Under the Dragons Root

By Corinne Boyer

Under the Dragon Root is the final offering in a trilogy by Corinne Boyer. This long awaited book brings twenty plants from the Witches’ Garden into the light, along with their accumulated folklore, folk medicine and historical magical uses, particularly from the past three hundred years out of North Western Europe, though some information is much older.

This book brings together folklore and uses of the plants in an inspiring and yet engaging manner. The plants are organized by season similar to the other books, with the authors own wisdom and personal recipes included at the end of each chapter. Under the Dragon Root has copious footnotes and is exhaustively researched, including source material from fields such as history of pharmacy, grimoire magic, traditional witchcraft, folklore collections from the Victorian era, divinatory methodology and Swedish folk magic.

This book brings together much rare and little known plant lore, with a particular focus on the poisonous plants typically associated with witches, demons and spirits. Corinne has chosen her favorite twenty garden plants including: wormwood, valerian, poppy, autumn crocus, mushrooms, mandrake, bay laurel, daphne mezeron, hellebore, periwinkle, henbane, angelica, lily of the valley, rue, ferns, vervain, belladonna, aconite, foxglove and thorn apple. There are six appendices that offer detailed instructions and include topics such as the graveyard apothecary, making a root spiritus, making plant charms and powders, and working closely with poisonous plants.  Corinne has been working with plants and herbalism since 1999 and has been teaching and writing full time since 2010.

Under the Dragon Root contains twenty original Medieval woodcuts of the plants and around fifty captivating photos taken by Claude Mahmood. Original cover art by Peter Köhler.

Corinne Boyer is a folk herbalist, teacher, and writer with a passion for traditions surrounding plants and folk magic. She has been studying and working with plants since 1998. Corinne has taught community herb classes since 2005 and teaches weekly classes out of her home with a focus on wild crafting, medicine making, plant lore, folk medicine and traditional magic. She has been published in various journals with articles about plant lore and history. She created a free quarterly herbal newsletter called The Gathering Basket, which was distributed to her local community from 2012-2017. Her books include Under the Witching Tree published by Troy Books and Plants of the Devil published by Three Hands Press. Under the Bramble Arch is near completion and will be released by Troy Books in early 2019. She lives with her family in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Visit Corinne’s website for more information at www.maplemistwood.com