I was reading a back issue of an herbal magazine this afternoon, with a cup of hot St. John's Wort tea in front of me (the best way to do reading of any kind), and I came across an interesting article. It was a feature on "Dead Nettle", which, I suppose, doesn't sound all that interesting. But when I reached the section on medicinal uses, I found something intriguing-
"In England in the Middle Ages, a poultice of dead nettle was used to treat the King's Evil (scrofula- tuberculosis of the lymph glands), thought to be cured otherwise only by a king's touch."
That reminds me a lot of Athelas- common name kingsfoil. I assume that Athelas, the (Elvish?) scientific name of the plant, is comparable to Lamium, the latin name of dead nettle. You can also draw parallels between the histories of each. The name kingsfoil is thought by a few to be potent in the hands of the king, while most regard this as an old wives' tale. Perhaps dead nettle's history stems from a story in which a king was involved in healing of some sort (likely natural healing attributed to said king by superstition, but hey).
Further down on the page, the article notes, "A distallae of the flowers was said to 'make the heart merry.'" This reminds me a bit of the results Athelas showed when pitted against the Black Breath.
The magazine does note that dead nettle contains tannin, which makes it very bitter. But I don't recall that Tolkien actually mentions the taste of kingsfoil. Maybe it also contains tannins.
At any rate, I found this interesting and wanted to share. Perhaps Tolkien was influenced by a real herb when he came up with Athelas.

_________________
I am a Shieldmaiden for Christ!

I was Nienor before Nienor was cool. *nods coolly*
Kudos to Kitoky for the fabulous signature set, and art credit to engelszorn.
Who wants to join me in bringing back the lady?

That is interesting. Maybe it is athelas, left by a wandering elf And i think you may be right, and Tolkien was influenced by a real plant!

Thanks for sharing that, it's intriguing

_________________


Thanks Haldir and Gil!
"You said: I know that this will hurt, but if I don't break your heart then things will just get worse..."

I found another herb which reminded me of athelas a couple years ago. I used to have it listed on my CoE mini-site (you know, that thing where members can have their own little sites within site rules!) but I closed that down and unfortunately can't remember the name.
I'm sure Tolkien would've been influenced by natural history, though.

_________________
Starting October 13th: globe trotting from my kitchen. Follow along on Cook In Fifty-Two

Every day more and more proof of Middle-Earth turns up.... There's a plant in our neighborhood that's almost exactly like symblemyne (forgive my spelling!)

_________________
<center>
Receiving So Much More.

PM me with prayer requests
www.therebelution.com
</center>

That's cool I'm gonna have a look at that in one of my mum's plant books!

_________________
<center>