Frequently Asked Questions

The capitalization to be found in this work is in accordance with that transcribed from surviving HYLAn documentation such as:

• Records
• Personal correspondence and diaries 
• Scrolls and Fair Copies

There are four seasons in HYLA, each of which includes three full moon cycles: (firstmonth, middlemonth, and lastmonth):

• Springtime [Evens Day to the Longest Day Eve]
• Summer [Longest Day to Evens Day Eve]
• Leaf fall [Evens Day to the Shortest Day Eve]
• Winter [Shortest Day/Longest Night to Evens Day Eve]

The River Aintree and the River Wythe have each been referred to as "the River" since the Misty Years.

Likewise, most trees and curatives are referred to, in HYLAn, by their "truenames": Willow, River Dweller, Whiteoak, Thorne, Birch, Rowan, Alder, Fir, Mint, Rosemary, Goldenpalm, Valetti, Dree's Thumb, and Hyssop/Jessip, for example.

Please see the ACKNOWEDGEMENTS page for a quick answer.

HYLA was named, after much internal debate, after the tiny frog Americans call a "spring peeper". 

Long before the name change of the world occurred, this fascinating critter had made a cameo appearance in the oldest writing of the books -- the Prologue!  At the instant of that writing, Robert Frost's poem was spooling through my mind.   You can see and hear the springtime hyla serenade in an episode of Escape to HYLA, the video channel, and yes, that is how the newsletter got its name.

HYLA BROOK

By June our brook’s run out of song and speed.
Sought for much after that, it will be found
Either to have gone groping underground
(And taken with it all the Hyla breed
That shouted in the mist a month ago,
Like ghost of sleigh-bells in a ghost of snow)
Or flourished and come up in jewel-weed,
Weak foliage that is blown upon and bent
Even against the way its waters went.
Its bed is left a faded paper sheet
Of dead leaves stuck together by the heat—
A brook to none but who remember long.
This, as it will be seen, is other far
Than with brooks taken otherwhere in song.
We love the things we love for what they are.

Robert Frost 1874-1963