Mushrooms and fungi are wonderful organisms that occupy a special place in nature. For a long time it was unknown how they grow and spread. In popular belief they are usually associated with darkness and the demonic: the realm of toads, witches, elves and dwarves. Of the several thousand species of mushrooms in Europe, the fly agaric with its red cap and white dots is probably the best known. These mushrooms also include gnomes. In a sense, this book attempts to provide a scientific answer to the seemingly childish question of why gnomes live with mushrooms.
It turns out that this fungus had or has a special significance in Europe and Asia because of its mind-expanding capabilities. It is still used by Siberian shamans to enter a trance and thus meet the spirits. But the fly agaric probably also played a similar role in ancient India, among the Greeks and the Germanic people.
In order to recover the forgotten traces of the sacred mushroom, it appears necessary to delve into the fields of diverse sciences such as archaeology, history, anthropology and folklore. Only then can we break through the common underestimation of the role of plants and mushrooms in particular in cultural history. This also contributes to ethnomycology, the research into the significance of mushrooms in culture, a specialty at the intersection of botany and cultural sciences, which is virtually unknown in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Mushroom in many languages
German: Schwamm/Pilz, English: mushroom/toadstool, Gothic: wamba, Greek: mukès (cf. spongos), Hindi: khumbi, Italian: fungo, Latin: fungus, Dutch: zwam/mushroom, Portuguese: cogumelo / tortulho, Russian : zpud/grib/muchomor, Sanskrit: guba, Spanish: hongo/seta, Czech: huby, Swedish: svarnp
In Greek ‘spongos’ means sponge(like); in Lithuanian ‘gumbas’ means growth on a tree and growth. The German ‘Sumpf’ (swamp) and the English ‘swamp’ (swamp) also seem to belong to this complex. The basic meaning of ‘fungus’ and its variants, probably going back to the Indo-European ‘givombho’, must therefore be something like: ‘spongy excrescence on tree
A poem from ‘God’s food and devil’s bread’
In the forest, alone, and sometimes in circles,
This strange generation appears, As unexpectedly as musings And dreams of happiness and power. They are
seductive and very powerful,
They have wealth and woe. They give you life and plunge you into death and hell.
Ton Lemaire, the writer
Ton Lemaire (1941) studied cultural anthropology and philosophy and was a lecturer in cultural philosophy at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. Ambo published De tenderheid (1968), Philosophy of the landscape (1970), On the value of cultures (1976), The Discourse on Inequality by JJ Rousseau (1980), The Indian in our consciousness (1986), Binnenwegen (1988), Doubt about Europe (1990), Wandelenderwijs (1997) and With open sentences (2002)