mirrors, reflections, light, shadow, refractions, perception

The iron mirror is a curious artefact, in the Lady’s Barrow. It’s easy to leap to conclusions about this too, and to see it as simply a personal object – mirrors are so easy to come by today. But Iron Age mirrors are quite rare, and the workmanship that would have gone into making it – polishing and polishing it until it offers back a true

Like most people, you’ve become so accustomed to this morning routine that you rarely think about it. Yet it’s almost unique in the animal kingdom, because the ability to recognize the creature in the mirror as you seems to be limited to the higher primates and, perhaps, dolphins and elephants. Other animals see only a rival or a friend.

The mirror appears throughout the human drama as a means of self-knowledge or self-delusion. We have used the reflective surface both to reveal and to hide reality, and mirrors have found their way into religion, folklore, literature, art, magic, and science.

Thus, the story of mirrors is also the story of light, that mysterious medium that acts simultaneously like a wave and a particle, imposes a speed limit on the universe, and in a sense is the universe, at least according to Albert Einstein. Yet no one really knows what light is. As if these mysteries were not enough, visible light is only one

An overarching theme in this book is that as human beings we use mirrors to reflect our own contradictory nature. On the one hand, we want to see things as they really are, to delve into the mysteries of life. On the other hand, we want the mysteries to remain mysteries. We yearn for definitive knowledge, yet we also revel in imagination, illusion,