In English folklore, the Apple Tree Man is a fairy spirit who lives in the oldest and/or most fruitful tree in the orchard. He seems to be a male version of the Ancient Greek Hamadryads, nymph who lived inside trees and were part of the trees they protected. Norse mythology tells of a tree spirit named Askafroa, who was the guardian of the ash tree; however, unlike the Apple Tree Man and the Hamadryads, Askafroa was a malevolent spirit. In a curious tradition which seems to be a odd mix of pagan and Christian feast days, she had to be appeased with a sacrifice every Ash Wednesday. This would appear to be a confusion concerning the word ‘ash’: the Christian feast of Ash Wednesday involves fasting and prayer and the wearing of ashes (from a fire) on the forehead, and has nothing to do with the ash tree or its place in legend and folklore.

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Like Askafroa, the Apple Tree Man is part of a pagan tradition, one that may go back to the Ancient Celts, for whom the apple was the most magical and sacred of all fruits, partly because it could both protect and heal. The Apple Tree Man’s representation of fertility chimes with the Celts’ view of the apple as representing abundance, wealth, and good fortune. In her Folktales of England (1968), Ruth Tongue tells the story of the Apple Tree Man rewarding a poor man who paid tribute to him in the orchard by telling him to look beneath the roots of his apple tree to find a chest full of gold.

As with the Norse goddess Iðunn, the Celts also regarded the apple as a symbol of youth and immortality, and other magical gifts besides, and it appears in numerous Celtic legends and stories. The soul of the Munster hero Cú Roí was kept hidden inside a magical salmon and only when the secret was revealed could he be slain. In a similar way to the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules), the three sons of Tuireann (Brian, Iuchair, and Iucharba) had to atone for a murder by completing extraordinarily difficult feats. In their case, they had to perform eight tasks, one of which was obtaining three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides in the west.

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In the collection of Welsh myths and folk tales known as the Mabinogian, the great king Bran the Blessed awakens from an enchanted sleep to see a beautiful silver branch laden with apples and white blossoms. He takes the silver branch into his hall, whereupon a beautiful young fairy woman appears and sings a song about the Otherworld, after which she takes the apple-laden silver branch and disappears. This episode ignites a wanderlust in King Bran, who sets off on a long quest to find the Otherworld. The great sea god Mannanán Mac Lir was associated with a number of Otherwordly realms, notably Emhain Abhlach, ‘Emhain of the Apple Trees’, a paradisiacal island thought to be either the Isle of Arran or the Isle of Man. In one story, Mannanán appears to Cormac Mac Airt, King of Tara, carrying a branch of golden apples which, when shaken, plays entrancing music that can heal any who hear it.

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The Isle of Man is the home of another folk tale involving apples. There was once a family named Sayle who lived by the coast at Gob Ny Ooyl and were friendly with a mermaid. They would bring her apples, which she loved, as she could not get them under the sea. As the father Sayle grew older, he could no longer go fishing and the family began to experience hardship. One day, Evan, the youngest son, was out in the fishing boat having no luck catching fish when he saw the mermaid, who asked after his father, said she wished to see him again, then dived back into the sea. When Evan returned home and told his father, Sayle was delighted and told his son to take apples with him the next time he went out with the boat. Evan did so and the mermaid was happy with the gift, blessing him with good fortune in her song:

“The luck o’the sea be with you, but don’t forgetful be,
Of bringing some sweet lan’ eggs for the children of the sea.”

After this, Evan’s luck changed, his family prospered once more, and he regularly took apples to the mermaid when he went out fishing. One day, however, he decided he wanted to leave home to see the world. Upon hearing this, the mermaid was unhappy, so Evan planted an apple tree above where she would swim near the coast, promising her that the apples would fall down into the water for her. After he left, the mermaid would sit beneath the tree on the rocks in the evenings, singing sad songs and looking longingly up at the tree, but it took a long time to bear fruit. Eventually, the mermaid got tired of waiting and left to search the oceans for Evan. Neither of them ever returned to Gob Ny Ooyl, but the tree finally blossomed and bore rich red apples for many years afterwards.

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In another encounter with an Otherworldly being, the historical 13th century Scottish poet Thomas Learmont of Ercildoun (Earlston), known as Thomas the Rhymer, was lured away by a beautiful woman on a white horse who turned out to be the Queen of Fairies. She bade him not take any food or drink that she did not give him and showed him three paths: one full of thorns and briar patches, which led to righteousness and Heaven; one spread with pretty lilies and flowers, which led to Hell, though some said it led to Heaven; and one green and lush with ferns which led to Fairyland. She ordered him not to speak, for if he did he would never be able to return, and led him down the road to Fairyland, where she gave him an apple which gave him the gift of prophecy – a gift harking back to Apollo, the god of divination, whose sacred fruit was the apple. But the gift came with a catch: Thomas’ foresight made him incapable of lying, which made his life somewhat difficult when he returned to the mortal world after seven years!

‘Syne they came on to a garden green,
And she pu’ed an apple frae the tree:
“Take this for thy wages, True Thomas,
It will give the tongue that can never lie.”

Like Thomas, Connla of the Golden Hair, Prince of Tara and son of King Conn the Fighter of a Hundred, met and fell in love with a fairy woman. He first saw her on the mystical hill of Uisneach while with his father. When the fairy woman approached Connla, she said she came from the land of Tír Na Mbéo, the Land of the Living, where sickness and old age were unknown, and where there was perpetual feasting and joy. The fairy woman loved Connla and wished to take him to her realm, but his father the king called upon his druid to banish her. The fairy woman threw an apple to Connla and vanished. For a month afterwards, Connla refused all food and drink except the magic apple, which, though he ate from it every day, never grew smaller and always remained whole. Eventually, the fairy woman returned and, despite his father’s best efforts, the lovelorn Connla left with her in a crystal boat to sail to the land of Tír Na Mbéo far away in the golden west. Neither he nor the fairy woman were ever seen again.

Apples play a significant part in the legend of Avalon and Morgan le Fay – and, as we shall see, Avalon is quite possibly linked to the Apple Tree Man. The name Avalon means the Island of Apples or the Island of Apple Trees; it is a land outside of time and space, an Otherworld of eternal spring where lush orchards abound, flowers and fruit grow together, and no storms ever rage. Avalon is the realm ruled by Morgan, shape-shifting Fairy Queen and mistress of magic, music, arts, astronomy, healing and herb lore, the most beautiful and most powerful of nine sisters – a Celtic convergence of Ancient Greek myths of enchantress island queens and the nine Muses.

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Although far older than the fifth century from which King Arthur dates, Avalon is most famous as the place where Arthur is taken after being mortally wounded at the Battle of Camlann. In some accounts, it is Merlin and Barinthus, a shadowy sea god, who ferry Arthur to Avalon to be healed by Morgan. In other tellings, they are accompanied by the bard Taliesin, but in most accounts, it is Morgan herself who arrives to take Arthur away to Avalon to heal him and grant him immortality.

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However, there is yet another, much lesser known figure who is important to Avalon. Although his origins are unknown, he would appear to be an early Celtic deity. In Welsh legend, he is the son of Beli Mawr, Lord of the Otherworld, and the father of the Mother Goddess Modron, an early prototype of Morgan le Fay. 12th century English historian William of Malmesbury states that this god was known as Avallach and lived in Avalon with his daughters, while William’s fellow historian Geoffrey of Monmouth claims the same, while using a variant of Avallach’s name, Avallo, for the island of Avalon itself. Avallach’s Welsh name, spelled Affalach or Aballach, was also the Welsh name for Avalon. The god and the island itself seem to have been inseparable.

We know very little about Avallach, save for the fact that he may have ruled Avalon before his daughter Morgan. However, we do know that his name derives from ‘abal’, ‘afal’ or ‘aval’, the Celtic words for ‘apple’. Like Apollo, Avallach’s sacred fruit was the apple; like Mannanán, he lived on an island of apple trees where the orchards were forever fruitful. Could the old English folk tale of the Apple Tree Man have its roots in Avallach, this almost forgotten ancient Celtic deity who ruled over and even personified an Otherworldly island of apple trees? There is no way to know for certain. All we know is that the Apple Tree Man – the ancient and eternal spirit of the apple tree – survives as an offshoot of the beliefs in the mystical powers of apples and all those associated with them, many of whose origins are lost in the mists of time.