Linden Close is in Laverstock, at the eastern edge of the ‘pebbledash-ed’ estate.
‘Linden’ is a word for ‘lime tree’, or ‘made from the wood of a lime-tree’ 1.
The names of the roads on the estate are a bit of a mystery to me – there’s no obvious relation between them. To use a favourite word of my daughter, the other road names on the estate (Napier Crescent, Vanessa Avenue etc) are fairly ‘random’. There are two possible reasons for the name of Linden Close that I could think of.
The first is that is a reference to the trees behind Linden Close i.e. between Linden Close and Duck Lane. I’m afraid I don’t know enough about trees to know one or another, but you could see this as fitting in with the adjacent road ‘Greenwood Avenue’.
The second is that Linden is somebody’s name. This would fit in with other roads on the estate which have named which are also either Christian names or surnames – Vanessa Avenue, Melvin Road and Napier Crescent.
Linden and Lime in music and art
Culture and religion
According to Wikipedia, the linden or lime tree has special cultural or even spiritual significance in much of Middle Europe. In Poland many villages have the name ‘Holy Lime’; Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have the tree as a national emblem; the name Leipzig is derived from the tree ; icons are typically painted on lime wood; in Germany the tree was supposed to help determine truth; one of the most significant streets in Berlin is Unter den Linden.
William Barnes’ Linden Lea
Image from Amazon
A Dorset cleric, William Barnes, wrote a poem called ‘Linden Lea’ in 1856:
Within the woodlands, flowery gladed,
By the oak tree’s mossy moot,
The shining grass-blades, timber-shaded,
Now do quiver under foot;
And birds do whistle overhead,
And water’s bubbling in its bed,
And there for me the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.When leaves that lately were a-springing
Now do fade within the copse,
And painted birds do hush their singing
Up upon the timber tops;
And brown-leaved fruit’s a-turning red,
In cloudless sunshine, overhead,
With fruit for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.Let other folk make money faster
In the air of dark-roomed towns,
I don’t dread a peevish master;
Though no man do heed my frowns,
I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my homeward road
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.
The poem was made famous when it was set to music by Vaughaun Williams in 1902. Williams wrote in 1925 that it was ‘horribly popular’.
The Linden here, presumably represents the tranquility of nature. ‘Lea’ means open space, or grove2.
At the time of writing there is a recording of ‘Linden Lea’ on Youtube here:
Coleridge – ‘This Lime-tree Bower my Prison’
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem ‘This Lime-tree Bower my Prison’ uses the Lime Tree, I think, as symbolizing the beauty of nature at all levels.
Image from Amazon
I’ve got a ‘tin ear’ for poetry, but my reading of the poem is that Coleridge begins by feeling very, very, sorry for himself. His friends are out enjoying water-falls, hill-top ledges, heaths and the sea – ‘Nature’ writ large, if you will.
Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
Beauties and feelings, such as would have been
Most sweet to my remembrance even when age
Had dimm’d mine eyes to blindness!
Coleridge however is in failing health – stuck in the Lime-Tree Bower, which he characterizes as ‘his Prison’:
Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
Beauties and feelings, such as would have been
Most sweet to my remembrance even when age
Had dimm’d mine eyes to blindness!
Then he comes to realize the beauty of Nature ‘writ small’, in the:
Comes sudden on my heart, and I am glad
As I myself were there! Nor in this bower,
This little lime-tree bower, have I not mark’d
Much that has sooth’d me. Pale beneath the blaze
Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch’d
Some broad and sunny leaf, and lov’d to see
The shadow of the leaf and stem above
Dappling its sunshine! And that walnut-tree
Was richly ting’d, and a deep radiance lay
Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps
Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass
Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue
Through the late twilight: and though now the bat
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters,
Yet still the solitary humble-bee
Sings in the bean-flower! Henceforth I shall know
That Nature ne’er deserts the wise and pure;
No plot so narrow, be but Nature there,
No waste so vacant, but may well employ
Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart
Awake to Love and Beauty!
Nick Cave
Nick Cave is presumably referencing Coleridge in his song ‘The Lime Tree Arbour’ which is on his LP ‘The Boatmans Call’3
Image from Amazon
The boatman calls from the lake
a lone loon dives upon the water
I put my hand over her
down in the lime tree arbourThe wind in the trees is whispering
whispering low that I love her
She puts her hand over mine
down in the lime tree arbour4
Cave uses the word ‘Linden’ in the song ‘There She Goes, My Beautiful World’:
The elm, the ash and the linden tree,
The dark and deep, enchanted sea,
The trembling moon and the stars unfurled,
There she goes, my beautiful world 5
Image from Amazon
A critic on Pitchfork.com wrote that:
Cave [sings] extensively of linden trees and cornflowers, red-breasted robins, and gamboling lambs6
…but these are the only two references I could find. I don’t believe that the ‘linden’ has any particular spiritual or religious significance in either case. In the latter, the Linden is just one tree in a list. In the Lime Tree Arbour, Cave must be referencing Coleridge – ‘Lime Tree Bower’ and ‘Lime Tree Arbour’ are too close for it to be otherwise. Perhaps the intention is to reflect the small miracle of ‘her hand over mine’ with Coleridge’s view of the beauty of the smallest elements of nature.
O-zone
More popular recently than either Nick Cave, Coleridge or Vaughaun Williams is the song ‘Dragostea din tei‘ by the Moldovan band O-Zone.
It’s possible, even probable, that you might know the song without recognizing the title. It’s also known as the ‘Miya Hee‘ song or the ‘Numa Numa song. It was a big hit across Europe in 2004. At the time of writing there is a video on Youtube here:
The most obvious translation for this is ‘Love out of the linden trees’.
Image from Amazon
There is a full translation of the song here Romania – Dragostea Din Tei – Miya Hee – Numa Numa – Lyrics in Romanian and English , and the Wikipedia page is very good.
According to Wikipedia, ‘linden’ in the song is one of the following:
- a reference to Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu
.
- a reference to a Romanian children’s book “The Hoopoe in the linden tree” by Ion Creang?
- a use of the Russian sense of Linden, meaning ‘not strong’ or ‘poor quality’
- a reference to ‘Tei’ in Bucharest, which is a popular area for student accommodation
- a corruption of the Romanian ‘dintai’, meaning ‘first one’
I think it’s fair to say that the rest of the words of the song don’t give much away, so the listener is free to choose their own interpretation.
Linden and Lyndon as names
Finally on the word ‘Linden’, it’s also been used as a name – either spelt as Linden or Lyndon. The most famous ‘Lyndon’ is probably Lyndon B Johnson the 36th President of the United States, who succeeded John F. Kennedy in 19637
Image from Amazon
According to the ‘Behind the Name’ website, the surname ‘Lyndon’ is
From an English surname which was derived from a place name meaning “lime tree hill” in Old English 8
The given name ‘Linden’ is:
Derived from German Linde meaning “lime tree”.9
Footnotes
- Online Etymology Dictionary [↩]
- Online Etymology Dictionary [↩]
- The Boatman’s Call
[↩]
- – the link is to an Amazon mp3 of the song [↩]
- Nick Cave – There She Goes, My Beautiful World
– the link is to an Amazon mp3 of the song [↩]
- Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus [↩]
- The Presidents | The White House [↩]
- Behind the Name: Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Lyndon [↩]
- Behind the Name: View Surname: Linden [↩]
Some VERY interesting Nick Cave links here!!!!!!!