H. Byron Ballard - Roots, Branches & Spirits: The Folkways & Witchery of Appalachia

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Roots, Branches & Spirits: The Folkways & Witchery of Appalachia 2021 by H. Byron Ballard.

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First e-book edition 2021

E-book ISBN: 9780738764849

Cover design by Shannon McKuhen

Cover illustration by Jerry Hoare / Donna Rosen Artist Representative

Interior art element by the Llewellyn Art Department

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)

ISBN: 978-0-7387-6453-5

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to one of my ancestors, a woman who looms large in my family mythology. She was small of stature and stout, and Ive never seen a photo of her as a young woman, before all the children. In my minds eye, she still wanders the steep streets of old West End with a dented dishpan, picking dandelion green s and young pokeweed. She died there too, before I was born and before I came to live uphill from her house at Number Ten Roberts Street. This book is dedicated to Lillian, Grandma Westmoreland.

Acknowledgments

My gratitude goes out to a slew of people who kept me upright and moving forward as I dove deep into this Pandoras box of history and practice: my homefolks, Kat and Joe; my mountain magic bringers, Crystal, Kate D., Michelle H., Marilyn McMinn-McCredie, and Renee; my Wisteria family; Cassandra Latham-Jones and Laetitia Latham-Jones; my work-wives at Asheville Raven and Crone; Brian, my work-husband on the road; the Wyrd Mountain Gals team of Alicia Corbin Knighten, Gomez the Yardman, and Craig Steven of SunSlice Records; and the Llewellyn team, Heather Greene, Shannon McKuhen, Donna Burch-Brown, Lauryn Heineman, Andy Belmas, and Jake-Ryan Kent. Special thanks to Gerald Milnes, whose early book on Appalachian witchery, Signs, Cures, and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore, is still a handy reference. To all the Appalachian women who plied their trade in these old hillswho caught the babies and cured warts and blew the fire out of a burn, who sang their grandmothers laments and told and retold the old storiesI am not worthy of your powerful legacy. But I will do my best to honor all that you have passed down to me .

Disclaimer on the Use of Herbs, Oils, and Such

The herbs, oils, remedies, and the like contained within these pages are offered as a representation of traditional folklore and ar e not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any conditions or diseases.

A Note on Bible Quotes Used in This Book

All verses contained here are from the King James version of the Bible. It is the traditional choice in much of southern Appalachia and is the one I grew up with, and I prefer it because the language is evocative and beautiful.

Contents

by Alex Bledsoe

: Beginnings

: Old Mountains, New Worlds

: Betwixt, the Ineffable Magic of Place

: Words, Music, and Magic

: Skills and Work

: Tools, Supplies, and Techniques

: Mountain Kitchen Witchery

: Healing and Herb Lore

: Signs and Omens

: Scraps and Other Useable Pieces

: Hillfolk Gothic: Haints and Haint Tales

Foreword

M y fathers family hails from the mountains of East Tennessee. Theres even a Bledsoe County just north of Chattanooga, and if you turn over a rock in Jonesborough (home of the National Storytelling Festival, as mentioned in ), youre as likely to find a Bledsoe as a copperhead. Depending on the situation, they both might bite you. Ive written six novels set in these mountains, and as part of that Ive studied many of the same things Byron covers in this book. So when I tell you that this book is the real deal, I know whereof I speak: like Byron, Im from so far south that, for us, sushi means bait. Ive known Byron Ballard for a while now and have crossed paths with her at various events across the South. Her warmth and kindness are legendary, and Ive experienced them firsthand. But more than that, her dedication to her home region and its people is th e kind of all-encompassing championing that we need. Her determination to uncover and document the practices and beliefs of this region, her region, are, in the fullest sense of the word, invaluable.

Why do I say that? Because this is the way people survived before technology and encroaching modernity made such things, at least temporarily, unnecessary. But as were starting to finally learn, this artificiality that was created to enhance our quality of l ife may do more harm than good. Were damn near enslaved to our devices, to food that magically appears on demand, to constant mental and emotional stimulation, to a belief that what we want is what we need . When and if all this modernity collapses, the skills, practices, and beliefs Byron describes here might be more important than we realize.

And even if that doesnt happen, knowing how to flake your mica without going blind surely cant hurt.

A hundred or so years ago, the folks who traveled into the mountains to find and record its music were known as songcatchers. In these pages, Byron refers to herself as a spellcatcher, acquiring and preserving the habits, rituals, and details that make this way of life so special. As I write this, Im sitting at home prac t icing social distancing, and the self-sufficient ways of Byrons book seem even more necessary and crucial.