In this chapter, I begin by introducing the Tayal Nation and providing a description of how their pre-Christian cosmology may have looked. With a generic cosmology as background, I introduce the particular community of Chienshih Township in the northern Taiwan county of Hsinchu.

Although short for a novel at slightly more than 200 pages, The Fallen feels broad and ambitious – but never overarchingly so, which is why it works so well.

Near it is a timbered house; an old inn close to the bridge is thought to be the woning of Elynor Humming, the famous ale wife, whose tunning is celebrated by Hen. VII.'s poet laureate, Skelton.

Ibn Batuta informs us that a rich silk texture made here was called Zaitûniya; and there can be little doubt that this is the real origin of our word Satin,—Zettani in mediæval Italian, Aceytuni in Spanish.