I am a sucker for folklore: I am endlessly fascinated by the stories we have told ourselves about the world. Maybe there’s a moral, maybe there’s not; maybe there’s a warning, or an explanation, or maybe it’s a weird little story that doesn’t seem to do anything other than make you look at the world a bit differently. This month’s subscriber essay is about Flemish folklore. (Flanders was a medieval territory which these days is split between Belgium, France, and the Netherlands; the Flemish language is a Dutch variant, and according to Wikipedia is spoken by ~60% of Belgians.) As an Anglo-Celt Australian, none of the stories discussed in this essay are ones I know, although some certainly have familiar resonances. I won’t be letting any rabbits into my house (they’re anathema in my part of the world anyway), and I’ll be keeping a close eye on my apple trees.