mythic boundary markers

4

Brainstorming time!

I’d like you all to tell me what objects you might, from a mythical standpoint, associate with the delineation of boundaries and borders. I’m looking specifically for objects that might be a personal possession; walls and fences are obvious boundary markers, as are rivers, but neither are really the sort of thing a person could carry around with them. A sword, on the other hand, being a thing that cuts, could be the thing that marks the division between Here and Not Here, whether by literally drawing a line in the dirt or just symbolically cleaving things apart.

Can you think of/make an argument for other personal-sized objects that might represent geographical boundaries?

4 Responses to “mythic boundary markers”

  1. Syderia

    A lock and key, kept together

  2. twistedchick

    Boundary markers between here and there — a jackknife that fell from a pocket and spent the winter in plowed earth before being found again, so that when it is opened now it can delineate one side from the other or, held while closed, only the bone grips showing, it can provide a passkey; a walking stick a century old, carved from blackthorn, hollow so the energy of the spirit moves through it, capped with a wooden egg worn to its maker’s fingers; a stone, worn smooth or broken, that carries a pattern of lines through it like a map.

  3. Susan

    Chalk? The ability to create/draw boundaries.

  4. Tenny

    A book charting places and their boundaries. Altering the book’s lines can mess with the boundaries or writing yourself in a specific place takes you there (or not there).

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