The Reedlands
A guide for travellers, written by someone who has spent too long on the ferry.
A map of the marsh
Getting there
By ferry, or not at all. There are no roads worth the name; the river is the road. Ask for the ferry landing — the long timber jetty with the bamboo mooring poles and the nets drying on racks — and be patient. The ferry leaves when the ferrywoman says so.
Places
The ferry landing
The heart of the village. Lanterns hang from the mooring poles at night, and most of the arguments in the Reedlands happen here, in front of everyone.
The reed channels
Narrow lanes of black water between walls of reeds taller than a man. At night the moon lies on the water in a broken silver line. Strangers get lost in an hour; ferry folk never do.
The willow pool
A round, still pool deep in the marsh, ringed by reeds, with one old willow leaning over it. It is a good place to hide something. Everyone who has ever hidden something in the Reedlands has hidden it there.
The grain barns
Big timber barns with steep dark thatch, built on stone right at the foot of the Old Wall. The family that owns them owns, more or less, everybody else.
The Old Wall and the Flood Bell
The ancient dike between the river and the fields: stacked grey stone, rows of old timber stakes, and a bell that an elder keeps. If you hear it at night, do not go and look. Go uphill.
Customs worth knowing
- Storm-night traps. When a great storm comes, every household sets its eel traps. What the river gives up that night belongs to whoever finds it — which is how the trouble in both films begins.
- Water names. The creatures carry old English words for water: rill (a small running stream), mere (a still pool), sedge (the grass that grows on graves).
- Two knocks on the wood. A ferrywoman’s signal. Answer it only if you know who is knocking.
- The bell and the stick. An animal taught with a bell will come to the bell. It will also remember what came after the bell.
Field notes: creatures of the river
Rill — The River Mother’s child
Size: Hatches the size of a house cat; grows longer than a ferry, then longer than the village. Nature: Gentle, curious and fiercely loyal to the woman who raised it.
- Pale jade-green scales edged in thin gold
- A translucent fin crest and a fan-shaped, koi-like tail
- A round, catfish-like head with long golden whiskers
- Huge amber eyes
The River Guardian — What lives at the bottom of the wide river
Size: About forty metres long. Nature: Unknowable. It is only ever glimpsed in dark water.
- Dark jade scales with worn gold rims
- Moss and small shells along its back
- Glowing gold lines along its belly
- Calm, ancient amber eyes
Sedge — The child that was given a name
Size: Hatches about the length of a forearm; grows as long as a small boat. Nature: Playful and quick to trust. It comes to two knocks on the wood.
- An otter-eel body with four short webbed limbs
- A long finned tail and a low dorsal fin
- A broad blunt muzzle with four long barbels
- Clear, bright amber eyes
Mere — The child that was given a bell
Size: As long as a small boat, but starved to bone. Nature: It answers only to a brass hand bell, because the bell always came with the stick.
- Chalk white all over, the skin cracked in a fine net of splits
- Pale pink, almost white eyes
- An iron ring forced through its jaw
- Ribs and spine showing through the hide
Where to watch
The Reedlands appear in The River Mother and The River Mother II: The Other Child. Both are free to watch in full.
© Thousand Words FilmS. For personal use — please share the link rather than the file.