A patch of alpine squill

[seasonoftowers]

They aren't very alpine in Romania, and mostly grow in shadowy areas such as forests. These I found hidden under a hedge on my daily walk.

Funny little difference: you know all the 19th century romantic poetry using violets as a motif associated to pale, wan, beloved women? In Romanian, the translations use alpine squill instead, because violets are gendered masculine in Romanian - hard to be wan and romantic about a flower called little-axe or three-spotted-brother.

I feel like this works better than the original, however. Alpine squill really is a pale, wan flower that needs specific conditions to bloom, whereas violets are cheerful, hardy weeds that take over entire lawns if you're not paying attention.

Comments

[steorra]

Pretty!

[caprices]

That is the BEST botanical/literary tidbit, thank you!

Although I now have an image in my mind of a dwarf pining for their beloved little-axe.

[jjhunter]

+1

This made me smile; thank you both.

[seasonoftowers]

It's just the perfect dwarven translation for snookums, isn't it?

[shapinglight]

They're lovely. I've seen them in France. Thanks for the local info, which is very interesting.

[shirebound]

What a delightful discovery!

My ancestry is half-Romanian. :)

[seasonoftowers]

:)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Neat, thank you for sharing these fascinating flower facts ^^ (and the photo is lovely too!)

[cesy]

Nice!

[yourlibrarian]

In Romanian, the translations use alpine squill instead, because violets are gendered masculine in Romanian - hard to be wan and romantic about a flower called little-axe or three-spotted-brother.

Ha!

[allekha]

Pretty little flowers! And thanks for sharing about their meaning :)

[chestnut_pod]

That is so interesting to know, thank you!

[minoanmiss]

Oh, so lovely!

[earthspirits]

Very interesting post - and the flower photo is lovely!

[pameladean]

Oh, that's all so fascinating.

Here, squill actually is taking over significant portions of my lawn, and while the violets are copious enough in spring and sometimes in fall, if we have a dry period they all disappear and their places are filled by grass, plantain, and ragweed. The squill disappears too, of course, once it's bloomed and stretched out its leaves for a bit, but it's only replaced by taller plants, if at all.

P.

[turlough]

Lovely photo of lovely flowers!