“Right
over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the
Danes, and which is the scene of part of “Marmion,” where the girl was
built up in the wall. It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full
of beautiful and romantic bits. There is a legend that a white lady is
seen in one of the windows… This is to my mind the nicest spot in
Whitby.”
-Mina Harker’s diary, Ch. 6, Dracula by Bram Stoker
[T]he forests of mythology and folklore [...] have long been places of sanctuary and opportunity and life, but also of uncertainty, menace and death. What’s maybe more surprising is that they remain all those things, even now, when most of us live urban lives and never see a true wildwood.
Perhaps this is because our minds are much like forests: places of light and dark, of growth and retrenchment, of replication, creation and deposition, of recycling and resurrection. Through both, there are familiar thoroughfares where we travel so often we don’t stop to notice what is going on any more. There are also the paths we walk less often, leading to places we are afraid to go.
This brilliant essay seems to have been removed from The Guardian website where it first appeared, but can be found over at The Weaver, where I urge you to read it.
