One of the first flowers of spring, and
commonly known as the flower of hope.
Although its beauty symbolises purity,
it is widely regarded as a omen of death and as such
is considered to be unlucky to take into
the house of anybody who is sick, except
in Shropshire where bunches of the flowers are
taken into the house to purify it.
After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Eve stood
weeping and surveying the snowy wilderness to which they had been sent
when an angel appeared.
The glowing figure caught a falling snowflake, breathed on it and then
handed it to Eve:
‘This is an earnest wish, Eve to thee
That sun and summer soon shall be’
The angel vanished and where she had stood the snow had turned
into a carpet of snowdrops.
From 'Faerie Flora'
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