Where the Map Ends

Sep 30, 2026

Nian and the Red Door

A record of Nian, the beast of Chinese New Year folklore, and the customs of red paper, fire and noise still said to keep it from the door.

Sep 29, 2026

The Century Walk of the Green Man

An account of the Green Man, Britain's foliate-headed spirit of the greenwood, and the local legend of his once-a-century Greenwalk through orchard, field and oak.

Sep 27, 2026

The Tree at the Centre of Everything

A journal entry on Yggdrasil, the vast tree of Norse cosmology, and the wells, wells-keepers and gnawing creatures said to hold the nine realms in place.

Sep 24, 2026

The Horn That Waits

A look at Gjallarhorn, the horn of Heimdallr, and the old uncertainty over whether it was ever separate from Mímir's well of wisdom.

Sep 23, 2026

The Taniwha's Long Watch

An account of the taniwha, the guardian and hazard spirits of Aotearoa's rivers, lakes and coasts, and what their old warnings still protect.

Sep 22, 2026

The Herds That Answer to No One

A look at Flidais, the Irish goddess who is said to herd and protect the wild deer of the forest, and at the old tale of the cattle raid that carries her name.

Sep 18, 2026

What the Wolf Was Promised

A visit to the Gosforth Cross in Cumbria prompts a retelling of Fenrir's binding and the fate the Norse sources give him at Ragnarök.

Sep 17, 2026

At the Well of Urd

An account of the Norns, the three women who set the fates of gods and mortals alike at the foot of the world tree, and of how uncertain their thread-work really is in the old sources.

Sep 11, 2026

The Spider Who Bought the Stories

In Akan tradition, every tale told under the stars is technically Anansi's property, won from the sky god through cunning rather than strength. I went looking for how that debt is still spoken of.

Sep 6, 2026

A small cast pendant, shaped like a hammer with a short handle, was worn at the throat across Viking-age Scandinavia as protection against the disorder of the world. I went looking for what it actually meant to those who wore it, and found the answer was never quite settled.

Sep 5, 2026

The Worm in the Mound

A journal entry on the wyrm, the serpent-dragon of Norse and British tradition that coils through barrows, rivers and the roots of the world tree, always keeping close to buried gold.

Sep 4, 2026

The Hook That Hauled Up Land

A journal entry on Te Matau a Māui, the demigod's fishhook said to have raised the North Island of New Zealand from the sea, and its afterlife as a constellation in Hawaiian sky-lore.