Moreover, we can now eliminate the Scandinavian element from this and other such tales. For it appears that the Gilla Dacker or Searbhan is the Scandinavian equivalent for the Celtic lord of the Otherworld tree—an inference that I shall hope to establish elsewhere. Finally, since the Knight of the Fountain acted as the royal champion of a fruit-tree (? apple-tree) belonging to the Gilla Eacker, alias Avartach, we obtain by analogy valid ground for believing what for other reasons we were already prepared to believe, viz. that Diarmuid, when he defended the quicken-tree of Searbhan at Dubhros, was indeed a king acting the part of a god.
Searbhan, 'He of the Quicken-tree,' and Avallach, 'He of the Apple-tree,' were alike perpetuated by the Christian saint Serf or Servanus, who drew his name from the one and his legend from the other. The berry of the quicken-tree, otherwise known as the fowler's service-tree,[1] was in Middle English serf, corresponding to an Anglo-Saxon syrf- in syrf-trēow (i.e. sirf-tree, service-tree),[2] while Servanus appears to be the Latinised form of Searbhan (Sharving). Like Avallach he had a sacred apple-tree; for the legend is that, when St. Serf on his way to Fife threw his staff across the sea from Inch Keith to Culross, it straightway took root and became the apple-tree called Morglas,[3] 'the Great Green-one.' Again, St. Serf's island in Lochleven,[4] like that of St. Mourie in his eponymous lake,[5] may well have been the Christian successor of a pagan Otherworld abode. The counterpart of the spring
- ↑ E. Step Wayside and Woodland Trees p. 108.
- ↑ W. W. Skeat A Concise Etymological Dictionaiy of the English Language new ed. Oxford 1901 p. 476.
- ↑ R. Folkard Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics p. 219.
- ↑ A. Kerr 'Description of the ecclesiastical remains existing upon St. Serfs island, Lochleven' in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Edinburgh 1882 iv. 159 ff.
- ↑ Folk-lore xvii. 331 ff.
