In ancient Celtic and Roman times, apples symbolized love, fertility, and knowledge and were often associated with harvest time. In Medieval times, apples were used for divination in several courting rituals, and the fruit, the peel, or the pips were used to glean information about their romantic future.
In Cornish folklore, it was a tradition to leave an apple out for the faeries during apple-picking season. The Apple Tree Man (also called Awd Goggie) was thought to inhabit the oldest tree in the orchard in Yorkshire folklore and to be a protective spirit who guarded the ripening fruit. Some say he was a sprite or Unseelie fae, resembling a giant hairy caterpillar so large it could swallow a child in one gulp. Children were warned not to steal the fruit or ‘Awd Goggie is seer to get 'em.'
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