Abstract

Sacred tree cults, including those concerning groves, have a long-established history in the Classical World, lingering on in England under Roman rule; groves had also played a central role among the Druids in late Iron Age Britain. However, such ‘pagan’ beliefs involving trees were to be curtailed under Christianity, especially following the late tenth/eleventh-century reforms within the Catholic Church. In early medieval literature woods were generally (but not always) seen as dangerous wilderness areas, places likely to try the faith of hermits. Early medieval documents and place-names are more pragmatic: the terms used are often indicative of the nature or use of woods and the grāf term seems to have been used for relatively small managed woods that often appear to have been coppiced for timber and small wood.