by Al D

In January 2006, Al D began posting his encounters with a peculiar woodland in Dorset that he called the enchanted wood — a place with no birdsong, faces in the trees, and an inexplicable atmosphere of power. Those posts are preserved elsewhere in this archive. In February 2006, exploring solo on a rare sunny day, he discovered a second such place: a hillside wood containing a snapped tree no animal could have broken, freshly-placed boulders of unknown origin, several ancient imbedded stones, and — tucked into a rock niche — a small white rune stone bearing the symbol of Ansuz. He submitted it to the group as a curiosity, with photographs (now gone). The text stands alone.

I found myself with a rare pleasure this weekend: a bright sunny day with nothing on my schedule. I phoned up a friend to suggest a walk but she had already made plans. So I decided to venture off into the wilderness on my own.

There is a wood that I've been meaning to investigate, miles away from the kerfuffle of local civilisation. I heard that there are some mysterious rocks there. I put on my hiking boots, pocketed my 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map, and set out. After a long drive, I found the approximate location and drove as near to the wood as possible. I parked my car by the roadside and continued the journey on foot.

I located the wood: a beautiful, mysterious and peaceful place. I spoke briefly to the spirits of the place, as always, and opened up my senses, looking and listening for anything unusual.

The Snapped Tree and the Boulders

The first thing that struck me as odd, when I was well within the wood, was a living tree that had been snapped in half, halfway up its trunk. How this could have happened is a complete mystery. The trunk was a good seven inches thick and no animal in this part of the world would have the strength to do that, and I could not see any other way it could have happened. Vehicles do not have access to the wood.

Walking on further, I noticed something else very odd: a couple of large rocks, each weighing about half a ton by my estimation, lying on the forest floor. It seemed clear that these had been laid down onto the ground at a very recent date. I cannot imagine why anyone or anything would want to place a great boulder of such weight in the middle of a forest. Nor can I imagine how rocks of such weight could have been transported. It seemed clear that they had been placed there recently — right down on top of the dead leaves and twigs of the forest floor. If they had been there for more than a couple of years, it would be obvious, and if longer than that (say, more than ten or twenty years) they would have been partly buried at ground level.

Then I noticed a strange face in one of the rocks. On the top of this boulder, someone or something had placed a smaller, white rock for some reason.

The Ancient Stones

I walked on further and found another mysterious rock — this one imbedded in the ground. It was one of the ancient stones I had heard about. Walking on, I found another similar rock. Walking further, I found a third.

This third one was particularly unusual. It had two or three small orifices in it, in which I found the strangest items. In one nook, I found what appears to be two small snail shells of unusual and contrasting colours. In a second recess, I found what looked like a piece of quartz with a small mushroom growing on it. In the third orifice, I found a small white rune stone.

A quick search reveals that the rune is Ansuz — symbol of Odin — meaning the revealing message or insight and communication: signals, enthusiasm, speech, true vision, power of words and naming, blessings, the taking of advice, good health, harmony, truth, wisdom.

I also noticed what looked like a human face in the side of this rock.

The Summit

I looked around in that wood for a while longer but found nothing else that seemed particularly unusual — except that there were no birds singing in this wood. (I'm coming to recognise this as one of the signs that a wood is unusual.)

The wood extends for quite a distance up the side of a hill, so I followed the animal paths up to the top. On the top of the hill, I found an Iron Age burial mound and a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.

This wood was perhaps not as awe-inspiring as the previous enchanted wood I posted about here, but probably still worthy of mention.

Colophon

Written by Al D and posted to alt.religion.shamanism on 6 February 2006. Al D's earlier account of the Dorset enchanted wood — and a subsequent essay on developing his relationship with its spirits — are also preserved in this archive. The rune Ansuz (also transcribed as Oss or As) is the fourth rune of the Elder Futhark, associated with Odin in his function as god of speech, wisdom, and divine communication. The photographs Al D took, once hosted at spirituk.org, are no longer available online. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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