The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Wormwood

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Mira:

  Page 322 Cold Days Harry knocks some small clay pots from a shelf... The have labels, he makes an
effort to pick them up, Mother Summer takes the cracked small pot from Harry's hands..


--- Quote ---As gently as if handling a newborn, she took the little clay pot from me and turned it slowly, closed her eyes for a moment, and then put it reverently back on the shelf.

When she took her hands from the little pot, I saw letters written in silvery light upon it and the neighboring pots, as if letters had been awakened by the warmth of her hands.

The writing on the cracked pot said simply Wormwood.

The letters began to fade, but I saw some of the others: Typhus.Pox. Atermors. Choleros. Malaros.
Typhus. Smallpox. The Black Death. Malaria. And Wormwood.
--- End quote ---

I bring this up because today on NPR they were saying that they have found that a simple tea brewed from Wormwood can cure schistosomiasis, a very nasty parasitic disease common in Africa, and that it is also a useful ingredient in a treatment of malaria... I remember when Cold Days came
out there was a rather long thread on this passage, mainly speculating on wormwood...  The radio said simply that it is a common bush in Africa, had been used against worm infestations by the natives for years hence the name wormwood... And that they have found in a study that the tea from it is more effective than a fancy expensive medicine they've come up with.  Notice that Mother
Summer handled the little pot that contained it with reverence..   Because it can bring a cure to so many things?  An answer to be found among the so many dreaded diseases...

morriswalters:
I have no idea but did find this in the Wikipedia entry.

--- Quote ---In the Bible, the book of Revelation tells of a star named Wormwood that plummets to Earth and turns a third of the rivers and fountains of waters bitter.[26]
--- End quote ---

flying peach:

--- Quote from: morriswalters on January 07, 2019, 04:03:13 AM ---I have no idea but did find this in the Wikipedia entry.

--- End quote ---

In addition to the Revelations stuff, Artemisia is a kind of decorative plant used in much of the US and Europe. One kind of Artemisia nicknamed "wormwood" is used to make absinthe. An alcoholic drink that tastes similar to anise (sort of black licorice flavored if you haven't had anise). People used to say that it was hallucinogenic. Apparently,  it's currently legal in the US (as of 2007 according to wikipedia).

One additional interesting aside to the revelations stuff is that Chernobyl (and because lots of people seem younger then me these days: Chernobyl is a nuclear power plant in the Ukranian part of the former USSR that had a melt down) is claimed by many to also translate into wormwood.

peregrine:
Yeah, it's almost certainly the star from Revelations.

And on the Revelations note, the original Greek word for Revelation, is Apocalypse.  As in, Big Trilogy.

Mira:

--- Quote ---worm·wood
/ˈwərmˌwo͝od/
noun
noun: wormwood; plural noun: wormwoods

    1.
    a woody shrub with a bitter aromatic taste, used, especially formerly, as an ingredient of vermouth and absinthe and in medicine.
    2.
    a state or source of bitterness or grief.
--- End quote ---

I find the second definition rather interesting..   I remember another quote from Lion in Winter,
if you are familiar with the movie or play it is when Catherine is thwarted in her plans to make her son Richard heir to the throne, by her husband King Henry who wants their son, John to succeed him.  There is a lot of intrigue and things backfire.. Catherine tells Richard, and I am paraphrasing now, "Oh leave it Richard, take your wormwood like a good little boy and go to bed!"

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