Foraging through Folklore

Getting lucky

Ella Leith

My folkloric foraging often leads me down some dark paths. Not so this month. For, despite being a humble and everyday plant, no one seems to have a bad word to say about Clover (Trifolium spp.). It is light-hearted and lucky, generous with its scent, has sweet ‘honey-stalks’, and happily delivers nutrients: A most true maxim [is] that where a full crop of clover...has grown the next corn crop will be the better for it. Hence the common saying had its rise, That clover is the mother of corn (Britten, 1880:84).

To ‘live in Clover’ is to be well, prosperous, and content. Those wallowing in delight are likened to ‘a pig in Clover’. Wearing a badge of Clover was believed to offer protection from charms and spells (Pratt, 1852:23). Indeed, as John Leyden (1775-1811) evoked in his poem, The Elfin-King: Woe, woe, to the wight who meets the green knight, Except on his faulchion arm, Spell-proof he bear, like the brave St Clair, The holy Trefoil’s charm.

The name ‘Holy Trefoil’ is said to have emerged after St. Patrick used the Clover leaf in his teachings, to illustrate the Holy Trinity. Across Ireland, a Shamrock (seamróg, or ‘little Clover’) is traditionally worn on the bonnet or lapel of those celebrating the national saint’s day. Later, the leaf is ‘drowned’ in a bowl of punch or wine, then drunk (Thistelton Dyer, 1911:138). St. Patrick’s Day almost always falls within Lent, but traditionally ‘all Lenten restrictions are set aside on this day’ (Danaher, 1994:62), making the Clover emblematic of that one day’s lucky escape from the rigours of self-restraint and sobriety.

It is the four-leafed Clover that is the real emblem of good luck, however. The earliest written record of its fortune-giving properties dates from 1620, when astrologaster Sir John Melton wrote that, “if a man walking in the fields, find any four-leafed grasse, he shall in a small while after finde some good thing” (in Oakley Harrington, 2020:42). Exactly why a four-leafed Clover brings luck is unclear. In Christian tradition, its luckiness is often attributed to it being shaped like a cross (Brosseau Gardner, 1942:97), but it seems as likely to be due to its rarity; the ratio of three to four-leafed Clovers is 5000:1. Even rarer are five-, six-, and even seven-leafed Clovers. According to a correspondent ‘who claimed to have studied clover for years’, writing in the letters page of the Sunday Express in 1961, all Clovers except those with a single leaf had a lucky or protective traditional meaning (in Coote Lake, 1961:409). Two leaves signals ‘a new lover, especially for the recently jilted’; three is the sign of the Trinity; four brings about ‘general good fortune’; five, an ‘increase of silver’; six, ‘eventual fame’ or ‘the gift of seership’; and seven leaves is a ‘mystical symbol’ which ‘hath all things in itself’ and protects the carrier from murder (ibid). The list stops there, although it needn’t— the world record for the highest number of leaves on a single stem of Clover is fifty-six (National Geographic News, 2009). Even I think that’s pushing it a bit.

While the Sunday Express’ correspondent believed ‘general good fortune’ to be the gift of a four-leafed Clover, other traditions are more specific. According to D’Este, ‘a rhyme from Celtic regions associates each leaf with a different aspect of life’: One leaf is for fame, and one leaf is for wealth, And one for a faithful lover, And one to bring you glorious health, Are all in the four-leaved clover. Certainly four-leafed Clovers have widely been considered lucky for love. Australian Ernie ‘Joe’ Wells (1907-1994) reported in 1987 that:

They say if you put em down your left shoe, the first girl you meet you’re going to marry. That’s what they used to reckon. Moreover, Clovers had the power to ‘bring lovers back’: It is an old custom that when lovers are to be parted through travel, the lover staying behind places a four-leaf clover in the shoe of their departing sweetheart to ensure they come back, faithful and safe (Oakley Harrington, 2020:43).

Good fortune in the form of wealth could also come from placing a four-leafed Clover in your shoe— ‘look in after a week, but not till then,’ says Babcock (1888:92), ‘and you will find a gold bracelet’. The humble Clover might also assist your gambling, as long as you ‘ensur[e] that you never boast of it and never give it away’ (Oakley Harrington, 2020:44). In fact, the Clubs in packs of cards may derive from the association between luck and Clover: in French, the name of this suit is Trèfle, a direct reference to the French common name for Trifolium (Ellacombe, 1884:56). As for glorious health, one of the more poignant traditions associated with fourleafed Clovers is the belief that they would protect the wearer from conscription into the armed forces (Oakley Harrington, 2020:45)— increasing the odds of a long and healthy life.

If you’ve never found a four-leafed Clover and desperately want one, Hebridean tradition holds that all you need is a new-born foal and a sizeable time investment. When the foal first sneezes to clear its airways, the dubh-liath (literally, the black-grey) should be kept for seven years; after this, a four-leafed Clover will grow out of it (MacNeill, 1976). But sometimes, a four-leafed Clover will come to you by chance, and you may get a surprising indication that you’re near one.

Milkmaids, Oakley Harrington (2020) records, used to place bunches of grass on their heads to steady the milk-pails: Some would sometimes see fairies and not understand why...The grass bunch, examined, would always reveal a four-leafed clover (p43). Many would try to deliberately engineer a fairy sighting by wearing a ‘Northumbrian fairy crown’— a wreath studded with four-leafed Clovers —or by making a green ointment from four-leafed Clovers gathered ‘at a certain time of the moon’ (ibid). Even if you didn’t wish to see fairies, this ointment was believed to make you invisible in certain regards: a wily elderly Cornish man even used it when he wanted to shoplift at Penzance market (ibid).

For those with less nefarious aims, having the ‘ability to see invisible beings such as fairies’ was believed to then ‘improve the ability to discern lies and perceive liars,’ allowing you to ‘see right through illusions’, and tell whether the person you were speaking to ‘wish[ed] to curse you or do magic against you’ (ibid).

The power of the four-leafed Clover transcends Trifolium the plant; its luckiness can be evoked merely through its shape, formed in any material, and ideally in combination with other lucky symbols. In 1908, an exhibition of ‘Specimens of Modern Mascots and Ancient Amulets’ was arranged for the Folklore Society’s AGM, to acknowledge the ‘great revival in this country, during the past few years, of the belief in luck and protective amulets...amongst bridge players, actors, sportsmen, motorists, gamblers, burglars, and others engaged in risky occupations’ (Wright and Lovett, 1908:288). Among examples of ‘commercial amulets’ were a ‘motor mascot’ showing ‘a horse-shoe...with seven nail heads, to be fastened to the front of the radiator and containing in its cup...three four-leaved clovers’, and a gilt four-leafed Clover with a lucky image engraved on each leaf: a threeleafed Clover on one; a horse-shoe on the second; a pig on the third; and the words ‘Good-luck’ on the fourth (ibid:293-294).

I’m not sure I approve of hedging one’s bets that much. After all, several traditions hold that none of the Clover’s luck should be kept for oneself; indeed, many believe that it’s actively unlucky to keep a four-leafed Clover (Coote Lake, 1961:409). So, if you do find one, the best course of action might be to give it away— as a gift of luck to someone else.

References:

Babcock, W.H. (1888) ‘Folk-Tales and FolkLore’ in The Folk-Lore Journal, 6(1): 85-94 Britten, J. (1880) ‘Proverbs and Folk-Lore from William Ellis’s “Modern Husbandman” (1750)’ in The Folk-Lore Record, 3(1): 80-86 Brosseau Gardner, G. (1942) ‘British Charms, Amulets and Talismans’ in Folklore, 53(2): 95103

Coote Lake, E.F. (1961) ‘Folk Life and Traditions’ in Folklore, 72(2): 408-413

D’Este, M. (1028) ‘The Four-Leaf Clover: Druids, Eden, and… Handbags?’ on the Folklore Thursday blog, 15th February 2018, www.folklorethursday.com

Danaher, K. (1994) The year in Ireland. Mercier Press: Cork

Ellacombe, H. (1884) The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare. W. Satchell and Co.:London

Leyden, J. (1801) ‘The Elfin-King’, available from literaryballadarchive.com

MacNeill, J. (1976) Interview: ‘An dubh-liath anns na searraich’, Track ID: 60918, www.tobarandualchais.com

National Geographic News (2009), ‘Week in Photos: Unlucky Kangaroo, 56-Leaf Clover, More’, 12th May 2009, available from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news via web.archive.org

Oakley Harrington, C. (2020) Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic. Treadwells: London Pratt, A. (1852) Wild Flowers. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: London Thistelton Dyer, T.F. (1911) British Popular Customs Present and Past. Bell and Sons Ltd.: London

Wells, E. (1987) ‘Weather lore and good luck customs’, Track ID: 84742, www.tobarandualchais.com

Wright, A.R. and Lovett, E. (1908) ‘Specimens of Modern Mascots and Ancient Amulets of the British Isles’ in Folklore, 19(3): 287-303