An Island Apart

Corsica's mythology reflects its unique position: French by politics, Italian by proximity, but truly neither. The island's indigenous culture predates both nations, speaking through megalithic monuments, through a language that preserves Latin forms lost elsewhere, and through customs that acknowledge the thin veil between worlds.

The Romans called it Cyrnos and feared its interior. Centuries of invaders—Vandals, Byzantines, Moors, Pisans, Genoese, French—controlled the coasts but never truly conquered the mountains. Each wave left traces in the folklore: Arabic words in shepherds' calls, Pisan towers haunted by Genoese ghosts, French administrative terms twisted into curse formulas. But beneath these layers, older traditions endure.

The Maquis Mysteries

The maquis defines Corsica as much as its mountains. This dense Mediterranean scrubland—myrtle, rosemary, lavender, rockrose, juniper—creates a parallel world where human law yields to older codes. The maquis shelters and swallows, provides and punishes, remembers everything and forgives nothing.

Corsicans speak of the maquis as sentient: - Paths open for those it accepts, close for strangers - Fugitives find water and shelter; pursuers find thorns and dead ends - Plants provide signs: myrtle flowers early before deaths, rosemary grows thick where blood was shed - Most significantly, the maquis keeps secrets—bodies, treasures, and truths hidden until it chooses to reveal them

The bandits d'honneur (honor bandits) who took to the maquis after vendettas knew the protocols: - Never cut living wood without asking permission - Leave offerings at certain rocks and springs - Respect the hours when spirits walk (noon and midnight) - Most importantly, understand that the maquis extracts payment—years of hiding age men decades, and some emerge speaking to invisible companions