Headsman of the Moonlit Mire

From the Fenland Manuscript, c. 15th century:

“Of the Headsman of the Moonlit Mire, I dare not inscribe his name, lest the fen awaken. The tale speaks of a warrior condemned, who walks beneath the moon’s pale fire with sword of dread. The guilty he strikes, and their skulls are laid at the roots of the Arbor Cranii, where bark and bone are bound in fearful union.

Antiquaries of later years, wandering the marshes, told of roots piercing calcined skulls, as though the tree itself drank judgment.

The ballad of the fenfolk warns:

"Moonlight crowns, the fen with flame,
The Headsman walks, without a name.
Skulls to roots, the tree is fed,
The guilty fall and fear is spread."

“To speak his name is to summon him.”

So it is written, and so it endures.