Flint

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Flint

A hard sedimentary rock of a dark-grey, blue, black or deep brown colour, normally with a glassy appearance. It is very common in sedimentary rocks, such as chalk and limestone. Flint mining began in the Palaeolithic era, but became more common in the Neolithic, and such mines are found on the Sussex Downland, one of the oldest being at Harrow Hill.

It was used for making tools in the Stone Age, using the process of flint-knapping. Arrowheads made of flint are known in folklore as elf-arrows, and were fired by the Fair Folk, causing 'elf-shot', which is traditionally considered to be rheumatism & other 'shooting pains'. Flint arrowheads, by correspondence, were thus thought to provide protection from the fairies, but folklore holds that they must never touch the ground else they lose their power. Other folk beliefs hold that a person must be buried with their elf-arrow, else the fairies will fetch them at death.

Besides protecting from fairies, these arrows are also able to cure illnesses, and some fairy-doctors rubbed the arrow heads on to wounds thought to have been caused by fairies so as to heal them, whether man or cattle. Sometimes these fairy darts were immersed in water, and the water was then administered as a cure, as were normal flint pebbles in Ireland.

Flint also has a history as a fire lighter, for when struck hard it produces sparks capable of lighting tinder, and was sometimes thought to be a 'thunder-stone' that fell to earth with the flash; these were normally flint axes. Such stones were much prized as a sort of household god and as a ward of malevolent magic, and have been found built into the walls of houses dating between the Iron Age and Medieval era. Similarly to flint arrowheads, these axe heads were once boiled in water to make a philtre capable of curing many illnesses.

Flint also has extensive historical use in the building of stone walls.