Tarragon

Tarragon is a young boy who hails from the Kingdom of the Lake at the End of the World. He attends a school for sorcerers’ apprentices, where students are taught to handle dragons, among other scholarly pursuits. When a great misfortune besets his Kingdom, he answers the call, hoping to harness the magic he has been taught. By happy chance, he meets Anabell who agrees to help him in his quest. Together, can they save the Kingdom of the Lake at the End of the World from peril?

Tarragon and its scientific name Artemisia dracunculus derive from the Latin word dracunculus, meaning “little dragon”, emphasising the dragon-like or serpent-like appearance of the plant.¹ ² It is a name befitting a sorcerer’s apprentice or dragonlord. Slovene folk tales speak of schools for sorcerers’ apprentices, consisting of 12 colleges or grades. It is said that the 13th college was an extra grade where handpicked graduates would learn to handle dragons, harness supernatural forces, and cure ailments with herbs. Tarragon has almost completed the 13th college, so he has learnt the ways of a wizard. But riding dragons and casting spells is only a small part of being a wizard. What sets apart the great wizards from the meek is wisdom. But wisdom cannot be taught, only acquired along the way. And so it is for Tarragon as he sets off on his quest to save the Kingdom of the Lake at the End of the World.

In Slovene folk tales, sorcerers’ apprentices are known as črnošolci, which literally translates as “black students”.³ ⁴ ⁵ As Catholicism took hold of Slovenia, these sorcerers’ apprentices became seminarians, easily recognisable by the black Jesuit robes they wore at seminary colleges. They were still said to have supernatural powers, often becoming exorcists given their ability to recognise and reverse spells.

1. Ekiert, Świątkowska, Knut, Klin, Rzepiela, Tomczyk, & Szopa, Agnieszka, “Artemisia dracunculus (Tarragon): A Review of Its Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology,” Frontiers in Pharmacology, 12(653993), (2021), 1-18.

2. The position that the appearance or other notable features of the plant could be used to divine its healing properties was called the Doctrine of Signatures (DoS). While this doctrine finds its most fervent adherents during the 16th and 17th centuries, arguably its roots can be traced back to Greek physicians and philosophers Pedanius Dioscorides (c. AD 40 – c. AD 90) and Galen (c. AD 129 – c. AD 216), two important figures in the development of medicine as a science. It is also ubiquitous in wisdom traditions throughout the world. Nowadays, the doctrine is rejected on the basis of pseudoscience, but some academics argue the DoS was purely symbolic, serving as a mnemonic device in preliterate societies. — Bradley Bennett, Doctrine of Signatures: An Explanation of Medicinal Plant Discovery or Dissemination of Knowledge? Economic Botany, 61(3), (2007), 246–255. Regarding DoS, I believe the late Stephen Jay Gould says it best:

   “I question our usual dismissal of this older approach as absurd, mystical, or even prescientific (in any more than a purely chronological sense) ... But how can we blame our forebears for not knowing what later generations would discover? We might as well despise ourselves because our grandchildren will, no doubt, understand the world in a different way.” — Stephen Jay Gould, I have landed (New York: Harmony Books, 2002), 168.

3. Ljiljana Marks, Legends about the Grabancijaš Dijak in the 19th century and in contemporary writings, Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 54(2), (2009), 319–336.

4. Zmago Šmitek, Nočni bojevniki: Kmečke herezije in čarovništvo na Slovenskem in v Furlaniji, Studia Mythologica Slavica, 17(2014), 271-283.

5. Monika Kropej, Supernatural beings from Slovenian myth and folktales (Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2012).

6. Jakob Kelemina, Bajke in pripovedke slovenskega ljudstva (Celje: Založila Družba Sv. Mohorja, 1930), 42. Translation attributable to Daniel Goulding.