How this archive treats evidence

Every entry in the Codex names its sources. Not "ancient texts" or "legend has it", but the book, the chapter, the collector and the year: Prose Edda Gylfaginning, 1 Samuel 17, Argonautica Book 4, Barandiarán working in the field in the Basque country, Sébillot's questionnaire of 1883.

The catalogue is split in two, and the split is the point.

Myth and Folklore holds traditions that are documented. Someone wrote them down, and we say who and when. Where the manuscripts disagree with each other, the entry says so rather than quietly choosing the version that reads better.

Bones and Shadows holds claims. Modern sightings, disputed finds, stories with no named witness and no photograph. These entries exist because the claims exist and people go looking for them. They are labelled unverified, and they stay labelled unverified no matter how good the story is.

Some entries here are deliberately short. Where a tradition cannot be reliably attributed to the community it belongs to, we say so, because writing a fuller account would have meant inventing one. An empty space is information too.

Nothing here is presented as hidden history. Where the evidence stops, the entry stops.