the footprints of daslenga: or, the pilgrim’s ungress

＂I also passed girls in their usual packs of two and three, giving wall-eyed and slightly freaked stares at this fantastic phenomenon passing like a spectre through their midst. I really wish I could have seen that from outside myself, the green college town and the classy old buildings of Gothic stone, and the classy and decently fashionable bohemians and ＂normally-casual＂ very carefully dressed up pretty girls and pretty boys walking between classes, and through it all comes the Wild Brown Pilgrim from the South with his fantastically overladen ass of a bicycle and his shaggy appearance and long grim face. I tell you, movies live for such moments.＂Authors must do strange things. When constructing mythologies, it is essential to know the land they take place in. Accordingly author James Farrell here chronicles (and enriches) the fabulous tale of his bike expedition across New England in quest of the seven Mad Rivers, the earthly footprints of the mystical river Daslenga. Arheled’s eerie voice punctuates his progress frequently, and ancient tales and legends surface along his path, and archetypes from medieval tales keep crossing his path. Narrated with humor and profoundity, this peculiar adventure reveals a side of New England no others can see.

James Farrell is a local stonemason, farmer and writer in NW Connecticut. He has constructed mythologies for New England and redacted both Norse and Finnish mythologies, among his many literary undertakings. Currently his written works total 98, though this number will likely change as the years pass. Homeschooled, he is known to local children as ＂Wizard＂ and is chiefly renowned for being the only person in town to wear a straw hat in summer.