Landscape stories

(Nimue)

If human stories merely have settings, that encourages us to see the landscape as nothing more than a backdrop for human activity. When stories engage with the landscape, they can create feelings of involvement and investment. When it comes to getting people to take better care of the planet, this can make a difference. For anyone on the bard path, this is an important consideration.

It can be as simple as making spaces specific – talking about actual landscapes or landscape features as part of the story. Have the landscape impact on the characters in some way. Include weather and seasonal details. If you create characters who have a relationship with places then that colours the story. This is something Pagan authors are already doing – MA Philips has a lot of landscape in her work. Laura Perry’s Minoan fiction is deeply in formed by Crete. Maria DeBlassie’s Weep Woman Weep is a landscape story. Nils Visser’s Wyrdwood books and David Bridger’s fiction all have this going on. (Get in the comments if you’re writing this kind of thing, add links please.)

The landscape I live in is very much part of my sense of self. I have written about my part of the world, in the Wherefore series and in Spells for the Second Sister. My novel Hunting the Egret is set on the banks of the River Severn, while Ghosts of the Lost Forest is very much about the forest of Arden – which used to cover much of the Midlands.

If you feel a sense of belonging you are more likely to care about a place. If you can experience your own landscape as magical, then this will enrich your life. If beauty and wonder aren’t exotic, distant things, you are better off. In practice a lot of people have no sense of belonging or relationship with the land. This alienation is harmful for people and planet alike. Anything we can do to try and change that for ourselves, and for each other, is well worth doing.