These images were collected as part of The Chevrons Project. As I was volunteering in Ukraine at the time anyway, I started to take photos of chevrons as I saw them. Above photo taken in a military store in Lviv, February 2025 Above photo taken in a military store in Lviv, February 2025 Above photo taken in a military store in Lviv, February 2025…

These images were collected as part of The Chevrons Project. As I was volunteering in Ukraine at the time anyway, I started to take photos of chevrons as I saw them. Above photo taken in a street market in Kyiv, February 2025 Above photo taken in a street market in Kyiv, February 2025 Above photo taken in a street market in Kyiv, February 2025…

My interview with Richard Mitch about Ukraine and chevrons

My discussion of chevrons with Roman, a Kyiv resident

My conversation with Aidan, a volunteer from New Zealand

After their individual interviews, I asked Andrey and Olha some questions jointly.

My interview with Olha, a Kyiv resident

Andrey is a Kyiv resident whom I met a couple of years ago. He is the founder of Rooftop Drones, a group which encourages his fellow Kyiv residents to learn to make drones.

My interview with Mary, who worked in Ukraine as an official observer prior to the start of the full-scale invasion

Chatting chevrons with Michelle, including important cultural signifiers to keep in mind when designing them

An interview with Richard Woodruff of the Front Line Kit!

Some of the chevrons I've collected during my time in Ukraine, and why they're important to me

My interview with Tony, a fella forger for NAFO and volunteer in Ukraine

Chatting chevron design with Tony, a NAFO fella forge

Collecting primary sources is time-consuming at the best of times.  Add in the complexities of a language barrier and a war?  Even worse.  Here’s how the project went for me in practical terms.

An overview of my project collecting information about chevrons in Ukraine

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction Sometimes, name changes are clearly suggested. Grim’s Ditch, once known as Grim’s Dyke, sits in the London Borough of Harrow. The architect of the house built upon it requested that Grim’s Dyke be renamed to Graeme’s Dyke as the original name “gave one the impression of its being dirty” (The Manchester Guardian, 1936).

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction Another famous example Grim as a personal name causing confusion can be found in Grim’s Dyke, also known as the Antonine Wall. Perhaps this is in part due to the large number of names that the wall has seemingly held over the years. In a 1722 chorographical description of Great Britain, the location was said to go by the name of Graham’s Dike…

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction The town of Grimsby in the north of England still bears the moniker Grim. It is locally accepted that the town is named after a fisherman named Grim (This is Grimsby, 2008). Grim was charged with killing the baby of King Birkabeyn of Denmark. He could not face doing so, and decided to raise the baby with his wife.

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction In 1896, Isaac Taylor published a compendium of placenames to preserve historical names, and to detail the origins of said names (Taylor, 1896). He notes that in England, personal names are a common source of local names. As the memories of the person behind the name are often forgotten, so too is the original name.

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction The practice of naming awe-inspiring locations after Odin is also be applied to the Devil. Harte notes that many locations which are now named for the Devil were once named after other supernatural beings (Harte, 2022). As Grim was said to be used as a more modern replacement for naming places after Woden/Odin, perhaps the Devil is the more modern version of naming places for Grim.

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction It has been proposed that Grim as a place name derives from Grim, Grimr or Grímnir as alternative names for Odin- with some claiming that Grimnir means “hooded or masked one” (Fateful Signs, n.d.). In 1988 Margaret Gelling wrote that “The original connection between Grim and Woden must be regarded as established,” but acknowledges that this does not guarantee that all places named Grim are named after Odin/Woden (Gelling, 1988).

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction Despite the obvious naming similarity, the Grim Reaper does not appear to have been seriously conflated with the Grim that earthworks have been named after. The closest relationship generally discernible stems from the Grim-Odin relationship which will be discussed shortly within this essay; Odin is said to occasionally act as a psychopomp, leading people to infer some relationship between him and the Grim Reaper (Reddit, 2022).

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction The name Grim appears within the world of folkloric creatures. The Church Grim is a creature which is said to protect churchyards from “thieves, vandals, witches, warlocks, and even the Devil himself” (Harper, 2019). This creature generally takes the form of a large black dog, likely because it is said that a Church Grim can be created by burying a dog alive beneath the northern cornerstone of the church (Harper, 2019).

The introduction for this series can be found here: Who’s Grim? An Introduction In North Yorkshire sits the Kilgrim Birdge. The tale behind it is that bridges built by the local people were always washed away by floods. The Devil promised that he would build a flood-defying bridge in exchange for the first to cross the bridge being sacrificed. Once the bridge had been completed a local shepherd swam across the river, and whistled for his dog named Grim to run across the bridge.