48 pieces of short prose and poetry from the Norwegian poet Filidh Lochlannach is now available in e-book format. “The Dragon Leaves” is a collection of stand alone texts that tell an entire story if read together. Unpack the flashes of beautiful nature and wonderings of what happened when Christianity suppressed Paganism, all wrapped up in a poet’s paper.
xxx
Go for a walk in the woods, find the old pathway up the hills, and follow it up to the old hill forts. By the steep trail, you see the ground all covered with Dragon Leaves. Pause for a while, watch them, kneel and turn them. Read the stories of the people that once lived there, of their world view and their relationships to Nature. Read the poems of how they revered Women and Female properties in the world around them, and learn a lesson of why humans today create their own sorrows.
This hill of poems and stories features a panoramic view into the past, including history, ecology, philosophy and religion. Throughout, these tales of an ancient culture reveals conflicts, greed, despair, but also a hope of love, harmony and peace as the Dragon is about to return.
Targeted Age Group:: 30 +
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Hiking is one of my main interests besides writing books. I like to walk to places with a purpose of finding out about their own unique histories. I’ve found old buildings, farms, hill-forts, old trails in the mountains and much more on my journeys, and some questions always pop up in my head. “What imprints were made on this land that shaped it into what it is today?” and “Who did it?” and “Why?” During my studies of nature philosophy I learnt how to get answers to these questions and I became very fascinated by the “Spirit of the Land” and the “Songs in the Wind”. I had thought about putting it all down on paper for a long time. I had kept some kind of a messy journal mixed with historical research, old myths and my own experiences from my walking. Then I joined the “National Writing Month” in 2013, a contest where the participants are supposed to produce 50.000 words in a month. I grabbed the opportunity and transformed my research into a story. I won the challenge, but there was still a lot of work to do to finish the novel. All I had was a very raw text that needed to be put a lot of effort into to become a manuscript, and I suddenly got that nudge in the right direction of going through yet another transformation – making the novel a collection of poetry and short prose. I happened to love to write in such a free manner. I chose a writing style that had few strict rules, and my creative imagination and intuition got the chance to flow more easily when I didn’t have to think about rules and compositions. My pieces of writing became snapshots of my own experiences. They became descriptions of moments that can stand alone, although I think they are strongest when they are read together from start to end.
