Maria Lax Captures the Eerie Essence of Irish Folklore in 'Stray Sod'
In a stunning new photographic series, Maria Lax delves into the mysterious Irish folk phenomenon known as 'stray sod' — enchanted patches of earth said to lead anyone who steps on them astray. The project, titled Stray Sod, reimagines rural Irish landscapes through an otherworldly lens, drawing inspiration from first-hand accounts found in the Irish National Archives.
Lax explains: 'There are certain places which the fairies have power over at night and if anybody goes in to them after dusk he cannot come out until morning though he may be walking all night.' The series, published by Setanta Books, captures the quiet terror of losing one's way in familiar surroundings.
The Folklore Behind the Stray Sod
In Irish folk tradition, numerous accounts describe people traveling alone, often at night, who suddenly experience severe disorientation and confusion while crossing natural landscapes. These episodes were often attributed to fairies, who would set wanderers astray for amusement, or to the power of the fóidín mearbhall (stray sod) — an enchanted patch of earth that profoundly disorients those who step upon it.
Narratives vary, but they commonly describe individuals forced to navigate a landscape that suddenly becomes unfamiliar and strange. Landmarks are erased, inverted, or replaced with new features. Impenetrable fogs, mists, and colored hazes descend, disorienting the traveler. Woods, walls, and strange mountains loom, blocking progress. The scenery becomes unrecognizable as familiar reference points distort and slip away.
Ordinary People in Extraordinary Situations
The protagonists in these accounts are not eccentric characters but ordinary individuals engaged in daily activities — working the land or taking a shortcut across a field. The experiences occur suddenly in areas just beyond the domestic commune of towns or villages, often in fields and roadways stretching toward unpopulated hills, forests, bogs, and pastures. These encounters happen not only at the peripheries of place but also of time, frequently in the failing light of dusk.
Lax reflects: 'What could be more terrifying than losing your way in a place you thought you knew well? That was the question I kept returning to during the research phase. In the stray sod narratives, there is an ever-present quiet terror in the knowledge that there are portals into another, darker world hiding in plain sight; one wrong step and you could be thrust into a land that is not yours. There is an awareness that the surface of our reality is a slippery one.'
Animals and Fog as Guides
According to folklore, animals play a crucial role in navigating the enchanted landscape. One account advises: 'The old people would say: "That fog was magical. There is nothing you can do against the fog … Do you know what animal is best to have with you in fog? A good dog. There is no animal under the sky that is more lonesome than a horse in fog, but a dog will find the house, and if you follow him, you'll be in no danger."'
Lax's Personal Journey into the Irish Countryside
To create this project, Lax relocated to Ireland and spent countless hours wandering through the countryside in West Cork and elsewhere, often at night, searching for subjects to photograph. 'Driving through the narrow country roads in the dark is like entering a green labyrinth,' she says. 'There were moments when a fog would appear out of nowhere and stay for days, or a heavy storm would rise, and I understood how one could get very lost – in all meanings of that word.'
Digital Memory and the Archive
Making Stray Sod and researching the archives prompted Lax to consider the world of digital remembering. 'As the oral storytelling tradition is increasingly being replaced by social content and as archives move online, the fragile nature of memory was on the forefront of my mind,' she explains. Instead of using archive imagery as originally planned, she chose to treat her images as the archive, using analogue distortion to pull them apart, glitch them, and render some completely beyond recognition.
The Creative Process: Embracing Chance
Lax describes the quiet moments alone taking photos in the darkness as bringing a calm unlike any other. She often works alone with just a camera, tripod, and a flash with a custom filter that produces results almost impossible to control in the elements. 'Chance and change are things I don't often get to explore in my commercial work, so I embrace it in my personal projects,' she says. 'Sometimes after battling all this in the rain and the wind, the resulting photograph comes out looking totally unexpected - occasionally for the better.'
Folklore as History of the Everyman
Delving into folklore has become a key expression of Lax's artistic interest. 'Written history is often about the big brush strokes of the power players, with regular people like ourselves often reduced to statistics and footnotes,' she notes. 'Folklore could be described as the traditional beliefs, customs and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. Folklore allows us to zoom in on the history of the everyman.'
Even in the modern age, Lax observes, 'with all the knowledge available today we seek answers as frantically as ever. Tools and systems by which we seek them change, evolve and differ, yet answers stay elusive. Whether it's ancient folk beliefs, religion or conversations with ChatGPT, what unites all of us regardless of our generation and our homeland is our eagerness to make sense of our luck and our sorrows.'
Finding the Way Home
In stray sod narratives, finding your way back home often requires transforming something about yourself, symbolized by turning your clothing inside out. Help frequently comes in the form of an animal or another person. 'It is people travelling alone who seem most prone to losing their way, and connection is a powerful antidote to the isolation in which we lose ourselves,' Lax says. 'However, sometimes the only way out is to keep wading through the inhospitable darkness; to simply not give up, as we hope and trust that the sun will eventually rise again.'
One anecdote from the National Archives reads: 'In the end I sat down and turned my coat – I often heard it said that if you went astray and if you turned your coat, you would be all right and know where you were. I turned my coat, and when I looked around I found myself at Burrneagh Rocks, about two miles from where I started off.'
