The Rewilderbeest
I had SO many great submissions for The Folk Review Issue 3 and so some of those that didn’t make the magazine due to space and over enthusiasm on my part I thought I’d share here…. First up the magical world of The Rewilderbeest by Ruth of The Lost Giants Makers
Photo Credit: Max Crow Reeves
Photo Credit: Amy Webb
Through a tangle of bramble and briar I can see the sun.
Feel the sun dappling, pooling on skin and waking stiff limbs
I’m trapped....How long have I been sleeping?
Hungry.......
Nibble munch relish tender stem
Gobble gorge push up through
Feast for stomach, feast for eyes
First sight of bird flying through sky
First smell of badger, ah here’s its path
Push and thrust and nibble through and....
Free
What can I see?
Sap running fast through my mind, I have never seen such straight lines, how did they they get there in the sky? They are growing up from the ground, but they don’t look like tree
Where am I?
Lick the air, Inhale unfamiliar scents
What messages are these?
My seed stuffed sack cloth heart beats fast
As I cautiously hoof through this strange new forest
Eyes made from mouse nibbled hazelnut.... can’t comprehend
Ears of buckskin leather hear a roar...humming throbbing buzzing undersound of life
I was born.
Photo Credit: Steve Pope
Or was I made?.....Born. Emerging from the rift between ecological collapse and our deep-rooted longing for reconnection with the land
Born. From kin. My fellow beasts that amble and gambol and hoof the earth
Made. Hands with sharp carving tools on spalted beech; rushes gathered from slow deep waters, air dried and tail plaited, sewn and hammered and tried up in a bushel...I was born.
And now
I walk on metalled roads, standing with my human friends in solidarity, crying out for restoration of the land
I look down at my hooves and they have changed in shape and size once again!
I frolic through meadows and re-wilded places revelling in the abundant sights and sound
I caper with children, taking delight in the flora, investigating the vegetation
I dance with Morris. Fiddle, drum, fife and tabor are my beats
I sing of what the earth can be
For I still hear the old tunes
Photo Credit: Harry Key
Written By Ruth Webb of the Lost Giants
The Rewilderbeest is the last of its kind—a mythical creature born from the rift between ecological collapse and our deep-rooted longing for reconnection with the land. Part folk hero, part ecological spirit, the Rewilderbeest roams moorlands, meadows, cities and woodlands in search of restoration and belonging. A gentle grazer and moss enthusiast, the Rewilderbeest invites us to question, to share knowledge, and spark conversations about land stewardship and our connections to natural materials.