Hamlet · Fringe · The Northern Marches
Kelder
Kelder is a settlement in the Northern Marches, known chiefly for the chapel of Saint Ebba that stands there. The chapel is consecrated, yet it is one of five places in the march that no one enters, which ranks it with the bad barrow. Of the march's ruined churches, three carry ordinary accounts and two are avoided by their own parishes after dark. Little else is recorded of the place.
- Within
- The Northern Marches
- Holds
- 1 place
- Named in
- Book VI
History and lore
Kelder is a small settlement of the march, and almost everything recorded of it concerns its chapel of Saint Ebba. The chapel is one of the march's roofless churches that have never been deconsecrated, and since consecration does not lapse with a fallen roof or the passing of years, it remains a church in law and doctrine, along with everything within its bounds.
It is also among the five places in the march where no one goes at all. The other four are the bad barrow, Gant Fell's summit, the Drowned Fold below Mereton, and Hollin Shaw, a wood above Thwaite Head. That puts a consecrated building in the same company as a barrow. The priory knows of the avoidance and offers no explanation. Of the other consecrated ruins, three have ordinary stories, their own parishes shun two after dark, and the priory still goes out to hold an annual service at two of them; Saint Ebba's is not among those.
For a traveller the rule that holds at every other church ruin in the march, that a company may go in and shelter in bad weather, does not hold here, because Kelder will not go in and neither should you. Take nothing from the chapel's bounds, not even a fallen stone: the Church courts hear sacrilege quickly and the march gives evidence.
Where the volumes speak of it
- Book VI › 32.3 The Church Ruins
- Book VI › Chapter 32 — The Ruins of the March, and Which Are Which › 32.3 The Church Ruins
Within Kelder
