
Some authors, however, seem uncomfortable with
the idea that colours can have opposing meanings. E.A.
Wallis-Budge, for example, writes that a colour is either good or bad. Green, he says, is "good" and symbolises hope and confidence (Wallis-Budge 1930, 487).
Claims such as these are not confirmed by the present
study, which illustrates only the apparent contradictoriness of colour symbolism. Such contradictory
usage can be explained through positing a Principle of
Singularity which states that: "at any one time, to any
one person, a colour symbolises only one emotion or
feeling regardless of what that colour may symbolise
to another person or to the same person on another
occasion."
However, though green is used as an indicator to
reinforce both positive and negative emotions, all common symbolic meanings are derived either from the
green growth that occurs in springtime or from the
green mould of decay. This phenomenon appears to
be cross-cultural and non-regional. The form it takes,
however, is specific to a particular community. There
is, for example, no explanation for the widespread
belief that green is an unlucky colour; however, there
have been many reasons why this belief has been continually reinforced, and these are highly regional, based
on the geography, beliefs, occupations and history of
the groups involved. To account for this we can postulate a neo-Darwinian Principle of Adaptation of Ideas:
"to survive within a community a belief must have
relevance to that community"; or, more simply, "as beliefs persist they get updated according to their rel-

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56

JohnHutchings

evance to the community."'

Both the Principle of Singularity and the Principle
of Adaptation of Ideas are important factors in understanding the folklore of green in the three traditional
contexts considered in this paper-symbolic
green,
healing green, and unlucky green.

* Envy, jealousy ("Beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is

the green-eyed monster," Othello Act 3 scene 3; "...
green-ey'd jealousy," Merchantof VeniceAct 3 scene
2); a more modem expression is "to look through
green glasses."

* Melancholy("Green and yellow melancholy," Twelfth

Night Act 2 scene 4).

Symbolic Green

* Neutrality,passivityand indecision-emotions that

The traditional function of a flag is to reinforce a sense

of purpose, to act as a focus, and to inflate emotions.
When feelings and emotions are symbolised in writing and speech, colours act like flags to reinforce meanings and associations.
Positive feelings linked with green, according to the
survey results, include:

* Freshness and fertility: hence youth and innocence

([Romeo] "Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an
eye, As Paris hath," Romeoand Juliet Act 3 scene 5);
hence also unripeness, inexperience, ignorance ("You
speak like a green girl," HamletAct 1 scene 3).

* Permanence,immortality,resurrection,faithfulness:
("Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death/
The memory be green ..." Hamlet Act 1 scene 2);
hence joy in new crops, and also the joy of the penitent received back into the fold of the church on
Green Thursday (Newall 1971, 232).

* Liberty (breaking the bonds of the earth).

* Hospitality (crops at one with the earth).
* Knowledge,insight,wisdom,meditation,obedienceto
thelawsof nature.
* Lovers("Green indeed is the colour of lovers," Love's
LaboursLost Act 1 scene 2); hence expectation and
hope, as in the poem sung at Hungarian weddings
in praise of the colours of the bride's dress:
Spring is the most beautiful season,
White and green flowers bloom.
Red signifies health, white peace
The colour green is our hope for happiness.
I hope the young couple will enjoy eternal spring
Health, peace and happy hopes
(Honko, Timonen and Branch 1993).
* A 1990s view of
green was obtained from a longtime supporter of Plymouth Argyll Association
Football Club team, who wear green shirts: "I feel
the symbolism of the word in these days could be:
a signal to go forward and advance (the traffic signals are so evident to children at a very young age
at the present time). It gives an impression of being
young and flourishing as distinct from red and withered" (Sam Rendell, pers. comm.).
Negative associations derive from the colour of unripe fruit, mould, decomposition and decay. They include the green of poison, and those emotions related
to poison:

might well surface in the spring when food is scarce

and the diet poor. Such a diet can induce anaemia
and greenness of skin in young girls ("Out you,
green-sickness carrion! You tallow face!" Romeoand
Juliet Act 3 scene 5).
Attempts are occasionally made to attach meanings,
not just to green, but to subtle shades thereof. A midnineteenth-century text noted that wedding dress ribbons coloured grass-green indicated youthful jollity,
popinjay-green meant wantonness, willow-green
meant forsaken, and sea-green indicated inconstancy
(Monsarrat 1973, 55). Such subtleties seldom gain wide
acceptance because of differences in colour vision of
individuals and because of disagreements about the
names to be attached to particular shades.

Healing Green
The use of green in cures revolves mainly around the
green of vegetation. That "like cures like" has long been
a principle of folk cures; for green, the theme is "curing human and animal life with vegetable life." Evergreens, particularly those which bear fruit in winter,
have long been powerful life symbols (Drury 1987, 194).
* Greenery was used to cure a crick in the neck (UCD,
Louth Archive J IV 1918, 121-225).
* Eating shamrock was thought to sweeten the breath
(Dinely 1858. Quoted Danaher 1972, 58).
* Eating lettuce, or grass from churchyards, or dosing with concoctions prepared from fresh or dried
bramble arches, holly, palm, mandrake, vervain or
yarrow were thought to cure, or protect from, a
number of complaints.
* Preparations involving the magic of running water
or the water from the first pail of the year improved
performance in certain cases (Opie and Tatum 1989,
428).
* Vegetation was used to protect from witches (Gutch
1967, 230; Baker 1974, 57) and to ward off bad
weather and lightning (see Christmas decorations
in the William and Mary room of the Geffrye Museum 1991).
* Juices of fennel and sage were used to relieve the
falling sickness.
* Leaves of the rowan were prepared as a salve for
sore eyes.

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Folkloreand Symbolismof Green

* Green ointment made from herbs, and elder ointment can be used to cure jaundice (Wilde 1890, 18).
In general, natural greens can be used for the cure of
specific complaints or to deflect the glances of the evil
eye.
Green objects such as ribbons or stones can be used,
at least sometimes, in lieu of plant-based medicines of
the same colour.
* There is at least one example where green thread
appears to have been used as a substitute for hoops
of "greene woodbyne."
* A cure for "children under hetic fever" and for consumptive patients involved the sufferer being
passed three times through a "rebirth hoop" of
woodbyne which had been "cut during the encrease
of the March moon." Afterwards the hoop was cut
up and burned or buried. The real thing may have
been in short supply, or of restricted access, because
the account goes on to state that other curers used
green thread. Accounts of these treatments appeared in publications of the late-sixteenth and
early-seventeenth centuries (Dalyell 1834, 121).
* Green thread or ribbon has been used in cures for
epilepsy (ribbon bracelet. SSS); rheumatism (woollen bracelet. CECTALarchive) and nose bleeds (ribbon round the neck. Murray 1979, 134).
* A cure for "heart fever" involves a ritual which
starts with measuring the victim round the waist
"wi' a green thread in the name o' the Trinity"
(M'Clintock 1913, 474).
* One person was told that her grandmother "tied a
green ribbon round my wrist when I was a baby in
1925 so that I should have 'second sight"' (Patricia
Dawson, pers. comm.).
* Green stones such as green jade (otherwise
nephrite,
kidney-stone, axe-stone or green jasper) were anciently used to assist women in childbirth, or those
suffering from kidney troubles, as well as to improve
fertility in man and beast (Wallis-Budge 1930, 326).
* In nineteenth-century Ireland green and black
stones gathered in a moving stream were used in a
charm for hip-joint disease (UCD Longford iml a96
1a359).
* In St Molio's Cave,
County of Bute, Scotland there
was a smooth green stone called the Baul Muluy,
the stone globe of St Molingus. This was the size of
a goose egg and it was believed to have the virtue
of causing diseases and procuring victories for the
MacDonalds (Black 1884, 173).
Unlucky Green
In Britain, as in Ireland, green is an unlucky colour
and many people will not wear it, as the following selected survey results indicate.

57
* Traditional song, Mormond Braes
I'll pit on ma goon o' green
It's a forsakentoken
Jisttae let the laddies ken
That the bonds o' love are broken
(Tom McKean,pers. comm.).

* "[The bride was] bedizened with ribbons ... of every

... colour ... except forsaken green, which I was glad
to perceive was not worn by one of the throng"
(Rambler 1793).
* "Green's love deen" (Gregor 1881, 87).
* "Green is regarded by the Scotch as an unlucky colour at weddings, in consequence of which no kale,
cabbage, or other green vegetable may be served
up on the occasion" (Friend 1884, 318).
* There were many in Whitby "who would rather
have gone to the church to be married in their common everyday costume than in a green dress" (Morris 1892. Quoted Gutch and Peacock 1901, 29).
* "Married in May, and kirked in green/Baith bride
and bridegroom winna lang be seen" (anon. 1892,
367).
* "My grandfather was a poor barefoot country boy
in the 1800s in Kincardineshire. My mother was
born in 1910. In Perthshire, in her early teens, she
came home in a new green dress. Her father became upset and warned 'Don't wear that! Wear
green and soon you'll wear black'" (Margaret
Cathcart, pers. comm.).
* "Buy a green dress and your next will be black for
mourning ... Never, never wear green for your wedding" (recounting sayings of 1910s and 20s. Joan
Eltenton, pers. comm.).
*

"... green, sure to bring any wearer bad luck! There

was a positive taboo on green in the hamlet; nobody would wear it until it had been home-dyed
navy or brown" (Thompson [1945] 1979, 92-3).

* "No madam, we have no green twinsets; we find

we can't sell them as people are superstitious"
(overheard in London store. Coote Lake 1955, 298).
* "Wear green today, wear black tomorrow"; "Black
follows green" (Radford 1961, 354; Howarth 1993,
136; Gwen Aubrey pers. comm.; Margaret Davies
pers. comm.; Roy Vickery, pers. comm.).
* "A 72-year-old Cambridge man said in 1964 that
his grandmother knew 'if she wore anything green
there'd be a death in the family and she never liked
to see anyone else in that colour'" (Porter 1969, 24).
* "Never wear a green coat when
you go on a journey, it's terribly unlucky-the worse thing you can
do" (heard in the 1960s. Informant from East London probably born in the 1890s. Roy Vickery, pers.
comm.).

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58

John Hutchings

* "I bought a green bag the other day, but I know I

won't use it, because I think green is unlucky. I'm
going on holiday next week, but I know I won't take
it with me ... My mother had always said that green
was unlucky" (heard in 1984. Roy Vickery, pers.
comm.).
*

Welsh people today still will not wear green. In Cardiff all the green clothes are to be found in the endof-season sales" (Alison Bielski, pers. comm.).

* "My brothers in-law (from Forres in Moray) were

most keen to prevent me wearing green to his wedding-they knew it was a favourite colour but insisted it was most unlucky to wear at a wedding"
(Tig Lang 1985).
* "Green is not worn at weddings" (flautist from Arran in Sandy's Bar, Edinburgh).
"... what about green-that's meant to be unluckylots of people won't have green clothes or cars. I
don't mind wearing green, I like green clothes, but I
won't have a green purse-not a purse," (an elderly
woman. Roy Vickery, pers. comm.).

* "Married in green, ashamed to be seen" (Monger

1991, 30).
* "Married in green, a shame to be seen" (Bennett
1992, 128). ("Although still quoted, this view has
not been encouraged by etiquette books since the
1960s, green now being regarded as typifying youth,
hope and happiness." Monger 1991, 26.)
* In 1953, it was claimed that, because sales of lovat
green tweeds in Scotland had become popular, this
belief "of both upper and lower classes" had died
out (Rose 1953, 427). However, contributions to the
present survey, now thirty-two of them, indicate that
the belief is still current (Hutchings 1991, 59).
The unlucky green belief goes further than dress:
* "I have known several instances of mothers absolutely forbidding it ... in the furniture of their houses"
(Latham 1878, 12).
* "A chemist giving orders for hot water bottles said:
'For heaven's sake don't send any more green ones.
Folk don't want them. Superstition, I suppose. I've
still ten left!'" (Sunday Express. Quoted Coote Lake
1962, 132).
* "I will have nothing green in the house"
(Kate
Chatterton, pers. comm.).
*

"... there is no way I'll cross that threshold because

your front door is green" (City Architects of Hull
receive complaints when they paint street furniture
green. Gill 1993, 100).

As can be seen, the link between green and misfortune in courtship and marriage is particularly strong
(but presumably it was not a widespread belief in the
seventeenth century when both Charles I and his bride
married in green. Monsarrat 1973, 43). In the northeast

of Scotland, if a younger sister marries first the luckless and disgraced elder sister is taunted by being made
to wear green stockings or garters at the dance after
the wedding (SSS Archive, Crombie MSS FLS). "In the
evening a dance would be held and the green garters,
which had been knitted in anticipation by the best maid,
were pinned surreptitiously onto the clothing of the
elder unmarried brother or sister of the bride. When
discovered they were removed and tied round the left
arm and worn for the rest of the evening" (Simpkins
1914, 393). This custom was certainly observed in 1981
at the wedding of informant Lorna McHattie (pers.
comm.). A current explanation is that the green stocking is worn "out of envy" (Margaret Davies, pers.
comm.). According to Charlotte Burne, "any young man
who takes them off is destined to be her future husband" (Burne 1908, 339). An alternative explanation is
that: "Green is the colour of the Gordon Highlander
tartan, which is the local regiment of Aberdeen, so there
could very well be some truth in the garter being green
in the Aberdeen area at least" (Alf Smith, pers. comm.).
This thought was also propounded by a drunken Scotland football supporter in a Dublin bar in 1987. The
first of the two regiments of that name was in existence
during the Seven Years War (1756-63), and it was again
raised in 1794, recruits being encouraged by a kiss from
the glamorous Duchess of Gordon. Their main colours
are green and blue (Grant 1987, 121).2
Reasons for the Bad Luck
Reasons given for this bad luck are numerous and as
much a part of folklore as the belief in bad luck itself.
They can be divided under the headings of
supernaturalist, rationalist and historical.
SupernaturalistExplanations
* Among
mythical characters, fairies take much of the
blame. They are associated with green through their
habit of dancing in green fairy circles (cf. The Tempest Act 1 scene 5), from the belief that their graveyards never brown (Cultra Archive, Tim McCall,
n.d.), and because in many areas they are reported
to wear green.
* Anne Jeffries, a nineteen-year-old, was sitting in the
garden when "there came over the hedge, of a sudden, six persons of small stature all clothed in green,
which frightened her so much as to throw her into a
great sickness" (Brand 1841, 80).
* "The fairies claimed green as their colour and were
consequently deeply grieved if proper attention was
not paid to their claims, and invariably resented an
injury done them" (Friend 1884, 318).
* Daoine sidhe were reported wearing dresses of
shaded green (Campbell 1889, 56).
* In the Outer Hebrides, green objects were called
"blue"; "green must not be mentioned, lest it should
call up the fairies" (Goodrich-Freer 1899, 265).

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Folkloreand Symbolismof Green

* The fairies of Ross-shire, the Sithichon (peaceful
folks), were associated with green clothes
(MacDonald 1903, 369).
* "It is the fairies colour and its wearing by mortals
arouses their jealousy" (Rose 1953, 427).
* The chorus of a traditional song describing the fairies from the Blackdown Hills in Somerset:
Green,green, green,
All a-green,all a-green
A-dancing round the tree (Tongue1967,298).
* "As a child on an Argyllshire farm, more than 70
years ago, I remember going into a hayfield wearing a green dress, and being greeted by one of the
hayworkers with: 'Oh that's the fairies colour you're
wearing, they'll be after you!"' (C. McIntyre, pers.
comm.).
* On very rare occasions, and only in the Highlands,
wearing a green dress can protect from the malevolent attentions of the fairies (Briggs 1956-7, 276).
Although in Britain fairies are usually reported to
wear green, this is not the case in Ireland. Preliminary
searches at University College Dublin and Ulster Folk
and Transport Museum revealed that the fairies wore
red (16 instances), or white (7), green (4, all in the north),
black (3), blue (1), or brown (1). These findings confirm
Andrews's statement that, "in most parts of Ulster, and
indeed of Ireland, the fairies are said to wear red not
green. In Antrim, like their Scotch kinfolk, [they] dress
in green, but even they are often said to have red or
sandy hair" (Andrews 1913, 27). This author ascribes
the regionalism in dress to different tribes among the
aboriginal inhabitants. Those dressing in green, chiefly
heard of in northeast Antrim, may be the tradition of
people "who stained themselves with woad or some
other plant." In some parts of that county they are said
to wear tartan, "but in other parts of Ulster the fairies
are usually, although not universally, described as dressing in red. Do these represent a people who dyed themselves with red ochre, or who simply went naked?" In
Tory Island fairies dress in black; the islanders were
said to be of African stock (ibid., 88).
* In the southwest of
England the Piskies are blamed
for the unlucky aspect of green. In Devon in 1910 it
was recorded that they are of a green colour. A green
dress was the object of much criticism in the village
of Beesands, "if you wear green, you will soon after
wear mourning" (Partridge 1916, 307). Also, "I was
once told off by a Cornish 'Grandmother in law' for
wearing green, the piskies colour" (Hilary Belcher,
pers. comm.).
* According to a contributor to the Stowmarket Folklore Society conference in September 1985, "green
gowns are worn by witches."
* At Hallowe'en, tabby cats were transformed into
coal-black steeds for green-robed witches (Guthrie
1885, 69).

59
* Tree-spirits lived in the Sherwood Forest area:
Now all you young fellows take heed what I tell,
In yonder greenwood a green lady doth dwell,
Her hair it is green and all green is her gown,
And she callethto all, draw near,come here
(Tongue 1967,299).
The result of the meeting was inevitably death.
* Green is also the colour of devils and demons (anon.
1892, 367). As a hunter who wears green to hide
among the greenery so that he may kill animals sheltering there, so the Devil wears green to hide himself among men so that he may capture their souls
(Robertson 1954, 472).
* God's control over nature is cited as a reason for
unlucky green: "My father was a Highland Scot,
when we were young he would not allow us to wear
green. I don't think he was superstitious, he was a
devout Presbyterian and he felt as the Almighty had
clothed His world in green, it was presumptuous of
us to wear it-a kind of irreverence" (Margaret
Davies, pers. comm.). Alec Gill says the reason why
one should never burn anything green, "the things
of life," is that the green of nature is God's colour.
Green-leafed trees are followed by black bark in
winter and black is for mourning. Hence to avoid
death, avoid wearing green (Gill 1993, 102).
There are a number of instances where green is unlucky for fishermen.
* "In this area (Argyll), and perhaps in most of the
west coast, the fishermen used to dislike the
range of orange-brown-yellow shades obtained
from lichens and used for dyeing wool. This was
explained as being a danger to the boats-the
colour came from rocks and would 'attract' them.
My grandfather, as a young man, once had to
walk 20 miles round a sea-loch because a man
who had undertaken to ferry him across refused
to let him into the boat in his crotal-dyed stockings" (Marion Campbell, pers. comm.).
* "Staying in the west of Ireland (Bantry Bay) with
my cousins who live there I was told that fishermen there never wear green on a fishing trip"
(Tig Lang, pers. comm.).
* "A committee member knows of at least one
captain who will not allow green on his ship under
any circumstances ..." (North Devon. P.M.
Wiggett, pers. comm.).
* "Green and brown were
unlucky colours, presumably because they were earth colours" (Hull.
A.G. Credland, pers. comm.).
* "Green was always taboo to the fisher folk of
Grimsby ... the wives of fishermen would not
wear anything green and ... Grimsby goalkeepers never wore green. The tradition was broken
in the 1960s when Charlie Wright donned a green

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60

John Hutchings
jersey, there was a few letters in the local press
but the majority of people accepted the change"
(Sid Woodhead, pers. comm.).

Also, Lean remarked in 1902 that "Brothels are still

painted green for distinction" (Lean 1902-4, 2:Part
1 276).

Indeed throughout the country very few Association

football teams wear a green outfit. At first glance a surprising exception is the choice of green for Plymouth
Argyle Football Club: "The choice of green was, I understand, made when the club was formed in 1886. The
Plymouth coat of arms featured the colour green and it
was appropriate to chose that colour ..." (Sam Rendell,
pers. comm.). The legendary links between Plymouth,
Captain Drake, the Spanish Armada and the bowling
green appear to have gained the upper hand over unlucky-to-wear green. Glasgow Celtic Football Club was
formed by Brother Walfrid (Andrew Kerins), an Irish
Catholic priest working among the Irish community of
Glasgow, in 1887. As green is the colour of Irish nationhood (Hayes-McCoy 1979, 42) green is the natural colour for their shirts also (Lunney 1992, 16).

In some instances a possible "supernaturalist" explanation is countered by a "rationalist" one:

Rationalist Explanations
* Rational reasons for unlucky green include the
stomachache that comes after eating green meat or
unripe green fruit. In the nineteenth century it was
the colour of arsenic-pigmented wallpaper which,
when damp, gave off the poisonous gas arsine.
* Green is the continual colour of the churchyard,
where, in addition, poisonous yew trees are grown.
"A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard" and
"brings a heavy harvest" (CECTAL Archive,
Hallamshire Traditions,n.d.).
* Charlotte Burne recorded the event of 1876 near
Eccleshall, when an old woman was found drowned
in her well: "A patch of particularly green turf long
marked the spot where her body was laid on being
taken out of the water, and the neighbours, who had
suspicions of foul play, pointed to this in confirmation of their opinion" (Burne 1883, 240).
* The Venerable Bede was the first to write about this:
"At the same time a traveller, a Briton, came near
the place where [St] Oswald had been killed, and
saw the grass was greener than in other places, and
concluded that some holy man had been slain there"'
(Quoted Burne 1883, 240).
* The bad luck of green
may have developed from
the equation of the green gown symbolising the loss
of virginity. In 1351 Wm. Fox, parson of Lee near
Gainsborough was indicted for forcibly taking a nun,
Margaret de Everingham. [He] "removed her habit
and put on her a worldly green robe (robamviridem
secularem)" (Lean 1903, 276). By Elizabethan times
the phrase was synonymous with pregnancy
(Malcolm Jones, pers. comm.). The tune "Greensleeves" was not held in high esteem (The Merry
Wives of Windsor,Act 2 scene 1 and Act 5 scene 5).

* Rivers and pools in the north of England are often

said to be haunted by a malevolent spirit known as
Jenny Greenteeth, who drags down those who come
too near. Peg Powler, a bloodthirsty being with green
hair, does the same, especially in the vicinity of Pierse
Bridge on the river Tees (Radford 1961, 219). The
legend seems designed to warn of the presence of
the giant green duckweed, Lemnaminor,which covers large stretches of water there and is dangerous
to step on (Vickery 1983, 247).
* The theatre provides its own reason for actors'
superstition about wearing green. They say it belongs to the fairies who might resent its use by mummers and actors (Platt 1925, 139). It is suggested that
a more practical explanation of this fear is that during the era of green-tinged limelight, invented in
1826 and used until the beginning of the present
century, an actor wearing green would not stand out
as well as his colleagues (anon 1970-2, 522). Travelling showmen are so concerned over this bad luck
that grass pictured on fairground designs is normally
painted blue (Vanessa Toulmin, pers. comm.).
* The fairy explanation of unlucky green is not suitable for Ireland for Irish fairies do not wear green.
Most are "trooping fairies who live and look like
normal mortals. Other fairies are the banshee women
who wear white and the smaller leprechaun, the
shoemaker, who is more likely to wear red than
green. The explanation for the bad luck in Ireland
seems to revolve around the ease and cheapness of
dyeing cloth green and brown. Only the rich could
afford scarlet, blue and purple clothes. Green and
brown are therefore the dress of the poorest of the
population, and it must be unlucky to be poor"
(Micial Ross, pers. comm).
Historical Explanations
* Certain historical events may have provided reasons
for unlucky green.
* The descendants of the Ogilvies, Grahams and
Sinclairs of Caithness, all of whom wore green in
their tartans at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513,
thereafter held the colour in disrepute after the terrible defeat when most were killed (anon. 1892, 368).
The author James Grahame believed that green was
fatal to the name of Grahame, he would not "so
much as to allow a green cover to be placed on the
table" (Lean 1903, 276).
* In England violence revolved around the colour in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Whig

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Folkloreand Symbolismof Green

Green Ribbon Club was formed during the period
of religious intolerance that followed the death of
Charles I and the Civil War. Members of the Club,
who wore green ribbons in their hats, advocated a
Protestant succession to the throne. Anti-Catholic
marches ended at the Club at Temple Bar with the
burning of the Pope's effigy. Halberds were secretly
manufactured to arm the mob at Wapping and
Southwark but a plot to kill Catholic King Charles
II and his brother James in 1683 failed. The Whig
movement was disgraced, membership became a
risk, and the Club died (Bryant 1952).
* During Oldham wakes week in 1819 Radical Reformers, wearing green and red ribbons inscribed
"liberty or death" in their hats, demonstrated against
the Corn Laws and the consequent high grain prices.
This was closely followed by the massacre of demonstrators at Peterloo on 16 August that year (Bee
1819, 3).
* The following year another event reinforced the hatred of green in Britain. Until 1820 official government bags were green. This was the year of the trial
of Queen Caroline, wife of the Prince Regent, later
the unpopular George IV. As evidence against her
was laid on the table in the House of Lords in green
bags, these became hateful to Londoners whose sympathy she had aroused. "It was a common thing during the trial to get up bonfires to burn the green bag
... After this green bags silently disappeared" (anon.
1911).

Conclusion
Each group has its own individual explanation of its
belief in unlucky green. The nonconformists of Scotland and Wales, the fisher folk, and those in the southwest of England do not wish to upset the local piskies;
those living elsewhere in Britain want to keep on the
right side of the fairies (and, perhaps, the devil, witches
and demons); the descendents of the Ogilvies despise
green as the colour of defeat; and so on. To members of
all these groups belief in unlucky green is logical. The
one thing all explanations have in common is the relevance of the belief to the population involved.
In general, green symbolises growth, and growth
symbolism can refer to apparently irreconcilable positive and negative feelings and emotions. For example,
not only is green seen as natural and good for the environment (as in "green" farming), but it is also used to
symbolise noxious growth (green for poisonous packaging and for atomic power stations). The postulates
proposed to account for the behaviour of green in oral
tradition (the Principle of Singularity and the Principle
of the Adaptation of Ideas) can help account for such
seemingly irreconcilable beliefs. This freedom to form
variations within each rule arises from the nature of
colour being purely a perception, not the property of
an object.

61

Acknowledgements
I am pleased to acknowledge the help received from
Ralph Brocklebank, Tony Buckley, Malcolm Jones,
Venetia Newall, Miceal Ross, Roy Vickery, John
Widdowson, Juliette Wood and Gillian Bennett, for the
generous amount of time each has devoted to my education.
FolkloreSociety

Notes
1Thisis a development of the Principleof Adaptation of
PhysicalResources(or,originally,simply the Principleof Adaptation,proposed by Crawley to explain, for example, the
near universalityof mourning colours (Crawley 1931, 102).
2Beliefthatgreenis unluckyhas travelledto NorthAmerica
also, no doubt importedby immigrantsfromBritainand Ireland. Hence, it is unlucky to marry in green in Texas
(Hendricks 1956, 344), it ought not be used for racing cars
(Kostner1992,69), and it is even bad luck to ride in any vehicle of that colour in Arkansas(Randolf1964,60).

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