Black Hellebore

Species: Helleborus niger

Family: Ranunculaceae

Related genera: Aconitum, Anemone, Aquilegia, Delphinium, Pulsatilla, Ranunculus

Names: Christmas Rose, Black Hellebore, Schneerose, Christrose, Christwurzel, Schwarze Nieswurz

Folklore
“Then he who is about to dig out the plant turns to the East and prays that it may be accounted lawful for him to do this and that the gods may grant him permission.” - Pliny the Elder

East is where the sun rises and considered to be the heavenly direction where the 'good spirits' dwell. According to Christian belief, the Dead must be burried facing East, awaiting the Day of Resurrection. (Compare also the gathering of the Mandragore, where the pratitioner is to face West.)

“One part hellebore with as much artemisia placed beneath a diamond gives animosity and audacity, guards the members [of the wearer] and makes victorious over what you wish.” The fixed star attributed to the Black Hellebore is Algol. - Hermes Trismegistos, 15 Fixed Stars 15 Herbs 15 Stones and 15 Figures

“Burn Hellebore for consecrating Saturnian Talisman and conjuring spirits of Mars.” - Agrippa

Christwurzel (Helleborus niger) is the keyherb in Faustian rites of exorcism and coercion, along with garlic and sulfur. “Carry with you Aaronis and also Hellebore, so that he [the demon] cannot delve into you or possess you.” - Dr. Johannes Faust, Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis

The name Christmas Rose comes from its auspicious time of flower or from the legend that it sprouted in the snow from the tears of a young girl who had no present for the Christ child in Bethlehem. Another legend tells of the goddess Freya, who rescued an abondened child during a deadly cold night by transforming it into a Hellebore flower. The flower is also a symbol of innocense. It was considered holy and believed to ward off evil spirits, help heal the black death, and safe pigs from swine flue if a Helleborus flower was placed on the animal’s ears.

In medieval medicine Christmas Rose was a cure against madness and epilepsy (also called the 'divine disease', if a person was possessed by a demon). It was also used as a sneezing powder, as the alternate German name Schwarze Nieswurz indicates, whereas black to the dark color of the rootthe plant has a long tradition in healing madness. Melampus of Pylos cures the three daughters of the king of Argos with a drink of Hellebore solved in milk. - Ovid, Metamorphoses

Analogue to the Black Hellebore (Helleborus niger) exists the White Hellebore or False Helleborin (Veratrum album). - Pliny the Elder

Medicinal & Toxicological
Helleborus niger contains protoanemonin, or ranunculin, which has an acrid taste and can cause burning of the eyes, mouth and throat, oral ulceration, gastroenteritis and hematemesis. Responsible for the lethal reputation of 'Black Hellebore' are the cardiotoxic compounds helleborin, hellebrin, and helleborein. However new researches show that these are rather contained in Helleborus viridis but not in the root of Helleborus niger.

Poisoning with above mentioned cardiotoxins is reported to cause tinnitus, vertigo, stupor, thirst, a feeling of suffocation, swelling of the tongue and throat, emesis (vomiting) and catharsis, bradycardia (slowing of the heart rate) and finally collapse and death from cardiac arrest.

Purple-flowering Helleborus hybrid

Sources:
Wikipedia English, Wikipedia German

Fotos © Teufelskunst