👉 Okay, let’s tackle the frankly rather prickly and wonderfully weird bit of Anglo-Saxon ornithology known as…
alder levied
. (Seriously, just saying that out loud already feels a little unsettling.)
Now, here's what we actually mean when we say something is "alder levied." Historically, in the late medieval period of England—around 1300 to 1600, roughly when you were probably wearing itchy wool and knights still actually fought people (mostly each other)—the alder was a hugely significant, almost religiously venerated tree. Think really rather grumpy, pointy-leaved elder relative. They grew along the margins of woodlands and marshes. Here's how it went down: When a landowner felled an alder, he had to pay a monetary levy – basically a fine—to the Dean Earl (the senior clerical official who essentially ran the whole forestry operation in the shire). That levy was called... the alder levied . Essentially, you were being charged for disrespecting the poor old alder. You’d been a bit too… acquisitive with your wood. It smacked of a sort of petty woodland tyranny, frankly. The Dean Earl wasn't exactly messing around; he was a stickler for proper forestry regulations and a very serious chap about his shillings. Nobody quite knew why the alder got such a hard-done-by decree, it just… was. It’s like the wood barons of the
