Review of Ceri Houlbrook, The Magic of Coin-Trees from Religion to Recreation: The Roots of a Ritual By Carole Cusack

https://www.academia.edu/144980507/Review_of_Ceri_Houlbrook_The_Magic_of_Coin_Trees_from_Religion_to_Recreation_The_Roots_of_a_Ritual?email_work_card=title This valuable study is not primarily concerned with Scotland, but rather with the vernacular ritual of embedding coins in trees as a means of expressing intent or making a wish. This is likely to have descended from “implanted” trees, in which objects including teeth, blood, nails, pins, and so on were pressed into trees, usually to cure ailments (toothache, pain, bleeding). Ceri Houlbrook compiled a catalogue of coin trees as part of her doctoral research, and argues that their contemporaneity does not preclude them from being studied as examples of folklore and ritual practice. ...