This is an illustration from Nordisk Familjebok, a Norwegian encyclopedia from the turn of the last century. The labyrinth, naturally, is much older. It’s of a sort that can be laid out using two stakes and a knotted rope – you tie the end of the rope around one stake and sort of swing around it in a not-quite circle. The spacing of the knots is the width of the “walls” of the labyrinth. I actually did this in my yard a few years back when I came into a stack of old paving stones, but it’s now nearly invisible under the grass.
Still, walking the pattern can be soothing. It’s a little tedious until it becomes fun, and after that it gets peaceful. Simple complexities, as they were in the ancient world, are much the same today.
One of the interesting things pointed out by this blog entry about Trojeborg labyrinths is that they are plural – a style of labyrinth, hailing back to (semi-mythical) ancient Troy, rather than a specific labyrinth in a specific place.
At any rate, when I knotted up rope and starting laying pavers in my overgrown grass, I definitely didn’t have “Trojeborg” in my search history. I think it called itself an “Archimedes” labyrinth, but it seems like what this maze-making site calls a “Cretan” labyrinth. At any rate, it’s a very old design, it turns up throughout human history, and it’s sort of fun to create in the landscape.