#the actual old beliefs and things around thungs like this are so interesting i think

[im-tempted]

Ok so I found a lot of really interesting stuff

First off a little bit about the plant itself:

Brambles aren't a specific plant, it's actually a family of over 330 plants native to Europe. However, the bramble most commonly referred to is the blackberry bush and less commonly but still present as a raspberry or blackberry bush.

The bramble was actually a very widely used plant, as its berries could be eaten. It was also used to treat lots of diseases like disentery, diarrhea, and even burns and snake bites.

The bramble is also used in superstition, as in Scotland it's believed that if you dream of an arch of brambles it foretells trouble. Specifically, if you get pricked on the brambles it means you will have troubles with friends, and if you draw blood you will have a heavy loss in trade. However, if you pass through safely it means you will overcome your enemies.

One notable example of bramble in myths is actually in the Bible! When archangel Michael casts down Lucifer, Lucifer lands in bramble bushes as he spits on them and curses the bramble.

This day is celebrated on Michaelmas, and it's told that you should never eat bramble berries afterward. Like most stories, this is actually rooted in fact! Michaelmas is in September, which is around the time that the bramble berries rot!

Another example is the myth of Bellerophon from Greece, who rode Pegasus into Mount Olympus, defying the gods. This enraged them, and they made Pegasus buck him off into the bramble bushes where he was blinded.

You actually mentioned Sleeping Beauty earlier, which I brought up with my (German) father (raised in Grimms Brothers and other German folktales) who mentioned that in the German Sleeping Beauty, her name is actually Dornröschen, which translates to what is roughly Little Thornrose.

He also told a few stories if his own childhood in his village, where the bramble was used as an omen for the forest. He said it used to grow "So große wie ein Haus" or "As big as a house". He said that he use to go picking the wild blackberries very frequently with his parents, but he was always warned that he should never go alone or else he would get hurt. He said it also kept people out of the forest because of how impossibly thick it was (this is Die Schwarzwald- a classic thick German woods). This could probably be the origin of brambles specifically keeping people out- like in Sleeping Beauty when the block the Castle or in Rapunzel when the witch summons them to blind the Prince and stop him from accessing the Tower

The more you know!

Love how literally everything can be traced to the bible

That is actually really cool thanks for looking into that for me

It makes a lot of sense that it has some superstition element due to the fact it's used as a punishment of some kind

Also the sleeping beauty I think is the best examples of it

The whole cutting yourself in sharp things is the main running theme with the spinning wheel than the big rose bush

Also weird how being blinded by bramble's is such a thing in story's?

Do you also think it could be possible that back when the story's were told they still had the whole evil brambles thing

But also that I'd assume a plant that hurt you like that would have been harder to control back then meaning that it could have been a genuine threat then growing around your house