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rite & omen

The Bells Under Dunwich

A record of Dunwich, the medieval Suffolk port swallowed by the sea, and the enduring claim that its church bells can still be heard tolling beneath the waves during storms.

The Bird That Watches the Fall

A journal entry on the raven as a death-omen in British and Celtic tradition, from the ravens kept at the Tower of London to the corpse-bird of the Welsh Marches and the war-goddesses who wore black feathers over the battlefield.

The Line Nothing Crosses

A short account of the salt circle, a protective boundary drawn against unwelcome spirits, and why so many unrelated traditions arrived at the same substance and the same shape.

The Fire That Must Not Go Out

A journal entry on the old, near-universal duty of keeping a fire alive through the night, from the Vestal flame in Rome to the smoored peats of the Scottish Highlands.
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