Heartmoor

a campfire with a kettle many small logs

Heartmoor

n.
the primal longing for a home village to return to, a place that no longer exists, if it ever did; the fantasy of finding your way back home before nightfall, hustling to bring in the cattle before the rains come; picturing a cluster of lanterns glowing on the edge of a tangled wood, hearing the rattle and hiss of meals cooking over a communal fire, finding your place in a crowded longhouse made of clay-packed thatch, where you’d sit and listen to the voices of four generations layered into a canon, telling stories of a time when people could still melt into a collective personality and weren’t just floating around alone.

From heart + moor, to tie a boat to an anchor. Pronounced “hahrt-moor.”

Routwash

Cover image for the Routwash word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face

Dolonia

Cover image for the Dolonia word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Siso

Cover image for the Siso word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Wends

Cover image for the The Wends word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Aponemia

a group of people standing together