Are you curious about the history of mushrooms in mythology and folklore? We certainly are. If you want to learn more, check out our article here.
Fungi have a rich and varied history. We’ve used mushrooms for various purposes, including recent technological advances. For example, we’ve used them as a medium for composting roof shingles and extensively as medicinal supplements. They can even help catalyze certain farming procedures. Humankind has been using mushrooms for thousands of years, and our fungal friends have been the topic of folklore and mythology for millennia. We’ll examine mushrooms in folklore and mythology below.
Fairy Rings
Have you ever seen mushrooms that grow in a circle on the forest floor? Eerie, right? Our ancestors certainly thought so. There are a ton of tales related to the circular arrangement of fruiting bodies. The fruiting body is one of many parts of the mushroom, consisting of the gills and stem. Some say it’s a gateway to the realm of the fae. For others, it’s a strange attractor for mischievous elves.
That said, fairy rings are a perfectly natural phenomenon. They usually only happen when the substrate that grows under the ground is consistent. When the fungal food supply isn’t interrupted, it grows outward, creating a circle in the ground that seems strange to the outside observer. To make matters even stranger, the grass within the circle is often a different color than outside the circle, making it appear supernatural. In fact, in the British Isles, they thought the grass inside the ring was poisonous.
White and Red Fly Agaric
This is a mushroom used commonly in European culture. You’ll see it in cave art, steles, and other forms of illustration from antiquity. It was thought that the berserker of the Viking conquerors used it to go into a battle rage and fight their opponents. It was also used as a hallucinogenic by shamans who sought to traverse the underworld or the heavens. Some historians also believe that Santa’s red and white suit originated from the use of fly agaric during the Yuletide feast, widely accepted as the precursor to our Christmas tradition. In Ireland, it was called the “Flesh of the Gods” for its potency in creating altered states of consciousness.
Mushrooms in Egypt
In ancient Egypt, mushrooms were a delicacy reserved for the highest royalty. They were often associated with immortality and buried with the pharaoh upon death to support their transfiguration into a deity. In ancient times, the divination of the body after death was important so the pharaoh could rule in the afterlife. Without mentioning the pharaohs, no examination of mushrooms in folklore and mythology could be complete. Overall, mushrooms have shown up in history and folklore in many ways, and they will continue to do so in science as time marches on.