Bridge to the House of Lies

My intuition about Disinfolklore first manifested while I was a peacekeeping diplomat. Between 2015 and 2018, I was posted on a bridge spanning the eastern Ukrainian Donets River at Stanitsia Luhanska. That wooden and iron bridge was the only pedestrian crossing place between Russia-occupied Luhansk and the rest of Ukraine. Ten thousand civilians — mostly older women, children and those unlikely to be pressganged into military service by Russian occupiers — traversed it daily.

The folkloric resonances of the situation were glaring. Most famous troll tales in our culture derive from “Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff,” a Norwegian folk tale collected by Asbjornsen and Moe.

That fable is itself a folkloric reflex of a much older legend in Indo-European culture. In ancient Iranian religion, at the time of death, we approach Chinvat bridge. Chinvat is guarded by Daena. If Daena appears as a beautiful woman, we will pass into the eternal heavenly House of Songs. Yet, if the bridge narrows as we approach it to the width of a sword blade and Daena is a witch, we shall spend eternity in the hellish House of Lies.

I was a living character in the daily re-enactment of one or other of these stories. Arriving there each morning, I could never be sure which version the Russians had scripted for the day.

Source: Bridge to the House of Lies

The origin story in its deepest mythological form. The author was a living character on Chinvat bridge — the ancient Iranian bridge between the House of Songs and the House of Lies, guarded by Daena who appears as either beautiful woman or witch. Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff is a folkloric reflex of this older Indo-European myth. Russia-occupied Ukraine was the world’s first contemporary Disinfolklore Galaxy: a House of Lies made real. See What Is a Troll?.

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