A Branch from the Lightning Tree: Ecstatic Myth and the Grace of Wildness

About this book

Martin Shaws writing rattles the cages of souls. In A Branch from the Lightning Tree Shaw creates links between the wildness in landscape and language with myth being the bridge between the two. Shaw uses four great myths from Welsh Norwegian Siberian and Russian territories that explore the process of leaving what is considered safe and predictable and journeying out into wild uncertain areas of nature and the psyche. Shaws work focuses on both men and womens movement into wildness as part of the bigger awareness of climate change and ecology. It presents the old stories as keys into any debate on these issues showing how the ability to think metaphorically and mythologically "re-enchants" our perspectives.