TreeSquare: the tree that never grew
Becky’s Square Challenge for July is TreeSquare. Although it’s a daily challenge, I shall only drop in occasionally, and am starting off with a little bit of Glasgow history (no surprise there). My square also fits with Jude’s monthly Life in Colour challenge, which for July is blue.
Glasgow’s City Crest, a representation of which is shown above, is based on the miracles of St Mungo, our patron saint and founder. They are:
- the bird that never flew
- the tree that never grew
- the bell that never rang
- the fish that never swam
What is the the tree that never grew? As a boy in the monastery, Mungo was left in charge of the holy fire in the refectory. He fell asleep and some of the other boys, who were envious of him, put out the fire. When he woke and found what had happened, Mungo broke off some frozen branches from a hazel tree and caused them to burst into flames by praying over them.
Do you believe it? It’s certainly a nice story!
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Well done for ticking off several challenges in one, Anabel!
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I was quite lucky there!
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😊😊
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I’m hoping the boy Mungo wasn’t as saintly as it appears on the surface and that he put a really bad curse on his classmates. Who knows? The fish story reminds of the Othello and Desdemona’s lost handkerchief? Plagiarism? Not Mungo, surely.
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There’s also apparently a similar fish story about a Welsh Queen. Recycling myths, who’d’ve thought it?
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Poor guy, the high cost of boredom and bad friends, right? It’s a great story. Thanks for sharing. Anabel.
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He could definitely have done with better friends!
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Yes, indeed.
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Not a very ‘green’ thing to do nowadays. He should have looked for fallen wood on the ground rather than damage a live tree, frozen branches or not. Sounds a feeble excuse to me. ‘The branches that never grew.’ :o)
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I expect his power of prayer would also have replaced the lost branches. Or something!
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The crest is a fine work of art. There’s a lot going on within its compact space.
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There is. This is an unusual representation of it, but one I like.
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I like that bright blue emblem. I didn’t know the story but I would think putting a fire out is a good thing. We don’t need any more fire bugs.
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Ah, but this was a holy fire! Makes all the difference.
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It is such a wonderful city crest 🙂 and yay for Mungo and his fire skills!
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I knew it would be familiar to you!
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It’s great to see this. I was wishing I had a photo of the Glasgow crest in my archives to use for this challenge, but sadly not.
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I have quite a collection because I did a post on it a few years ago. Serendipitously, before I knew Jude was going for blue, I chose this one.
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I’m afraid I’m rather sceptical when it comes to tales like this though they do make good stories. Mungo’s classmates don’t sound like very nice kids so I’d like to think the robin story is true 🙂
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I take them with a very large pinch of salt. In other words, I don’t believe them at all!
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Haha… blue after all that! It’s a great story, what are the explanations for the rest of the miracles?
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Glad you like it, Jude. Here’s the rest. I wonder at the morality of his classmates!
The Bird: Mungo restored life to a robin, that had been killed by some of his classmates.
The Bell: the bell is thought to have been brought by Mungo from Rome. (Not really any miracle here!)
The Fish: Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde was suspected of infidelity by her husband. King Riderch demanded to see her ring, which he claimed she had given to her lover. In reality the King had thrown it into the River Clyde. Faced with execution she appealed for help to Mungo, who ordered a messenger to catch a fish in the river. On opening the fish, the ring was miraculously found inside, which allowed the Queen to clear her name.
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I wonder at the morality of the king! Seems like a nice chap to be married to
Maybe that was in tune with those old times, when queens easily got executed
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You are right! Patriarchy in action.
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Thanks Anabel. Yes, his classmates do seem somewhat dubious characters.
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