This is a decent introduction into this fascinating cultural history, but there is much more to the myth of the yew tree and sadly we seem to have lost almost all understanding of it. Medieval stories in both England and France relate certain trees with the fairy world, the yew tree being one of them. One lovely story that combines these myths is Sir Orfeo [1], which is a delightful poem in Middle English and also has a translation into modern English by a young Tolkien [2]. It is a re-telling of the classical Orpheus myth, with Eurydice being taken by faeries instead of bitten by a snake. Relevant to this article, she is taken while sleeping under the shade of a tree at noon, and the fairy world to which she is taken is actually a Hades-like place where the dead live. The name/description of the tree in Middle English, though not exactly "yew" in the available manuscripts, has raised speculation that the tree is meant to be a yew tree in the source story or earlier translations.

The fact that multiple cultures across such a breadth of time have continued and created mythical connections between the yew tree and death is intriguing. Maybe it speaks to some natural or innate quality of the tree, or just the amazing staying power and transferability of certain myths. Regardless, I think the mythologizing of the physical world in these ways renders some beautiful and engaging stories that we lose through our modern disdain for myth and our retreat from prolonged physical interaction with the natural world.

[1] https://auchinleck.nls.uk/mss/orfeo.html [2] https://allpoetry.com/Sir-Orfeo

Perhaps the chemotherapeutic properties of yew bark were known in some way to the ancients.

An interesting use of a yew tree: http://www.themeaningoftrees.com/node/352

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