tamaranth | 2026/001: The River Has Roots

2026/001: The River Has Roots — Amal el-Mohtar

Something, you might think, happened here, long, long ago; something, you might think, is on the cusp of happening again. But that is the nature of grammar—it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will. [p. 4]

A short novella from the co-author of This is How You Lose the Time War. The River Liss runs from Faerie, past the Refrain (an assemblage of standing stones) and through the Modal Lands, between two ancient trees known as the Professors, and between ordinary fields to the town of Thistleford. The Hawthorn family have tended the magical willows along the riverbank for centuries, singing to the trees. Sisters Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn are very close: Esther is being courted by unlikeable Samuel Pollard, but prefers her fey love Rin. They (distinctly non-binary) require an equitable exchange between themself and Esther.

The River Has Roots is rooted (hah) in ballads -- Tam Lin, The Two Sisters, The Riddle Song -- though it reframes 'The Two Sisters' as a story of loyalty, rather than hatred, between Esther and Ysabel. And while Ysabel loves murder ballads, Esther prefers riddle-songs, which she composes for Rin. I was also reminded of Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist, for the ambience: steeped in English folklore and rich with imagery, metaphor and wordplay. And a frightful pun -- a riddle! -- involving rings and swans which made me grin like the Cheshire Cat.