ˈDanes'-blood
[Of the same origin as Danewort, q.v.]
A local name for plants abundant on sites noted for the slaughter of Danes. a. The Danewort or Dwarf Elder.
| 1607 Camden Brit. 326 Ebulum enim quod sanguineis baccis hic [at Bartlow] circumquaque copiose prouenit, non alio nomine quam Danes-bloud, id est Danicum sanguinem, etiamnum appellitant, ob multitudinem Danorum qui ibidem ceciderunt. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 707 Dane-wort, which, with bloud-red berries, commeth vp here plenteously, they still call by no other name, then Danes⁓bloud, of the number of Danes that there were slaine. 1656–85 Aubrey Nat. Hist. Wilts (1847) 50 Danes-blood (ebulus) about Slaughtonford is plenty. There was heretofore a great fight with the Danes, which made the inhabitants give it that name. 1875 Gardener's Chron. IV. 515. |
[Note.—The berries of this plant are not red, but black or reddish black, yielding a violet dye]. b. Clustered Bell-flower, Campanula glomerata.
| 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 342 The author..found this clustered bell-flower [at Bartlow, Cambs.] largely scattered about these mounds..and was told that it was ‘Danes-blood’. |
c. The Pasque-flower, Anemone Pulsatilla.
So called in East Anglia, Essex, Cambs., Herts. (Britten & Holland.)